Youth Impact: a family update and request for prayer

Ben and Leonieke Salmons share a September 2026 family update and ask for prayer. Read their complete newsletter in their own words.

MBC introduction: Ben and Leonieke Salmons, our mission partners serving with Youth with a Mission in Norway, have shared a follow-up to their Youth Impact: Autumn 2026 newsletter. Their September update is reproduced in full below. All references to weeks and timings are as written in their newsletter.

YOUTH IMPACT

AUTUMN 2026

Leonieke en Ben Salmons

Hi everyone, some may already know and for some this is new.

We wanted to give a quick update in regards to our last newsletter. We shared with you that we are pregnant, jeej! But sadly two weeks ago my water broke. This means that the pregnancy has become very different from what it normally is.

The first 48 hours they assumed that we would give birth and that we would have to say goodbye to her but, PRAISE GOD, she is still in the womb with a beating heart and growing.

But without amniotic fluid in the sac, a hematoma and high risk of infection because of a tear in the membrame, the pregnancy has many risks now. From 23 weeks they will do lifesaving meassures when she is born, if she has grown properly and still doing well. (We are now in week 20)

For now that means we have to go to the hospital 2 times a week to be checked on starting infections and if our little girl is still doing well.

So we want to ask you to pray in this difficult time that God will continue to carry us and our baby girl through this and that this may be a testimony of HIS glory and goodness and that there will be amniotic fluid so that our baby girl can continue to grow and develop well (especially her lungs), that the hematoma will not ‘’burst’’/get worse and that there won’t be any infection.

Our parents were able to fly out and be there for us the first weeks and now that it is a bit stable they went back home which is a good sign. We are super greatful that they could come and spend time with us and Elianne.

For now we are super thankful that our baby girl is still growing and in the womb and that we are already two and a half weeks from where we were. But please keep us in your prayers.

Ultrasound photograph shared by Ben and Leonieke Salmons in their September 2026 pregnancy update.

WHO ARE WE AND WHAT IS OUR MISSION

Hi we are Ben, Leonieke and Elianne Salmons. We got married Dec. 2021 and are as missionaries in Norway at Youth with a Mission (YWAM). And Elianne joined July 2025.

Here Ben is responsible for the finances of the whole of YWAM Norway and Leonieke is part of the Admin and Personnel team in Skien.

Our mission is to let youth know how valuable they are and that their true identity comes from God.

Read the original September 2026 newsletter (PDF)