Monthly Archives: July 2015

July 2015 Prayer Letter

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The picture above was taken Friday, July 24th, at a location where we plan to restart a church in the next few months; an area called Soweto. There are currently no Baptist churches in the area, but there are several believers from a previous church and one of them contacted me with a proposition. She, along with some other ladies from the area, wanted to feed the people and I would preach the gospel. Well, she did a great job and gathered nearly 60 adults and several children. All heard the gospel and will receive a visit within the next week. There were 4 young men specifically who I will be targeting and praying for earnestly. We praise the Lord for so many contacts to follow up with.

Starting next Saturday, I will have a youth meeting in Soweto. We will meet at 2 o’clock and have a Bible study. Then at 3:30 we plan to join several of the other churches at Madiba Bay Baptist Church for a friendly game of street soccer. My hopes are to use this to develop some relationships with several young men who will help me start the church.

Rebekah will begin to meet with the ladies in the area on Fridays to go through our basic discipleship material. Our desire is to have these ladies go through all 9 of our foundational lessons in preparation for the launch of the church. She is a little nervous about this, but this will be a tremendous help and push her in her language studies.

Praises, Prayer Requests and other News:

  • I have preached several messages (in Xhosa) since our last update! Progress is coming, but I am still no where near comfortable nor fluent. Veering from my notes while preaching normally leads me down an unfavorable path. Please continue to pray for advancement.
  • Bekah and I enjoyed a break from language school for two weeks while her parents, brother, and his friend were here visiting.
  • VBS at Wells Estate Baptist Church was well attended and there were several professions of faith. Yanga Gentsu, a 17 year old, led the whole week and did an incredible job! My in-laws and I were able to participate a couple of days.
  • All the money came in for New Life Baptist Church building and the apartment for Madiba Bay Baptist Church, thanks to several of you who gave so generously. Thank you!
  • The week long Youth Meeting, led by the young pastors Kevin has trained, during the winter break was a success. It was packed every night and there were five professions of faith!
  • Pray with us that we will have a good core group to start the church by the first of November (maybe sooner!).

Thanks for your participation in our ministry and for all that you do!

Sincerely,

Jeremy & Rebekah Hall

www.projectsouthafrica.com

update July 1-11

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God has done a great work at New Life Baptist Church. The Builders are finishing up with a few things on the church. The church now has a sidewalk, the basement is being worked on and the Sunday school rooms are closed off.

Pastor Sipho and I are working with the teens in Kwadewsi. We had a high of 30 in our Youth Night last Friday and 12 professions of faith were made. God knows more than we do how much of a need is here in Port Elizabeth. Please pray for us as we go and try to disciple these young people who have made professions. It was exciting to see an increase in our Sunday School class where We had 13 young people.

We have had nearly 2 weeks off from language school because of working to get our visas as well as a VBS at Wells Baptist Church. Meagan was the team captain for the iingusha (lambs) and I was the team captain of the iingoyama (lions). God blessed and we had an average of 90 Tuesday-Thursday. The kids received points thru-ought the week for memorizing scripture and well as good behavior. Sadly, at the end of the week team iingusha defeated iingoyama by only 15 points. Consequently as the captain of the losing team I had to be pied in the face. You can see this on our Facebook page.

Meagan and I are excited about our sons first birthday this month. Our children have acclimated very well here and we are excited about them experiencing a new culture, language, and way of life here in SA.

Prayer Request:
– We get out visas excepted.
– Young men to disciple.
– Growth of New Life Baptist Church.
– More Laborers to be sent to South Africa.

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Missions from a Kid’s Perspective

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One of our supporting churches, Believer’s Baptist Church in Griffin, Ga, asked me if I would would record a message to share with the kids during their VBS to highlight missions in South Africa.  After thinking about it for a while, I thought a video from my son’s perspective would be more fitting for the VBS crowd.  Here’s the video I made with my son Luke.  We pray this video helps excite and encourage children and even adults in missions.  Let me know what you think.  Also, if you’re interested in visiting South Africa, I would love to know.

July 2015 Sullivans in South Africa

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We are so thankful. Thankful to God for allowing us to serve him and Thankful to our supporters. We understand our reasonable service and we are amazed that God allows us to serve him. This past month has gone by so fast, and we are trying to soak up every minute!

Pastor Sipho and I have started a youth department at New Life Baptist Church which is in the KwaDwesi Township. I teach Sunday school every Sunday morning as well as a youth night every Friday night. We have had a high of 25 in our first month of youth night. We have seen many different faces over the last month and not many of the same people. Pastor Sipho and I have made it our goal to keep in touch with the many that have come and continue to build relationships with them.

As well as a Sunday school class, my wife and I have started language school. Learning any new language is a difficult task. You have to be humble, and keep a childlike attitude. Our language teacher, Lubabalo, is very encouraging and supportive. We can say our greetings and invite people to church as well as construct some very simple sentences. My daughter has even learned some simple words as well.
Mallorie has been able to begin preschool here. She is very excited and seems to be adjusting to the new culture faster than her parents are. Our son Avett, will turn 1 this month, we are so excited to be able to celebrate it with the team of missionaries here in Port Elizabeth.

Mark Coffey, Kevin Hall, Jeremy Hall and their wives have been a tremendous blessing to us and so valuable in our training this last month. They have taken us in as if we are their own family. Hannah Peabody, who travelled here with us, was able to stay a whole month and we saw her off this week as she went back home.
After one month here my wife and I are confident that God wants us to continue our mission in South Africa after our internship. I am starting to book meetings already for January 2016 and we hope to be back in SA by January 2018. We also have a new website that is different from our prayer card. It is now www.sullivansinsouthafrica.com. Please help us continue to pray for:

• Growth in our language ability
• Steady growth in the youth Sunday school
• Our visas to be extended so we can stay all six months without exiting the country
• A few young men that I can begin to disciple
• My family as we continue to assimilate to the culture
• Wells Baptist in Wells. Madiba Bay Baptist in Kwazakhele and New Life Baptist in Kwazakele
• Churches to partner with us.

Coffey Family July 2015 Prayer Letter

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Prayer Request

  • The start of Bay Baptist College
  • More laborers
  • VBS this coming week
  • Language learning
  • Plans for ministry expansion in the next few months

God has blessed New Life Baptist Church.  Our best Sunday this past month we saw three people (one older lady and two teens) come forward and put their faith in Christ.  The following service all three of those people were back in church.  The week before that Sunday we had a high attendance in our Friday youth meeting with 25 teens.  Josh and Meagan Sullivan, our six month interns, have been a big help in the teen meetings since they arrived at the first of June.  We are already looking forward to them being here as full time missionaries.   

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With best weeks also comes the not so best as far as church attendance.  Usually here in South Africa the not so best weeks are during Holiday time, the time students are out of school for winter break.  Although this is a usually a low time for attendance in all our churches, it’s a great time for extra evangelistic events and mentoring time with our young preachers in training.  This past week our pastors held a week long Youth Meeting (pictured above) at Wells Estate Baptist Church were they saw 5 people make professions of faith.  Also this coming week we will have a children’s VBS type program from Tuesday through Friday.  One of young guys, Yanga Gentzu, will be to gain some good ministry experience as he is preaching every day. 

More Highlights

  • Hannah Peabody will be leaving this week after finishing up her 1-month internship.
  • Amy and I celebrated our 15 year anniversary on June 24.  We’re actually doing more of the celebrating part next week hopefully.
  • Emilee, my oldest daughter, turned 13

Needs 

  • We praise the Lord that all the financing has come in to finish phase 1 at New Life Baptist Church and for the Pastor’s apartment at Madiba Bay Baptist Church.  We are so grateful for those that helped with both of these projects. 
  • Please pray that the Lord would direct us in the right area to buy property for our future training center.
  • Baptistry for New Life- $350