Africa Youth Home & Short Trip back to the States

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.

Africa Youth Home- Offer Accepted!

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:)

You can check out the listing for yourself here.

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.

New Missionary Soon to Arrive…..we hope:)

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.