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Tag Archives: featured
Check out the Initial Design for Camp Rhino
Now that we have passed the $50,000 mark in our fundraising goal (only $50,000 more to go:)), I wanted to give you a glimpse of what the future Camp Rhino site will look like. Below is the initial design for the camp based on the first 5-year plan. Once we actually buy property, we’ll have a better idea of the real Camp Rhino, but for now you can at least see the directions of our plans and dreams. The $100,000 we raise this year will go toward the purchase of this property so we can get the project started. We hope to have the property ready by July 2018 to hold our first camps. If you’re interested in donating to help Camp Rhino you can click here.
102,000 Gospel Tracts Arrived to Port Elizabeth
Through the help of Chick Publications and Buffalo Ridge Baptist Church, we received 102,000 Gospel booklets, aka Chick Tracts, this week in Port Elizabeth. Chick Publications donated the tracts to our ministry and Buffalo Ridge Baptist Church in Gray, TN helped cover the customs cost. These high quality tracts should supply the six churches we work with until the end of the year.
Pray that many come to Christ through our witness and through the Gospel message presented in these booklets.
Camp Rhino Update
The reception for Camp Rhino has been outstanding. Every place we go people are excited about the possibilities of a camp and training center ministry in South Africa. The desire from others to be involved has been, honestly, a little surprising. People are contemplating how they can be involved not just financially, but actually a working part of promoting the camp here stateside and being involved on site in South Africa when we get started.
Just to keep you updated, we had over $3000 given in the last week and a half for the camp. The church we were in this past week gave many personal donations and also a $1000 gift to the camp. Since our last update, over $8000 has come in with even more being committed before we leave. In total we have a little over $18,000 in hand, and $23,000 committed.
Here is a short clip of one of the kids giving a testimony about our first week of camp at a rented facility. We are anxious to hear more precious testimonies like this one, once we have our own property to start Camp Rhino.
https://www.facebook.com/projectsouthafrica/videos/1695725237342991/
Coffey Family February 2017 Prayer Letter
Wow, already in February. I believe this year is going to fly by. We’ve experienced great services and meetings from the moment we landed in the states. The feedback we’ve received from Camp Rhino has been amazing. Our goals for January were met and even exceeded.
So far over $10,000 was sent in or committed to purchase the needed land.
A few thing to pray about this month:
- Churches- Pray for New Life Baptist of Kwadwesi & the other 5 churches we work with in South Africa.
- Sponsors- Pray we continue to meet our monthly goals so we can stay on tract to raise $100,000 to purchase property for Camp Rhino.
- Property- Pray we find the right piece of property to start our camp. Possibilities will be emailed out from time to time so you will be able to look & pray over them.
- Architect/ Engineer- Pray we will find someone who will help us design and layout the architectural plans for Camp Rhino.
In January, I had t-shirts printed up to give to everyone who donates to Camp Rhino. I’ve mainly given these shirts out at church services and pastor’s conferences, but am now making them available on-line as well. If you would like to make a donation please let me know. I’ll get a t-shirt to you ASAP.
Would you like to invest in the future of Camp Rhino?
Possible Breakdown of Church Sponsors for a one-time donation in 2017:
- $8333- 12 Sponsors
- $4,166- 24 Sponsors
- $2083- 48 Sponsors
- $1041- 96 Sponsors
Maybe the Lord would have you commit to raising one of these amount during 2017. Let me know if you want to sign up to be one of our camp sponsors.
Coffey Family December 2016 Prayer Letter Part 1
I hope all had a great Christmas and pray that you have an even better New Year.
We have now been back in the states a few weeks and are getting ready to end the New Year at the Our Generation Summit at Lake Lanier Island in Buford, GA. What a privilege to end the new year challenging people from several churches to reach the world with the Gospel.
It is strange being away from South Africa, but we are fired up about the opportunities to promote missions in Africa and present our burden for Camp Rhino.
Our two oldest boys Tyler and Chase stayed back in South Africa to help with our 2nd annual Teen Camp two extra weeks, but are now back in the states with us.
There was quite an increase in campers this year and four young people made professions of faith. Because of space and time we aren’t able to bring in a lot of outside kids. We are hopeful in the years to come, with the new camp property, we not only will be able to minister to our church kids during camp, but we will be able to bring in an unlimited number of lost kids from all our communities.
We start our big push to raise the funds for Camp Rhino in January. We are looking to raise $100,000 in the next year. This money will be used to purchase approx. 20 acres of land in the Port Elizabeth area that we will begin developing into the Christian Camp and Training Center.
Please pray we will be able to reach our first months goal of $8333.00. That’s the amount it will take to raise each month in order to purchase property when we land back in South Africa.
September Prayer Letter
Give ear, O Lord, unto my prayer; and attend to the voice of my supplications. In the day of my trouble I will call upon thee: for thou wilt answer me. Among the gods there is none like unto thee, O Lord; neither are there any works like unto thy works.”
When we arrived for our internship in June of last year, we realized our original 90 day visas would not suffice; considering we weren’t planning on leaving until November. So, after 90 days we paid the fee and ordered new visas. Days turned into weeks, and weeks turned into months, and our visas still had not come in! Finally, just a couple of weeks before we were set to leave, everyone’s visas came in except for mine. The day came for us to head back to America, and still no visa. Upon arriving at the airport, I was feeling very nervous and apprehensive about what Border Control would say. I knew they could potentially ban me from the country. Unfortunately, that is exactly what they did. I was declared “undesirable” for 5 years! Obviously, this was a huge bump in the road.
After arriving back in the states I quickly hired a lawyer back in South Africa to appeal this decision. After waiting 9 months, lots of money spent, and plenty of prayers, I finally heard back from my lawyer last week! She informed me my status has been changed! I was issued a waiver and I can now enter SA whenever we have finished our deputation. God is so faithful! And we are so thankful!
Please pray for –
Pastor Tom Hatley health.
Upcoming meetings
New Supporters.
Aug Review
Aug was our eighth month of deputation.
We were in a total of 8 churches.
We had 1 new family partner with us!
We are currently at 28% of our needed support.
We travelled 1,240 miles in VA and TN
The Coffey Family September 2016 Prayer Letter
Prayer Request
- For more souls to be saved
- Visa Renewals for my Children- All visas have been resubmitted and we’re hoping they will be granted without a problem.
- Pray especially for my daughter Addi’s visa. We were told by her primary school that if it’s not received, she will be dismissed from the school.
- Wisdom in going forward with our idea to start a Camp & Retreat Center
- My son Chase’s knee is still not well and it looks like it will require surgery to heal.
6 people were baptized this month and one more is planning on getting baptized this coming Sunday at New Life Baptist Church. Our discipleship meetings have been bearing fruit with souls saved and new believers growing in their faith.
It’s been encouraging to see the growth in the church. Last week during our celebration for Heritage Day we had a full house. Our people took ownership of this special meeting and did a really great job getting the word out.
With only two month left before we return to the states for furlough, there is much to do. Please pray the church continues maturing and pray for Pastor Sipho Bonga as he will be taking on all responsibilities without me.
In the next couple of weeks we are hoping to start a new Bible study in a different part of our area where a new church is needed. For now, we only plan to have two meetings there a week, but we believe we’ll have a church going there very soon. Also an older man who was recently saved is wanting us to use his house to start Bible studies so he can invite his friends and neighbors. Those meetings start this Saturday so please pray we see folks saved.
More Highlights
- Our plan is to start furlough in December. If you’re interested in having us report back or present our ministry, please let me know.
- 2 saved and 6 baptized this past month
- Our Generation 2016 Summit is taking place at Lake Lanier Islands in North Georgia December 29th-31st. We look forward to seeing you there if you can make it. Sign up now.
Needs
- Meetings in New Churches during our furlough in 2017
The Coffey Family August 2016 Prayer Letter
Prayer Request
- For more souls to be saved
- Visa Renewals for my Children- All visas have been resubmitted and we’re hoping they will be granted without a problem.
- Pray especially for my daughter Addi’s visa. We were told by her primary school that if it’s not received, she will be dismissed from the school.
- Wisdom in going forward with our idea to start a Camp & Retreat Center
- My son Chase is having problems with his knee that may require surgery.
This week started out great when I had an opportunity to lead a 57 year old man to the Lord after Pastor Sipho preached on Sunday morning. It got even better when, I was able to lead a 23 year old man to Lord during Thursday evening Discipleship. Please pray that we can see many more saved in the next few months before our return to the states.
August has been a very busy month. We hosted a group of 14 from Bath Baptist Church in Bath, Michigan for 12 days which we had a great time with, and also started up the Bible Institute again.
In the Bible Institute there were 16 in class last week from all the churches. In January, our plan is to start classes in each church. We wanted all the pastors to meet at one church this semester to learn the layout and scheduling so they could help guide it properly in their own church next semester. I really believe we will see great growth in the coming years through this ministry.
Please be in prayer for our plans to start a youth camp and retreat center when we return from furlough. We believe this would be a great help in seeing more young people trained and more churches started in all of South Africa. This will be a ministry that will run year round, and give us the ability to impact South Africans as well as recruit students from the US to get more involved in missions.
More Highlights
- Our plan is to start furlough in December. If you’re interested in having us report back or present our ministry, please let me know.
- More than 10 trusted Christ while the group from Bath Baptist Church ministered during their 12 day trip.
- Amy and I received our new visas this past month, but we’re still waiting on our children’s.
Needs
- Meetings in New Churches during our furlough in 2017
Coffey Update After Trip To Thailand
This past week my oldest son Tyler and I were able to make a trip to Bangkok, Thailand to visit missionaries Phillip and Lori Bassham, and also see my Pastor and his wife, Bro. Austin and Mrs. Betty, as they were visiting there as well.
I jokingly told Tyler that if he’s not going to be a missionary to South Africa, it would be good if he could pick Thailand or India to work in, because the plane tickets are so inexpensive from South Africa. This was Tyler’s Senior Missions trip. He graduates High School in December and will begin training for missions at the Our Generation Training Center in January. My goal is to take each of my children on mission trips before they leave the house, and this was a great last minute opportunity for the both of us.
I was hoping to have Tyler return after college to work with us in South Africa, but it looks like the Lord may be leading him to Thailand. Truthfully after seeing the need and lack of laborers, there’s a part of me that would love to work in Thailand as well. Please pray for Tyler as he goes in the direction of being a missionary to Thailand.
We had a tremendous trip with the Bassham’s and was able to glean a ton from our pastor’s wisdom as he tried to help Phillip make decisions for future ministry in Bangkok.
During our stay, we were able to help with the English classes the Bassham’s were having at their new church, as a way to make contacts. We were there for three of their evening classes and made some good friends. I had 3 people I met in class come to church Sunday morning for their first time. I’m not sure, but I would imagine it was the first time they ever heard the Gospel. Please pray for their salvation.
Please pray for more laborers for Thailand. Pray that even from South Africa, our team of pastors and missionaries can make an impact in that great country.
