Category Archives: Camp Rhino

Coffey Family July 2022 Prayer Letter

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Prayer Requests/ Praises

  • My wife’s ear surgery seems to have been a complete success.  We won’t know for sure how much hearing she regained until next month, but things are sounding good, figuratively and literally:)  Thanks so much for your prayers.  
  • Please pray for Missionary Katie Dilfer’s South African Visa.  She’s ready to come as soon as she has her visa. 
  • Pray for the 30+ Juniors and Teens that have accepted Christ as their personal Savior these past few weeks during our Winter Camp Days.  
  • Pray for us as we are considering starting a new church.  We are currently working out of Lighthouse Baptist Church with Pastor Mvume but are leaning toward starting a new church soon. 

Quick Updates

  • Since May, we’ve hosted 4 different mission teams with 75 people in total.  God used them here in a great way and really worked in many of their lives.  Our hope is that God calls many Gospel laborers from these teams. 
  • This week we are having separate Junior Camps for boys and girls.  So far over a dozen boys trusted Christ.  The girls will arrive this evening. 
  • 2 Weeks ago we hosted Teen Camp days for the boys and girls separately as well.  We had 13 young people trust Christ during those days. 
  • Vision Baptist Missions will be hosting the World Evangelism Fellowship on November 8th.  You can click here for more info.  It’s going to be a great time. 

Now that all our mission teams have departed we’re going to be working a lot more on the Youth Home this month.  We have 3 teens ready to move in and possibly a fourth.  Pray that we find the right house parents for the Home.  We have some that can help temporarily but are praying for a long-term solution.  

I would like to ask you to pray for Pastor Khona Nohamba and his church Nkandla Baptist Church.  Khona recently graduated from our Bible College and is looking forward to devoting more time to building the church.  

We helped Khona right before the start of Covid and unfortunately had to close a few weeks later.  He and his wife Iminathi have been working hard to restart the church and have been making good progress. In our city of over a million people, there is much work that needs to be done. Pray that we can build a foundation that will last and aid in church planting for years to come.

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Mission Teams and South Africa Youth Home

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We have had a great and full month here in South Africa.

Mission Teams have visited from Ohio, Michigan, South Caroline, and now Georgie. A group from Tennessee will be here at the end of this week. “Group Season” is one of my favorite times of the year. God changed my life on a mission trip when I was 19 years old and I’m excited about people being able to visit the mission field and have the same type of opportunity. Please pray for these groups and for the Lord to call more to the foreign field.

We are getting the new house ready for the South Africa Youth Home. We had the floors tiled and with the help of one of our groups, the landscape looks much better. We still have a way to go, but the young people should be able to move into the house this week.

Hope Baptist Church in Fairfield, OH and Immanuel Baptist Church in Corruna, MI

The groups have done a terrific job ministering in all the churches here in Port Elizabeth. The preaching, singing, and testimonies have been encouraging and I believe they have really helped the people.

Oakwood Baptist Church in Anderson, SC

The groups have been an extra blessing to Camp Rhino with the safari hunts and fishing trips. Needless to say, our freezers are full, and they’ve supplied enough meat to stock our freezers for at least the next 6-8 months. A lot of kids will enjoy great meals from their gifts to the Camp.

Eland
Blesbok
Nyala
Blesbok

If you would ever be interested in being a part of one of these trips, please let me know. We would love to have you.

Update on Amy’s Ear Surgery

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As many of you know, Amy had surgery on her left ear on May 16th. She went in for the surgery at 7 am, but they couldn’t fit her in until around 1 pm. They finished the surgery at about 4:30 pm and I was able to take her home around 8 pm. It was a very long day for her no doubt.

Since getting out of surgery, along with having her ear taped and packed full of cotton, she’s had to stay at home, avoid loud noises, and not be in a car or lift anything over 10lbs. That actually continues for another week.

This past Wednesday we met with Amy’s doctor for the first time since her ear surgery. The doctor cleaned out her ear and said that everything looks great and things are progressing nicely. Amy has already regained a lot of hearing in that ear, but we won’t know the full results for several weeks. We do know that she’s not deaf and we praise the Lord she has not experienced any vertigo, which is very common.

I can’t thank you all enough for your prayers.

P.S. It looks like we will have full control of the new property for the South Africa Youth Home the first week of June. It’s been amazing to see how the Lord is bringing everything together.

Coffey Family May 2022 Prayer Letter

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Prayer Requests  Praise        

  • My wife’s ear surgery was today.  Pray she will recover hearing in her left ear.  She had 20% hearing in that ear, but after surgery, the doctor hopes she will regain anywhere from 80-90% of hearing.  We won’t know for a week or so after the surgery how effective it was. 
  • Please continue to pray for Missionary Katie Dilfer’s South African Visa.  It still hasn’t arrived, but thankfully she was able to travel to Puerto Rico where she’s been ministering while she waits.  We’re happy she’s able to be a great help there, but we are looking very forward to getting her to South Africa.  
  • Pray for our South African Visa renewals.  Our current visas expire in July so we need to renew for new visas this month.  Because of covid, this has been a long process, but we’re hoping we can get things worked out soon. 
  • Please pray for the mission teams coming in June and July from four different churches.  We hope to be a blessing to them as they sacrifice to be here.

Quick Updates  

  • We had a fantastic time during the last two weeks with a mission team my son and daughter-in-law, Chase & Ashley, led to South Africa. Part of the team was from Hope Baptist Church in Fairfield, OH and the other part was from Immanuel Baptist in Corruna, MI.  This was such a great group of people.
  • There were several young people and a couple of older folks out of this group who expressed a desire to commit their lives to be missionaries.  Pray we see many follow through and give their lives to share Jesus on the foreign field.  Our prayer is for more laborers. 

What an amazing month!  Seven days before we needed the full $113,000 to purchase property for the South Africa Youth Home, we only had $23,000.  Within a few hours, that number jumped to $68,000. By the next Sunday, the Lord provided and we had the full $113,000. Praise the Lord!

Thank you all for praying and thank you all who helped us reach our goal by giving financially.  We anticipate seeing what the Lord will do in this new ministry.   

I will be emailing updates out on a more regular basis to keep you informed on the remodeling progression to get the new house ready for our teenagers.  If you are not on our email list and would like to be, please send me a note to add you.

I’m still in a little shock seeing how the Lord provided.  There were times of doubt that we would really be able to do this, but little by little the Lord kept confirming to us that this was His will. Please pray for wisdom as we go forward for Him. 

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$14,500 Needed Toward our $45,000 Matching Donation for the Africa Youth Home

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One of our ministry partners has committed to match up to $45,000 toward the purchase of the property and first house for the South Africa Youth Home. We praise the Lord that over $30,000 has been matched so far. God truly did some big things this week to make this a reality.

I need to make the wire transfer on Tuesday to get the money to South Africa on time. The cut-off date is May 7th. We are only short $14,500 of the $113,000 we need. Go here https://visionmissions.org/give and select Africa Youth Home- Mark Coffey.

Please let me know if you are able to be a part of this need as soon as possible so we will know how to proceed.

These are exciting days. Thank you for praying. Thank you for giving.

$45,000 Matching Offering for the South Africa Youth Home!

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One of our ministry partners has committed to match up to $45,000 toward the purchase of the property and house. Please pray this news will be met quickly. The cut-off date is May 7th. We were told another cash offer has been accepted if we aren’t able to come up with the funds. We are still short $35,000 of the $113,000 we need. Go here https://visionmissions.org/give and select Africa Youth Home- Mark Coffey.

We are flying out tonight to return to South Africa.

I’m praying we can raise this money in the next week to give us time to transfer everything over to South Africa before the deadline.

Please pray we raise the needed funds in time.

On another note, please pray for my wife’s upcoming ear surgery on May 16th. It’s a serious operation that could allow her to regain hearing in her left ear or she could possibly lose all her hearing in that ear. There is also a high risk of vertigo.

4 of the young people already staying at Camp Rhino plus little Ano, one of our pastor’s daughters:)
This would be the first official house for the South Africa Youth Home if we can raise the needed funds.

You can also keep up to date with the youth home at our new website for the home.

Coffey Family April Prayer Letter

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Our time in the States has flown by. We’ve had terrific meetings from Alabama to Virginia over to Ohio.

This past week Amy and I spent the week in Crab Orchard, Tn for the Executive Team Retreat for Vision Baptist Missions. With our President, all the Field Directors from around the world gathered to challenge each other in the Word of God and update the policies and procedures for the VBM Handbook. This was also in preparation for the VBM Annual Orientation with all stateside VBM missionaries next week at The Wilds Camp in Brevard, NC. As Africa Director, this is the main reason Amy and I are back for a few weeks.

Please pray as we meet with these great men and women, who will be on the front lines preaching the Gospel soon.

From Left: Travis Snode, General Director; Jeff Bush, President; me, Africa Director; Mark Tolson, Asia Director; Jason Holt, Latin American Director
The secret to any success, our wives:)

South Africa Youth Home Update

So far, over $15,000 has been given or committed to the South Africa Youth Home. Others have informed me that they will be sending money in at the beginning of May for this new outreach.

We did just find out there has been another offer made for the property we are wanting to buy for the Home. We now know that we only have until May 7th until our accepted offer expires and the owners are able to accept new offers.

Please pray we are able to raise the remaining funds in time if this is the Lord’s will. With the teens already on the campus of Camp Rhino, we believe this ministry is of the Lord. We know the Lord can bring in the funds even though we only have a few days until the deadline hits.

Prayer Request & Updates

  • 5 Mission Teams are scheduled to be with us this Summer in South Africa. We look forward to seeing what the Lord does in their hearts during their time on the mission field.
  • Pray as we travel back to South Africa on April 26th. It has been great seeing our kids who are stateside so that day may be a tad bit sad.
  • $90,000+ – This is what we need for the South Africa Youth Home.
  • Bay Baptist Bible College- We have 3 students finishing their studies in May, while the rest will be going into winter break.

Coffey Family March 2022 Prayer Letter

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Would you consider committing $1000 to be one of the 100 churches to give towards the Africa Youth Home?  We are needing $100,00 by the end of April for this purchase.  It is the property right next to Camp Rhino, which makes it a very strategic location.  

The asking price is around $113,000, and we’ve already raised about $13,000.  I know with prices going crazy in the States and really around the world with fuel and inflation, this is a tough time, but we know this youth home is going to help a lot of young people who don’t have anything.   

Prayer Requests  Praise        

  • We will be back to the States for our Annual Missions Orientation in April.  Pray this is a productive time with our new missionaries.  We’re also planning to raise funds for the Africa Youth Home. Pray we can raise $100,000 in a month:)
  • Please continue to pray for my wife’s ear surgery.  The date has been set for her to have surgery on May 16th.   
  • Pray for Missionary Katie Dilfer’s visa to arrive.  Unfortunately, it didn’t arrive in time and she had to cancel her tickets to South Africa for the end of February. She is hoping she will be here no later than the end of April.   
  • As soon as we get back in April, we also need to apply for new visas.  Pray we can get those worked out as soon as possible. There’s been a back log and some have waited over a year for their visas. 
  • We are thankful for those who gave to replace the things that were stolen in January.  We have bought almost everything back now. 

Quick Updates  

  • We’ve started construction on a new building for Nkandla Baptist Church.  Pastor Khona & his wife Iminathi are excited about having a larger more permanent building.   
  • This last week I was in Nigeria with Graham and Olivia Young during their survey trip.  They will return in July to work full-time under Missionary Mark Holmes for their first two years.  Please be praying for them and Nigeria.  There are very few missionaries to Nigeria for over 220 million people.  We badly need more missionaries in this country. 
  • This past month, we’ve seen two guys that I’ve worked with for years walked away from the Lord come back to church.  We praise the Lord and pray the Lord continues working in their lives to make them more like Him.
Nigerian Style with Graham and Olivia Young

In church news, the main church we are working in now, Lighthouse Baptist Church, has been having more visitors.  Pray, we see more saved.  There are so many without Christ.  New Life Baptist Church is still struggling unfortunately in the more affluent part of the township, but Vision Baptist is doing well.

New building for Nkandla Baptist Church

Africa Youth Home & Short Trip back to the States

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For the month of April, I will be back in the States for our mission board’s annual orientation. I’m looking forward to being with all our Vision Baptist Mission’s missionaries on deputation and on furlough. Pray the Lord blesses this time.

I’m also using this time to present the ministry of the new Africa Youth Home in churches. If you would like to have me back in to report and update your church on the Youth Home, please just let me know. I still have a few dates available, but we will head back to South Africa on April 26th, Lord willing.

Several have reached out to me concerning gifts their church has already given or committed to give for the Africa Youth Home. As soon as I have a total, I’ll let you know. I am praying for 100 churches to commit $1000 by the end of April to make this Home a reality. We are trying to raise $113,000 in total with over $10,000 already being promised.

Would you consider being a part of helping us impact these young people?

Thank you for your prayers and thank you for partnering with us to impact South Africa with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Africa Youth Home- Offer Accepted!

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Our offer for the property and first house for the Africa Youth Home has been accepted. We now have about 90 days to raise $113,500 and $5500 has already been donated:)

You can check out the listing for yourself here.

The property for the Youth Home is right next to Camp Rhino and the Bay Baptist Bible College. This purchase will double the amount of property we have in total taking us to over 40 acres of land.

Right now we have 4 teens living on the campus of Camp Rhino, but I can really see hundreds of kids being cared for on this new property one day.

Some may ask, why don’t you just build the youth home on the property you have now. Why would you want to buy more property? Let me give you a few reasons why:

  • We continue to expand Camp Rhino with adding new facilities and activities for the children. The possibilities are endless with growth of our camps and retreats and we can easily use all the land just for the camp as the Lord provides.
  • The 4-bedroom house located on this property would probably cost $80,000-$90,000 to build. It is a well built home with brick, tile, and stone finishings. For just an extra $20,000-$30,000, we will be doubling the amount of land we will own along with having the first house for our Youth Home.
  • Having more property will allow us to keep the ministries of Camp Rhino and the Youth Home separate. Camp can lose its appeal for the children if they live there every day.
  • This extra property will enable us to continually expand our ministries. We want more than one house to use for the youth home. I can dream of having a dozen or more houses or complexes being used for the Youth Home. This would also give us room for a single mom’s and women’s shelter that we have considered starting one day.
  • The price of property continues to rise, we believe it would be wise to make this investment now.
  • Securing this property allows us to protect the camp atmosphere for Camp Rhino. We are thankful for the neighbors we’ve had in the past, but we never know who may move in next. The property we are wanting to buy for the Youth Home is the closest property to the camp.

Please pray we can raise the needed funds quickly. Please pray about giving.