Fredrick Bankole Coker

Obituary

Born on November 8, 1969, in Bo, Sierra Leone, Fredrick “Uncle Fred” Bankole Coker lived a remarkable life dedicated to advancing the gospel to the ends of the earth.

Baptized into fellowship into the Seventh-day Adventist Church at the age of 30 in a refugee camp near Conakry, Guinea, Fred tirelessly carried with him a sunny disposition, full of energy, continuously promoting the wellness of others. He and his beloved wife, Isatta, both escaped the Blood Diamond War of Sierra Leone and fled to Guinea as refugees.

Fred, always ready to learn and grow, was never afforded the opportunity for a obtaining a degree in higher education because he placed his children’s education and his family above his own needs. Yet he was a constant learner, doing the job before him to the best of his ability and applying better methods along the way.

Fred believed wholeheartedly that the model of every missionary is our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who left His home in Heaven with all its comforts to come to this dark, sinful world and share with us a knowledge of the Father so that we might grasp the love of God. In like manner, Fred and his wife Isatta left the comforts of home to share this same good news with all who would hear, first in Guinea and then in his home country of Sierra Leone.

Fred truly lived “Christ’s method alone . . .” that gives true success in reaching people. “The Savior mingled with men as one who desired their good. He showed His sympathy for them, ministered to their needs, and won their confidence. Then He bade them, “Follow Me” (MH 143.2-3).

Invited by then AFM missionary Marc Coleman, Fred and Isatta turned their desire to reach the unreached into lifetime mission service when Fred began serving the Susu people in 2003 as a Bible worker. Uncle Fred would preach, teach, sing and administrate, all with the passion of the love of God. Together with the Coleman family, the Cokers planted a church group with seven local members and started a school with five students. In 2010 they baptized 15 members, and the school grew to 100 students.

He and his family became official career AFM missionaries for the Susu Project in 2012. Under Uncle Fred’s leadership, they forged friendships with their Muslim Susu neighbors and had meaningful theological discussions with people who had never considered Christ’s salvation. They built the Susu school in Fria to nearly 1,000 students, most of whom were Muslim. Fred fought hard to keep the Fria Adventist School open despite fierce opposition that threatened to shut it down on several occasions, once from zealous Muslims, once from teachers and owners of nearby schools who were jealous of the school’s success, once from the Ebola crisis, and at other times from more darts that the devil threw their way.

The church group grew into an organized Seventh-day Adventist church with 50 baptized members and 60-70 people attending each Sabbath. In teaching the true model of discipleship, this congregation formed two daughter churches and one branch group in the neighboring villages, preparing indigenous church members for leadership positions they carry on to this day.

A full transition of the Susu Project would be realized in mid-2023 after Fred and his family returned to Sierra Leone in January 2021 to serve the Kono people at the request of the Sierra Leone SDA Mission and with the blessings of AFM. The Kono had been a high-priority, unreached people group for the Sierra Leone SDA Mission for many years, but due to a variety of factors, including the Ebola outbreak and civil war, there had been a lack of gospel workers and finances to initiate new gospel outreach work among the Kono.

It was during the height of the COVID-19 crisis that Fred and his family made their move to Sierra Leone. During their move, much of their wooden furniture was broken. When Uncle Fred took the furniture to local carpenters for repair, he knew they were cheating him because he was a new resident. Instead of pointing out the injustice, he tirelessly worked to make them friends and only then shared that he knew all along that they overcharged him. One of those carpenters now faithfully attends church services in the Kono province.

Like in Fria Guinea, where Fred and his family had served the Susu people, sharing the gospel was not very easy. Even though they could speak the Lingua Franca (Krio) and English, the dominant languages among the Kono, they also diligently studied the Kono language. And although the Kono worldview is very close to that of Fred’s people group, he and his family strived to adapt to the Kono culture, traditions and way of doing things.

In November 2022, as a result of intense prayers for God to show them where to build a training center and how to pay for it, a chiefdom leader, once-reluctant to sell them land, then had a dream in which God revealed how the land would be used to bring truth to his people. With that, the chief then sold Fred six acres. When Fred revisited the chief with a thank-you gift of The Great Controversy, Steps to Christ, and a Bible, the chief shared that God had visited him in a dream the previous week, sharing that someone would give him three books. Convinced that Fred had not come to manipulate and extort his people, the chief added four acres to the land purchase as his own gift and also gave four lots in town to Fred’s person of influence. It is on this land that Fred will be buried.

Uncle Fred Coker (55), long-time and dedicated AFM career missionary, passed away in a tragic car accident on Wednesday, March 26, 2025, while traveling on a project-related trip from the AFM Kono Project to Freetown, Sierra Leone.

He is survived by his wife, Isatta, two sons, Fredrick Jr. and Emmanuel, two daughters, Patricia and Florence, and adopted daughter, Daniella.

Funeral services will be held at the Kono Project property in Tankoro Koidu City, Kono District, Sierra Leone on April 9, 2025. Please check the AFM home page for further details on memorial services in the U.S. as they become available.

A memorial fund has been set up to help defray funeral expenses. If you wish to help the family, please donate online to the Fred Coker Memorial Fund. (This is not a tax-deductible donation as these funds go directly to support the family.)

We encourage you to share with the Coker family your messages of hope, favorite memories of “Uncle Fred” and any photos or videos on the website, Forever Missed: ForeverMissed.com/Fredrick-bankole-coker/about.

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