Author Archives: The Coffeys

Coffey Family December Prayer Letter

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Our family hopes everyone had a terrific Christmas and want to wish everyone a happy new year.  We are thankful for your involvement that allows us to do the work of the ministry.  It’s hard to believe 2014 is coming to an end, but we are excited about what is before us.  As we look back, there are things we could have done better, but are thankful for opportunities to make changes and improvements in every area of ministry.

As we look ahead to 2015, we pray the Lord allows us to participate in many church planting endeavors that we were hoping for in 2014.  There are a couple of young preachers that are close to stepping out.  I know God can use them in a great way to see His kingdom advance.   

We have now been in South Africa about a year and a half.  The time has passed quickly and it’s a reminder that there is a lot to do and little time to do it in.  The labor that has gone on in Madiba Bay Baptist Church, Wells Estates Baptist Church, and Servants of Christ Baptist Church is just the beginning.  So much more has to be done to reach the million and more people here in Port Elizabeth, and the countless others in Southern Africa.

Pray for open doors and boldness as we seek to please Him in advancing the Gospel.

Pastors Dec 2014

Prayer Request

  • Amy and I as we continue learning the Xhosa language. 
  • For the two singles pastors to find good wives and for the three married pastors to have strong marriages that will impact future generations. 
  • Stephen Underwood and Jason King families that are on deputation for South Africa. 

More Highlights

  • A builder is giving us an estimate on laying the foundation for New Life Baptist Church this week.  The waiting to start building seems to be coming to an end.
  • Amy and kids are doing great. 
  • Plans have been made for our first pastors fellowships, teen camps, couples retreats, and pastors school this coming year.  Please keep these events in your prayers as we hope to see maturity and involvement increase.   

Needs 

  • $600 for the water and sewer hook-ups for New Life Baptist.
  • Approx. $6500 needed to build the first building phase for New Life Baptist Church.  $3800 has come in so far.

Ministry Wisdom

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My Director, Jeff Bush, just sent out some great notes from a class that my Pastor, Austin Gardner, was teaching at the Our Generation Training Center.

The notes were a great challenge to me, especially where I am in ministry right now.

I hope they will help you as they did me.

Key to Making it in Ministry:

Developing a habit of not quitting.

The majority of people start serving God, start deputation, start learning a language, etc., but the majority of people quit.

You do not have to be talented, but if you just keep it up, you will make it.

Many start memorizing, reading, doing things but don’t finish. Most are excited about starting but quit.   Someone who supposedly cannot, will end up being able to, if he continues… keep plodding on.

Just keep at it, be faithful and consistent. You can find excuses to not finish.

Fruit will come if you just keep going instead of stopping and quitting.

The turtle and rabbit – rabbit had all ability but the turtle wins the race.  Your talent will make you lose.   People with talent many times lose.

Coffey Family November Prayer Letter

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Our family moved over to Wells Estates Baptist Church about three weeks ago.  Since we have been in South Africa, we have been based at Madiba Bay Baptist Church.  We made the move to Wells because it’s about a 10 minute drive from where we hope to start the new church. This will enable us to work with Pastor Thami as we are also starting the church.   

Our original plan when coming to South Africa involved spending the first two years learning the language with plans to start a church toward the end of those two years.  Being a little eager, we hoped to start a church a little after our first year here.  Well, we’re still hoping.

Although we don’t have a building yet, we had a promising lead this past week.  Starting this week, we plan to go door to door in the new area to share the Gospel and collect as many contacts as we can for when we do start the church. 

Pastor Sipho is still waiting to start construction for New Life Baptist Church.  We are still waiting for the building plans to be approved.  This process has taken a bit longer than we have hoped and planned, but we believe it won’t be much longer.  We did get the go ahead to have the water and sewer hook-ups installed. 

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Prayer Request

  • Our first church plant.  We are still in need of a building. 
  • Our language learning.  This is of course is a repeated prayer request because it’s the #1 priority in our ministry at the moment.
  • More young men to step up.

More Highlights

  • 8 Professions of faith at our last men’s meeting.
  • Our first college intern, Bethany Staley, is in her last month of  her 6 month trip here in South Africa.
  • We able to build an addition onto Well Estates to expand the children’s ministry.  They still have class outside, but now they don’t have to worry about the sun or rain.
  • Missionary Keith Shumaker from Burkina Faso  visited.  He was a great help to the missionaries and to the pastors. 

Needs 

  • $600 for the water and sewer hook-ups for New Life Baptist.
  • Approx. $7000 needed to build the first building for New Life Baptist Church. 

Please Pray for the Underwood Family

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We received news from our team member, Stephen Underwood, that his father unexpectedly passed away in his sleep this past Saturday morning.  Please be praying for Stephen and his family.  His dad was only 55 years old and this was very unexpected.  I believe the funeral will be Tuesday morning at McFarland Hills Baptist Church in Dalton, GA.  As we get more information it will be passed along.

Stephen and Ashley are currently on deputation and are doing well raising support to get to South Africa.  They had to cut a missions conference short they were a part of in Knoxville.

WorldEvangelism.net

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I was privileged to write a highlight on missions in South Africa for the new blog WorldEvangelism.net. Take a look if you have a few minutes. It’s a little longer than I usually write, but there are some pictures:) Maybe they will let me write again if I can get you guys to read and comment.

Mission Field Highlight:  South Africa

In March of 2011, I traveled to Port Elizabeth, South Africa to lead mission teams to work with my cousins, missionaries Kevin and Corli Hall. God used that trip to bring my family to where we are now, full time missionaries to South Africa serving along side Kevin and Corli and my cousins Jeremy and Bekah Hall.

Traveling to South Africa helped me realize the spiritual biblical dearth of a very religious place. If you come to South Africa today you will see a country that has a lot of places that are called churches. Around town where most of the white population live you will see….  click here to read more at WorldEvangelism.net

Rent or Buy & Soccer

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As of now, a place to rent hasn’t opened up for the new church plant.  It seems that rentable space is very limited.  We will continue to search, but it may come to the place where we need to buy property.  I’m really hoping we can keep the cost down the first year by just renting a space, but I’m not sure how much longer we can wait.  Many people have offered to sell their property, but no one is able to rent.

We are praying for clear direction from the Lord right now.   To rent a house with enough land to build a small auditorium would be around $50 to $75 a month.  To buy the same property would be between $5000 and $7000 I believe.

At Madiba Bay Baptist we are currently renovating the front parking lot of the church to build a soccer/fubito court.  The church plans to use Friday night and Saturday soccer leagues for outreach and evangelistic purposes.  With the lack of space in the community for these types of events, we believe it will be a great opportunity to be in contact with a lot more lost young people.  It will also be a great venue for the young preachers to gain more experience in preaching and presenting the Gospel.

Please be in prayer for both the new church plant and the soccer leagues.

Surprise!

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Yesterday, my wife surprised her sister, and pretty much everyone else from our family and home church by flying in to see our newly born niece, Selah.  Thanks to a faithful supporter, my wife was able to be with her sister, Stephanie Cornwell, right after the birth of her new baby girl.  We were hoping to get her there before the birth when the tickets were purchased 2 months ago, but she missed it by 15 hours.

She will be in the States for two weeks to spend time with her sister and family.  Please pray for her while she travels.  More importantly though, please pray for me while I’m attempting to take care of the five kiddos back here at home, while studying the language and looking for a church building 🙂

 

The New Church Plant Update

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We are still in search for a place to start the church.  There is a meeting this Saturday with a family who may be willing to rent us their house.  Please be in prayer that we will walk through the doors the Lord opens.

The two areas we are wanting to start churches in are fairly young communities. There aren’t many buildings outside of houses, and the houses are over crowded and don’t become available often.  We believe these areas would be ideal places to start churches, and we’ll keep you up to date on the progress.

In the meantime, please to continue to pray for our language learning.

 

 

Update on Baby Grace Bassham

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Many prayers were answered this past week when little Grace Bassham checked out of NICU and the hospital in Bangkok, Thailand on Monday morning.  The Bassham family are grateful for all that sent financial support, but they are even more grateful for the many prayers that were prayed for the new little baby.

The infection didn’t get to the blood stream, and the seemingly bad situation has passed.

Below is the latest update from the Bassham’s:

“I want to say a huge thank you to everyone for your prayers and support this past week with the complications of the birth of Grace and her time in the NICU.

Today, after 7 days in the NICU, she was finally released, and we were able to bring her home!

This past week, we were able to see the Lord answer prayers from all of the world for little Grace. There was a whirlwind of change that happened over here in the 24 hours following the update out asking for prayer for her.”

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