Category Archives: Updates

August 2016 Prayer Letter

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Dear Pastor and Friends, August 2016

Satan does not like what we are doing here. More and more I realize we are in a spiritual battle. Souls are being saved and lives are being changed and the more that happens, the more the leader of darkness is going to get upset. I want to ask that you pray for wisdom and protection for our church family, for my wife and children, and for myself. Our enemy has shown his teeth a couple of times lately, but we serve a good God who is able to keep us in perfect peace.

Bath Baptist Church, from Michigan, is currently here with us. Pastor Nathan Gregory and his group of 14 have been an incredible blessing. They have jumped right in at our churches and worked like they were their own. They did a great job in Soweto, painting murals on the walls of our children’s church, putting a new roof on the apartment, and helping decorate our new missions wall. Please pray for safety for them as they continue to work for the next week, and then travel back home.

New Church Plant: I have found the location for our next church plant. It is in an area called Zwide. It is just a few miles from our current work in Soweto, but since transportation is so expensive, there is no way people will travel that far by foot to attend our church. The area has tens of thousands of people, and that we know of, no Baptist church. The thing I would like for you to pray with me about, is a piece of property and a building. I have found a nice, large lot with a small dwelling on it. The asking price is R279,000 ($21,461.00). If the Lord wills, we would like to purchase this property and start a church there.

The young men and women at Soweto continue to grow and advance. We have one small, but specific answer to prayer from our last update. A young man named Aphiwe has stepped up and taken the reigns of our music. It has been awesome to see him come out of his shell so quickly. The first couple of times he led, he was very reserved, but now you would never know it. Please continue to pray for our guys, that their love for our Lord would increase more and more.

Next week, August 16th, begins our Bible Institute. There are 16 people currently enrolled from the churches here in P.E. There are several others who are interested in auditing these classes. Pray God would use these classes to equip his men and women for the work of the ministry.

Other prayer requests:

  • We had a new missionary family arrive, the Stephen Underwood family, last week. They are busy setting up their new home and soon will begin the process of learning Xhosa.
  • Remember my wife as she continues to train the ladies of Soweto. There are several that she meets with weekly for Bible study. Pray that those who attend will mature, and more would join.
  • This Friday, Aug 12th we will have a combined youth conference with all of our churches
  • Saturday, Aug 13th we will have a special family day at Soweto. We will have food, games and most importantly be preaching the Gospel to all who come.

Thanks again for your participation in our ministry through prayer and support.

God Bless,

Jeremy and Rebekah Hall

The Coffey Family August 2016 Prayer Letter

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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.   

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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

The Coffey Family April 2016 Prayer Letter

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Prayer Request

  • New Saturday service started in Jeffrey’s Bay, South Africa- Saturday Bible Club
  • The Kevin and Corli Hall family-  They return from furlough at the end of this month.

Needs 

  • $1000 to complete the basement area for New Life Baptist Church.  The only thing that lacks is the electrical work. 
  • Approx. $1500 for the inside of Wells Estate’s new auditorium.
  • $500 for printing tracks and booklets

The Friday before Easter, aka “Good Friday”, was a big day at New Life.  We had a special 10:00 am combined service with Soweto Baptist Church.  It was the largest attended service in the one-year history of our church.  Around 50 people came from Soweto and about 100 people came from our community.  We praise the Lord  for the two people who trusted Christ, and for the three new adults who have been coming to all the services since.    

The basement project for New Life Baptist is almost complete.  The only thing we lack is the electrical work and decorating.  Even without lights, the children were thrilled to start using the room, and the adults were  also pretty grateful not having the kids in the next room:)            

Our new building for Wells Estate Baptist Church is finished on the outside, but quite a bit of work needs to be done on the inside.  We are hoping the funds come in this next month so we can completely finish this project.  The church is growing and we’re happy about the new location that comes with a lot of growing room.

Wells Estate Baptist Church’s New Location

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The building for Wells Estates is coming along nicely.  The slab and post for the main structure are up, and I heard a lot of the main structure was put up yesterday, but unfortunately, I don’t have pictures of that yet.  We are still short on being able to purchase all the metal sheeting for the outer walls and roof and the 6 windows that are needed.  We are praying that comes in this week so we will be able to finish the building before the end of March.  Thank you very much for all the prayers and finances given.

 

Coffey Family March 2016 Prayer Letter

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Since the start of our Friday youth meetings this year we’ve seen several young people make professions of faith.  We’ve also had a few adults this past month trust Christ as well during our main services.  We praise the Lord for those who have been changed by the truth of the Gospel.

This past Saturday we started having a Saturday service in a city called Jeffery’s Bay about 45 minutes outside of Port Elizabeth.  Jeffrey’s Bay has around 30,000 people and a family who lives there asked us to start having services.  We’re working with this family in the hopes that a new church can be started in the next few months.  Pray the Lord opens doors and gives us wisdom in the coming days.

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We are in need of more space for both the children’s and teen’s ministries right now.  Finishing our basement is one of the top priorities.  Several new boys from 9-12 years old have started coming faithfully, we just need a better place to teach them.  For children’s church, we have about 20 kids crammed into an small room.  We really don’t have room for any more.  This room is also right next to our main auditorium which has been causing some noise problems.        

Prayer Request

  • New Saturday service started in Jeffrey’s Bay, South Africa.
  • Youth Meetings and Discipleship classes going on at New Life   

More Highlights

  • Josh & Meagan Sullivan, our teammates on deputation, just had their third baby, Silas Elliot.   
  • Jeremy & Bekah Hall are doing a great job at Soweto Baptist Church.  They’ve had a high day this month of 90 people.  Their new building looks terrific.
  • Pastor Babalo and Wells Estate Baptist Church are growing and doing very well.  We finally have a piece of property (pictured below) for the church and need to have a structure built on the property by the end of March in order to comply with the community requirements for designated church property.  Pray we can get all the money raise and labor completed in time.

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Needs 

  • $2500 to complete the basement area for New Life Baptist Church.  This would almost double our meeting space. 
  • Approx. $4500 for Wells Estate’s auditorium on their new land. This would include the slab and a 12m x 15m building.

 

Coffey Family November 2015 Prayer Letter

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Praise the Lord, we had 4 Baptized last week and will have 1 more  baptized tomorrow.   We just completed the construction of our baptistry and are happy to put it to use.  We are starting to gain traction in the area of faithful people making the right steps in their Christian life.  As our core group is faithfully attending services and discipleship classes, real growth is taking place at New Life Baptist.   

Josh and Meagan Sullivan have been here for the last 6 month’s as interns working with our teens, and also going through language school.  They left this week to start full time deputation to come back to South Africa as missionaries.  Pray for them as the work to get back.  We are praying the Lord will bring us many more young families to help reach the people of South Africa.  The opportunities here are wide open.  Maybe you would consider coming to help. 

December begins summer holidays where many people go back to their homeland for a month or so.  Our Bible Institute will be put on hold until January, but we will use this time to really invest in the young people that won’t be traveling.  We pray, that as we begin, the summer with our teen camp, many of these young people will make life changing decisions that we can build upon during the summer months. 

Prayer Request

  • The Sullivan Family as they raise support to come back to South Africa
  • New Church Plant in Soweto
  • Teen Camp (Dec. 7-11)

More Highlights

  • Pastor Tom Hatley from Fellowship Baptist in Maryville, Tn, visited this month with his daughter and another member from their church.  Pastor Hatley has been a great friend in the ministry.  He was a great encouragement during his time here.
  • Pastors Austin Gardner & Robert Canfield from my home church visited this month, along with my mission’s Director Jeff Bush.  They were a help challenging our people and all the preachers to be men and women of the Book.

Needs 

  • $1550 for youth camp.  Three families will be trying to raise this amount to cover the cost of our very first teen camp here in Port Elizabeth.  (120 campers approx.)
  • $10,000 to start Soweto Baptist Church.  We have a small building but are already in need of more space.  The group that will leave from New Life to start the church will already fill up that space.