Last Week of Camp

The past few weeks have been very busy with camp.  We started off for our mission orientation at Sand Mountain Bible Camp from May 29-June 2nd.  We then helped out at Fort Bluff Camp during their junior week, June 5-9.  We then went back to Sand Mountain Bible Camp for our home church’s week of teen camp, June 19-23.  The past two weeks we came back to Fort Bluff Camp to help during their two teen weeks as well, July 5-9 & July 19-23.

I appreciate the leaders and staff of each of these camps.  They have been a great help and resource.   We have learned an incredible amount of things we will be able to use when we start Camp Rhino.

Pray as we finish up teen camp at Fort Bluff this week and fly out to San Jose, CA on Friday.  Our summer definitely hasn’t slowed down, and we are grateful for all the open doors.

I will continue touching base with other camp ministries to further our training and education for future ministry.

Over $60,000 has now been given for Camp Rhino

It’s been an amazing week and a half for Camp Rhino.  One minute I’m informing folks of a special offering, and the next minute another offering was coming in.

-On Thursday, June 29th, my home church, Vision Baptist Church, gave $760 for the Camp Rhino.  This was the day after I announced that Northside Baptist Church in Pembroke, GA gave $1500.
-On Sunday, July 2, I received an email from Pastor Todd Hogue of Community Baptist Church in Curwensville, PA.  They gave their VBS offering for Camp Rhino which came out to be $1650.
-That night, while at White Graves Baptist Church with Pastor Will Allen, Pastor Allen took up over $1000 for the camp in a matter of minutes.
-On Monday, July 3, I stopped by Catoosa Baptist Tabernacle in Ringgold, GA to drop off some extra Camp Rhino T-shirts to Pastor Justin Gazaway.  He surprised me by letting me know during their VBS from the previous week, the children gave $3000 for the camp.  On top of that, the church voted to add $1500 to bring the total for Camp Rhino to $4500.
-On July 5, I received another email from Pastor Nathan Dorsey at Westside Baptist Church in Hampton, GA.  He let me know the church voted to give $5000 for the camp.
Needless to say, it’s been an overwhelming few days.  I’m in awe of the support and involvement of so many to help get Camp Rhino started.
I don’t have the exact figure at this point, but we are now well over the $60,000 mark.
Thank you all for your support and prayers.

$1500 from Pembroke, GA

Yesterday, Luke and I drove about 4 hours over to the small town of Pembroke, Ga to report back to one of our supporting churches.  Pastor Spencer and the great folks of Northside Baptist Church have been faithful partners in the ministry from early on in our deputation.  It was great hearing about the new ministries they have started, how God continues to bless their faith promise, and how God blessed their family with a new adopted little boy.  He and Luke took to each other pretty well.

After my message the church surprised us with an amazing offering for Camp Rhino.  They gave $1500 to help with the purchase of the property.  It was such an encouragement.  One step closer.

Thank you all for your prayers and investment into our ministry.

Check out the Initial Design for Camp Rhino

Now that we have passed the $50,000 mark in our fundraising goal (only $50,000 more to go:)), I wanted to give you a glimpse of what the future Camp Rhino site will look like.  Below is the initial design for the camp based on the first 5-year plan.  Once we actually buy property, we’ll have a better idea of the real Camp Rhino, but for now you can at least see the directions of our plans and dreams.  The $100,000 we raise this year will go toward the purchase of this property so we can get the project started.  We hope to have the property ready by July 2018 to hold our first camps.  If you’re interested in donating to help Camp Rhino you can click here.

American Children Reaching South African Children

🎶 🎶 I’m glaaad to be here at Vacation Bible School….Vacation Bible School… Vacation Bible School. 🎶 🎶

It’s about that time of the year when VBS starts up all over the country.

This is turning out to be a special time for Camp Rhino.  Many churches announced they plan to donate their VBS offering to help purchase the 15 to 20 acres of property for the start of the camp and training center.

Just this past Sunday, Pastor Justin Gazaway of Catoosa Baptist Tabernacle in Ringgold, GA let us know they will be giving their VBS offering to Camp Rhino.  What an honor and blessing.

It’s incredible to think how kids in the US will be bringing their pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters to reach kids in South Africa with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

With more than $30,000 coming in the past few months, our goal of $100,000 is getting closer and closer.  Please pray we continue to advance toward this goal.

I look forward to see how this Camp and Training Center ministry aids our churches in impacting our communities and country with the Gospel of Christ.

 

 

We’ve Passed the $30,000 Mark

I’m excited to announce this past week we passed the $30,000 mark for Camp Rhino.  

God continues to bless and people continue to get involved.

On top of passing the $30,000 on Sunday,  yesterday, I received notice that a business in Marietta, GA sent in $500 to help.

I’m looking forward to see what will happen this summer.  Many have let us know they plan to donate their VBS and Children’s Crusade offerings to help us purchase the property.  It’s neat to think about American children giving to reach African children.

Please continue to pray.

Meet Robby Rhino

This past weekend we ended the month at Community Baptist Church in Curwensville, PA with Pastor Todd Hogue and his great family.  It was an honor to be a part of their missions conference this year.  Community Baptist Church has been supporting our family since 2012.

On Sunday evening of the conference, the church took up a special offering for Camp Rhino.  Pastor Hogue left the offering open for the following Wednesday and Sunday, so we don’t yet know what that amount will be.  As soon as we have those numbers we will update you.

We also had another $753 extra come in for the camp before the end of April.  We’re going to be very close to our April goal.  Thank you all for praying and giving.  It still amazes me that over $30,000 has been given to purchase property for the camp.  Only around $65,000 to go:)

Here’s a little taste of what’s to come.  This little guy is a main character that will be coming out soon in a children book series we are creating centered at Camp Rhino to help promote Bible principles involving missions.  Be on the lookout for release date.

Meet Robby Rhino:

Sunday & Monday

Wow!  What an exciting couple of days.

On Sunday, I was privilege to preach the mission’s emphasis day for a good friend of mine, Pastor Tom Hatley, as Fellowship Baptist Church in Maryville, TN.  What an honor it was to be there.  The folks at Fellowship gave over $1000 to help with Camp Rhino.  This great church has been a great partner in the ministry for several years now.

Now for Monday.  Pastor Brian Haney of Anchor of Hope Baptist Church in Rossville, GA had me in to preach the Monday night of his missions conference.  This church has been supporting our ministry for almost three years now.  Unexpectedly, Pastor Haney took up a special offering at the end of the service for Camp Rhino, and the people gave $2195.  I was blown away.  He was hoping to get $1000, and over $2000 came in.  Amazing.

Over $3200 in two days!  Praise the Lord.

I don’t have the words necessary to show the appreciation I have for everyone who has given to help purchase property for the camp.  I’m humbled, and honored.

So far $29,188 has been given or promised.  We do hope to raise $4144 more during these last few days of April to put us at $33,332 to stay on pace to raise $100,000 by the end of the year.  I believe it will come in, but please continue to pray.

Camp Rhino will impact young people like these for years to come.

Coffey Family April 2017 Prayer Letter

Prayer Request

  • Camp Rhino- Currently, we have raised $29, 188 to purchase property for Camp Rhino.  Praise the Lord!  That’s almost 30% of our goal.  We do hope to raise $4144 more during these last few days of April to put us at $33,332 to stay on pace to raise $100,000 by the end of the year.  I believe it will come in.
  • Churches in Port Elizabeth-  Pray the Lord does a great work in all the 6 churches we are associated with in South  Africa.
  • 102,000 Gospel Tracts-  These tracts donated to our ministry arrived at the end of March.  Pray for souls to be saved through them.
  • More Laborers- As I travel I’m praying the Lord would lead many others to work with us in Southern Africa.  The need for workers is real.
  • Our Family-  We’re having a great time on furlough and are looking forward to the next 8 months, but we are a little sad about having to leave Tyler, our oldest, behind when we leave.

Someone asked this past month if we planned to change our focus from church planting to camp ministry when we return to South Africa.  My answer to that is, “Absolutely not.” 

I want to make sure it’s clear that our purpose with Camp Rhino is to accelerate our church planting efforts, not do away with them.  Camp Rhino will offer traditional summer camp opportunities, but our main focus in what we are doing is to  train young people for the work of local church ministry. 

Camp Rhino will enable us to be in continual contact with young people through the several weeks of camp during the year, and also on the weekends with our mentoring programs.    This won’t be the kind of camp where we see the teen once a summer and then look for them to come back next year.  This is a year round camp that will assist all our churches at keeping their young people plugged into the things of God. 

I’m looking forward to getting back to South Africa to start Camp Rhino, but I’m just as excited to getting back so we can start more churches.

I want to send a special thanks to Chick Publications for providing 102,000 Gospel tracts for our ministries in South Africa.  We are excited that each of the churches will have plenty of literature to distribute over the next several months.

$1602 this week:)

$1602 came in for the land purchase of Camp Rhino this week.  We had $1250 from our Sunday evening service and $352 from our Wednesday evening service.  With another $7339 we will hit our goal for April.

Every dollar given for the Camp makes me think of the lives that will be saved and trained through this ministry.  I know even growing up in a Christian culture how impacting Camp was for me growing up.  Imagine what it will do for these young people who grow up with very little Christian influence in their life.

We have little time left here on this earth.  Let’s make sure we use the time we have to impact people with the Gospel.