Category Archives: Kids in Missions

Coffey Family December 2019 Prayer Letter

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Prayer Requests & Praise

  • Pray as we go forward with our third church plant in January 2020. One of our young couples will be heading up that work. Please pray for Khona and Iminathi. Khona has been a faithful worker and is currently enrolled in our Bible college, and his wife Iminathi is enrolled in our Bible Institute.
  • Our Teen Camp at Camp Rhino is from Dec. 10th-13th. We still need help sponsoring campers to offset expenses at $50 per camper for the week. We are preparing for 100 teen campers for this first camp of the summer season.
  • This past month our South Africa team was able to visit the countries of Kenya and Rwanda. God is doing great work in Kenya, but more still needs to be done. The need for reaching Rwanda really touched our hearts. We need more missionaries there. It is wide open and definitely a good place for someone to consider being a missionary. Pray for laborers.
“Hotel Rwanda” in Kigali, Rwanda
Khona and Iminathi’s wedding one year ago.

Quick Updates & Reminders:

  • Over $15,000 came in to finish our girl dorms at Camp Rhino. We also had enough to update our electrical system and to start renovating an old structure for our auditorium space. We need about $6,000 for the roof on the building. We’ll be cutting it close but hope even it will be ready for camp.
  • We have secured property for the land we hope to use for our future medical clinic in Port Elizabeth, which we are also using for our 2nd church plant.
  • Katie Dilfer is here from Gospel Light Baptist Church Helena, AL to look at the possibility of maybe helping us start a Christian School. Pray for guidance in this area.
  • Regina Gordon has been serving as an intern for the last 6 months. She only has a few days left. Please pray for her as she returns to the States. She’s been a tremendous help to all the ministries during her time here.
New auditorium space for Camp Rhino – $6,000 needed for roof
Slab inside new auditorium is being laid

I hope all had a great Thanksgiving. We have so much to be thankful for. I’m especially thankful to you all for making it possible for us to serve here in South Africa. We are so blessed.

There is a special prayer request I would like to share. Pieta Struwig has served as head of maintenance and grounds here at Camp Rhino since January. We couldn’t have accomplished most of what has been built here at the camp without his help. He received news last week that he has cancer. This was surprising news for all of us. Pieta is only 40 years old and was saved last year at Grace Baptist Church where my cousin Kevin pastors.

Pieta pictured far right

As he starts Chemo this week, we are asking God for complete healing. Please pray. I’m not sure what we would do here at Camp Rhino without him. He’s been such an incredible help and blessing.

Also please don’t forget about teen camp, which is a week away. Pray for lives to be changed.

Coffey Family November 2019 Prayer Letter

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This past week, our teen discipleship meeting went in a different direction.  As we were starting our study, 3 men came into the home of the church members where we have been meeting and robbed us at gunpoint.  Thankfully, no one was hurt, but they did get away with my MacBook and iPhone along with my son, Luke’s iPhone and about $300. Pray we can replace some of these things ASAP.  My family keeps making fun of me for saying “Hey Siri” anticipating a response from my phone that I no longer have. I really do use my phone and computer in almost every part of our ministry though:)

Some of our teens

It’s hard to believe we only have 2 months left in 2019.  It amazes me that so much has taken place, yet I can be overwhelmed at times at how much more we have to do.  I can say through it all, we are having a fantastic time seeing God work.  What a privilege it is to be in the Lord’s work.  Thank you all for making that possible.

My Son Luke

Prayer Requests & Praise  

  • What we are calling our Christmas Camp is from Dec. 10th-13th.  We need help sponsoring campers to offset expenses at $50 per camper.   We are preparing for 100 teen campers for the first camp of the summer season. Click here to donate via PayPal.
  • Pray for many to come to Christ during year-two of Camp Rhino. 
  • 8 of our teens were with my son Luke and me when I was robbed this week along with 2 other faithful adults from our church.  Pray the Lord uses this in our lives to help us be more serious concerning eternity. 
  • We received great news this week regarding property for a possible medical clinic.  It looks like our district is going to give us a terrific piece of property to use for the clinic at a great price.  Please continue to pray as we go forward with the idea of starting our own full-time medical clinic here in South Africa.
Only a few weeks until our 2019 Teen Camp

Quick Updates & Reminders:

  • We are short about $3,000 of the $20,000 needed to complete the new dorm-style cabins at Camp Rhino.   The roof is going on this week, but we still lack the doors and electrical systems. Please be praying as we also need to prepare the space we will be using for the main auditorium.
  • We just passed the one year anniversary of when we first purchased the property for Camp Rhino.  So far this year we’ve seen over 60 professions of faith through our camp events.  We’re praying and hoping for even greater results during this next year.
  • Contact me in you’re interested in a missions trip to South Africa. We would love to have you. You can join a group or bring your own. We are booked for groups for the Summer months of 2020 but have room for individuals and off months. We are also scheduling for 2021 and 2022. Come experience Camp Rhino for yourself.
  • It looks like we will be in the States next year for my oldest son’s wedding, probably from April to June. I will also be using that time to raise extra support to help with our current and future ministries. If you would like to have us in during that time please just let me know.
The roof is on our girl dorms

Christmas Camp Sponsors

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In our last prayer letter, I mentioned needing sponsors for our next big teen camp in December. Some requested more info, so here you go:

We are planning for 100 campers for what we’ve referred to as our Christmas Camp which will go from December 10th-13th. While you hopefully will be enjoying a cool and possibly white Christmas, we will be somewhere in the 70’s and 80’s seeing it’s the start of our summer season here in South Africa:)

Our goal is to raise $50 per camper. This would help with activities, transportation, food, and lodging.

We are continually working to make Camp Rhino a better place for evangelistic outreach and training so any donation would be appreciated.

If you would be interested in sponsoring a camper you can send funds to our mission board by clicking visionmissions.org/give/ or via Paypal by clicking Paypal.me/camprhino.

Thank you for helping us impact these teenagers with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Can’t have camp without a camp fire
Preaching
Big Ball
Thank you for partnering with us to reach people with the Gospel.

Coffey Family September 2019 Prayer Letter

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Prayer request and Praise

  • We started a new teen Sunday school class for 13 to 15-year-olds at New Life Baptist Church because of recent growth.  Our classes are growing and we had another teen trust Christ this past week.  Camp Rhino is really helping us attract more teens. 
  • Our Bible Institutes and Bible College classes are going well.  We have 18 taking Bible Institute Courses and 4 going full time at Bible College.  We are praying and hoping for more young people to surrender to full-time ministry.   
  • My wife Amy’s surgery appears to have gone very well.  The doctor was happy with the results at her first appointment after the surgery, but we really won’t know how much her hearing has improved until the 3-month mark.  
  • Please be in prayer for Wells Estates Baptist Church.  It’s a church our team has had to restart.  Pastor Sipho is leading a team from New Life to minister each week in the Wells Estate’s community.  They are doing good work.

Quick Updates and Reminders

  • We now have $11,800 committed of the $20,000 needed for new dorm-style cabins at Camp Rhino.   Please be praying for the rest we need as we also hope to start the main auditorium construction before our main camp season starting in December.     
  • We had a terrific summer (winter for us) season of mission teams here in South Africa.  We have already heard of three individuals surrendering to full-time missions who were part of the 4 trips.    
  • Medical Missions Outreach arrives in South Africa to start a 4-day clinic on Sept. 19th.

About 15 young guys from the ages of 12-16 have been coming faithfully to New Life Baptist Church the past couple of months.   Almost all of them first responded to the Gospel while attending Camp Rhino.  This is a trend we hope to see in all of our churches.

When we first started praying about starting Camp Rhino, this is what we had in mind.  A place that would aid in getting more young people plugged into our local churches.  We’re now beginning to see that take place.  

Our goal is to see more churches started through everything we do.  Pray as we labor to impact more young people with the Gospel.  The foundation is still being laid.  We pray many young people are raised up with the burden to follow our King’s command to get the Gospel to every creature.  We know that command was given in the context of Bible-preaching churches.  If they have a church, they have a chance. 

Bionic Ear – Quick Update

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My wife Amy’s surgery appears to have gone very well.  We won’t know for sure until 3 months have passed, but her hearing seems to be returning.  I actually feel like she has bionic hearing now.  We were so used to having to talk louder before the surgery, we get accused of screaming now:)

 

 

 

 

Here is the picture of the bone that was removed and replaced with a prosthetic. It’s actually the smallest bone in the human body.

Thank you for praying and giving for the Camp Rhino construction project.  Another $2800 was committed this past week. We now have $11,800 of the $20,000 we need in order to finish the 5 dorms/cabins we’re currently building.

 

Coffey Family July 2019 Prayer Letter

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Prayer Requests & Praise  

  • We praise the Lord for the 10 teenagers who made professions of faith this past week at Camp Rhino.  Pastor Gary Bohman and Pastor Chase Rooks from Gospel Light Baptist Church in Helena, AL did a tremendous job preaching for us.  
  • Our mission team from Gospel Light aided in our VBS at Wells Estates Baptist Church as well. Over 30 children made professions of faith during their time here.  Many prayed and fasted for these meetings and I believe God truly blessed in a special way.  We have not seen results like these in quite some time.  
  • I want to thank all of you who prayed for me regarding my recovery with spinal meningitis.  I believe God answered your prayers.  My energy has returned and for the past two weeks I have felt terrific.  I can’t thank you enough for praying.  
  • Please continue to pray for my wife Amy as she will probably be having ear surgery on August 6th.  

Quick Updates & Reminders:

  • Almost $4000 of the $20,000 needed came in this past month to help with our construction needs at Camp Rhino.  We are in great need for staff housing here at Camp Rhino, and we praise the Lord for the help that has come in. 
  • We are so grateful for the mission teams that have visited this year.  Newton Baptist Church and Gospel Light Baptist Church were a great blessing.  We are looking froward to having Worth Baptist Church and our home church, Vision Baptist Church in the next weeks to finish out the summer season.  Pray God works in their lives in a great way during their time here.    

June and July have been the months of salvations.  On top of the souls saved at Camp Rhino and VBS, we’ve had a few saved in our services at New Life Baptist Church.  

A couple of weeks ago a man trusted Christ as Savior, and the following week his teenage son got saved as well.  We also had two teenage girls follow the Lord in believers baptism.  

We hope to see this trend continue as we work to share the Gospel and disciple those who have made a decision to accept Christ.  

I would ask you to pray concerning a problem we have.  For the last several months a deaf teenage boy has been attending our church.  My son Luke lead him to the Lord using a  dry erase white board.  We are really in need of a deaf ministry.  Please pray we can work something out soon. 

Again, thank you all for your prayers and financial support.  We couldn’t do what we love if it wasn’t for your help.

Coffey Family April 2019 Prayer Letter

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Prayer Requests & Praise  

  • Please be in prayer for my son Tyler.  He is finishing up his missionary training degree at the Our Generation Training Center soon.  His last step is a 6 month internship in Argentina.  I have included his support letter with this prayer letter, but if you are interested in helping, any donations or support can be sent to our board. 
  • Our 5 Bible college students enjoy their studies very much, but please continue to pray for them and pray more young people surrender to ministry.   
  • We are in need of storage space for Camp Rhino.  Pray we can raise the $5000 for our first storage space. We also need additional camper and staff living quarters.  I will be devoting more time in the near future in raising the needed funds.  More videos and updates are on their way.  Check out our Instagram or Facebook page to stay informed and connected.   

Quick Updates & Reminders:

  • Our new work at Fitches Corner is not taking off as well as we hoped.  We actually have more people at our Thursday Bible Study than we do for our Sunday AM service. Pray we can reach more with the Gospel in this new area.       
  • Tim and Destiny Kelly arrived this week.  They will be a great help with Camp Rhino.  Please pray their needed monthly support and setup fund come in.  
  • New Life Baptist Church and Pastor Sipho are doing well.  The adults and core teen group are maturing well.  Khona Nohamba is doing a great job assisting.  Pray our offering and our numbers to continue to grow so Pastor Sipho can be supported completely by the church.   

Our visa situation continues to be an area of concern.  Amy and I will be traveling to the city of Durban next week to turn in our applications for our visa renewals.  Our lawyer is confident we won’t have problems, but she was pretty condifent we wouldn’t have any issues the last time we applied as well.  It didn’t turn out well.  So…..who knows?:). 

Our teammates Jeremy & Bekah Hall, and Stephen and Ashlee Underwood are waiting to hear back from the same kind of visa application.  We are all hoping there won’t be any hold ups.  For my family, our main worry is having to travel back to the States to reapply  for a new visa if this visa application is rejected here.  Our current visa expires July 30th.  

Please pray we can get this taken care of soon.

Tyler Ellis 

Missionary Intern to Argentina 

I have fantastic news! In June of this year, I will be going to Argentina, South America to train under Missionary Patrick Henry for six months.

Two years ago, I started training to be a church-planting missionary at the Our Generation Training Center in Alpharetta, GA. This six month internship will be the last requirement to finish my degree.  

I deeply appreciate the countless prayers and support I have received up until now. It’s been an incredible experience. 

I am not sure what field the Lord will lead me to following my internship, but I look forward to the practical training I will gain from living in a Spanish South American culture.  

Goals for the 6 Months:

  • Begin learning Spanish
  • Adapt to a new culture and language
  • Gain great church planting experience in a different culture
  • Continue equipping myself for a life long service in missions
  • Win and disciple new believers
  • Get out of my comfort zone

Please pray for me as I prepare for this journey. Pray that God would greatly use, grow, and provide for me. Your prayers are invaluable as I pursue God’s calling!  

I need to raise approx. $12,000 for my timein Argentina.  This will cover everything from airfare to rent.  One-time gifts or monthly support is greatly appreciate.  I can’t do this without help from folks like you.  I currently have over $8000 committed for my trip.  Just under $4000 more to go. 

All support can be sent to: 

Vision Baptist Missions

P.O. Box 442 

Alpharetta, GA 30009 

Please add: “Tyler Ellis Internship” in the memo line.

Thank you ahead of time for your prayers and possibly your financial support.   I pray there will be much fruit to your account as He continues to draws lost men to Himself.

Please check out my Facebook Page “Follow Me to Argentina”  and my website at christianunit.com for further updates! Join me to see the incredible work that God is doing in Argentina!

Yours in Christ,  

Tyler Ellis

Coffey Family March 2019 Prayer Letter

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Prayer Requests & Praise  

  • Several teens over the last few weeks have trusted Christ at New Life Baptist Church and followed the Lord in believers baptism.  We have a few more getting baptized this week as well.  Please pray for their spiritual growth in the days to come.
  • We now have 5 students enrolled at our Bible school, Bay Baptist College which started on Feb. 27th.  Pray for these young men as they prepare for ministry. 
  • Please pray we can raise up more song leaders.  This is slowing down our efforts to start more churches a bit.  For example, one of our preachers is leading music at New Life and can’t really pull away to start a church until we can replace him.    
  • We are in need of storage space for Camp Rhino.  Pray we we raise the $5000 for our first storage space.  

Quick Updates & Reminders:

  • On March 10th we started a new church called Fitches Corner Baptist Church not far from Camp Rhino.  We had 3 adults, 6 teens, and several kids in attendance.  Our Sunday AM service starts at 9am so we can still make it to New Life by 11am.   
  • Fitches Corner Baptist Church is the first of 3 churches we hope to see started before the end of the year.  Pray as we do more to reach SA with the Gospel. 
  • Tim & Destiny Kelly arrive April 10th to help full time here at Camp Rhino.  Tim & Destiny were here last year for a 6-month intership, and we are very excited about having them back here full time.  They are still in need of a bit more monthly support and set up fund.  Please pray they can get that raised ASAP.  

10 years ago this month, God brought Tyler Ellis and Chase Southard into our home.  What we thought was going to be a 6-month stay, ended up beign a liiiittle longer.  God changed our family and all of our lives that day.  My 11 and 9 year old distant 2nd cousins, became my two oldest sons.  What a blessing it has been to see both of them grow into young men who love the Lord.  They are both now training to be missionaries and Tyler is raising support to for his 6-month internship in Argentina, South America with missionaries Patrick and Leslie Henry.  

  • Tyler, Mark, and Chase

Would you consider supporting him during his time in Argentina.  It would be a great blessing to him and especially to his parents living on the other side of the world:).   Any support can be sent for him to our mission, Vision Baptist Missions.

Coffey Family January 2019 Prayer Letter

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Prayer Requests      

  • Classes for Bay Baptist College at Camp Rhino officially starts on February 12th.  We are encouraged about our first group of students who will be training full time for ministry.  Please pray for this first group of students.
  • Our 2nd oldest son, Chase, is leaving this week for Bible college in the States.  It’s definitely a bittersweet time for our family. Chase has been an incredible help here in the ministry and we are very proud of him.  Amy will be traveling back with him for 2 weeks to help him get set up.  Please pray as they travel. 
  • Pray we can pay off the remaining debt we have left over from the start of Camp Rhino.  We have raised $5000 so far toward the $17,000 debt we occurred. 

Quick Updates & Reminders:

  • We had 19 professions of faith from our first Teen Camp at Camp Rhino.  That is 25% of the campers who attended.
  • During our first camp we had 75 campers, 10 counselors, 21 helpers, and 16 missionary kids, present with a total of 126 people that were fed for each meal for our first camp. 
  • Our son Tyler arrived with 2 of his friends, Joe & Savannah, from the Our Generation Training Center in Alpharetta, GA for a 18-day trip. It’s been a great pleasure having them all here.
  • Our home church, Vision Baptist Church in Alpharetta, GA, is hosting the Our Generation Pastors Conference February 4th-6th.  Please check out their website at visionbaptist.com and make plans to attend.  I promise you’ll treasure your time there.

I really don’t know how to thank everyone who helped make Camp Rhino a reality.  So many prayers, advice, and gifts of every size were given to make it possible.

I wish you all were able to be a part of our first camp.  We had such a great time.  Our first week exceeded our expectations.  A team from Camps Abroad helped during our first camp and were such a great blessing. I was especially encouraged how their philosophy in camp ministry complemented our goals for church planting so well. Their training and leadership were priceless.  

I have a prayer request for a couple who has committed to work at Camp Rhino.  Tim & Destiny Kelly came to S. Africa on a 6-month internship last year and are raising funds to return and work at Camp Rhino full time.  Would you pray this couple can raise their support quickly.  We need their help.  They will be helping us in every area of camp ministry from security and maintenance to counseling and directing.  Tim especially is a young man who allows God to work through him despite the struggles he faces.  He will be a big help to South African kids.  Feel free to contact Tim at 706-970-0340 or via email at timmykelly73@gmail.com.

Fruits of Camp Rhino

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Kyle exclaimed, “I had the opportunity to lead one of my teenagers to the Lord. That’s the first time I’ve ever done that.  He really understood what being saved means. Seeing him saved brought me so much joy.”

Camp Rhino exist because we want to see young people reached for Christ, but also because we want to see young people better trained to do the work of the ministry.  Our first week of camp offered a tremendous opportunity for our young people to gain valuable ministry experience.

So far, I have heard from 5 of our counselors who said that during camp they had the opportunity to lead someone to Christ for their very first time.  Wow!  I was really surprised.  How exciting to see these young people see the Lord use them to change someone’s life.

Of course, we at Camp Rhino want to see people saved, but it is even more important that we see those who are saved, trained and equipped in such a way they are effectively able to share their faith.  We not only have kids being saved, we have young people who now have confidence and boldness to go after the lost.

My prayer is that many of these young people surrender to full time ministry and from these weeks of camp, we see an army of church planters and godly young ladies raised up for the work of the ministry.  As you pray and support the ministry please don’t forget about the impact that’s being made among those who are lost and without Christ.

I’m still in awe over what’s been done here at Camp Rhino.  Remember, we just purchased Camp Rhino on October 31st of this year!  That’s crazy!  Check out what was ready before Camp started on December 11th:

  1. Guys dorm with 12 sets of triple bunk beds
  2. Guys bath house with 5 showers, 5 toilets, and 4 sinks
  3. Girls dorm with 14 sets of triple bunk beds
  4. Girls bath house with 5 showers, 5 toilets, and 4 sinks
  5. Covered pavilion with picnic tables with seating for over 100 people
  6. Game room
  7. Gaga pit
  8. Human foosball court
  9. Soccer field
  10. Fully functional commercial kitchen
  11. and to top it off a full in-ground swimming pool.

It is pretty unbelievable, and we did this almost completely debt free.  Notice the word “almost”:)  Please be in prayer.  We are in debt for about $17,000.  Seeing that we have a full camp property and a house we can live in, $17,000 isn’t looking too bad right now.

We do want to get this paid off as soon as possible though.  Once this is paid off, all extra funds that come in for the camp will be able to go toward making Camp Rhino even better.  Please pray.