Category Archives: Kids in Missions

Visas are in Hand

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As we’ve mentioned in previous updates, we were a little concerned about obtaining visas for our children.  Amy and I have our visas that are good until July 2019, but our children’s visas were already expired.  Last week, thankfully, our kids visas were approved and sitting in our mailbox when we arrived back from our trip to Texas.

Missionaries working and/or going to South Africa are facing visa problems that we have never faced before.  It’s always been fairly easy to get a visa to do ministry in South Africa.  This year has been a bit different.   Changes in the visa process have created a lot of stress and uneasiness when it comes to getting permission to work in South Africa.

We aren’t sure how the visa process will be after July 2019, but we are praying some things get worked out so it won’t be a problem for missionaries to stay long term.  We are hoping even through Camp Rhino, we can create a way for missionaries to obtain 5 year work visas.  From a 5 year work visa, missionaries would then be qualified for permanent residency.

With all our visas in hand, we are officially buying our plane tickets for January 10th, and are looking very forward to getting back.

New Total for Camp Rhino – Over $80,000 Now

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This past week my family was privileged to be a part of Worth Baptist Church’s missions conference in Fort Worth, TX.  Pastor Tyler Gillit, his staff, and church people put on a spectacular conference.  The Saturday night Foreign Food Festival was unbelievable.  I’ve never seen so much involvement in a dinner like that, and I’ve definitely never tasted so many wonderful tasting foreign dishes in one evening.   Throughout the entire conference we were blown away by the encouragement and kindness of everyone.

On Sunday evening of the conference, Worth Baptist really was a blessing to our family, and one of the things that really stuck out was the offering they gave to help with Camp Rhino.  The generously gave $2460 to help buy property and take us past a pretty big hurdle.

We’ve broken the $80,000 mark and the new total of funds given or committed is $81,188.  Another $18,812 will take us to our $100,000 goal.  Praise the Lord.

Just shy of $79,000 for Camp Rhino

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First Baptist Church of Judson, TX and Pastor Tim Smith recently decided to partner with our family.  It’s always an honor when a church chooses our family to be their representatives in South Africa.

First Baptist also surprised us this month by sending an extra $1500 for Camp Rhino. With this great offering our total is now at $78,728.00.  With exactly 4 months left with our furlough, we’re excited about where we are.

Please be praying for our children’s visas.  We are hoping to get them back in the next week or so, but nothing is guaranteed.  If we do get them back, we’ll go ahead and pay for our return tickets that are being held which have us leaving January 10th.

The Wilds

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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.

Breaking the $70,000 Mark for Camp Rhino

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On Sunday and Monday of last week, July 23-24, I had an opportunity to preach at the Summer Family Bible School hosted by Liberty Baptist Church in San Jose, California with Pastor Stan Smith.  This is the church where my good friends Ross and Sue Pyle now work. They previously were missionaries with us in South Africa.  Each night  from Sunday to Thursday, the church took up an offering to help with Camp Rhino.  By the end of the week, over $5,000 was given to help with the camp.  With this incredibly generous offering, we have now broken the $70,000 mark for money donated or committed to purchase property in South Africa next year.  It’s hard to believe we’ve come this far.  Only $30,000 more to meet our original goal of $100,000.  Thanks to everyone for your prayers and support.

Wolf Mountain Camp in Grass Valley, CA

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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.

Last Week of Camp

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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

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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.

$1500 from Pembroke, GA

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Yesterday, Luke and I drove about 4 hours over to the small town of Pembroke, Ga to report back to one of our supporting churches.  Pastor Spencer and the great folks of Northside Baptist Church have been faithful partners in the ministry from early on in our deputation.  It was great hearing about the new ministries they have started, how God continues to bless their faith promise, and how God blessed their family with a new adopted little boy.  He and Luke took to each other pretty well.

After my message the church surprised us with an amazing offering for Camp Rhino.  They gave $1500 to help with the purchase of the property.  It was such an encouragement.  One step closer.

Thank you all for your prayers and investment into our ministry.

Check out the Initial Design for Camp Rhino

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Now that we have passed the $50,000 mark in our fundraising goal (only $50,000 more to go:)), I wanted to give you a glimpse of what the future Camp Rhino site will look like.  Below is the initial design for the camp based on the first 5-year plan.  Once we actually buy property, we’ll have a better idea of the real Camp Rhino, but for now you can at least see the directions of our plans and dreams.  The $100,000 we raise this year will go toward the purchase of this property so we can get the project started.  We hope to have the property ready by July 2018 to hold our first camps.  If you’re interested in donating to help Camp Rhino you can click here.