Coffey Family June 2019 Prayer Letter

Prayer Requests and Praise

  • Please be in prayer for my wife Amy.  She has lost about 50% of her hearing over the last couple of months.  This week we found out the cause and the solution of her hearing loss.  Amy needs to have surgery on both ears.  If the surgery is successful she would regain 90% of her hearing.  We’re trying to decide the best place for her to have surgery right now.  If we stay here in South Africa, the surgery would be in August.
  • Pray for our mission teams coming to South Africa this summer.  Pastors Aaron Smith and Scott Young just left, and we currently have Newton Baptist Church with us.  We will have three more teams in July.     
  • As many of you know, I had viral meningitis a few weeks back and had to be in the hospital for a few days.  The worse of it is over, but some of the side effects are lingering a bit more than I was expecting.  It’s nothing serious, but the main problem is that I get tired really easy and have little energy before the day is over.  Please pray I can get past this and be energized for the ministry ahead.  

Quick Updates & Reminders:

  • My son Tyler is now in Argentina on his six month internship.  Pray he has a great and productive time in South America. 
  • We are in great need for staff housing here at Camp Rhino.  I need to raise about $20,000 in the next weeks to get us where we need to be.  Pray we can complete the facilities we need soon.   
  • Our hopes are to have at least one full week of camp in July.  If we can work out housing for our staff, that won’t be a problem.  If we can’t we will probably have a few camp days where we bus in the teens.   

New Life Baptist Church is going well.  We have four students currently enrolled in our Bible College and the church is maturing.  

Because of problems at one of  our sister churches, our pastoral team is spreading out to pastor both churches at the same time.  

Right after services at New Life, Pastor Sipho, Khona (assistant pastor in training), and Mvume (song leader) will be driving over to Wells Estates Baptist Church and starting services.  We will also hold midweek services at Wells Estates on Thursdays. 

We are planning to start Bible institute classes in both churches this year for the growth of both congregations.  Pray for our team as we continue to ministry and see both churches prosper.      

Thank you all for your prayers and financial support.  It’s an honor to serve our Savior in South Africa and to be able to partner with you all in the ministry.  

Coffey Family May 2019 Prayer Letter

Prayer Requests & Praise  

  • Please be in prayer for my son Tyler.  He is finishing up his missionary training degree at the Our Generation Training Center in Alpharetta, GA.  His last step is a 6 month internship in Argentina, with Missionaries Patrick and Leslie Henry.  If you are interested in helping my son, any support can be sent to our board.
  • Please be in prayer for our upcoming Purity Conference at Camp Rhino which is an event held for our ladies.  We are expecting a good turn out from all our churches in PE.    
  • Please also be in prayer for our Youth Day at Camp Rhino where all teens from our PE churches will be coming to Camp Rhino from 9am to 4pm on Saturday, May 18th.  Pray for souls to be saved and lives surrendered to the ministry.

Quick Updates & Reminders:

  • We are excited to announce that Camp Rhino is now 100% debt free.  All of our dorm buildings, pool, pavilion, kitchen, and house have completely been paid for.  We are progressing new construction only as money comes in.
  • A special $3000 donation was given this past month to help finish 3 rooms and possibly help build a small storage facility.  
  • We are soon starting our mission team season here in South Africa.  Our first group arrives here on May 29th and we have groups through the summer until August 1st.  We then have a medical team that will be here in September.  We are honored to host these teams and pray that the Lord does a great work through them and in them during their time.  Please be in prayer for these teams as they ministry in S. Africa.

This has been the most unusual month for my family.  About 2 weeks ago I started feeling ill.  It started out as a sinus infection and turned into viral meningitis. I was down for several days at home and then ended up being in the hospital for three nights.

I’m still a little out of it and now recovering at home, but my very first time to spend the night in a hospital was very strange and different, especially when they put me in the isolation ward.  


I want to thank all those that prayed for me.  I am overwhelmed by the amount of prayer support that people gave.  Seeing everyone who mentioned they were praying for me on Facebook was very humbling and life changing.  

I believe that it was a much more serious situation that was diffused by all the prayer support.   I’m not sure how I contracted the meningitis, but I am thankful for all your prayers. 

Coffey Family March 2019 Prayer Letter

Prayer Requests & Praise  

  • Several teens over the last few weeks have trusted Christ at New Life Baptist Church and followed the Lord in believers baptism.  We have a few more getting baptized this week as well.  Please pray for their spiritual growth in the days to come.
  • We now have 5 students enrolled at our Bible school, Bay Baptist College which started on Feb. 27th.  Pray for these young men as they prepare for ministry. 
  • Please pray we can raise up more song leaders.  This is slowing down our efforts to start more churches a bit.  For example, one of our preachers is leading music at New Life and can’t really pull away to start a church until we can replace him.    
  • We are in need of storage space for Camp Rhino.  Pray we we raise the $5000 for our first storage space.  

Quick Updates & Reminders:

  • On March 10th we started a new church called Fitches Corner Baptist Church not far from Camp Rhino.  We had 3 adults, 6 teens, and several kids in attendance.  Our Sunday AM service starts at 9am so we can still make it to New Life by 11am.   
  • Fitches Corner Baptist Church is the first of 3 churches we hope to see started before the end of the year.  Pray as we do more to reach SA with the Gospel. 
  • Tim & Destiny Kelly arrive April 10th to help full time here at Camp Rhino.  Tim & Destiny were here last year for a 6-month intership, and we are very excited about having them back here full time.  They are still in need of a bit more monthly support and set up fund.  Please pray they can get that raised ASAP.  

10 years ago this month, God brought Tyler Ellis and Chase Southard into our home.  What we thought was going to be a 6-month stay, ended up beign a liiiittle longer.  God changed our family and all of our lives that day.  My 11 and 9 year old distant 2nd cousins, became my two oldest sons.  What a blessing it has been to see both of them grow into young men who love the Lord.  They are both now training to be missionaries and Tyler is raising support to for his 6-month internship in Argentina, South America with missionaries Patrick and Leslie Henry.  

Would you consider supporting him during his time in Argentina.  It would be a great blessing to him and especially to his parents living on the other side of the world:).   Any support can be sent for him to our mission, Vision Baptist Missions.

Coffey Family 2019 February Prayer Letter

Prayer Requests & Praise    

  • We praise the Lord for having paid off over $14,000 of the $17,000 debt we had from starting Camp Rhino.  We only have about $2500 more to pay off.  Please pray we can knock the rest out as soon as possible.  Thank you all who prayed and gave. 
  • Classes for Bay Baptist College at Camp  Rhino are delayed until Feb. 26th.  We’ve had a few students back out but plan to have at least 3 guys and 1 lady begin studying for full time ministry.   Please pray for this first group of students.
  • Our son Chase has settled in Bible College well at the Our Generation Training Center in Alpharetta, Ga.  Please continue to pray for him.  He’s having major car problems right now.  

Quick Updates & Reminders:

  • Several teenagers made professions of faith this past month at New Life Baptist Church.  During one Wednesday evening  service we had three girls and three boys trust Christ.  The very next week three more teen boys trusted Christ, and last Sunday morning two more teen boys trusted Christ.  
  • My son Luke, lead a deaf boy to Christ last week who started attending church after being at Camp Rhino’s teen camp.  Luke worked at building a friendship despite not knowing sign language.  He learned he reads English  and for an hour used a white board to explain the Gospel.  He and his friend  both trusted Christ. 
  • This past week we hosted a men’s breakast with over 45 people at Camp Rhino and we will be having a marriage retreat with more than 50 this coming Saturday.    Pastor Wayne Cofield, a.k.a. my father-in-law, is the guest speaker.
Luke and his deaf friend Athi
Men’s Prayer Breakfast at Camp Rhino

Visa request: Please pray as we are in the process of obtaining long terms visas to stay in South Africa. We have friends who have struggled with getting their visas renewed and have even seen families change fields because of visa problems in South Africa. 

Our family is trying a different route at obtaining a visa that would hopefully enable us to apply for permanent residency.  Once we have permananent residence, there really isn’t any fear of not being able to stay in the country.   

We are in need of raising $2400 to cover the cost of the visa applications for my wife and I.  Because of using all we had to get the camp started, we are a little low on funds.  Please pray we are able to get the money we need asap, so we can be finished with the visa process. 

Thankfully all 3 of our kids living in South Africa did received their Study Visas which was a big answer to prayer.  So worse case scenario, we can leave our kids here by themselves to do the ministry:). 

Fruits of Camp Rhino

Kyle exclaimed, “I had the opportunity to lead one of my teenagers to the Lord. That’s the first time I’ve ever done that.  He really understood what being saved means. Seeing him saved brought me so much joy.”

Camp Rhino exist because we want to see young people reached for Christ, but also because we want to see young people better trained to do the work of the ministry.  Our first week of camp offered a tremendous opportunity for our young people to gain valuable ministry experience.

So far, I have heard from 5 of our counselors who said that during camp they had the opportunity to lead someone to Christ for their very first time.  Wow!  I was really surprised.  How exciting to see these young people see the Lord use them to change someone’s life.

Of course, we at Camp Rhino want to see people saved, but it is even more important that we see those who are saved, trained and equipped in such a way they are effectively able to share their faith.  We not only have kids being saved, we have young people who now have confidence and boldness to go after the lost.

My prayer is that many of these young people surrender to full time ministry and from these weeks of camp, we see an army of church planters and godly young ladies raised up for the work of the ministry.  As you pray and support the ministry please don’t forget about the impact that’s being made among those who are lost and without Christ.

I’m still in awe over what’s been done here at Camp Rhino.  Remember, we just purchased Camp Rhino on October 31st of this year!  That’s crazy!  Check out what was ready before Camp started on December 11th:

  1. Guys dorm with 12 sets of triple bunk beds
  2. Guys bath house with 5 showers, 5 toilets, and 4 sinks
  3. Girls dorm with 14 sets of triple bunk beds
  4. Girls bath house with 5 showers, 5 toilets, and 4 sinks
  5. Covered pavilion with picnic tables with seating for over 100 people
  6. Game room
  7. Gaga pit
  8. Human foosball court
  9. Soccer field
  10. Fully functional commercial kitchen
  11. and to top it off a full in-ground swimming pool.

It is pretty unbelievable, and we did this almost completely debt free.  Notice the word “almost”:)  Please be in prayer.  We are in debt for about $17,000.  Seeing that we have a full camp property and a house we can live in, $17,000 isn’t looking too bad right now.

We do want to get this paid off as soon as possible though.  Once this is paid off, all extra funds that come in for the camp will be able to go toward making Camp Rhino even better.  Please pray.

 

Coffey Family December 2018 Prayer Letter

Prayer Requests        

  • We’re finally here. Camp Rhino opens its doors to campers on December 11th for the first time.  Please pray for all our volunteers, and pray we have a great first camp.
  • There will be anywhere from 60-80 campers arriving for camp.  Pray the Lord does a great work in their hearts. 
  • Bay Baptist College- The first classes will be starting in January.  We should have 5 or 6 students our first semester.  We pray from this we will see more churches started.
  • 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 help get Camp Rhino ready for our first camp from December 11th to 14th.

Quick Updates & Reminders:

  • Missionaries Josh and Meagan Sullivan arrived this past week with their kiddos.  They have completed their deputation and will be starting language school soon.  Pray as they get set up and are working to get their long term visas. 
  • The 4 person team from Camps Abroad with the Wilds in NC arrived and have been a great help.
  • Jens Looney, a young man from the Our Generation Training Center in Alpharetta, GA, arrived this past week for his 6-month internship. 
  • 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.

Mattresses  are just one of the many things we had to order to get camp ready.  It’s amazing how many little things it takes to run a ministry.  It’s also amazing how easy it is to forget a lot of those little things until a week before camp starts:)

We can’t thank you all enough for helping during these past two years with the prayers and financial support and gifts that have made Camp Rhino a reality.  It’s hard to believe all that has come together to make this camp possible.  Thank you so much.    We pray the Lord blesses your investment multiple times over. 

Our two major prayers as we start camp is that teenagers’ hearts will be pierced with the truth of the Gospel and that many young people would give their lives to full time Christian ministry.  Might we see from the effects of this ministry, more churches started all over South Africa and the world. 

A lot of last minute things

The list of things we need to finish up in order to be ready for camp on December 11th is a littler longer than I had hoped, but I still think we’ll be ready.  We are so grateful for the $8150 that came in to help toward our $15,000 goal.  Pray we can raise the remaining $6850 before camp.  This last amount will help cover the beds, mattresses, electrical, plumbing, and kitchen needs.  Our 75 mattresses arrived on Thanksgiving Day and we are in the process of building the triple bunk beds now.  I really appreciate the help missionaries Jeremy and Kevin Hall have given in helping get the beds put together.  We would be in real trouble right now if it wasn’t for them:)

There has been a lot of talk about camp, especially with the purchase of the property for Camp Rhino and our first camp starting in December.  We are excited about the camp and how it will aid our ministries, but please don’t forget the focus of everything we do is pointed toward training leaders for church planting and church growth.  Our first semester of Bible college begins at the first part of the year.  We are excited about things getting started up on the campus of Camp Rhino to see more young people trained for the ministry.

There are 5 churches we work with in Port Elizabeth, but we need so much more to impact the more than 1 million souls here.  Pray for lives to be changed by the Gospel and dedicated to the work of God.  Pray for more laborers.

To sign off, here’s just a random picture I wanted to share of a few of my kids singing at a special meeting.

21 Days Until the Official Opening of Camp Rhino

Our first camp in December isn’t far away.  Our builders are working over time to get things ready.  Things look pretty chaotic but I’m told all “major” construction will be finished in two weeks:)  We are really coming down to the wire.  All the walls are up in the buildings we need for this year.  3 cement floors still have to be laid, along with basic electrical and plumbing.  I know it sounds like a lot, and it is, but you would be amazed how quickly things are being accomplished.

Last week an extra $2500 was committed toward sponsoring 50 campers along with $6000 being committed toward the construction.  Praise the Lord!

We are still praying for another $9000 so we can finish with all the “essentials” we need for camp.  When I say “essentials” I’m talking about the seating, lights, plumbing, paint, mattresses, beds, and basic kitchen/cooking needs like sinks, deep freezers, pot, pans, and refrigerator.

Thank all of you for your prayers and sacrificial giving.  God has really blessed, and we are blown away and excited with all that’s been done.

 

We’re Getting Closer

The construction at Camp Rhino is coming along nicely.  A lot has been accomplished in the last few weeks.  Please pray as we need around $15,000 to finish off the essentials to be ready for camp on December 10th.  It looks like we may have around 80 kids signed up.  I was planning to keep it around 60 since it is our first camp, but interest has grown and it’s going to be hard to turn kids around.  Our plan for 60 beds may not work:)

Please pray for the needed funds and pray for the kids and volunteers.  I believe we’re going to have a great first camp.   Thank you all who have made this possible.

 

 

Coffey Family October 2018 Prayer Letter

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.