SULLIVAN'S IN SOUTH AFRICA - Blog

May Prayer Letter

4/30/2023

Dear Pastor and praying friends.

Ecclesiastes tells us there is a time for everything. A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance. April brought both for our family and ministry. At the beginning of the month, our family felt tremendous grief, as my wife unexpectedly miscarried our 5th child. We grieve, but not like those who have no hope. We believe we will meet our baby in Heaven one day. We praise the Lord for the time He gave us with them. We then ended the month, with the loss of one of our faithful teen boys from Vision Baptist Church, Lisolethu. Our hearts were broken, but we rejoice in knowing He made a profession of faith in Jesus Christ, and to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. We pray the Lord will continue to use His life (and death,) to bring lost souls to Him. Please pray for Liso's family.

In between the loss and sadness, God gave us times of joy and laughter. We celebrated our Risen Savior on Easter Sunday. We used this opportunity to serve a meal after our service, and it was a joy to watch our "mama's" excitedly serve. We had a handful of visitors, and it was a wonderful time of fellowship. We were blessed to attend the funeral of Liso, as this was the first christian funeral we have ever attended. While still incorporating their culture, Pastor Sipho shared the gospel message with over 100 people that have most likely, never heard. The Lord was glorified in the songs and the preaching, and our hearts were encouraged.

Last week, our teens had a school holiday, so we used the opportunity to spend some extra time with them. The boys went to a professional soccer match, and the girls went out to lunch. My wife and I thoroughly enjoyed this, and we believe they did too. Please pray for our teen's as they continue to grow in their faith. Please pray for Masilakhe, Masiwakhe, Elethu and Miso. These young boys have been growing in Christ and we are praying the can be used by God greatly at FBC Motherwell. Lastly, we were excited to welcome back our teammates, Mark and Amy Coffey. We are excited to see how God will use them and their ministry at Camp Rhino this year.

February Prayer Letter

2/24/2023

Thank you to all our supporters and faithful friends.

At the beginning of this year, we were blessed to look back and see what God did in South Africa in 2022. Sometimes we can be discouraged by a lack of "numbers," or because the ministry isn't exactly where we think it should be. But, if we just look back, we are always reminded of His faithfulness and like in Psalms 118:3 we will say, "This is the Lord's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes." We are excited to see how God is changing the lives of a few faithful people in Motherwell South Africa, and we look forward to the rest of 2023 and what God has in store for the ministry.

We have seen slow but steady growth in the church and in a couple of the young men we are spending time with. I ask you to pray for them. Masilakhe and his brother Masiwakhe, Bonga, Miso, and Elethu. These young men have been faithful in church, youth, and bible studies. They have also been given some responsibilities in the church services and are growing. We were glad to baptize Bonga this month. We have another baptism lined up in the next month. We have seen lots of visitors in the last few weeks. They have all been given God's clear plan of salvation. Now, they just need to see that they are lost. We are praying for Holy Spirit conviction. Please pray for souls to be saved!
In January we sadly lost a lady in our church community that had been battling cancer. She had come to the church a handful of times, and we were able to reach out and help in her time of need. Most importantly, we were able to make sure she fully understood salvation. She said that she did, and she knew she was going to Heaven when she died. We were deeply saddened by her death, but thankful for an opportunity to share the gospel with her lost family. In the Xhosa culture, funerals very important. They have nightly "prayer meetings," in their homes for a week, leading up to the funeral. At these meetings, any "flavor" of preacher can come and preach. We are thankful God opened the door for our church to be in charge of one of those meetings. The seed has now been planted, and we are praying one day there will be fruit.

Every Day Life....
Bay Baptist Academy started its second year in January, and all 4 of our children were excited to start back. Bay Baptist College is in session as well.
Just 2 weeks ago we were given the terrible news that our teammates, Jeremy and Kevin Halls' father, Mike Hall, suddenly passed away. They and their families quickly returned to the states for the funeral. Please be praying for them as they mourn and try to re-coup the funds needed for the plane fare.
There are currently 2 young couples and 1 young lady here on an internship with our team. Also, we have anew missionary family who just started language school. I am excited Brandon and Maggie Byerly and look forward to see how the Lord will use them. We are extra excited to have our pastor's daughter coming for an internship this summer. As you can see, we get a lot of visitors here in South Africa. Because it is exciting to see how God's working, and what's better than seeing it? Being a part of it! We would love to have you come to visit!

Prayer Requests.
- Missionary Mark Coffey
- Jeremy and Kevin Hall
- Young men in the church
- our Visa situation.
- Lainey Hatley internship this summer.

November Prayer Letter

11/23/2022

In October our home church, Fellowship Baptist Church in Maryville, Tennessee, came to South Africa on a missions trip. Eighteen people were able to come and see our ministry and what life in South Africa is all about. It was God's perfect timing, as we were literally hanging doors, pouring concrete, and cleaning like crazy to prepare for our first service in the new building. A few of the men in the group came with lots of experience in these areas, and were a huge help in finishing everything up. We were also able to have a 2 day VBS, where 100 children heard the gospel each day! We trust the Lord to continue to water those seeds that were planted. Finally, we celebrated our "Grand Opening" Sunday. We had over 50 people and 1 profession of Faith. I was honored to show my home church what the Lord has been doing in Motherwell. It was also a great encouragement to see my Dad and my Pastor, Tom Hatley. I want to say thank you to those who came for your sacrifice and the love you showed my family during the trip.

At the beginning of November, we had our first church work day. We had about 15 of our church people come and help us sand walls and deep clean the construction mess. I was proud of our people for showing up and working hard. It has been my prayer that our people see this building as their church and not Pastor Josh's church. December tends to be a slower month, ministry wise, with a lot of people traveling for the holidays. However, we ask that you please pray as our teens and pre-teens will be attending camp at Camp Rhino in the next couple of weeks. We are expecting God to do great things.

During this month of Thanksgiving we have reflected over the many many things we have to thank God for. Our family wants you to know that our supporting churches are at the top of our list. We could not be here without you. Your love, support, and prayers mean so much. Each day that we are in Motherwell is a blessing and an honor. Thank you for sending us. We pray that your Holiday season is blessed.

Philippians 1:3 " I thank my God upon every remembrance of you,"

October Prayer Letter

10/3/2022

Dear Pastor and Praying friends,

On July 1 I was sent a message by the landlord of our church property telling me that she had sold the house and we had 30 days to vacate the property. Obviously my heart sank as I began to envision moving to a new location, finding another property to rent, and basically restarting after a year of hard work. After seeking God and some Godly council I decided to go for a long shot and asked her if we had an option to purchase the property in cash. She said yes and we purchased it in cash the next day. After that we had a choice to make, either make some changes to the property, or knock it all down and restart. We chose the latter and the Lord has blessed as we have been building the new FBC Motherwell. We started the building program on August 26 and have been racing to finish before our home church arrives this month.

In August, we were able to serve with Medical Missions Outreach. This is a medical team from the States that provides a week long free health clinic to the community. The people are shown love, given care, and most importantly given the Gospel before they leave! My wife and I worked in the optical department, and to check their sight, they read verses out of Romans in different fonts. It truly blessed our hearts. and we were thankful for the chance to be a part of it.

Tomorrow is a big day for our family. We will host my Pastor and a group from our church, Fellowship Baptist Church in Maryville, TN. We have been looking forward to this for months, as it is an awesome opportunity to show them the fruit of their support. We're praying they will fall in love with the country of South Africa, and it's people as much as we have.

This Sunday, October 9th we will have our grand opening Sunday. Please pray for this service. My Pastor will be preaching and we are praying we can fill our new building. Leading up to this day, we will be having our second annual VBS on October 7-8. We are excited to get some girls from our home church involved, and we're praying God will save many souls! On top of all of this we also have the opportunity to host the monthly youth meeting in our new building. Youth from five like minded churches will be attending and my Pastor will be preaching. It's going to be a busy week, but we're excited for opportunities to serve the Lord.

Despite the chaotic mess, we have been blessed to continue our services in the de-constructed building. For the past 5 weeks, we have anxiously waited to see who was going to show up week after week, and have been so relieved as our people have continued to attend church. Not only that, but we have even had a few new faces. Please help us pray for the salvation of these precious souls.

The past few weeks have been insanely busy, and if I'm honest, down right frustrating at times. I have personally faced some trials. But when I reflect on the goodness of God, I count it all joy. What a life, serving Jesus. I know the Lord is about to do something amazing. It's in his nature to do amazing things, and it's in Satan's nature to fight against that. Whether we get to see the fruit of what God is doing or not, we praise His name for the opportunity to serve.

August Prayer Letter

8/3/2022

July was an exciting month of Celebrations for us! Starting on the 4th, of course, we stopped and praised God for the opportunity to be born and raised in a free country. Where we were able to hear the Gospel from the time we were born. Next, our son Avett celebrated his 8th birthday. We are so thankful to be his parents, and we pray He will allow the Lord to use Him.

Next, came the celebration of our 1 year anniversary since we planted FBC Motherwell. We wanted to use this opportunity to reach the community, so we decided to have our first soup kitchen. We were blessed to receive a donation from Meagan's Father, David Witt, and were able to feed over 100 people. Not only that but each person who received a bowl of soup was given a gospel message beforehand. Please pray that the Lord will use his word to convict hearts for salvation. We were truly excited about this opportunity, and hope to do it again in the future.

We finished off the month celebrating 12 years of marriage. We praise the Lord for how He has worked in our hearts and lives over the past decade, and we pray our marriage will bring Him honor and glory for the rest of our lives.

A couple of weeks ago Meagan and I were able to attend a funeral for our friend, Mama Noxie. Her brother of 29 years passed away. It was a great opportunity to continue learning culture and language. But also an ever-needed reminder of why we are here. We see and hear about death after death after death on a daily basis almost. Our clock is always counting down, and we have to be vigilant in sharing the Gospel before it is too late.

The past 2 Sunday mornings we had 41 and 42 respectively. So far in church planting, I have learned to praise the Lord in the good times. Thank you, Lord, for the great past 2 Sundays. We are also pushing our bible studies and we have seen an increase. I believe God is proving to me how valuable bible studies are. Many people may not necessarily have a desire to come to church but many do have a desire to learn more about God's word. If you ask someone if they want to come to a bible study most will say yes. We're thankful to watch as they continue to learn and grow.

We will be helping to host Medical Missions Outreach this month. I believe there will be over 40 medical professionals coming and we will be holding a clinic. Pray for souls to be saved and the churches to grow through this process.

June Prayer Letter

6/14/2022

This past month we have been blessed to help host several groups from the States, here in Port Elizabeth. So far we have had groups from Michigan, Ohio, and South Carolina. In the next couple of months, we will meet folks from Georgia, Tennessee, and a medical group from all over the United States. By the time we close out the year, we will have had over 100 professing Christians come to see another part of the world. A country that is starving for the gospel. We are praying when they leave, they will be able to claim Lamentations 3:51 which says, "mine eye affecteth mine heart." We are praying God will light a fire in their hearts, to get the gospel around the world. Can you imagine what a difference 100 people could make? It was on a mission trip in 2010 where God broke my heart for the billions in the world without a clear gospel witness in their language. If you or your church is looking to take a trip next year we would love to host you in the beautiful country of South Africa. It could change your life!

Since our last prayer letter, we have seen two professions of faith. I was also blessed to baptize two 16-year-old brothers. They have been faithful to church and our bible studies. Pray for Masilakhe and Masiwakhe as they grow in Christ, as well as Miso and Elethu (Njezza). I don't know if God will call these boys to ministry but either way, if Port Elizabeth will ever change it will be through men who choose to follow and obey God. Also, pray for my boys Avett and Silas and my family as we look to please the Lord.

Last month we were encouraged by our special May meetings. Every Sunday in May our church had a guest preacher. I want to thank Pastors Kevin Hall, Lubabalo Sitole, Jeremy Hall, Sipho Bonga, and Mvume Johnson as they preached for us. We heard some challenges and clear gospel presentations from God's Word. I believe our people were helped and encouraged. We saw many visitors over the last month and I can say it was a success. In following up with our visitors we have started a couple of extra Bible Studies trying to get the Word of God into our people's hearts. Pray for us as we continue.

April Prayer Letter

4/6/2022

Hello Pastor and Praying Friends,

March was a busy month for our church, but we are excitedly getting ready for an even busier few months in April and May. Easter is coming up, and we are preparing for services on Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday. Here in South Africa, most churches meet on both days to celebrate our Savior. Pray for us as we try to invite hundreds to our services. We are sure to have many visitors who have never heard a clear presentation of the Gospel. The following Sunday, will be the first of our "Special Meetings in May!" Every Sunday in May we will host a different guest preacher. Pastors Lubabalo Sitole, Kevin Hall, Sipho Bonga and Jeremy Hall have been so kind as to come and preach for us. I am very excited for the people of Motherwell to hear gospel preaching by National Pastors. Please pray with us for lots of visitors, souls to be saved, and a lasting impact on the community of Motherwell.

As we are slowly growing, we have began to look for a more permanent building. It was recommended to me by multiple missionaries to not build a large church in the beginning, but to start small and grow into a more permanent facility. We have been renting a small home that has worked for us until now. We are not a very large church; averaging only about 20-30 every Sunday. However, the home we are in now does not allow for growth. I have already viewed several places, and will continue to view more in the coming days. Help us pray that we can find the best location for a building before this summer.

In February we were able to have our first baptismal service. We baptized 10 people in all, and had a wonderful service on top of that. The Lord is good and He will build his church! Pray for us as we try to follow His leading and get this church established for the thousands who live in our area. We were also blessed to see about 8 people who finished their Bible Challenge. The goal was to memorize Psalms 119:105 and come the church for 4 straight weeks. The people seem to really join in on this, and we look forward to more challenges in the future. Lastly, please remember our 'Youth Nights", every Friday night we have a time of fellowship with our youth. We play fun games and give a lesson. It is our heart's desire that through time, we will give them "life on life," discipleship and they will see the joy in serving Jesus. Please pray that God will raise up one of these young men to become a man of God.

February Prayer Letter

2/17/2022

In January we were once again honored to be a part of Camp Rhino. Camp Rhino is a youth camp ran by fellow missionary, Mark Coffey. It allows faithful youth in our like minded churches an opportunity to go to a week-long retreat for their summer holiday. (Yes, summer is from Nov-Mar here in SA). What's more exciting is this was our first year to have youth from our own church, Fellowship Baptist, attending. We had 8 boys and 6 girls attend this year. After a week full of preaching, teaching, and discipling, there were 5 boys and 3 girls who made professions of faith at camp. We praise the Lord that our kids have an opportunity to see other true christians and to hear the Gospel from kids their age as well as other Pastors from around Port Elizabeth. I was honored to preach at both the girls and boys camps, and to witness all that God was doing in the hearts of these teens.

Because of the new professions of faith made at camp and the others we have received over the last 7 months at FBC, I have been preaching "the fundamentals of faith," on Thursdays nights as well as our "Indlelela lokuKhula" growth discipleship materials. We received a gift from a church in Ohio and used their donation to purchase our baptistry. Lord willing, we will be having our first baptismal service on Sunday Feb 27. We are very excited and we covet your prayers on this matter. We have also finished the concrete job inside our new children's ministry shack. This will allow the children to nt longer sit in dirt and rocks but now have a slab to listen and play.

This past month I have started a bible giveaway at our church. An individual must attend church 4 weeks in a row and memorize Psalms 119:105 -"Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." - "Lisisibane seenyawo lam ilizwi lakho, Likukukhanya emendweni wam." We have had a lot of interest in this program and we have had about 7 people already receive their new bibles! We are praying this encourages faithful church attendance, and we can see some new faces from this promotion.

Thank you for your faithful prayers and support. We could not be here with out you and we love you all!

December Prayer Letter

12/16/2021

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Thank you to all of those who have faithfully supported our ministry in 2021. Your support keeps us here in South Africa. We also want to thank all of the churches who have given us Christmas donations. It means a lot to us that you would sacrifice for our family. The Lord is faithful and we always have a wonderful Christmas.

At Fellowship Baptist in Motherwell, we were able to add on a "shack" to our building. This space allows us to have a better place for our children's program. Before this, my wife was meeting with the children outside. I have been in the process of adding a concrete floor. It has taken a bit longer than I expected but, Miso and Njezza have been a great help. We have learned together how to work with concrete. Pray for these boys. They are the most faithful to church and seem like possible workers in the ministry. They are both young and have a long way to go but, they are both growing and learning.

This December, I was able to go on a survey trip to Mozambique with a prospective missionary. We were able to visit the city of Maputo. There are about 3 million people in this city and almost no gospel-preaching churches. I ask you to pray for Jacob and Christen Clower as they begin their deputation to Mozambique. Also, pray for more missionaries to be sent and souls to be saved.

Here in South Africa, December is when everyone in the entire country goes on a "Holiday". A Holiday is when many people will take a vacation or see their families. This holiday time lasts an entire month. Sadly many of the people will even take a holiday from church. At FBC this month we have had some low numbers but, this past Sunday we had a visiting family. I love the family time we have but, I am also anxious for January. We are looking for a fresh start, new ideas, and much work planned at Fellowship Baptist Church.

October Prayer Letter

10/12/2021

Thank you Pastor and praying friend.

My family and I are very grateful for the opportunity to serve our Christ in South Africa. We are doing well and the Lord is blessing. We planted Fellowship Baptist Church on Aug 1. We have been meeting for 12 weeks now and we have already seen the Lord work. We are excited about the future and covet your prayers as I continue to preach the Word. Since the church was started we have seen 2 professions of faith and have finished discipleship materials with two others.

The last Sunday in September is a national holiday called, "Heritage day" in South Africa. Black South Africans really enjoy this day to celebrate their culture. It is always a lot of fun to dress up and show the people that we "Americans" are proud to live here in South Africa. We used the opportunity to plan a special day, with cake and fellowship after the service. We invited almost 500 people. It ended up being our highest day since starting! Over 50 people came with almost 20 adults. A first time visitor came and made a profession of faith. We Praise the Lord for such a blessed day.

In South Africa this year, the first week of October was school holiday for the entire country. Because of this, my wife and I planned an impromptu VBS. Of course, most of the children had no idea what a VBS is, but we were glad to teach them. The kids enjoyed crafts, snacks, lesson time, and prizes for verse memorization. We started the week with 30 in attendance, and ended the week with almost 90 children! The Lord blessed our time and many children in Motherwell, South Africa heard the gospel for the very first time in their native language.