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.
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:)
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.
Katie Dilfer is a missionary with BIMI coming to work with us here in South Africa. She’s almost completely raised all her financial support and purchased her tickets to arrive here as a full-time missionary on February 24th.
My wife Amy (left) with Katie at the Addo Elephant Park
Her only holdup at the moment is her visa. She’s applied for her visa in DC and hopes to get it back any day now. Please pray with us that she won’t have any problems obtaining her visa and will be able to take off without a problem.
Katie came on a short-term mission trip just a few years ago. She had no plans at all in being a missionary and she almost wasn’t even able to make the trip. God worked during that short trip and now she’s coming back full-time.
We are very excited to have her here. She’s a very capable young lady that will be able to assist us in every area of our ministry. We can’t wait to have her here.
We need your help and prayers. We’re stepping out to start the Africa Youth Home.
This past week I went to look at a property that is for sale right beside Camp Rhino for the start of this ministry. It has a 4 bedroom house and 20 acres of land. By faith, I went ahead and made an offer for the property for $100,000. The asking price is $145,000 so we’re waiting for their answer. Needless to say, we don’t have $145,000 or $100,000:).
20 Acre property with a 4 bedroom house beside Camp Rhino
We have four 16-year-olds living with us now at Camp Rhino. These teenagers have faced much hardship and loss. We want to help more young people like them, but we need your help.
We need at least $100,000 to start if not $145,000. All the teens we have up to this point have been a part of our church’s ministries for years now. We have 2 more teens that need to be here now, but we just don’t have the room or the staff. Would you consider playing a part?
1st Day of School – My daughter Addison is with Ano, a pastor’s kids with the Micky shirt on, and our 4 new teenagers, Sisipho, Dumisani, Liso, & Elethu.
Pray Requests and Praise
Our Bible College starts back this month. Please pray for the 9 full time students who are studying for the ministry. There are another 15 students who are taking part-time classes in our Bible Institute. Please pray especially for this aspect of our ministry. All of our ministries are pointed toward training young people for church planting. We can’t produce lasting change here in South Africa without more churches.
Please continue to pray for my wife’s ear surgery. She has a hearing test this week and an appointment with the ear surgeon on February 22nd.
Pray for Lynette Osborn who is coming to work with us in the ministry, specifically in the Youth Home. She has 40% of her support and is hoping to be here in January 2023.
Quick Updates
This past week our house was broken into while we were sleeping. About $5000 worth of equipment was taken. We are so grateful that $4000 has been committed toward replacing that equipment so far. We are also installing a new alarm system that will hopefully deter that from happening again.
We are also thankful that $2200 has been committed toward the $3000 shortfall we had for our camps this year.
Currently, we have 4 teenagers who are living at Camp Rhino. They are the start of our Youth Home Ministry. If you would be interested in sponsoring one of these teens please let me know. A full sponsorship is $100 per child per month. This provides basic essential needs along with covering food and housing cost.
This past week I’ve been reminded how we’re not alone on the field. We have been very encouraged by the outreach and support of God’s people during this unexpected time.
For those who didn’t see our Facebook post, our home was broken into early Tuesday morning while we were asleep by three men who were carrying knives.
Thankfully, no one woke up while they were in our home, but unfortunately the guys got away with about $5,000 worth of equipment: including my laptop, 2 tablets, the camp sound system, and our power generator among other things.
My office- I’m blaming the messy desk on the robbers:)
We are upgrading our security system which we believe will be a big deterrent for future break-ins.
Pray we can replace all these items as soon as possible. Everything that was stolen was used on a regular basis here for the ministry.
We want to thank those who have already reached out to let us know they want to help. You all have been a great blessing.
Wednesday was the end of our last camp for the summer, our 2022 Junior Camp. With school schedules starting sooner due to so many missed days last year because of you know what, we packed our camps a little closer together this year.
In total for the past 3 camps, we had 81 boys and 61 girls attending those two teen camps with 19 making professions of faith in Christ. We also had 107 children attending Juniors Camp with 54 professions of faith.
Junior Camp 2022
We really appreciate all the prayers and support so many of you give.
We are still needing sponsors for the camps that have already taken place. We are about $3000 short of covering expenses for these last three camps.
Girls Teen Camp
We are also badly needing more beds. We need at least 3 sets of triple bunk beds for our campers and 10 sets of normal twin-size bunk beds for our counselors, which we will also use for our Bible college students. I hope to get the exact prices out for those this next week. We are planning on building our own bed frames to save on cost and for better quality.
Happy New Year everyone. What a great start to 2022 here in South Africa at Camp Rhino. We had 12 teenage boys trust Christ as their Savior during the first-ever boy’s only teen camp week. We also just finished the girl’s camp week and had 7 girls trust Christ. In total between the two groups, we had 142 campers.
Girls’ Teen Camp 2022
We had to split the teen camp up this year and have separate camps because of space. We just don’t have enough dorms to house more than 120 at a time, and we are also short about 30 beds to max out the space we do have. With all the churches growing, this is a great problem to have.
Boys’ Teen Camp 2022
Please pray with us concerning expenses for the camp. We currently need around $3000 to cover this year’s summer camps. This shortfall is a reflection of some good things that are happening. We have more camp staff than we’ve ever had before. Our counselor-to-camper ratio is much better this year. We also have a much better kitchen staff along with our working crews.
Prayer Request
Right now we have 4 teenagers from our churches that are living full-time on the campus of Camp Rhino. These young people have experienced some pretty horrific things in their short lives. We believe the Lord is leading us in the direction to start a separate youth home for these kids and for more just like them. Every teen we have now has made a profession of faith and expressed a desire to live for the Lord. Pray as we move forward.
Please continue to pray for my wife’s ear surgery. She’s lost most hearing in her left ear. It’s a serious surgery that could improve her hearing or cause her to go completely deaf in that ear. We are hoping to have this surgery in the next month or so.
Quick Updates
Camp has been great, and there are many opportunities for you to still be involved. We still need sponsors for many of the teen campers that have already enjoyed camp and also the junior campers who will be here next week. Every sponsorship given helps us pay the salaries of all our counselors and the extra kitchen staff we need for all our camps. It also aids in improving our camp facilities. You can sponsor a child for camp at $50 a person or give any offering to help towards our expenses.
I’m excited to announce that Jacob and Christen Clower have been accepted with VBM as missionaries to the country of Mozambique. During our survey trip with them, they believe God confirmed that was the place He wants them to minister. Please pray for them as they begin raising financial support.
Jacob & Christen Clower – Our New Missionaries to Mozambique
It’s great to be home. We arrived back in South Africa on December 2nd. It was great being back for my son’s wedding, but not so great leaving my daughter Emilee there for Bible College. We can already tell how difficult it will be not having her around. Please pray for her as she attends the Our Generation Training Center in Alpharetta, GA. This is a missionary training school started out of my home church, Vision Baptist Church.
Please continue to pray for my wife’s ear surgery. She’s lost most hearing in her left ear. It’s a serious surgery that could improve her hearing or cause her to go completely deaf in that ear.
Quick Updates
We want to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New year. 2021 passed very quickly, but I’m definitely looking forward to what the Lord has in store for 2022.
We were able to buy a lawn tractor for Camp Rhino because of a generous donation. This equipment is going to be a tremendous help to our Camp. Our guys have been cutting about 6 acres of grass for almost three years now with just weed eaters.
With being the Africa Director of our mission board, I’m privileged to represent a lot of great guys. One of those missionaries is Jason Rishel. Pray for him as he is raising funds to purchase motorcycles for his young men who are starting a circuit-riding ministry to reach into the surrounding villages of his city in Burkina Faso. Each motorcycle cost about $900. Please let me know if you would like to be a part of this ministry.
Missionary Jason Rishel’s team in Burkina Faso
December is the start of our summertime here in South Africa. Unfortunately, it is during this time that many teenagers start getting into drugs and alcohol. Pray that we can see many of these young people rescued through our church and camp efforts. Also, pray for our teens to stand for God and not go after the things of the world.
A week after we left for the States in October, the grandmother of one of our teen boys was shot and killed with him in the next room. He has been staying at Camp Rhino during most of the week since that happened. We also have another teen girl staying at the Camp full time because of problems she was facing in her home. These stories only scratch the surface of what a lot of young people face every day in the townships of South Africa.
We are really praying about starting a teen home, separate from our camp ministry, to better minister to these young people in need. We really need wisdom going forward. Would you help us pray as we consider starting this ministry in the next year?
Please pray for all of our churches. South Africa went back in another lock down where no public gatherings of any kind were allowed for the past month or so. Instead of canceling all our services, our churches met “underground” at least once a week, but thankfully we are able to start back with our normal services this coming week.
Because of the lockdown we canceled our winter teen and junior camps, but still plan to proceed with our Young Single’s Retreat. We are expecting a good bit more young people than we had for our last singles retreat. Please pray for hearts to be changed. We have young guys who are still faithful to church from our last singles event at Camp Rhino. We are really praying some of these young guys will commit to preach.
Quick Updates
Construction is progressing rapidly on the building for Bay Baptist Bible College. $25,000 was given for the first building, and we will need about that same amount for each of the following 5 buildings.
Money has been given to cover the cost of 20 of the 40 beds and mattresses we need for Camp Rhino. Each set of bunk beds is close to $300, which leaves us in need of about $2000 for the remaining beds.
My son Chase and his fiancée Ashley, who marry on October 11th, announced their call as missionaries to South Africa. We look very forward to having them here in South Africa. Please pray they can get their support as quickly as possible. Also please have them in your church to present their ministry if possible. You can email him at: Chasesouthard7@gmail.com.
I shamelessly work at getting people to visit the mission field. God used my first mission trip to change my life forever. I want people to be able to experience the same kinds of things I faced that challenged my way of thinking and living.
This past month we had a group that was here for two weeks. After a day packed with 4 services on Sunday, we took 3 of the guys out for a full-fledged African Safari Hunt where they were able to kill an impala and 2 kudu deer. The meat from this hunt was donated to Camp Rhino. Not only were they able to have one of the best hunting experiences of their lives, but they were also able to help feed the kids at our camp for at least the next 3 months.
Meat from the Kudus that were hunted
If you’re interested in missions and interested in going on a Safari hunt to help Camp Rhino, please let me know. We would love to have you. I can promise you it will be a trip you will never forget filled with lots of ministries and a little bit of Safari adventure.
It is undoubtedly a special privilege to announce that my son Chase and his fiancée Ashley, who will marry on October 11th, have announced their call to South Africa as full-time missionaries.
Needless to say, Amy and I are ecstatic. We have been hoping that the Lord would allow at least one of our children to come back and work in South Africa, and God gave us our wish.
Please be praying for Chase. He is currently finishing up his 6-month internship in Peru, South America, but has already started contacting Pastors for meetings. He has already been accepted as a missionary with our board, Vision Baptist Missions, and will begin traveling as soon as he gets back to the States in August. Ashley will join him after they are married on October 11th, and we pray they get their support raised as soon as possible.
It would be a great blessing to me if you would consider inviting him to present his ministry in your church. His contact info is: Chase Southard – chasesouthard7@gmail.com
Chase and his brother Tyler came into our home when Chase was only 9 years old, over 12 years ago. He arrived with us in South Africa when he was 13. It truly is by the grace of God that Chase and Tyler both have given their lives to take the Gospel to the World. I couldn’t be prouder of my two oldest sons. I can’t tell you how much we love Ashley as well. That will have to be another post, but I can promise you, he is getting one of the best girls I know.
