Caleb & Karly Holschen Newsletter (Fall 2024)

Greetings in the name of the Lord, Friends and Family!

There is so much that God has done through us and the ministry of Teen Missions International, and we are so excited to share the joy and victories with you in this letter.

The summer missions program this year was a huge success—praise be to God! Teen Missions sent out 12 teen teams and one preteen team with over 200 eager young missionaries to 13 different countries around the world. Their zeal for Jesus was almost palpable as they progressed through their 10-day training period beginning in the middle of June. During their training (known as The Lord’s Boot Camp), I (Caleb) was very blessed to serve on the grounds maintenance crew and on our music team, playing the drums every night during our evening worship rally as the team members sang and gave praise to the One who is worthy. Karly helped out with a lot of the behind-the-scenes small tasks, along with packing and preparing the bags of supplies that each team took overseas to either donate to the host missionaries or use as evangelistic tools as they shared the Good News with the lost and needy. In total, the teams sent out were able to reach thousands with the Gospel and saw dozens of souls receive salvation and forgiveness of sin through faith in Jesus Christ. Praise the Lord!

The two of us, however, were unable to leave with a team this year. We were upset at first, but knew that God would use us and work it all out for His good, and He definitely did! We sent out the teams and immediately spent the entire next week at home sick with COVID-19. Imagine what would have happened if we left with a team and spread it to the team members. After the week of sickness, we returned to work to help continue cleanup from Boot Camp and prepare our base for the two retreats we had coming up. Having Karly home for the summer to help with the retreats was such a blessing to the retreat center director as he had a sudden medical emergency that left him unable to do all the work that was needed. Me, being in Florida for the summer, was no mistake either, as I was able to set up the sound system and other technical equipment needed for the week-long debrief time that the teams would all return for. We were humbled and thankful to God for showing us how He needed us in Florida for the summer, just as He needed the people who went overseas.

I’ve talked about how we stayed back and what we did, but I did not mention why we stayed back this year. Our original destination was Honduras as leaders on the preteen team, but Honduras has had an outbreak of Dengue Fever that started at the beginning of the summer. Normally, this would not be of any great concern to us except that we found out two weeks before the summer that we are expecting our first child! Unborn children and Dengue Fever do not play well in a mother’s body, so we made the decision to stay home to avoid the potential risk that would come with the pregnancy in Honduras. That being said, though, we are super excited to welcome our little one to the world in late January/early February of 2025. Karly had the anatomy scan on September 16th which confirmed that we are having a daughter – little Esther Alice Holschen! The doctor has told us that all is well and both mother and child are healthy, but please be praying for us as we prepare for our first child and pray that Karly and Esther will stay healthy until it comes to term.

Another blessing we have had aside from the baby and our summer was a nice vacation we were able to go on. We were gifted tickets to a nine-day Royal Caribbean cruise with some of Karly’s family this past August. We left out of Port Canaveral and sailed to Grand Turk, then Bermuda and the Bahamas before ending our trip back in Canaveral. We were able to drive golf carts around Grand Turk to see the island, go snorkeling at the reefs in Bermuda and walk around the CocoCay Royal Caribbean Resort in the Bahamas. We greatly enjoyed our time with family on the ocean and experiencing God’s creation. It also brought with it a sense of completion to God’s plan in keeping us home for the summer. We stayed and served in Florida then were still able to leave the country on our vacation. God is good!

The last bit of news that we have is not about past events, but rather future plans (At the time of writing and mailing this letter, that is). With the addition of our newest family member, our support needs are going up so we are going to be taking a three-week trip this coming October 2024 to Houston, Texas and Williamstown, Kentucky. We are planning to leave for Houston on September 30th, then from Houston to Williamstown on October 13th, and finally from Williamstown back home on October 19th. If you are in or around those areas during our trip, we would love to meet with you to tell you more about what God is doing through our ministry. If you are interested in setting up a meeting, you can contact Karly at [email protected].

Praises:

Karly is healthy and the baby is growing strong

We were able to get some much-needed rest after a busy summer

The summer teams saw dozens of people come to salvation in Jesus Christ

The work is continuing and God’s Name is being proclaimed to the nations

Prayer Requests:

• Pray that Karly and the baby will continue to stay healthy
• Pray for the eight incoming Sojourner students, that they will adapt well and learn a lot
• Pray for our trip this in October, that we will make good connections and raise up partners in our ministry
• Pray that we would be bold and faithful in reaching people with the Good News of Jesus Christ

Thank you for all of your prayers. Our work is only possible through God’s favor and the faithfulness of those who pray for it. 

To Him be the Glory!

Caleb and Karly Holschen

Matthew 9:37-38

“Then He said to His disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.’”(ESV)











Download PDF