One of our ministry partners has committed to match up to $45,000 toward the purchase of the property and house. Please pray this news will be met quickly. The cut-off date is May 7th. We were told another cash offer has been accepted if we aren’t able to come up with the funds. We are still short $35,000 of the $113,000 we need. Go here https://visionmissions.org/give and select Africa Youth Home- Mark Coffey.
We are flying out tonight to return to South Africa.
I’m praying we can raise this money in the next week to give us time to transfer everything over to South Africa before the deadline.
Please pray we raise the needed funds in time.
On another note, please pray for my wife’s upcoming ear surgery on May 16th. It’s a serious operation that could allow her to regain hearing in her left ear or she could possibly lose all her hearing in that ear. There is also a high risk of vertigo.
4 of the young people already staying at Camp Rhino plus little Ano, one of our pastor’s daughters:)This would be the first official house for the South Africa Youth Home if we can raise the needed funds.
You can also keep up to date with the youth home at our new website for the home.
Would you consider committing $1000 to be one of the 100 churches to give towards the Africa Youth Home? We are needing $100,00 by the end of April for this purchase. It is the property right next to Camp Rhino, which makes it a very strategic location.
The asking price is around $113,000, and we’ve already raised about $13,000. I know with prices going crazy in the States and really around the world with fuel and inflation, this is a tough time, but we know this youth home is going to help a lot of young people who don’t have anything.
Prayer Requests Praise
We will be back to the States for our Annual Missions Orientation in April. Pray this is a productive time with our new missionaries. We’re also planning to raise funds for the Africa Youth Home. Pray we can raise $100,000 in a month:)
Please continue to pray for my wife’s ear surgery. The date has been set for her to have surgery on May 16th.
Pray for Missionary Katie Dilfer’s visa to arrive. Unfortunately, it didn’t arrive in time and she had to cancel her tickets to South Africa for the end of February. She is hoping she will be here no later than the end of April.
As soon as we get back in April, we also need to apply for new visas. Pray we can get those worked out as soon as possible. There’s been a back log and some have waited over a year for their visas.
We are thankful for those who gave to replace the things that were stolen in January. We have bought almost everything back now.
Quick Updates
We’ve started construction on a new building for Nkandla Baptist Church. Pastor Khona & his wife Iminathi are excited about having a larger more permanent building.
This last week I was in Nigeria with Graham and Olivia Young during their survey trip. They will return in July to work full-time under Missionary Mark Holmes for their first two years. Please be praying for them and Nigeria. There are very few missionaries to Nigeria for over 220 million people. We badly need more missionaries in this country.
This past month, we’ve seen two guys that I’ve worked with for years walked away from the Lord come back to church. We praise the Lord and pray the Lord continues working in their lives to make them more like Him.
Nigerian Style with Graham and Olivia Young
In church news, the main church we are working in now, Lighthouse Baptist Church, has been having more visitors. Pray, we see more saved. There are so many without Christ. New Life Baptist Church is still struggling unfortunately in the more affluent part of the township, but Vision Baptist is doing well.
For the month of April, I will be back in the States for our mission board’s annual orientation. I’m looking forward to being with all our Vision Baptist Mission’s missionaries on deputation and on furlough. Pray the Lord blesses this time.
I’m also using this time to present the ministry of the new Africa Youth Home in churches. If you would like to have me back in to report and update your church on the Youth Home, please just let me know. I still have a few dates available, but we will head back to South Africa on April 26th, Lord willing.
Several have reached out to me concerning gifts their church has already given or committed to give for the Africa Youth Home. As soon as I have a total, I’ll let you know. I am praying for 100 churches to commit $1000 by the end of April to make this Home a reality. We are trying to raise $113,000 in total with over $10,000 already being promised.
Would you consider being a part of helping us impact these young people?
Thank you for your prayers and thank you for partnering with us to impact South Africa with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Katie Dilfer is a missionary with BIMI coming to work with us here in South Africa. She’s almost completely raised all her financial support and purchased her tickets to arrive here as a full-time missionary on February 24th.
My wife Amy (left) with Katie at the Addo Elephant Park
Her only holdup at the moment is her visa. She’s applied for her visa in DC and hopes to get it back any day now. Please pray with us that she won’t have any problems obtaining her visa and will be able to take off without a problem.
Katie came on a short-term mission trip just a few years ago. She had no plans at all in being a missionary and she almost wasn’t even able to make the trip. God worked during that short trip and now she’s coming back full-time.
We are very excited to have her here. She’s a very capable young lady that will be able to assist us in every area of our ministry. We can’t wait to have her here.
We need your help and prayers. We’re stepping out to start the Africa Youth Home.
This past week I went to look at a property that is for sale right beside Camp Rhino for the start of this ministry. It has a 4 bedroom house and 20 acres of land. By faith, I went ahead and made an offer for the property for $100,000. The asking price is $145,000 so we’re waiting for their answer. Needless to say, we don’t have $145,000 or $100,000:).
20 Acre property with a 4 bedroom house beside Camp Rhino
We have four 16-year-olds living with us now at Camp Rhino. These teenagers have faced much hardship and loss. We want to help more young people like them, but we need your help.
We need at least $100,000 to start if not $145,000. All the teens we have up to this point have been a part of our church’s ministries for years now. We have 2 more teens that need to be here now, but we just don’t have the room or the staff. Would you consider playing a part?
1st Day of School – My daughter Addison is with Ano, a pastor’s kids with the Micky shirt on, and our 4 new teenagers, Sisipho, Dumisani, Liso, & Elethu.
Pray Requests and Praise
Our Bible College starts back this month. Please pray for the 9 full time students who are studying for the ministry. There are another 15 students who are taking part-time classes in our Bible Institute. Please pray especially for this aspect of our ministry. All of our ministries are pointed toward training young people for church planting. We can’t produce lasting change here in South Africa without more churches.
Please continue to pray for my wife’s ear surgery. She has a hearing test this week and an appointment with the ear surgeon on February 22nd.
Pray for Lynette Osborn who is coming to work with us in the ministry, specifically in the Youth Home. She has 40% of her support and is hoping to be here in January 2023.
Quick Updates
This past week our house was broken into while we were sleeping. About $5000 worth of equipment was taken. We are so grateful that $4000 has been committed toward replacing that equipment so far. We are also installing a new alarm system that will hopefully deter that from happening again.
We are also thankful that $2200 has been committed toward the $3000 shortfall we had for our camps this year.
Currently, we have 4 teenagers who are living at Camp Rhino. They are the start of our Youth Home Ministry. If you would be interested in sponsoring one of these teens please let me know. A full sponsorship is $100 per child per month. This provides basic essential needs along with covering food and housing cost.
This past week I’ve been reminded how we’re not alone on the field. We have been very encouraged by the outreach and support of God’s people during this unexpected time.
For those who didn’t see our Facebook post, our home was broken into early Tuesday morning while we were asleep by three men who were carrying knives.
Thankfully, no one woke up while they were in our home, but unfortunately the guys got away with about $5,000 worth of equipment: including my laptop, 2 tablets, the camp sound system, and our power generator among other things.
My office- I’m blaming the messy desk on the robbers:)
We are upgrading our security system which we believe will be a big deterrent for future break-ins.
Pray we can replace all these items as soon as possible. Everything that was stolen was used on a regular basis here for the ministry.
We want to thank those who have already reached out to let us know they want to help. You all have been a great blessing.
Wednesday was the end of our last camp for the summer, our 2022 Junior Camp. With school schedules starting sooner due to so many missed days last year because of you know what, we packed our camps a little closer together this year.
In total for the past 3 camps, we had 81 boys and 61 girls attending those two teen camps with 19 making professions of faith in Christ. We also had 107 children attending Juniors Camp with 54 professions of faith.
Junior Camp 2022
We really appreciate all the prayers and support so many of you give.
We are still needing sponsors for the camps that have already taken place. We are about $3000 short of covering expenses for these last three camps.
Girls Teen Camp
We are also badly needing more beds. We need at least 3 sets of triple bunk beds for our campers and 10 sets of normal twin-size bunk beds for our counselors, which we will also use for our Bible college students. I hope to get the exact prices out for those this next week. We are planning on building our own bed frames to save on cost and for better quality.
Happy New Year everyone. What a great start to 2022 here in South Africa at Camp Rhino. We had 12 teenage boys trust Christ as their Savior during the first-ever boy’s only teen camp week. We also just finished the girl’s camp week and had 7 girls trust Christ. In total between the two groups, we had 142 campers.
Girls’ Teen Camp 2022
We had to split the teen camp up this year and have separate camps because of space. We just don’t have enough dorms to house more than 120 at a time, and we are also short about 30 beds to max out the space we do have. With all the churches growing, this is a great problem to have.
Boys’ Teen Camp 2022
Please pray with us concerning expenses for the camp. We currently need around $3000 to cover this year’s summer camps. This shortfall is a reflection of some good things that are happening. We have more camp staff than we’ve ever had before. Our counselor-to-camper ratio is much better this year. We also have a much better kitchen staff along with our working crews.
Prayer Request
Right now we have 4 teenagers from our churches that are living full-time on the campus of Camp Rhino. These young people have experienced some pretty horrific things in their short lives. We believe the Lord is leading us in the direction to start a separate youth home for these kids and for more just like them. Every teen we have now has made a profession of faith and expressed a desire to live for the Lord. Pray as we move forward.
Please continue to pray for my wife’s ear surgery. She’s lost most hearing in her left ear. It’s a serious surgery that could improve her hearing or cause her to go completely deaf in that ear. We are hoping to have this surgery in the next month or so.
Quick Updates
Camp has been great, and there are many opportunities for you to still be involved. We still need sponsors for many of the teen campers that have already enjoyed camp and also the junior campers who will be here next week. Every sponsorship given helps us pay the salaries of all our counselors and the extra kitchen staff we need for all our camps. It also aids in improving our camp facilities. You can sponsor a child for camp at $50 a person or give any offering to help towards our expenses.
I’m excited to announce that Jacob and Christen Clower have been accepted with VBM as missionaries to the country of Mozambique. During our survey trip with them, they believe God confirmed that was the place He wants them to minister. Please pray for them as they begin raising financial support.
Jacob & Christen Clower – Our New Missionaries to Mozambique
It’s great to be home. We arrived back in South Africa on December 2nd. It was great being back for my son’s wedding, but not so great leaving my daughter Emilee there for Bible College. We can already tell how difficult it will be not having her around. Please pray for her as she attends the Our Generation Training Center in Alpharetta, GA. This is a missionary training school started out of my home church, Vision Baptist Church.
Please continue to pray for my wife’s ear surgery. She’s lost most hearing in her left ear. It’s a serious surgery that could improve her hearing or cause her to go completely deaf in that ear.
Quick Updates
We want to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New year. 2021 passed very quickly, but I’m definitely looking forward to what the Lord has in store for 2022.
We were able to buy a lawn tractor for Camp Rhino because of a generous donation. This equipment is going to be a tremendous help to our Camp. Our guys have been cutting about 6 acres of grass for almost three years now with just weed eaters.
With being the Africa Director of our mission board, I’m privileged to represent a lot of great guys. One of those missionaries is Jason Rishel. Pray for him as he is raising funds to purchase motorcycles for his young men who are starting a circuit-riding ministry to reach into the surrounding villages of his city in Burkina Faso. Each motorcycle cost about $900. Please let me know if you would like to be a part of this ministry.
Missionary Jason Rishel’s team in Burkina Faso
December is the start of our summertime here in South Africa. Unfortunately, it is during this time that many teenagers start getting into drugs and alcohol. Pray that we can see many of these young people rescued through our church and camp efforts. Also, pray for our teens to stand for God and not go after the things of the world.
A week after we left for the States in October, the grandmother of one of our teen boys was shot and killed with him in the next room. He has been staying at Camp Rhino during most of the week since that happened. We also have another teen girl staying at the Camp full time because of problems she was facing in her home. These stories only scratch the surface of what a lot of young people face every day in the townships of South Africa.
We are really praying about starting a teen home, separate from our camp ministry, to better minister to these young people in need. We really need wisdom going forward. Would you help us pray as we consider starting this ministry in the next year?
Please pray for all of our churches. For now restrictions on churches have been eased and we are hoping it stays that way.
Be praying for our Youth Teen Retreat this next week at Camp Rhino. We are expecting to have over 100 campers. Toward the end of the month we will also be having a girls only teen event.
Our Singles Men Retreat at Camp Rhino was a success. We had around 20 young guys participate with one of them trusting Christ as their Savior.
We had a great marriage retreat with our Pastorial Team. It was a great time of laughs and learning.
My Pumpkin & My Wifey
Quick Updates
Our new building for Bay Baptist Bible College is almost complete. The aluminum doors and windows need to be installed along with the electrical system. We should be able to use the building for the start of our semester next week.
At the end of the month my family will be going back to the States for 2 months for my son Chase’s wedding. I will also be presenting the ministry of Camp Rhino in several churches during our time there. If you would like me to report back on the work here, please let me know. I still have a few dates available.
Please be praying for our oldest daughter Emilee. She will also be attending the Our Generation Training Center when we return to the States. Emilee is a big part of our ministry here working with our teen girls and managing our Camp kitchen. Her leaving will be a tremendous loss. Not to mention the effect it will have on her mother and I not having her here. We don’t believe losing our first girl is going to be easy. Please be in prayer for her parents as well:)
God is at work in Africa. We have new missionaries raising support to share Jesus with people in Mozambique, Nigeria, and South Africa with Vision Baptist Missions. New churches are being started in Burkina Faso and the Lord is using national pastors I’m connected within Kenya and Zambia to see many souls saved and trained in the Word God. Please pray that God raises up even more laborers for this needed continent.
As we return to the States for 2 months, pray the Lord will make our time fruitful. We hope to make more people aware of the opportunities they can be involved in on our tremendous continent. Pray we can see people recruited for Camp Rhino, Bay Baptist Academy, and the full-time medical clinic we would like to start.
More than anything we need more folks to give their life in church planting. With a church, people have a chance at eternal life. We need more Gospel preaching churches here in South Africa and in every city all over Africa. Please pray for Africa.
