Blog Posts - SULLIVAN'S IN SOUTH AFRICA

February Prayer Letter

2/3/2024

Dear Pastor and Friends.

We blinked our eyes and we’re already a month into 2024! Here’s what we’ve been up to the past few weeks:

We had a wonderful week at Camp Rhino with our teenagers! There were 110 kids who came and heard the gospel, played a lot of games, and ate really well! We were able to send 16 teens from our church this year. It was a blessing to hear how God worked in their hearts.
Our kids went back to school , and kicked it off with a combined youth service at our church. Each month the likeminded local churches come together for a youth meeting. January was our turn to serve the youth. There were 100 teens in attendance and we saw the Lord save a soul!
Our church partook in the Lord’s Supper for the first time. We praise the Lord for giving us some saved church members.
We are excited about our upcoming furlough starting in August. If you would like for us to come and give an update or present our ministry please contact me.

Lastly, God has given me a burden for a new ministry opportunity! After discussing the lack of biblical resources in IsiXhosa, we are excited to start, “SAMP,” or South Africa Media Project. Our goal is to record every message, lesson, testimony ect, from our local churches, and get them online. Eventually we want to grow this into radio and podcasts. God provided the funds for some recording equipment, but we are now hoping to raise the funds for a centrally located recording studio the land has already been provided. If you are interested in donating or hearing more about this project, please let me know!

We pray you have a wonderful February.
1 John 4:16 - "And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him."

January Prayer Letter

1/3/2024

Exciting Furlough update: Our family will be taking a short 5 month furlough towards the end of this year! After prayerfully considering the effects of being gone an entire year would have, we have decided to break it up into 2 parts. We will be in the States from September 2024-January 2025. And then again in the spring of 2026.

If you are interested in learning more about our ministry here in South Africa, or would like to have us back for an update, please let me know. We would love to see you!

December was an exciting month with anticipation of celebrating our Savior's birth. Here in South Africa, December is also part of our 6 week summer break. So you can imagine, we squeeze alot into these few weeks! In between all of the festivities and traditions, we were able to spend a week at Camp Rhino with 18 of our junior kids. Everyone had a wonderful time, and we had multiple professions of faith. Please pray with us as we follow up with them and begin discipleship. We were also able to host Tim and Jessica Johnson, as they were here to survey South Africa. During that time, my wife and mrs. Jessica were able to lead a 14 year old girl to Christ. Lord Willing, the Johnson's will be returning with their family to serve as full time church planters in the near future.

My wife and I always want to put a huge emphasis on "giving" with our children, but this year was extra fun because we were able to involve some faithful members of our church. One-hundred "blessing bags," were put together, and handed out around our community with gospel tracts. We are praying to see fruit from this small endeavor. Thank you so much to those who gave us special Christmas offerings. We don't take your love and kindness for granted.

I baptized 5 people in December. These are folks who have been faithful to our discipleship lessons, as well. We're excited to see what God has in store for 2024!

October Prayer Letter

10/22/2023

Hello Pastors and praying friends,

First Corinthians 3:6-7 tells us, " I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase." We don't always get to be the ones to see the fruit. Sometimes we plant, sometimes we water; but we are so thrilled to share with you the fruit God has allowed us to be a part of lately. There have been four precious souls who have come to know Christ as their Savior this month. Three young people and one Makhulu, (grandmother,) recently accepted Christ. The Makhulu, or Nokuzola, was the product of planting, and much much watering. She is the mother-in-law of one of our national Pastors, and also the grandmother of one of my young men, Elethu. Amongst all of us, many prayers have been prayed for many years for Nokuzola. After rarely attending a service, a couple of weeks ago Nokuzola came and with tears in her eyes, accepted Christ. Our hearts are still rejoicing. Two of the young people who got saved had zero knowledge of our loving Savior. One had never read the Bible or heard of Adam and Eve. We praise the Lord for his conviction and for bringing them to the Saving knowledge of Christ. We are sober-minded, knowing how many people still haven't heard. Please pray for laborers.

This past month, three of my children and I were able to take a short trip to visit family in the U.S. It was a great time to refresh and visit with family. I want to say a special thank you to my Pastor Tom Hatley and My home church, Fellowship Baptist. I was able to preach there multiple times and our family was greatly blessed to see them. We were also thrilled to give updates in a few supporting churches. We are so thankful for the faithfulness of God's people.
While I was away my wife and our church leaders held a VBS during a school holiday. We had an average of 80 kids each day, despite bad weather. This was wonderful as the gospel was preached. But even better, was seeing how our teens stood in the gap, and excitedly served the Lord. We are thankful to see them growing and know God is going to use them in a mighty way. Please pray for us as we continue discipling, training, and baptizing.
Lastly, we are thankful to have had our pastor's daughter, Malaina Hatley, as an intern for the past 3 months. She has been a tremendous blessing, helping wherever needed. Please pray with her for God's leadership in her life.

September Prayer Letter

8/30/2023

August has been an exciting month in ministry! My wife and I started off the month by traveling to Cape Town, South Africa to pick up our first intern, Laney Hatley. When we arrived, we were surprised to be greeted with riots all over the city. As we drove for two+ hours, trying to safely get to our hotel, we saw many different townships, lots of burning tires, and a lot of hurting faces. Our resounding thought was, "South Africa needs the gospel." Cape Town needs missionaries. Would you consider your part in getting the gospel to the world?

Once arriving back home, we were excited to start some new things at church, now that we have an extra helper. We started by revamping our service times. In the past, We have never received any interest in a Sunday School class for our adults before the main church hour. We decided to try bible studies/SS after our main church hour, complete with coffee and refreshments. These classes have been well attended and the people seem to really be enjoying it. Next, we added "Kings Kids," to our Thursday night service. This is a time where the kids can really focus on scripture memorization. Our intern, Laney, has helped us in heading this up, with hopes of training our daughter, Mallorie, to continue the class when she leaves.

We praise the Lord for giving us several visitors in August, including a couple of "Tata's," (men.) Culturally it is very difficult to get older men in your church. Most are either deep into their cultural beliefs (Ancestoral worship,) or simply absent from the home. So anytime we have men visit, it is an encouragement.

Lastly, this past month we were able to see a 16 year old young lady accept Christ. My wife was able to meet with her and her mother to do an in home Bible Study. After the first week my wife asked the young lady if she had ever heard the gospel message before. She replied "no." She had never in her life heard that Jesus died in the cross, was buried, and rose again the third day. After 3 weekly meetings, Yonela decided to accept Christ as her savior. We rejoice!

The four young men I have been mentoring are doing well. Masiwakhe, Masilakhe, Miso and Elethu have been very faithful to everything we do at the church. There will be expectations laid on them while I head to the states for a quick trip. Pray they will fulfill their roles and be encouraged by doing hard things. Three of my four children and I will be traveling back to the states this month for a short trip. This trip will allow my oldest children to visit with family. I have also booked some meetings in the local area and will be updating some of our supporting churches about our ministry. Thank you so much for your continued prayers and support of my family! God Bless.

July Prayer Letter

7/12/2023

Dear Pastor and Praying Friends.

Our family started off June getting settled into a new house! God gave us an opportunity to purchase a home a little more centrally located to school and ministry, and we are so thankful for His blessings!

Unlike the hot, long summer days in the states, June and July in South Africa are much colder, slower paced months. However, similarly, our kids do get out of school for “winter break.” School holidays are always a great opportunity for ministry. To kick off the month we had a youth lead service for our midweek. We had young men from our church do all the activities of the church service. One lead the singing, one lead the prayer request time and prayer. Some sang specials and 2 young men preached. It was a great learning experience for them and myself. Also, My wife kicked off the break with a girl’s sleepover and bible study at our new home.

Next, we were able to take many of our teens to camp at “Camp Rhino.” We had 13 young people from our church attend camp this winter. They had a great time and got to hear some great preaching about "Surrendering to God". The Lord did a great work through visitors from Southside Baptist Church in Knoxville, Tn. It was nice to see some familiar faces and fellowship with "our people" from Tennessee.

Lastly, I was able to take some of my young men to teach and help at a vacation Bible school for Madiba Bay Baptist Church. One of our older teens preached the gospel to the kids at Madiba as well as help for a VBS at Soweto Baptist Church. We praise God for all these wonderful opportunities!

In between all of the busyness, we were able to see 1 precious soul accept Christ and be baptized! We praise the Lord for answering our prayers. We are continuing on with weekly Bible studies with our young people, and ask that you please pray for Christian growth! I have started a young mens bible study after church. I have been teaching "What does the Bible say about being a man?". I have been very surprised and excited about the turnout.

Over the past couple of months we have had several personal donations to finish up our building. We just want to thank you for taking part in this ministry. We pray for fruit to your account!

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.