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2020 Coffey Family December Prayer Letter

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Prayer Request

  • Wisdom concerning Junior and Teen Camps in December and January at Camp Rhino.  Higher restrictions were placed on our province this past week that will probably change the way we do our normal camps.        
  • Our churches here are struggling a bit, just as churches in the States, from Covid.  Our brand new churches have few people attending while our oldest church is around 70% of its normal attendance.  Pray we will have the wisdom to reach people more effectively during this time.  We don’t want to coast.    
  • Pray God blesses and uses our teammates as they are back in the states for furloughs: Jeremy & Rebekah Hall, Kevin & Corli Hall, & Josh & Meagan Sullivan. 
  • Pray we can raise the $3000 needed to do the electrical work in our new auditorium/activity center at Camp Rhino.                          

Quick Updates  

  • In spite of Covid affecting our church attendance, the leadership has continued to be strengthened.  Our pastors have been faithful and other young men have stepped up. 
  • We praise the Lord that $10,800 has been given to help finish the new boy’s dorms for Camp Rhino.   This will enable us to start the construction back and have the dorms finished by the end of the year.  
  • We still need donors for our camps this year, even though we will have to revamp our previous plans for overnight camps.  The cost is about $55 per camper. We are trying to raise 120 sponsors for Teen Camp and 75 for Junior Camp. 

Covid Hot Spot

We live in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa which is now the #1 hot spot of Covid spikes in all of South Africa, making it one of the major hot spots for all of Africa.  

Sadly, our coworker, Pastor Sipho, lost his dad this past week to Covid.  I received this news shortly after attending the funeral of the grandmother of one of our faithful teenagers.  She also died of Covid.  Please pray for these families during this difficult time.  

Because of the rise of Covid numbers, stricter restrictions have been put in place.  We’ve even been told criminal prosecution could be brought against us if someone from our camp spreads it to someone and they die from it. 

Unless things change, it doesn’t look like we will be able to do over night camps in December and January at Camp Rhino.  We do believe we can continue with day camps and still abide by all the restrictions. Pray we can work through all of this and still have great camps.

Update on New Roof at Camp Rhino

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Before the lockdown in South Africa, we began construction on what were animal stables when we first purchased the property for Camp Rhino. We cleaned about 3 to 4 feet of manure and dirt out of the space and built a cement floor slab. Once restrictions started easing a bit, the crew returned to finish the roof. It’s almost complete and only lacks a few pieces of metal sheeting to close off the end gables. Our next step is to have lights installed, and screens put on the windows and it will be ready for year-round use. Thank you so much for giving to this project. This is a game-changer for our ministry. This will enable us to have events all year long at Camp Rhino. Pray we can raise the remaining money needed soon to install the lights and window screens.

Coffey Family June 2020 Prayer Letter

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Wedding Day

The day has finally come for my oldest son Tyler to get married. We are excited that Lydia Bush will be an official part of our family in a few hours. I’m thankful for Jeff and Mindy Bush raising such a wonderful daughter.

Tyler and Lydia at their rehearsal dinner


We were uncertain concerning flying back from South Africa earlier for the wedding because of lockdowns, but definitely believe now it was the right decision. Please do pray flights to open back up so we can get back to South Africa by the first part of August. We are thankful we’ve been able to report back to supporting churches and present our ministry in new churches. We are still hoping to raise extra support to help towards Camp Rhino during our time here.

I want to thank all of you who have given to help the pastors and their families in Uganda, Kenya, Zambia, and South Africa. I’ve heard terrific reports on how much of a blessing you all are to these families in need. If you would like to be involved to help more families in these countries please send your offering to Vision Baptist Missions or you can give via PayPal. $10-20 can help a pastor and his family eat on the very basics for a month during these unprecedented difficult times.

To give to help Pastors’ Families in Africa go to:

http://paypal.me/camprhino
or
https://visionmissions.org/give/
(Choose Mark Coffey or Camp Rhino)

You can also send money to:
Vision Baptist Missions
P.O. Box 442
Alpharetta, GA 30009
(Make a note for Mark Coffey- food for Pastors)

Pastor Alute giving food to Pastors on the border of Kenya/Uganda
Food being given out from Pastor Mario Genada’s Church in Zambia
Pastor Alute giving food to another pastor in Kenya.

The roof for our provisional auditorium at Camp Rhino is nearing completion. The weather has slowed us down a little, but the metal sheets should go on this week. Thank you all for the continual gifts that are helping build Camp Rhino.

I want to also thank everyone who has been praying for my Pastor Austin Gardner. He was on the ventilator for 21 days because of Covid19. He has been off the ventilator now over a week and actually went home yesterday. I’m still amazed at how the Lord has work to bring him back from a very bad situation.

Change in Plans

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As many of you have heard, we were supposed to fly out on April 23rd for the States to be back for my son’s wedding and to also raise extra support for Camp Rhino. Unfortunately, because of the lockdown, our tickets were canceled. We originally decided we were just going to wait it out and hope to fly out in May, but it looks like South Africa may be shut down longer than that. Some are saying it will be shut down until July and some are even saying it will be longer.

With that possibility, we have decided to go ahead and fly out on Friday while there is still an option. The American Embassy is offering a charted flight for all Americans, and it’s the last flight out of South Africa. That will put us back in the States on Saturday.

With the thoughts of being locked down here for a couple of months and then going to the States for a couple of months afterward, we decided it would be best for the ministry just to go back now. Our hopes are that we’ll only be back in the States until July and then back to South Africa after the lockdown is over. That should only put us away from our churches for 3 months versus 5 months if we waited for the lockdown to be over to leave.

Our First 100 Bags of Rice

Please be praying for the ministries here. We are not allowed to have services, but we are trying to do an outreach that will allow us to reach out to our communities. We have raised money to purchase 2 kg bags of rice, that we can attach a church invitation to along with a Gospel tract to leave at peoples’ doors. Our pastors want to try to continue reaching out despite not being able to interact with people face to face.

Service at Camp Rhino during the Lockdown- aka my living room:)

There will still be 12 people staying at Camp Rhino that our Pastors, Khona Nohamba and Mvumelwano Johnson, will be overseeing. We have 4 teenagers from our church along with 2 interns and 2 full-time maintenance workers that will be staying on campus.

Also please be praying for our extra expenses. We lost the original tickets and are not sure if we will get our money back. We purchased the tickets through Travelocity, and right now they are saying we will only get an airline credit versus a refund. The flights through the embassy also cost a lot more than normal. For my family of 5, it’s going to cost us about $8000 to get back to the States. Pray we can get our money back, instead of an airline credit, and also pray we can get the other paid off as soon as possible.

Coffey Family February 2020 Prayer Letter

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Prayer Requests & Praise  

  • We praise the Lord for the 27 young people who trusted Christ during our first ever Junior Camp at Camp Rhino.  Thank you so much for praying.  We had 55 Juniors in total attend our camp, which means almost 50% of those in attendance made a profession of faith.  
  • Since the start of our camp a little over a year ago, we have seen over 120 young people come to Christ.  Camp Rhino has been a tremendous aid in all our churches here in Port Elizabeth, South Africa.  Pray we can even see more done for Christ this year. 
  • Pastor Mvume Johnson started Lighthouse Baptist Church on January 19th with 7 visitors in attendance, 4 of which are part of his lost family. 
  • Pastor Khona Nohamba started Nkandla Baptist Church this past Sunday.  We were delayed a week because of the building, but we had a great service with 4 visitors.  
  • I’m excited about the impact of both of these new young churches and pastors. Please pray for them as they shine forth the light of the Gospel in their communities.

Quick Updates & Reminders:

  • We will be back in the States between April 23rd to July 13th for our oldest son’s wedding.  If you would be interested in helping with our Church Planting efforts or Camp Rhino, we would love to schedule a meeting during this time. 
  • My beautiful wife turns 40 on February 7th.  I know I’ll get in trouble, but I figured it was okay since it will already be on Facebook anyway:)
Pastor Khona working on his new church building with Pastor Sipho

We are really encouraged this new year with the start of two new churches already.  In February, we also hope to start our third church.  We have been holding weekly Bible studies in an area next to our main church, New Life Baptist, in a small shack for a couple of years now.   With newly acquired land we believe it’s time to officially start the church.  We are in need of about $5,000 for the building.  This would give us a slab floor and a very good space to start in.  It will be a metal “shack” church, but something we will be able to use for many years.   

We are thrilled to let you know that almost $18,000 came in for Camp Rhino this past month.  That is over half of what’s needed to finish phase one of construction.  Our goal for 2020 was $35,000, so we only lack $17,000 to meet our goal for the year.  When everything comes in, we will be able to put the roof on our auditorium plus build new dorms for the boys.  That will enable us to house 120 campers along with counselors and staff.  Finishing the auditorium will also enable us to have camp year-round without fears of bad weather conditions.

Teen Camp 2019 at Camp Rhino

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23 Trusted Christ as their Savior

2019 Teen Camp at Camp Rhino

Our 2019 Teen Camp has come to an end, and what a terrific end it was. 25% of 90 campers made professions of faith in Christ before our week was over.

There were teens from every one of our churches who were saved. What an answer to prayer!

Thank you so much for praying and thank you so much for giving. We had over half of our campers sponsored because of your generosity. We can’t thank our great counselors enough for the impact they made on the lives of our campers. They worked tirelessly the whole week.

Unfortunately, we weren’t able to finish our auditorium space in time for camp. We fell short in funds, but we were able to make what we have work out great.

We are so thankful for the Camps Abroad who were here for the third in a row. They have been a great help during this entire process. We are very new at what we are doing, and they walked with us every step of the way. Thank you Tim, Rachel, and Steve.

Tim and Steve teaching the staff how to do “Tag Alot”

We are also very grateful for our intern Regina Gordon, who leaves out tomorrow to end her 6-month intership. She has been a valuable part of our team her entire time here, especially at camp this past week.

We were also privileged to have Sindy Gaines from Oakland Heights Baptist Church in Cartersville, Ga here to help with camp, along with Katie Dilfer from Gospel Light Baptist Church in Helena, Al. Both of these ladies were a great blessing. Pray for Katie as she is praying about coming back to South Africa full-time to help start a Christian School.

Sindy was our camp photographer and helped in the kitchen on the side.
Future Auditorium and Activity Center at Camp Rhino

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 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.

Coffey Family October 2018 Prayer Letter

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Prayer Requests      

  • South Africa Bible College on the grounds of Camp Rhino- The first classes will be starting in January.  We should have 5 or 6 students our first semester.  We pray more training will result in more churches.
  • Our oldest son Tyler, who is in Bible College back in the States, and our 2nd oldest son  Chase, who will be leaving for Bible college in January.  They both are training for missions.
  • Finances to get Camp Rhino ready for our first camp from December 10th to 14th.  Our most pressing need is funds to outfit the camp kitchen for a little under $7000.
  • Tim and Destiny Kelly as they have started their deputation to South Africa.

Quick Updates & Reminders:

  • Our house in the States sold which enable us to pay off the $42,000 loan we used to purchase the property for Camp Rhino. Praise the Lord!
  • We closed on Camp Rhino on Oct 20th, just 5 days after we closed on our house in the States:)  God’s timing was perfect.
  • Teen Camp will be Dec 10-14.  Pray for the 4 person team coming from the Wilds in NC to help with our first camp.
  • An updated list of future projects and cost can be found on our website at projectsouthafrica.com. 
  • Contact me ASAP if you are interested in leading a mission team to South Africa or if you would just like to come on your own.
  • What a blessing to host the team from Fellowship Baptist Church in Madison, VA this past month.  They were a great blessing. 

This may not sound like a big deal, but we have our first couple from New Life Baptist getting married.   Khona and Thando have been going through marriage counseling with Amy and I, and they will be tying the knot on December 1st. 

Outside Pastor Sipho’s and my family, they will be the first married couple in our church.  Here is SA, finding young married couples is a difficult task, let alone getting them into church.  The rate of single moms here is extremely high.  Usually the dad is no where to be found.   We have a few married women in our church, but unfortunately their husbands don’t attend with them.  We are pray this young couple will be the first of many won to Christ who have a desire live godly and raise their children in church. 

Pray also as we minister to our teenagers.  We are praying God’s word will take root in their lives and they will truly desire to live a godly life in spite of their surroundings.

Coffey Family July 2018 Prayer Letter

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Since June 6th we have had 78 people from 5 different groups visit our ministries here in South Africa.  They were a tremendous help to all of our churches.  From building benches, to painting Sunday school classes or passing out Gospel tracts, they did what ever was asked of them.  Hearts were touched and lives were changed.  As they worked to impact South Africa, I believe South Africa impacted them.   

From the many that visited for a short time, we believe that some may even come back to South Africa as interns and full time missionaries.  Please pray they would be open to wherever the Lord leads them. 

The land for Camp Rhino has been decided on.  Please pray things work out so we can finalize payment and secure the property.  Every visiting group has seen and prayed over the future site.  Excitement continues to build with every visit.  Our vision is spreading and more and more people are looking forward to being involved.

Prayer Requests

  • The sale of our home in the US- We have had 3 offers on our house so far, and all of three have fallen through.      
  • $66,000.  This is what I am hoping to clear from the sale of our house. We will be able to use this money to complete the purchase for the land for Camp Rhino. 
  • Our oldest son Tyler, who is in Bible College back in the States. 
  • Our son Chase- he is in Eldoret, Kenya for 2 weeks making a visa run and visiting missionaries Randy & Phylis Stirewalt.
  • Our daughter Emilee- she is on a missions trip this week to visit the Holt Family in Santiago, Chile.

Quick Updates & Reminders:

  • Several have trusted Christ in the many youth meetings, services, and VBS activities over the past 6 weeks that our visiting mission teams have been a part of.  2 young single men and 3 boys just trusted Christ last night, the last full day with our groups.
  • Our 2nd children’s book “Brayden’s Day Off” is in the illustrating stage.  We hope to have this book available to you very soon. 
  • Our last mission team of the summer left on July 26th.  We are already looking forward to the next group that arrives on September 22nd from Madison, VA. 
  • We would love to the opportunity to host a group from your church here in South Africa next year.  Please contact me for an information packet.  It would be an honor to facilitate a trip that would encourage and challenge your people.

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