January 29, 2016 | By LYNDA STRINGER

Contributed photo/PAUL COFFMAN

Paul Coffman is heeding scripture in the Bible to “go into all the world and preach the Gospel.”

A Titus County business owner and pastor of Southside Church of Christ in Linden, he has a heart to help orphans and villagers in Uganda. But, the mission work he has been doing in the Kasese District of Uganda reached a young woman in Ghana on the other side of the African continent through Facebook.

Precious Yah is just 24 years old and is caring for six children; only one of them is her own child. She is a Liberian refugee who came to Ghana with her sister and family during the Liberian War when she was a young girl.

“Her parents were killed in that war and she was brought over by her aunt and uncle,” Coffman said. “But, in Ghana, a Liberian is a second-rate citizen. They have no legal right to work.”

He said Yah’s sister, her aunt and uncle and a friend from the refugee camp have all died, so she now takes care of their children as well as her 4-year-old son from a man who assaulted her and would not claim the child. 

In desperation, she contacted Coffman on Facebook after seeing posts about his mission trips to three Ugandan orphanages.

“This is a mission effort that spread from my trips there. When she saw me working with kids in Uganda, she hoped there would be a chance for me to help them as well,” Coffman said.

He said there are a lot of scams, so he asked a pastor friend to visit the refugee camp and verify her story.

“He messaged me and said she was living in Sodom and Gommorah, in a situation where there was open prostitution and the men were drunkards,” Coffman said. 

They had come to Ghana seeking safety, but they were living in dire poverty and fear, he said.

“At that point, I found a house that we rented outside of the refugee camp for $50 a month and we got a 6-month lease. It has two bedrooms, a bathroom and a kitchen. She stated that this was the first time the kids had ever slept on beds,” Coffman said.

In the camp, they put towels on the floor to sleep in a room the family of seven shared with six other strangers, he said.

Coffman’s efforts are not his own. Several Church 

of Christ congregations and individuals in East Texas are generously giving funds to help the young woman raise the children who range in age from 4 to 10, five boys and one girl.

“New Boston Church of Christ bought the beds and my wife and I and Highway 8 Church of Christ in Linden are helping pay the rent,” he said.

Once the family was out of the danger of the camp, he said they faced another problem: they lost their access to food and they hadn’t been to school in three years.

“The group needs to go to school and we found one they can attend for $595 for the seven of them for three months. Blodgett Church of Christ (in Titus County) is picking up the first three months. That pays for their uniforms, the teachers and books,” he said.

But, there is another need as well. He said the oldest of the children will soon be going into classes that require computers. Coffman, who owns Coffman Computers, can’t ship them himself because the outlets are different in Africa, so they need funding to purchase them there.

Clothes are also an issue.

“We can’t ship clothes at an economical rate. It costs $165 to ship 20 pounds of clothes. It’s not guaranteed that they will get there and they have to pay to get them out of the post office,” he said.

Bethel Church of Christ north of Mount Pleasant has collected funds to buy clothes and uniforms, he said.

Coffman plans to visit Yah and her children in Ghana when he goes on his next mission trip to Uganda in October.

“I plan to stop in there and check on their needs,” he said.

Coffman has been a missionary in Uganda since October of 2014, helping three orphanages and a group of widows living in the mountains. Donations from Church of Christ congregations and individual members have also helped build the Rwenzori School of Preaching in Kasese, Uganda. On Jan. 11, 13 students began the two-year program of Bible studies.

“When I went to visit the widows on the mountain, they said I was the first missionary to have come to help them in the eight years they had been there. They gave me the name Mazerack, which means third son of my father,” Coffman said. “So, I am Ugandan now. When they give you a Ugandan name, you know you are accepted into their population.”

Coffman said the hundreds of children in the villages follow him wherever he goes. On his last visit, a little girl named Win, who held his fingers on the first day of church services, came back every day with more children.

“By Sunday, she had brought 78 kids with her,” he said. “The kids call me ‘The Candy Man who Speaks of Jesus’ and I’m willing to take that title,” he said.

Coffman was also accepted in two Muslim villages after meeting a Muslim man who had a stomach disorder and needed milk.

“I bought him a goat and he told me ‘I hope you are not upset that I am giving the leftover milk to the Muslim children.’ The Muslims invited me in and wanted to know about this Christian who is being nice to Muslims when the Muslims have not been so nice to Christians,” he said. 

The man he gave the goat to, named Hangson, converted to Christianity, Coffman said.

Coffman is passionate about his mission work, pouring over photos in his home computer repair shop, pointing out the sights, the people, the poverty and the love they have for God and for the Christians who come to help them.

“I am so humbled by the way they welcome me with open arms,” he said. “I love the fact that they are so desirous to hear about God and to read the Bible.”

Donations toward Coffman’s mission work in Uganda and Ghana can be mailed to Southside Church of Christ at P.O. Box 1112, Linden, Texas 75563.

Lynda Stringer is a Mount Pleasant, TX-based freelance writer and owner of Stringer Media. Contact her at Lynda.Stringer@outlook.com.