Various ways to support Mercy Ministries
In my last blog I talked a bit about us always having needs and how that can be overwhelming for me. I imagine that it can be overwhelming to our supporters as well. I thought it might be good to put together a "list" of needs and ways to be financially involved. If you ever want to do more than pray and share (which are both wildly important) the work being done here, there are several ways to do that. 💜
One of our biggest needs right now is due to us not having regular power for a few months. Thankfully they have replaced the transformer and we now have power full time! However, for just over 3 months we were spending $60 a DAY to run the generator so we could have water and power, especially overnight for our security lights. Due to all the extra money for fuel we got about $1500-$2000 behind and we need to get that caught up as quick as possible. You can go to this link for more details and to donate towards this need.
https://aboutface.atlas.thrinacia.com/campaign/46/january-operations-budget-need
The next need (and some wants) we have are located on our Amazon wish list. David is coming for a quick visit in a couple of weeks and he has some room to bring things to us. We definitely need the 2 phones that are on that list. For the last several months I've been using a Google Pixel and the camera on it is amazing. We really need Caitie and Karson to have great phones (Jeff's phone has been purchased) so that they can get good quality videos and photos of ministry work here as well. If you would like to purchase something off of our list please have it sent to David by Feb 14th so he can get it packed for his trip over.
https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/W2SUGHI8XRXT
If you go to https://afm.ngo/donate you can give a one time gift or set up a recurring gift through PaySimple (donation processing gateway). You can also scroll down near the bottom of the page to donate through PayPal. PayPal will also allow you to set up a recurring donation now if you wish to do so. Setting up a recurring gift helps us be able to budget better. It seems like our needs continue to grow here and we would love to add to our staff, but that depends on donations we have coming in.
We also have sponsorships available. We have 2 different commitment levels. If you want to sponsor a Mercy Home kid it is a donation of $50 a month and if you want to sponsor a Mercy Christian Academy student it is a donation of $25 a month. The home sponsorship helps cover food, clothing, bedding and minor medical care. The school sponsorship covers all things school...2 meals and 1 snack each school day, all supplies, all curriculum and teachers' salaries. Children who attend our school don't pay anything. Much like the recurring donation that I talked about above the sponsorships help us know what we have coming in on a regular basis and allow us to budget better and upkeep and upgrade our property, home and school.
Mercy Home
https://afm.ngo/mercy-home-sponsorship
Mercy Christian Academy
https://afm.ngo/mca-sponsorship
On Monday a friend of ours is hosting a Pampered Chef party and a percentage of the sales will be donated to Mercy Ministries. This is another great way to help support the work being done here and share Mercy Ministries with others. Previously we've had someone host a Norwex party and it was a huge blessing to us. If you want to purchase any Pampered Chef items you can click the link below for more information on how to order.
https://www.pamperedchef.com/party/africafundraiser?fbclid=IwAR3yenijvjpHIF3oWYnYOkLRz_sHxje1MbMheMi0yweKfexHWJKtVsYjftQ
Lastly we now have our own fundraising portal which allows you to go in and set up a fundraiser benefitting Mercy Ministries. It is similar to GoFundMe and can be shared with friends and family and across social media. This makes it more personal than just sharing our posts (which we still need). It is kind of like saying "I know and recommend this ministry." If you would like to set up a birthday fundraiser or just a fundraiser in general you can go to the link below and build your fundraiser and David will look over it and approve it. Always feel free to use any pictures we post for fundraising. Let us know if you have any questions or need help.
https://aboutface.atlas.thrinacia.com/
Some upcoming needs we have once we get the $1500 caught up is a food storage room, this will be a high priority as the education department is not happy with our current setup. We also need to add 60 Bibles for the upper grades at Mercy Christian Academy, a couple more beds for the boys room, we would like to add rain gutters and water tanks to collect water to use for washing, cleaning and watering plants. We would also love to completely landscape the school property to help with water flow, create walking paths and really make that space look complete. In April we need to set up our new PE field with a soccer field, volleyball court, small area for the Pre-K and Kinder class and a jump rope area. So lots and lots of things that we need to do and a few things that we want to do.
This is in no way to say y'all aren't doing enough! We just wanted to take some time to layout all the ways that one can financially help the work being done here, in an organized way and also give you a glimpse of what we hope is to come. This place, compound, campus...whatever you want to call the place we live life at is still a work in progress and has many needs. Slowly but surely we get done what needs to be done. Thank you a million times over for all of your support! Not just the financial, the prayers, shares and check-ins are SO important. Obviously the money is needed to keep doing the work here, but prayers and checking in on us is so needed as well!