Category Archives: Ministry

Bright and Exciting Days Ahead for VBM Africa

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After more than 9 years since the day we landed in South Africa, we are reminded of how quickly time goes by and how much older we are becoming.  When I stepped off that plane being 37 years old, I already felt like I was getting a late start on the work that lay ahead.  At times now, I can feel a pit in my stomach when I think about how little time we have left to accomplish the work that God has called us to do in getting the Gospel to our city, to our country, to our world.  There is a weight on me as we consider Africa and the many places and people that still don’t have a Bible-preaching church.

Our South Africa team tries to act like we’re still young like we are right out of Bible college but the grey hairs in my teammates’ beards are a sure sign we aren’t fooling anyone.  

Although we see our days passing by, this past week was a time that invigorated the work we know we are called to do.  We are getting older but God is raising up an army of young men to join the ranks of reaching this world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ in our Generation.  Young missionary families from West Africa invaded our city of Gqeberha, South Africa this past week for the Vision Baptist Missions Africa Regional Conference.  There is no doubt that this group of men and women are young in age, especially compared to us old guys, but they are definitely not young in their walk with the Lord.  

My friends Nate & Graham

Graham & Olivia Young just landed in Nigeria a few weeks ago and the devil has already taken aim to knock them out of the fight before they even get started, but this precious couple is aware of Satan’s attacks and is ready for battle.  They have a maturity beyond their years that is inspiring to be around. 

Graham & Olivia Young – Missionaries to Nigeria

Nate & Emily Wilkerson are eager for the next stage of their ministry, preparing to enter a new battleground for our mission board in Benin where so far we haven’t been able to locate other like-minded missionaries. The zeal and mindset of this couple are an anomaly for people their age, really for people of any age.  I can’t wait to see the Gospel spread through them to this new land. 

The Young’s with Nate & Emily Wilkerson – Missionaries to Benin, West Africa

Dallas & Ashley Brown arrived from plowing a very difficult ground in their first years as missionaries in Burkina Faso.  This dear family who is yielded to the Lord as few as I’ve ever seen gives me hope that we can see the Gospel taken to every creature.  The Brown family is a family that influences everyone around them and even challenges us old guys like we should be challenging them. 

Dallas & Ashely Brown – Missionaries to Burkina Faso

The days ahead for VBM Africa are bright and exciting.  I’m privileged to work with this amazing group of people.  Please pray as we go forward with the Gospel.  We are reenergized for the work ahead.  May the Lord be magnified and glorified in all we do.  

Coffey Family August 2022 Prayer Letter

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Prayer Requests & Praise

  • I am currently discipling three new families that I don’t believe are saved.  Would you pray for their salvation?  They have been very open, but still need to realize that adding anything to Jesus is another gospel. 
  • Please pray for our son Chase and his wife Ashely.  Chase was recently in the hospital for 6 days with Mono.  He is doing much better but is still experiencing pain.  They continue traveling raising their support to return to South Africa.  
  • Pray for us as we are considering starting a new church.  There’s such a great need and we’re still unsure of our next step in this area.
May be an image of 1 person, standing, tree and outdoors
Chase & Ashley

Quick Updates

  • Our oldest daughter Emilee will arrive next week for a 3-week visit.  I can’t tell you how excited we are to have her back with us.  She has definitely been missed since starting Bible College in the States.  Adri Bush, my son Luke’s girlfriend will also be coming with her.  Having them both here will be a great time. 
  • The South Africa Youth Home is up and running now.  We moved the three boys into the new house and property.  They no longer have to live in the boy’s dorms at the camp.  We still need a lot to furnish the house but at least they have hot water:)
  • We just completed a 900 sq ft workshop that we will use to help with projects around the camp and in our churches.  It will also be used to teach trades to our teenagers in the youth home.  Any carpenters, electricians, plumbers, etc are welcome to come to help build and/or teach.
Emilee & Adri
New Work Shop for Camp Rhino and South Africa Youth Home

Medical Missions Outreach and their team of 21 people arrive this week to put on a health and vision clinic at one of our churches.  We are hoping 2000 or more people come in for treatment and have the opportunity to hear a clear presentation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The last clinic we did a few years ago had over 200 people make professions of faith.    

Lighthouse Baptist Church and Pastor Mvume Johnson are hosting the clinic this year.  This is one of the churches we restarted a few weeks before Covid and had to close again during Covid.  Please pray this will be a great help to the growth of this church.   

In other African news, Graham and Olivia Young just arrived in Abuja, Nigeria.  We’re very excited for this young couple as they begin their ministry in this needy country of over 200 million people.  Please pray for them and pray that God would raise up more laborers for Nigeria and for Africa.  Our time is short but the need is great. Maybe God is calling you.

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