Giving Tuesday
Today is giving Tuesday so I wanted to take a minute and share a few needs with you and give you an idea as to where we are headed. As you probably know we have several different ministries and many, many needs. When you make a donation to Mercy Ministries you aren't paying our salary, as we don't take a salary. About 98% (due to credit card processing and transfer fees) of your donation goes straight into the work God is doing here. We currently have 2 fundraisers open and I'm very excited about both of these! The dining hall will allow us to eat as a family again! We out grew our small living space we used to all eat in and we never started the 2nd building that was going to be built which would have mainly been a dining hall. The 2nd fundraiser we have open is a large food storage room. We NEED a space to store all of our food. I'm hoping to put a deep freezer in this room and be able to shop less frequently. We spend a lot of time each week shopping. I'd love to cut some of that time out and spend it on other things. These are our 2 main fundraisers but we have many more needs than that. A few things we are needing to do and we hope to do in the coming months besides the 2 fundraisers mentioned above...
So much mud and dirt. This is where the kids play, I can't wait until the playground is finished and this area has a dining hall!
1. Finish the outside of Mercy Home and add some landscaping to combat some of the mud when it rains here as we do not have grass inside the area where the home is built.
2. We need to build a 7th grade class so that in January 2021 we can open 7th grade at Mercy Christian Academy. We hope to open 8th grade in 2022 so it is possible we could build 7th and 8th together since we usually build 2-3 classrooms at a time. The class that would eventually be used for 8th grade could be used as a therapy room until it is needed for 8th grade. Currently our therapy room is whereever there is an open space that day.
3. We need to build new toilets for the school so that we can keep them cleaner. Currently we are using pit latrines, but real flushing toilets with tile would be much more sanitary. These new toilets would be built near the playground so that visitors and school field trips can access them as well.
4. We would like to build a workshop to house all of Karson's tools and materials. Currently he is set up in a classroom, but with school resuming in January we need to find a new space for him so he can keep repairing and upgrading our growing campus.
Of course this is in addition to the 100+ children we raise daily, the school (Pre-K through 6th grade), Mercy Baptist Church, feeding 10 families in our community monthly and the many other needs that we are constantly being presented with.
We also have monthly sponsorships available if you are interested in joining with us that way. To provide school for 1 child it is $25 a month or $300 a year. We have about 160 students enrolled at Mercy Christian Academy. If we had more students sponsored we would get to a point where didn't have to do big fundraisers for buildings and we could increase the teachers salaries and be competitive with what the government pays. Currently we are behind what the government pays, but ahead of what many private schools pay. This means that our teachers will likely always apply for a government teaching position when the chance arises. Our hope is to build long term relationships so the children can have other trusted (by the children and us) adults in their life.
If you would like to sponsor a specific child living in our home you can sign up for a $50 monthly donation. This helps cover the basic needs for our kids and allows us to keep improving.
I was sharing with some friends the other day that when buildings are being built for the ministry work here, that is great, BUT it is much more than a building. Providing us a place to eat as a family gives us another way to feel like a (giant) family. It gives us a place to show others that adults aren't better than kids and that we can and should all eat together. When we build a classroom, it is more than a nice building, it is a place where many children will be taught the Gospel. They will learn about God's love and sacrifice and get a proper education. More than having a beautiful home, which I definitely want, I want to show our kids that God's plan will work out and that you can have nice things. I want to teach them how to care for nice things and to not give up when something seems hard or even impossible!
Thank you for your support. I know from the outside our life must look crazy to some of you. Let me assure you, it is crazy, but definitely what God called us to! Thank you for your many prayers, so much love and many donations over these last 4 years! We appreciate you more than you know.
