October 2015 Update

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1st Annual Bay Baptist Youth Camp

Youth Camp: Our first youth camp is December 6-12. The cost to take 120 teens to camp is going to be $4650 ($38.75 per camper); which includes their food, camp facilities, and transport. Praise the Lord, we have had $200 given so far. We are planning to charge each camper R150 ($12) for the week. Fundraisers and work days will begin this weekend for the teens to help with their expenses. We are still needing to raise $3,010.00. If you would be interested in helping with this please send any money to P.O. Box 519 Braselton, GA 30517 (Att. Jeremy Hall/Youth Camp). Thanks so much for your consideration and for your prayers for this event.

Soweto Baptist Church

Church Building: Bekah and I are going to start our first church in South Africa, Soweto Baptist Church. We are needing $12,900 for the construction of a building (normally around $18,000+), if we are able to take advantage of the current exchange rate. We are blessed to not have to start from scratch. We already have land and two small rooms on that land, which will be connected by the new building, and serve as class rooms. The building will be able to seat around 120 people (1000 sq. ft.).

The Lord has already blessed our efforts in Soweto as we have been evangelizing and training many young men and women in the area. More than a dozen people have been saved and are ready to get baptized. Currently, we continue to transport around 20 people weekly to worship with us at a church started by my cousin, Mark Coffey, and Sipho Bonga in another area. We believe God will fill this building to capacity with new believers by the this time next year. Please pray with us that God would supply these funds while the rates are favorable (any donation should be labeled Jeremy Hall/Soweto Building Fund).

Other Announcements and Prayer Requests:

  • Prayer works! One of the guys I asked you to pray for last month was saved last week, Zolani. And, as I expected, several others dropped their guard and made professions as well; 7 young men in total. Please remember them in your prayers; Ntiska, Aphelele, Athini, Soli, Khanyiso, and Sibusiso. I am meeting with these guys (and about 5 others) several times a week, outside of church services, studying the scriptures. God is raising up a good group of guys who we fully expect to be used for the furtherance of His Kingdom.
  • Youth Conference Oct. 5-9, at Madiba Bay Baptist Church
  • We have several good friends coming over for a visit; Pastor Tom Hatley with Fellowship Baptist Church will be here Nov. 3 -12. Also Pastor Austin Gardner, Bro. Jeff Bush, and Bro. Robert Canfield from Vision Baptist Church will be with us Nov. 11-18. If you or your church are interested in taking a missions trip please feel free to contact me.
  • November is going to be busy. We are moving! Only about 3 miles down the road. Pray this process goes smoothly.

We are extremely grateful that the Lord allows us to do what we do. We hope this letter allows you to see a little of what your investment is accomplishing. Your prayers and support are greatly appreciated and you are prayed for often.

Sincerely,

Jeremy and Rebekah Hall

September Prayer Letter

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God’s grace is undeniable in our life. He has proved to us he will take care of us. We owe him our life. He deserves praise and glory. I pray that my life will be glorifying to him.

We can now count down the days until we return to the states to begin our deputation. We are so thankful to those we have partnered with us for our short-term trip. Please continue to pray for:

– Young men to train and grow in the church
– To book meetings
– To be skilled in our pronunciation in Xhosa
– Church Growth
– New church in Soweto in November.

We have less than 2 months until our internship is over. We are sad that we only have a short time left, but we are thankful for the opportunity. We pray that we can make much of the time we have left and leave a help to the ministry here in Port Elizabeth.

I have been learning and observing how to train young men and we hope to leave a few men for Pastor Sipho to continue to train and invest in when we leave. The Lord has worked and we have seen more young people make professions of faith recently. Pray that they will get baptized and discipled.

Our Pastor (Tom Hatley), his daughter (Abby Hatley), and another young lady from our church (Torrie Sutton) will be coming on a trip to visit us in the first week on November. Please pray for them to raise all the needed funds. This will be the first trip for the ladies. Please pray that God will use them and show them what ministry is like in another country.

We celebrated my and my daughters birthday this past month. Mallorie turned 4 and was very spoiled by her family and friends. My wife and I are thankful that our children have acclimated so well to the country and culture. Our 1 year old son can understand Xhosa as well as he understands English.

Thanks to everyone for their prayer and support. We can be reached at any time thru Facebook messenger, whatsapp, and voxer.

 

August Prayer Letter

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Three Months have flown by and we only have 3 months left!

God is abounding in grace and he has showered us with blessings.

Prayer Requests
1. Visa Extension
2. Discipleship
3. Language
4. Teen Camp

Please continue to pray for the young men in Kwadwesi who are coming to church and discipleship. Pictured is (from left to right) Miso, Stephen, Themabani, and Vuyani. The boys have been overall faithful to most of church as well as visitation. We have also been doing a soccer program led by Jeremy Hall. The boys love this and they also hear a gospel message presented by one of the local pastors.

Our language is still very lacking but we are steadily learning new phrases. We have been working hard on our commands and this is a language focus. We can understand simple commands but it is much harder to repeat what we hear. Another focus is our pronunciation. We must be able to pronounce the words in the right way and not get in bad habits.

We are still waiting for our visas to be extended so please keep this in your prayers.

We are now booking meetings for 2015. Our goal is to have January, February and March of 2016 booked before we get back to the states.

Youth Camp:

Our youth camp is December 6-12. The cost to take 160 teens to camp is going to be $4650; $1500 for food, $2700 for camp, and $450 for transport. We are planning to charge each camper R300 ($25) for the week. That doesn’t sound like much, but considering most of the teens who will attend are probably being raised by an unemployed single parent or a grandmother, it’s almost impossible. We will be having several fundraisers and work days planned for the teens to help with their expenses. If you would be interested in helping us finance this camp please send any donation to Fellowship Baptist Church, 1102 Big Springs Road, Maryville, Tn 37801.

September 2015 Prayer Letter

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Dear Pastor and Friend,

Pictured above are several of the guys I am spending the majority of my time with these days. Top row standing next to me is Songeza. He has been around for several months now as a result of the guy standing in the middle, Matthew Olwethu. Songeza has been attending everything and is growing in his faith. Matthew is doing great too (you may remeber him from previous updates, he was the first guy I baptized here in SA). He just started attending our Bible College and for the first time this month taught our youth meeting, stepping in for me at Soweto while I was away on a survey trip in East London. The guy to his right is Aphiwe (top row green shirt). He trusted Christ as his savior a few weeks ago and has not missed a service since. The last young man on the top row is Zolani. Remember him in your prayers as he has yet to make a decision for Christ. He seems to be a natural leader and if he humbles himself, it would not surprise me to see several others drop their guard also. The little guy holding the trophy is Luxolo (14 years old!), and the guy to his left is Likhaya (13). Both of them trusted Christ for salvation the same day, after last Sunday morning’s service. Please pray for all these guys, but especially Zolani and Soli (bottom row white shirt) for salvation. All of these guys have experieced more junk than you can imagine in their short lives and I would love nothing more than for them to have hope for a better eternity with Jesus.

These young men, along with several other women who Bekah is currently discipling, are who we plan to begin Soweto Baptist Church with really soon. They are currently attending with us at a church in another district, New Life Baptist Church Kwadwesi. Bekah and I are transporting them in our cars. I have had over 20 in my little pickup alone. Please continue to pray for us and this language. I want to begin the church now, but my language abilitiy is still not where it needs to be.

Youth Camp: Our first youth camp is December 6-12. Our cost to take 160 teens to camp is going to be$4650; $1500 for food, $2700 for camp, and $450 for transport. We are planning to charge each camper R300 ($25) for the week. That doesn’t sound like much, but considering most of the teens who will attend are probably being raised by an unemployed single parent or a grandmother, it’s almost impossible. We will be having several fundraisers and work days planned for the teens to help with their expenses. If you would be interested in helping us finance this camp please send any donation to P.O. Box 519 Braselton, GA 30517 (Att. Jeremy Hall/Youth Camp).

Thanks for your prayers and for all you do!

Sincerely,

Jeremy and Rebekah Hall

September 2015 Prayer Letter

Update 8/19

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Prayer request’s

– Our Sunday School class
– Our young men in discipleship
– to book meetings
– Cultural adaptation
– Language learning
– Youth on Fridays

My family and I are so blessed to be here in South Africa with amazing families to help train us. My wife and I continually see the benefits of our internship and are so amazed that God would allow us to have this opportunity. We are so thankful for the ones who pray for and support us in our mission.

Pastor Sipho and I are still meeting with out young men. These boys have been faithful and we are now meeting on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Pastor Sipho has been one of my main ministry partners. He has been a great help with me learning the language as well as the culture.

A new ministry opportunity has come up. Pastor Mark and Pastor Sipho are working on a plan for a possible church plant in Kwadwesi-extension. Please pray for them to have God’s wisdom. The area shows much promise as we already have people from that area wanting a church to go to.

We only have 13 weeks left here in South Africa. Less than 100 days. Please pray for us to use every bit of time we have left wisely. Our desire is to soak up all the experience and information possible while we are here. We already feel so much more prepared to live in SA.

Thank you!

August 2015 Coffey Family Prayer Letter

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Prayer Request

  • Bay Baptist Bible Institute
  • More laborers for Southern Africa
  • Two future church plants
  • Language learning
  • Plans for ministry expansion in the next few months

This past Sunday morning at New Life Baptist Church we had visitors from an area called Kwadwesi Extension.  This is an area that can been seen from our church over the valley and on the next hill. To get to our church from that location is about a 20 minute walk.  We have been going door to door in the area for the last two weeks and have had pretty good reception.  Pastor Sipho mentioned  his desire to one day see a church started in this area.  I went ahead and asked him to look into some available properties to see about starting a church there soon.  He quickly found a small building on a good piece of property that cost around $5600.

Please be praying for us about this decision.  Our thoughts right now are to buy the property and stagger our services which would allow us to run both churches. 

Our coworkers, Jeremy & Bekah Hall have also been working in an area called Soweto on the Sea.  They are doing Bible studies in the area with the hopes of starting a church there in the next few months or so.  Our team had a church close in the area over the last year, so we are excited about the possibilities of seeing a new work started back in this needy area.

More Highlights

  • Josh & Meagan Sullivan are in their 3rd month of their internship.  They have decided to come back to work in South Africa as church planting missionaries and will be starting full time deputation this January.
  • Our oldest son Tyler (pictured above preaching at New Life Baptist Church) turns 18 this month.  Pray for him as he has many big decisions to make during the next year. 

Needs 

  • $5600 to purchase land for the new church plant in Kwadwesi Extension 
  • Please pray that the Lord would direct us in the right area to buy property for our future training center.
  • Baptistry for New Life Baptist- $350

July Prayer Letter

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Praise God for his joy he brings to those that serve him. There are many obstacles we may face here in SA but the joy that God brings is greater than anything we face.

Pastor Sipho and I have been continually discipling about 5 young boys. They age from 13-15 and all profess Christ. They have been coming to most of our services and even came to visitation last Saturday and helped us pass out nearly 500 gospel tracts. Since they are younger the language barrier is still there because they are still learning English in school. Please pray that they will continue to make themselves available to the Lords service. Also, our youth class is growing but we are still trying to get all those who come to youth on Fridays to come to church on Sunday.

Our language learning is going well. Last week we practiced inviting people to church in Xhosa and we are adding more and more sentences each week. This language continues to prove challenging but we know that we cannot be fully successful without being fluent in the language. We must gain the trust of those we plan to work with and this comes with language and culture.

My wife and I celebrated our 5th anniversary at the beginning of this month. God has blessed me with a wonderful wife that willing to sacrifice for the Lords work. I am thankful for her and her family.  We also were able to celebrate our son, Avett, first birthday. We are so thankful of the team that is here and to have a family away from our family.

We are starting to book meetings this month. God has continued to burden my hearth that our future is in South Africa. Our goal is to be booked from January to March of 2016 before we return to America in November.

It’s amazing to think we only have 4 months left!! There is so much more we would like to accomplish in the upcoming months ahead. We don’t know want out time to go to waste.

Please pray for:

1. Language
2. Our health (our whole family has battled stomach virus)
3. Our youth class
4. The 5 young men
5. Mettings to be booked.

July 2015 Prayer Letter

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The picture above was taken Friday, July 24th, at a location where we plan to restart a church in the next few months; an area called Soweto. There are currently no Baptist churches in the area, but there are several believers from a previous church and one of them contacted me with a proposition. She, along with some other ladies from the area, wanted to feed the people and I would preach the gospel. Well, she did a great job and gathered nearly 60 adults and several children. All heard the gospel and will receive a visit within the next week. There were 4 young men specifically who I will be targeting and praying for earnestly. We praise the Lord for so many contacts to follow up with.

Starting next Saturday, I will have a youth meeting in Soweto. We will meet at 2 o’clock and have a Bible study. Then at 3:30 we plan to join several of the other churches at Madiba Bay Baptist Church for a friendly game of street soccer. My hopes are to use this to develop some relationships with several young men who will help me start the church.

Rebekah will begin to meet with the ladies in the area on Fridays to go through our basic discipleship material. Our desire is to have these ladies go through all 9 of our foundational lessons in preparation for the launch of the church. She is a little nervous about this, but this will be a tremendous help and push her in her language studies.

Praises, Prayer Requests and other News:

  • I have preached several messages (in Xhosa) since our last update! Progress is coming, but I am still no where near comfortable nor fluent. Veering from my notes while preaching normally leads me down an unfavorable path. Please continue to pray for advancement.
  • Bekah and I enjoyed a break from language school for two weeks while her parents, brother, and his friend were here visiting.
  • VBS at Wells Estate Baptist Church was well attended and there were several professions of faith. Yanga Gentsu, a 17 year old, led the whole week and did an incredible job! My in-laws and I were able to participate a couple of days.
  • All the money came in for New Life Baptist Church building and the apartment for Madiba Bay Baptist Church, thanks to several of you who gave so generously. Thank you!
  • The week long Youth Meeting, led by the young pastors Kevin has trained, during the winter break was a success. It was packed every night and there were five professions of faith!
  • Pray with us that we will have a good core group to start the church by the first of November (maybe sooner!).

Thanks for your participation in our ministry and for all that you do!

Sincerely,

Jeremy & Rebekah Hall

www.projectsouthafrica.com

update July 1-11

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God has done a great work at New Life Baptist Church. The Builders are finishing up with a few things on the church. The church now has a sidewalk, the basement is being worked on and the Sunday school rooms are closed off.

Pastor Sipho and I are working with the teens in Kwadewsi. We had a high of 30 in our Youth Night last Friday and 12 professions of faith were made. God knows more than we do how much of a need is here in Port Elizabeth. Please pray for us as we go and try to disciple these young people who have made professions. It was exciting to see an increase in our Sunday School class where We had 13 young people.

We have had nearly 2 weeks off from language school because of working to get our visas as well as a VBS at Wells Baptist Church. Meagan was the team captain for the iingusha (lambs) and I was the team captain of the iingoyama (lions). God blessed and we had an average of 90 Tuesday-Thursday. The kids received points thru-ought the week for memorizing scripture and well as good behavior. Sadly, at the end of the week team iingusha defeated iingoyama by only 15 points. Consequently as the captain of the losing team I had to be pied in the face. You can see this on our Facebook page.

Meagan and I are excited about our sons first birthday this month. Our children have acclimated very well here and we are excited about them experiencing a new culture, language, and way of life here in SA.

Prayer Request:
– We get out visas excepted.
– Young men to disciple.
– Growth of New Life Baptist Church.
– More Laborers to be sent to South Africa.

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Missions from a Kid’s Perspective

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One of our supporting churches, Believer’s Baptist Church in Griffin, Ga, asked me if I would would record a message to share with the kids during their VBS to highlight missions in South Africa.  After thinking about it for a while, I thought a video from my son’s perspective would be more fitting for the VBS crowd.  Here’s the video I made with my son Luke.  We pray this video helps excite and encourage children and even adults in missions.  Let me know what you think.  Also, if you’re interested in visiting South Africa, I would love to know.