Category Archives: Updates

Building without Delay

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Over the past two weeks, $15, 600 came in to help with the building of New Life Baptist Church.  This has enabled us to continue building without any major delays.  We are grateful to those who gave, and want to thank the Lord for bringing the funds in so quickly.  We are hoping and feel pretty certain, with these funds, we will be able to complete the first phase of the building.  This first phase will give us space for our first auditorium, 4 Sunday school classes, two bathrooms, and also supply housing for my assistant.  I’m feeling pretty overwhelmed by the sacrificial giving of God’s people with this project.

January 2015 Coffey Family Prayer Letter

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The quote for building materials for all the walls on the first floor of New Life Baptist Church comes out to 48,790 rand which is about $4,435.  This will be the cost once we have the foundation completed, which will include a single garage-size basement. 

For months, I have been mentioning this church, and our desire to start building as soon as possible.  The day to start building has come and gone.  The footers and most of the foundation wall is complete.  The wait is over. 

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This will be the first church for me to pastor here in South Africa.  Pray for me and Pastor Sipho Bonga as we work to start this church in the coming weeks.  Originally, Pastor Sipho was going to start this church on his own, but for now he wants to come on as my helper to give his family a little time to adjust.  As time goes on, and I’m able to be be involved in more church plants, we plan for Sipho’s role to change quite a bit. 

The foundation, unfortunately, is costing more than we originally planned because of the layout of the land.  We don’t have the final number for the first floor, but it looks like it will be closer to $15,000 to have everything roughed in.  This is close to $7000 more than we had initially planned.  More details to come. 

Prayer Request

  • Amy and I as we continue learning the Xhosa language. 
  • The building of New Life Baptist- We are hoping to have all the building quotes by next week for the first floor.   
  • Possible church plant in 2015- East London, South Africa- popultation over 700,000.  One of the pastors on our team moved there this past month. 

Needs 

  • $4,435 – Materials for the first floor walls 
  • Approx. $2500-Finishing the foundation
  • Electricity hook-up will be around $600.

More Highlights

  • It was great having Amy’s parents here for 2 weeks.  My father-in-law, Pastor Wayne Cofield, preached or taught 18 times during his stay.  I don’t think you could call this his vacation.
  • 6 Saved at the first Soccer outreach day. 
  • 6 Saved at the last men’s meeting at Wells Estates. 
  • We had our first pastor’s fellowship where Pastor Cofield focused on the faith of Moses.  It was a great start to our monthly meetings. 

Coffey Family December Prayer Letter

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Our family hopes everyone had a terrific Christmas and want to wish everyone a happy new year.  We are thankful for your involvement that allows us to do the work of the ministry.  It’s hard to believe 2014 is coming to an end, but we are excited about what is before us.  As we look back, there are things we could have done better, but are thankful for opportunities to make changes and improvements in every area of ministry.

As we look ahead to 2015, we pray the Lord allows us to participate in many church planting endeavors that we were hoping for in 2014.  There are a couple of young preachers that are close to stepping out.  I know God can use them in a great way to see His kingdom advance.   

We have now been in South Africa about a year and a half.  The time has passed quickly and it’s a reminder that there is a lot to do and little time to do it in.  The labor that has gone on in Madiba Bay Baptist Church, Wells Estates Baptist Church, and Servants of Christ Baptist Church is just the beginning.  So much more has to be done to reach the million and more people here in Port Elizabeth, and the countless others in Southern Africa.

Pray for open doors and boldness as we seek to please Him in advancing the Gospel.

Pastors Dec 2014

Prayer Request

  • Amy and I as we continue learning the Xhosa language. 
  • For the two singles pastors to find good wives and for the three married pastors to have strong marriages that will impact future generations. 
  • Stephen Underwood and Jason King families that are on deputation for South Africa. 

More Highlights

  • A builder is giving us an estimate on laying the foundation for New Life Baptist Church this week.  The waiting to start building seems to be coming to an end.
  • Amy and kids are doing great. 
  • Plans have been made for our first pastors fellowships, teen camps, couples retreats, and pastors school this coming year.  Please keep these events in your prayers as we hope to see maturity and involvement increase.   

Needs 

  • $600 for the water and sewer hook-ups for New Life Baptist.
  • Approx. $6500 needed to build the first building phase for New Life Baptist Church.  $3800 has come in so far.

Coffey Family November Prayer Letter

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Our family moved over to Wells Estates Baptist Church about three weeks ago.  Since we have been in South Africa, we have been based at Madiba Bay Baptist Church.  We made the move to Wells because it’s about a 10 minute drive from where we hope to start the new church. This will enable us to work with Pastor Thami as we are also starting the church.   

Our original plan when coming to South Africa involved spending the first two years learning the language with plans to start a church toward the end of those two years.  Being a little eager, we hoped to start a church a little after our first year here.  Well, we’re still hoping.

Although we don’t have a building yet, we had a promising lead this past week.  Starting this week, we plan to go door to door in the new area to share the Gospel and collect as many contacts as we can for when we do start the church. 

Pastor Sipho is still waiting to start construction for New Life Baptist Church.  We are still waiting for the building plans to be approved.  This process has taken a bit longer than we have hoped and planned, but we believe it won’t be much longer.  We did get the go ahead to have the water and sewer hook-ups installed. 

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Prayer Request

  • Our first church plant.  We are still in need of a building. 
  • Our language learning.  This is of course is a repeated prayer request because it’s the #1 priority in our ministry at the moment.
  • More young men to step up.

More Highlights

  • 8 Professions of faith at our last men’s meeting.
  • Our first college intern, Bethany Staley, is in her last month of  her 6 month trip here in South Africa.
  • We able to build an addition onto Well Estates to expand the children’s ministry.  They still have class outside, but now they don’t have to worry about the sun or rain.
  • Missionary Keith Shumaker from Burkina Faso  visited.  He was a great help to the missionaries and to the pastors. 

Needs 

  • $600 for the water and sewer hook-ups for New Life Baptist.
  • Approx. $7000 needed to build the first building for New Life Baptist Church. 

Please Pray for the Underwood Family

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We received news from our team member, Stephen Underwood, that his father unexpectedly passed away in his sleep this past Saturday morning.  Please be praying for Stephen and his family.  His dad was only 55 years old and this was very unexpected.  I believe the funeral will be Tuesday morning at McFarland Hills Baptist Church in Dalton, GA.  As we get more information it will be passed along.

Stephen and Ashley are currently on deputation and are doing well raising support to get to South Africa.  They had to cut a missions conference short they were a part of in Knoxville.

WorldEvangelism.net

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I was privileged to write a highlight on missions in South Africa for the new blog WorldEvangelism.net. Take a look if you have a few minutes. It’s a little longer than I usually write, but there are some pictures:) Maybe they will let me write again if I can get you guys to read and comment.

Mission Field Highlight:  South Africa

In March of 2011, I traveled to Port Elizabeth, South Africa to lead mission teams to work with my cousins, missionaries Kevin and Corli Hall. God used that trip to bring my family to where we are now, full time missionaries to South Africa serving along side Kevin and Corli and my cousins Jeremy and Bekah Hall.

Traveling to South Africa helped me realize the spiritual biblical dearth of a very religious place. If you come to South Africa today you will see a country that has a lot of places that are called churches. Around town where most of the white population live you will see….  click here to read more at WorldEvangelism.net

Rent or Buy & Soccer

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As of now, a place to rent hasn’t opened up for the new church plant.  It seems that rentable space is very limited.  We will continue to search, but it may come to the place where we need to buy property.  I’m really hoping we can keep the cost down the first year by just renting a space, but I’m not sure how much longer we can wait.  Many people have offered to sell their property, but no one is able to rent.

We are praying for clear direction from the Lord right now.   To rent a house with enough land to build a small auditorium would be around $50 to $75 a month.  To buy the same property would be between $5000 and $7000 I believe.

At Madiba Bay Baptist we are currently renovating the front parking lot of the church to build a soccer/fubito court.  The church plans to use Friday night and Saturday soccer leagues for outreach and evangelistic purposes.  With the lack of space in the community for these types of events, we believe it will be a great opportunity to be in contact with a lot more lost young people.  It will also be a great venue for the young preachers to gain more experience in preaching and presenting the Gospel.

Please be in prayer for both the new church plant and the soccer leagues.

Surprise!

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Yesterday, my wife surprised her sister, and pretty much everyone else from our family and home church by flying in to see our newly born niece, Selah.  Thanks to a faithful supporter, my wife was able to be with her sister, Stephanie Cornwell, right after the birth of her new baby girl.  We were hoping to get her there before the birth when the tickets were purchased 2 months ago, but she missed it by 15 hours.

She will be in the States for two weeks to spend time with her sister and family.  Please pray for her while she travels.  More importantly though, please pray for me while I’m attempting to take care of the five kiddos back here at home, while studying the language and looking for a church building 🙂