Abbie and I have a major blessing to announce! We have enough meetings scheduled that we will be going on full-time deputation in September! We are very excited to reach this new stage, and we thank you for the prayers that have helped us achieve it. Please continue to pray that I will be able to fill my calendar with more meetings.
June and July have been eventful months. In June, Abbie and I attended the FBMI Candidate School. It was a refreshing and helpful time, with many sessions designed to help us on deputation and on the mission field. We also loved being able to fellowship with missionary friends we do not see often. A special blessing was spending time with my sister and brother-in-law, who are veteran missionaries to the Philippines and are currently raising additional support.
Later in June, I spent a week in Administrators’ Training for the A.C.E. curriculum. This training will allow me to be a greater asset in the church’s Christian school in Ghana. I went expecting the training to be like college lectures, but it was more like going back to school (with a lot of homework)! Fortunately, I grew up using the A.C.E. curriculum, so I did not go into shock like some of the other trainees. We enjoyed having meetings at churches the Sundays before and after the training, so I thought it was a very profitable trip. The churches and training were all in Tennessee, a new direction in our deputation travels!
In July, Abbie and I went to the Philippines to see my mom, who has terminal cancer and is unable to travel. This was the first time my parents had seen me in person in four years; they had never seen Abbie and me as a married couple. We got to spend a wonderful week with my parents; it was great just to be able to sit with and talk to Mom. The grace of God is very apparent in my parents’ lives, and their church family is helpful and supportive. I had the privilege of preaching in Hyles-Anderson College of the Philippines chapel, and Abbie and I enjoyed three different soul-winning opportunities during the week, resulting in 14 people saved! Our trip seemed too short, but I am so thankful that I was able to see Mom again. Unless God does a miracle, I will not see Mom again in this life, but thank God for Heaven! Please keep Mom and Dad in your prayers.
Yours for souls,
Micah Christiansen