We are currently experiencing what we like to call “the busy season,” as many churches have their Missions Conferences in the fall. We praise the Lord for the opportunity to be with churches during these conferences, but it does keep our schedule very full going from place to place. Fortunately, though, most of our travels are contained to the Midwest. There has been a lot happening in the past couple of months to update you all on, so let’s get started.
First of all, we are glad to let you all know that we are expecting another little Christiansen. Our newest addition is due in early April, and we couldn’t be more excited! Although we don’t know yet whether the new baby is a boy or a girl, Emma will still point to Emily’s belly when we talk about the baby. So far, Emma seems excited, but we’ll see how that goes comes April. 😊
At the end of September, we submitted our paperwork for our visas to enter Nigeria. We were grateful to get an appointment at all. The regular appointments for our embassy were backed up through December “due to COVID.” However, we were able to schedule an “urgency appointment” by paying an extra fee. The Nigerian Embassy requires us to show up in person to submit our paperwork, so we went to the offices near Washington D.C. with nearly 200 pieces of paperwork for Emily, Emma, and me. We are glad to report that our visas have already been approved! This was unexpected and incredibly exciting, since most people we know who applied for this visa had to wait much longer. With our visas in hand, we are set to make plans to leave for Nigeria on December 6. We cannot describe to you how ecstatic we are that we can finally take this next step. We have been working to get back to Nigeria for over two years since our survey trip, and now we are finally buying the tickets to do so.
Please pray for us as we prepare to move our family across the world. As you can imagine, there are a lot of details and a lot of expenses involved with this. These include, but are certainly not limited to, airplane tickets and immigration fees ($5,000), a reliable vehicle for travel in the country ($10,000), and a generator/batteries ($6,000) so we can have electricity when the city power doesn’t work . . . which is most of the time. 😊
I can’t say thank you enough to every one of you who has prayed, given, and supported us as we have gone on this deputation journey. None of this would have been possible if you weren’t supporting us, so as we rejoice, I hope that you rejoice as well. We could not have gotten this far without your help and prayers.
That all the world may know,
Caleb Christiansen