Caleb & Karly Holschen Newsletter (Spring 2025)

Greetings Friends and Family!

Our lives since our last letter have been very busy and full of blessing and opportunity. Thank you for taking the time to read about what God is doing through our ministry with Teen Missions.

Esther has been growing strong and healthy these first months of her life. Karly and I have been learning so much about being parents and caring for a little one. We count ourselves very blessed to be surrounded by such great friends and family who can help us out as we navigate our new reality. For the first two months Esther slept most of the night, but as of late she is hitting a growth spurt and wakes every two to three hours to be fed. It has been a tiring transition, but God is sustaining us and giving us the rest we need when we need it. Sleepiness aside, we love watching our little girl grow and develop her personality as she meets new people and experiences what the world has to offer for the first time.

God has used Esther to minister to us as well. We were able to go on a date night to see the movie The King of Kings from Angel Studios while a friend watched Esther for the evening. In the movie, there is a depiction of Peter walking on the water to meet Jesus, as recorded in Matthew 14. When the disciples on the boat first see Jesus walking on the water, they think He is a ghost and cry out in fear. Jesus sees them and says “I’m here. Don’t be afraid.” When I saw this scene I began tearing up as I thought of how when Esther is crying I hold her close and tell her: “Daddy’s here. You’re okay.” Until that moment, I did not understand that to God, I am Esther. I cry out and He is there holding me and telling me that He is with me, to not be afraid. Sometimes with Esther, she cries so hard she cannot hear me, but I keep telling her that she is safe with me until she hears it and calms down. How often do we get so caught up in the problem or situation that we forget to listen to God telling us that He is with us and will never leave us nor forsake us? How great is it that we serve a living and loving God?

The most exciting event of the past few months was our 5K mud run fundraiser on May 3rd. We host the Tough Gator 5K Mud Run annually as a means of raising funds to supply our overseas ministries with supplies such as school uniforms, medical equipment, bibles and more. Before leaving the office for maternity leave, Karly had worked a lot on the details of the race and how to improve it. Being a runner herself, she was uniquely suited to identify strong and weak points in order to improve our event and reach a broader audience with both the need and the Gospel. In total, we had over 600 people show up to support the cause and raised over $30,000 for critical ministry worldwide. There was plenty of feedback from the participants and volunteers that Karly will be able to use to improve next years’ race as Assistant Race Manager. 

Thank you for your prayers for and support of our ministry with Teen Missions. While Karly is no longer serving full-time in the office, she is still helping out here and there when she can. She will drop Esther off with some friends each Monday morning and come into the office to help where she can in addition to serving on our Medical Policy team and as Assistant Race Manager for the Mud Run(both being remote positions). I am still serving in the IT department where I am primarily focused on website design and general technician duties. I have learned a lot of new things since I started in this department in September of 2024 as a completely untrained and inexperienced novice. I praise the Lord for the ability He has given me to learn and perform the functions of my role and to do them well. 

Our preparations for our summer mission trip are going well. We are designated to go to Australia this year. We are very excited for this opportunity because we stayed behind in Florida in 2024 to serve on the Launch Team on account of Karly’s pregnancy. I will fill the role of the head male leader on the team–a huge step up for me– and Karly and Esther will come along as family members, meaning Karly will have no team responsibilities so she can focus on Esther’s needs as her mother. Our training period begins on June 17th and our involvement will conclude on August 1st. We are very excited to see what God has in store for us this summer as we follow His guidance in our lives.

Some things to pray for:

Praises:

• Esther is growing up strong and healthy.
• Karly recovered from the delivery with no complications.
• We are able to serve God each and every day.

Prayer Requests:

• That Karly and I would stay rested and be able to do our tasks throughout the day.
• For wisdom as we raise our first little one in the Lord.
• Smooth preparation and execution of our summer mission trips.
• That we would raise the support we need for our summer team.

Thank you again for your prayers! None of what we do would be possible without them.

Praying for you as you for us,

Caleb, Karly, and Esther Holschen

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2 Corinthians 12:9