To Washington D.C. and Back Again

This past weekend, Luke and I flew up to Washington, D.C. to be at two meetings in the Baltimore, MD area.  On Sunday morning, it was great seeing Pastor Stacey Shiflett, his family, and people at Calvary Baptist Church.  During the Sunday PM service I was privileged to report back to Pastor Scott Tewell and the folks at Rosedale Baptist Church. We returned back to Georgia on Monday afternoon, and Monday evening we received some unexpected mail.  Our children’s passports that we applied for less than two weeks before, surprisingly arrived.  We were expecting it to take 4-6 weeks.  We needed the renewed passports so we could renew our kids’ South Africa Visas.

After flying up to D.C. for the weekend and finding out we now have all the passports, we jumped in the car Tuesday, and drove straight back to D.C. and arrived at midnight. Wednesday morning at the South African Embassy was a little challenging, but by Thursday, everything was worked out.  The applications for our kids visas were accepted. Please pray they will be approved and returned to us ASAP.  Several South Africa missionaries have faced problems getting their visas renewed in the last few months.  Since Amy and I already have our visas we don’t anticipate any problems, but we definitely still need your prayers.

We did have an added bonus, on Wednesday evening we were able to visit Crossroads Baptist Church and hear Pastor Kenny Baldwin preach.  Pastor Baldwin is someone our team of young preachers in South Africa respect very much.  They were a bit jealous finding out I was in his church for their Wednesday evening service:)

 

Kentucky & Missouri

Today and tomorrow, I am traveling with my son Luke to present our ministry to a church in Gilbertsville, KY and then to report back to a supporting church in Poplar Bluff, MO.  Following the evening service in Poplar Bluff, we will head back to Georgia in order to escape the Monday eclipse travelers.   I always look forward to meeting new people and reconnecting with others as we travel to churches.  Thank you for your prayers as we travel.

Please continue to pray also for our fund raising efforts for Camp Rhino.  We are only $26,000 short of our $100,000 goal.

A special thanks to Bill Goins and the folks who help with his ministry at Calvary Stand Print Ministry. This ministry sends out our monthly prayer letters, and are also available to help with many other printing needs.  Brother Goins sent me this picture of the folks at Lupton Drive Baptist Church in Chattanooga, TN helping stuff our prayer letters.  We couldn’t do what we do without the helps hands of people from all over.

 

The Wilds

When deciding to start Camp Rhino, I knew there would be an enormous learning curve heading into that area of ministry.  Since our arrival to the States, I’ve tried to visit different camps and meet with their directors in order to gain as much knowledge as I could about camp ministry.

Last month, when visiting Wolf Mountain Camp in California, I was privileged to meet Evangelist Mark Herbster who “just happened” to be there as their main speaker.   Mark also works at The Wilds Camp in North Carolina during the summers and insisted I come for a visit.  This past week Mark arranged for me to visit during their last week of summer camp.  He also put me in contact with key people at the Wilds that were a great help.  I had one-on-one meetings with their Presidents, their Camps Abroad Director, their Retreat Coordinator, their Food Services Manager, and their Program Director.  After two days of being able to meet with their people, attend their services, meal times, games, and activities, I really came away with a wealth of knowledge.

I’m really blown away by the people I’ve been able to come in contact with since deciding to start Camp Rhino.  The Lord has placed key individuals in my path that have been overwhelmingly helpful.

August 2017 Prayer Letter

 

Dear Pastor and Friends,

Much has happened since our last update. Thank you so much for your prayers for us and the work here in South Africa. One prayer request from our last letter was for our youth conference. We had a great turn out. The Lord blessed and we saw two people make professions of faith after hearing the gospel.

  

We held our fist Vacation Bible School at Soweto Baptist Church last month. It was a mad house, but it was a lot of fun! We had a high attendance of 130 kids. There were about 25+ workers who were involved. The youth worked hard to put on a skit every day and some of the mamas and young ladies served snacks. Several of our young men had the opportunity to preach the gospel. It was exciting to see our people serve.

       

One of my favorite times of the week is Sunday afternoon. We do not have an evening service, but we do have a small informal Bible study. My wife teaches the ladies while I teach the men (and teens). My wife is going through the book of Galatians at the moment with the ladies and I am teaching the men on hermeneutics. (Below is my classroom setting)

Other Prayer Requests:

  • Furlough: We will leave for the states in just a couple of weeks, on Aug 21. We do still have a few spots available on our calendar. If you or your church would like for us to come and present our ministry or give an update, please email me at jhsouthafrica@gmail.com
  • Bible Institute: It will start up the day after we leave, on August 22. Please pray for all those who will be attending; for faithfulness and application
  • Soweto Baptist Church: The church is still very new (only 1 1/2 years old). Our guys are still very young in the faith. Pray the Lord uses this time to grow them. Also pray for the Underwood family, who will be helping to fill the gaps.

Thanks again for all you do and may God bless you!

Sincerely,

Jeremy and Rebekah Hall

Support Address:
Macedonia World Baptist Missions
Att. Jeremy Hall
P.O. Box 519
Braselton, GA 30517
Home Church:
Whitfield Baptist Church
Pastor Wayne Cofield
2134 Dug Gap Rd.
Dalton, GA 30720
Personal Contact Info:
jhsouthafrica@gmail.com
(770)573-9541
Website: www.projectsouthafrica.com 

 

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$2000 for Camp Rhino from Ohio

Sunday morning I reported back to a faithful supporter, and Sunday evening I presented our ministry in a new church.  Both churches surprised me when they each gave $1000 for Camp Rhino.

Calvary Chapel Baptist Church in Minster, OH has faithfully supported my family since 2001.  I enjoyed seeing Pastor Robert Warnick, and the Assistant Pastor Cory McGuire and all the great people of Calvary Chapel.

In Eaton, OH, I caught up with some old friends, Andrew and Jaclyn Stensaas.  Amy and I met them when we were in college together at Crown many years ago.  Pastor Andrew and his family are doing a great good there at First Baptist.

With the $2000 from Sunday, we are now over $73,000 in total for Camp Rhino.   Praise the Lord.

 

Marriage Retreat

Our home church hosted a marriage retreat this past week in Atlanta, GA.  They booked a hotel and conference center for the retreat only about 30 minutes away from the church.  After all our traveling it was nice to have the retreat so close.

I’m glad to know we have a Pastor and church staff that cares enough about about the our lay and missionaries families enough to invest in our marriages. You can check my blog for divorce attorneys.  I was really challenged to care for and be more tender toward my wife.  Coincidently, I have been listening to two audio books on marriage that went along very well with this conference.  If Only He Knew and From this Day Forward were really helpful.  Needless to say, I have a lot of changes I need to make in order to be a better husband.  I encourage you, take time to learn how to be a better spouse. I thing I do know despite my many mistakes, I’m married to the most amazing person I have ever known.

Please continue to pray for my meetings.  I fly out to Ohio today to present my ministry in a new church and report back to a faithful supporter.  When I get back on Monday, I’ll be driving to the Wilds Camp from Atlanta to check out their ministry for a couple of days in preparation for starting Camp Rhino.

Wolf Mountain Camp in Grass Valley, CA

I want to first apologize for the duplicate emails that occasionally come out.  I’m trying to fix that on my blog and will hopefully have that squared away this week.

Amy and I arrived back from our trip to California late Tuesday night.  We had a great time visiting three churches and spending time with dear friends who worked with us in South Africa.  Through a mutual friend, we were also able to get connected to the ministry of Wolf Mountain Camp.  After a 3 hour drive from San Jose, we met up with Director Jon Moore who graciously took time out of his busy camp schedule to pour into our lives all things camp ministry.

His emphasis on building relationships and doing certain things well really aided in our thinking about the ministry of Camp Rhino.  It’s hard to explain how helpful the hours we spent at Wolf Mountain were.  I’m grateful as well to have one more camp expert added to my list of emergency contacts for when we dive head first into camp ministry next year.

Here are just a few of the many insights he gave during out time with him:

  • Our camp is a facility that implements a philosophy.
  • We do food as much as we do preaching & we want to do both well.
  • The process of camp just takes time to work.
  • A good counselor is one who speaks from a platform of example with the motivation of love.

If you are anywhere near the Sacramento or North California area, I encourage you to check out Wolf Mountain Camp for yourself.  They are definitely serving a needy area of our country.

Before I sign off, I would like to recommend a book that Jon gave me before leaving the camp last week.  It’s entitled “The Value of Camp” by Walt Brock.  It was a joy reading and gave me ideas and insights concerning camp ministry that I hadn’t even thought about. Click on the link to find out how to get your own copy.

Update from San Jose, California

We’ve been in the San Jose and Sacramento, CA area since Friday of last week.  Ross & Sue Pyle, former missionaries to South Africa, made it possible for us to be in this part of the world.  They have graciously opened their home in San Jose to Amy and I and have been wonderful hosts.  The Pyle family are great friends of our who we first met and worked with in South Africa.  I’m not so secretly trying to get them to come back to South Africa soon to help us with Camp Rhino:) .   They really are great people to be around, and we have thoroughly enjoyed our time with them.

Tomorrow, we will have the opportunity to present our ministry in their church where they are working in the Christian school ministry.  It’s encouraging to see the work their church is doing.  There truly is a need of more Bible preaching churches in California.

Last week, when we left Fort Bluff Camp, Director Dave Sekura handed me an offering that the campers had taken up for Camp Rhino over the past two weeks for $444.  He also gave us a special offering specifically from the camp for $500.  Not only did they go out of their way and gave of themselves to help us learn about camp ministry this summer, they also gave financially.   We we were blown away.

After camp, a good friend of mine, Pastor Andy Wallace of Hendrix Road Baptist Church in Florence, AL, called as well to let me know that their church voted to send us $500 for Camp Rhino.  With six months to go before we head back to the field, it’s exciting to see our goals met for the Camp.

We are truly humbled by the people God has placed in our path to make Camp Rhino a reality. I can’t thank you enough for all the prayers and sacrificial gifts.  You all truly are a great blessing.

Last Week of Camp

The past few weeks have been very busy with camp.  We started off for our mission orientation at Sand Mountain Bible Camp from May 29-June 2nd.  We then helped out at Fort Bluff Camp during their junior week, June 5-9.  We then went back to Sand Mountain Bible Camp for our home church’s week of teen camp, June 19-23.  The past two weeks we came back to Fort Bluff Camp to help during their two teen weeks as well, July 5-9 & July 19-23.

I appreciate the leaders and staff of each of these camps.  They have been a great help and resource.   We have learned an incredible amount of things we will be able to use when we start Camp Rhino.

Pray as we finish up teen camp at Fort Bluff this week and fly out to San Jose, CA on Friday.  Our summer definitely hasn’t slowed down, and we are grateful for all the open doors.

I will continue touching base with other camp ministries to further our training and education for future ministry.

Over $60,000 has now been given for Camp Rhino

It’s been an amazing week and a half for Camp Rhino.  One minute I’m informing folks of a special offering, and the next minute another offering was coming in.

-On Thursday, June 29th, my home church, Vision Baptist Church, gave $760 for the Camp Rhino.  This was the day after I announced that Northside Baptist Church in Pembroke, GA gave $1500.
-On Sunday, July 2, I received an email from Pastor Todd Hogue of Community Baptist Church in Curwensville, PA.  They gave their VBS offering for Camp Rhino which came out to be $1650.
-That night, while at White Graves Baptist Church with Pastor Will Allen, Pastor Allen took up over $1000 for the camp in a matter of minutes.
-On Monday, July 3, I stopped by Catoosa Baptist Tabernacle in Ringgold, GA to drop off some extra Camp Rhino T-shirts to Pastor Justin Gazaway.  He surprised me by letting me know during their VBS from the previous week, the children gave $3000 for the camp.  On top of that, the church voted to add $1500 to bring the total for Camp Rhino to $4500.
-On July 5, I received another email from Pastor Nathan Dorsey at Westside Baptist Church in Hampton, GA.  He let me know the church voted to give $5000 for the camp.
Needless to say, it’s been an overwhelming few days.  I’m in awe of the support and involvement of so many to help get Camp Rhino started.
I don’t have the exact figure at this point, but we are now well over the $60,000 mark.
Thank you all for your support and prayers.