October | 2020 | Project South Africa

We have anticipated this announcement for quite some time now. What we thought would be a short trip back to the States for our oldest son’s wedding, turned into something much longer. We were supposed to return to South Africa on July 12th, but South Africa locked down their borders and kept us from going home. We are searching for airline tickets now and plan to leave no later than the first week of November:)

South Africa opened their borders on October 1st, but citizens from the United States were placed on their blacklist of people who were not allowed in the country. We contacted South Africa Home Affairs and requested an exemption since we were returning to our home and not going as tourists.

This week we received notification that we are now allowed to return to our country. We appreciate all those that have prayed and are looking forward to getting back to the field God has led us to.

Please pray for us as we raise money for our tickets. The total cost will be around $5000. We normally would have this saved, but with the unexpected expenses we have come up short.

South Africa borders are finally open!

Well, sort of… They opened to every country on October 1st, except for those they put on their “blacklist” as a high-risk nation with COVID infections (a total of 54 countries btw). As you may have guessed, the US is on that blacklist.

We have two possible options to bypass the “blacklist” problem. Option one involved us applying for an exemption that I sent in this past week. Those who have business interests can apply for permission to enter even though their country is on the blacklist. We are on a Charity Visa, not a Business Visa, but are still hoping they approve our request.

The second option involves us flying to a low-risk country and staying there for 10 days, and then fly to South Africa. We would be counted as coming from a low-risk country and not the US. We are really praying and hoping that the first option works. This second option could be a bit more expensive, but we are pretty certain at the moment, that we will be back in South Africa no later than November.

Prayer Requests & Praise

Pray for Pastor Mvume Johnson as he holds an evangelistic revival at Lighthouse Baptist Church this month. He’s had to restart his church since the COVID lockdowns and is working to reach his community.
Please pray that we can raise our travel fund back to South Africa. This isn’t something we usually ask for. I try to always plan and budget our funds to cover the normal expenses of living overseas and coming back to the States. Unfortunately, our budget hasn’t worked out as we hoped. With canceled flights and unplanned expenses, we are needing about $5000 for travel.
Pray there won’t be hindrances to our teen and junior camps coming up this December and January at Camp Rhino. We believe we can proceed normally, but with how things change, we can’t be certain.
Please pray for our wonderful missionary families serving in Africa with Vision Baptist Missions. We need many more laborers for a continent of over 1.3 billion people.

Quick Updates

Our 4th church plant, Vision Baptist Church in Kwadwesi Extension, is being started this month. There was a delay to the original start date because of a lack of chairs, but we’re hoping to get that worked out soon.
We’re at a standstill for the moment with the construction of the new boy’s dorm for Camp Rhino. The foundation is complete for the building, but we need about $15,000 to finish this project. This will enable us to have a total capacity for Camp Rhino at least 120 campers and counselors.

Project South Africa

Church Planting in South Africa

Monthly Archives: October 2020

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October 2020 Coffey Family Prayer Letter