Holschen Newsletter (Fall 2025)

Hello Friends and Family!

This has been an amazing summer to serve the Lord and see friends, both old and new. Here is a bit of what God has done in and through our little family the past few months:

Karly, Esther and I were privileged to go to Australia on the Teen Missions Australia team for a few weeks. I (Caleb) was the head male leader of the team, while Karly and Esther came along as family members. Since Karly is a first-time mother and Esther was so young (four months old) coming into the summer, it was decided that it would be best for Karly not to lead so she would not have to split her focus between the needs of her child and the needs of her team. I instead led with another staff lady, Pat Storey, and two of our Bible school students. In total, the team had 21 people on it—15 team members, four leaders, Karly, and Esther. The team started very well during our Boot Camp training period. They quickly made friends with one another and adapted to the fast-paced nature of Boot Camp, taking in the training and learning to get along with ease. It was difficult at first to be separated from Karly and Esther for so much time, although they were around base helping out in the late afternoons and evenings, but God gave us the peace and strength we needed to fulfill our roles during the ten training days.

Our project in Australia was mostly painting, but we also got to help with other small tasks and projects around the base. The majority of our work hours were spent in a staff building on the base painting and cleaning to get ready for a staff family to move in. The Teen Missions base in Australia only has four staff members and over 200 acres of property. Between the low number of workers and the size of the property to maintain, there was a definite need for 15 sets of willing hands to help alleviate some of the burden. In addition to painting, the team was able to help clear brush, clean rooms, pour concrete and set up for a bonfire that the base hosts annually for the local community. I was proud of what the team accomplished in their three weeks on the base. As many of you know, this was my second time going to the base in Australia. My first trip was as an intern before I had even proposed to Karly. So it was exciting to be able to see many of the same people and friends I had made and introduce them to my wife and daughter. It took them a few days to adapt to the cold, but they loved the experience as much as the staff loved meeting them.

The biggest lesson I learned in Australia was to have patience when trusting in God. There were several times during the summer when my patience was tested. Whether it was answering the same question for the fifth time or praying we could make a connecting flight, God worked in my heart to give me the patience I needed to maintain my testimony of His work and act in love to those around me. Esther woke up more at night than she does at home, presumably because of the cold temperature, but despite that, I always managed to have the energy I needed to complete the work of each day. I can only attribute that strength as God equipped me with what I needed each day. As the scriptures say in Lamentations 3:22-23: “ The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.” Without God’s unending faithfulness, all of the work that we did over the summer would be for nothing.

After the summer mission trip concluded, our little family was able to travel up to Washington state to see friends and family and make more support connections. The “heat wave” we experienced in the north was quite pleasant, compared to Florida's sweltering humidity. It was a refreshing time to catch up with people that I hadn’t seen in a number of years. We had the opportunity to go to Priest Lake in northern Idaho with my grandmother. We learned that she had gone swimming in that lake with her grandfather when she was young, making Esther the sixth generation of Shirk blood to play in the water there. It was not until I had a family of my own to take and see the sights of Spokane and the surrounding area that I realized how much family history there was. We got to walk Esther around some of the same parks and attractions that my parents visited when they were children. I praise the Lord for the blessing of family and legacy that I get to raise my daughter in.

The coming months will be a time of settling and adaptation. Esther is now starting to crawl, so the house will need to be rearranged to be baby-friendly. We have also only spent two weeks at home in the past two months and there are more small points of life and routine that we will need to readapt to. Most notably: Karly was offered and accepted a position as a teacher at a local homeschool co-op! She will be teaching an English class and a creative writing class on Monday mornings. Some of our free time in Washington was spent formulating curriculum and lesson plans as the first day of class was the morning after we returned to Florida. I will still be in the office working in the IT department. We have several large projects coming up that I am excited to learn more about and start implementing. One of these projects is updating our team web pages to reflect the information we will get about our teams in the coming weeks. You can find the list of teams (and my handiwork) at www.teenmissions.org/mission-trips. 

Some prayer requests we have for the coming months:

• Karly’s classes, that she would be able to teach well and minister to her students.

• Travel mercies as we go to Mexico at the end of October for a friend’s wedding.

• Esther’s continued health and growth. 

• The projects Caleb has coming up at the office.

Thank you very much for your prayers and support! None of the ministry we do, including Teen Missions' work around the world, would be possible without the faithful prayers of our friends and family. May God bless you and make His face shine upon you.

-  Caleb, Karly, and Esther Holschen

Luke 10:2