Mercy Ministries - AFM Africa - Proclaiming Christ in Kenya
Being Part of the JOY
Being a new or newer school can be rough. In 2019, when we decided to start Mercy Christian Academy (just a couple of weeks before the school year began), we didn't really have a clue what we were doing. We knew more about what we didn't want our school to be than what we wanted it to be.
It really has been an uphill battle these last 4 years, and of course we lost 9 months of school during 2020 to covid restrictions in Kenya. Most teachers in Kenya have a goal of getting a government teaching job, so if they work at your school it is only a matter of time before they leave. Teaching at the same school for 5+ years is basically not a thing here. It makes it hard to build a certain school culture when you are constantly having to train new staff.
The last several years have given us time to focus and work on what we want to be (Christ-centered) and improve in the ways we didn't want our school to be. It has been fast and furious and as slow as molasses in the winter all at the same time.
We have continued to push hard to be a Christ-centered school and for our students to have a safe and fun learning environment. These pictures show that our students and teachers are having some fun and that they feel safe at school. Creating a safe and fun learning environment hasn't been easy. It is, in fact, the exact opposite of the education centers around us. It costs us a lot of time and money to do things the way that we do, but change is happening. Things definitely aren't perfect, but real progress is happening at MCA!
If you are supporting the work here through prayer, time, and/or finances you are a part of the JOY you see in these faces. $25 a month supports a student's education attending MCA. In some ways it seems crazy that we can feed and educate a child for $300 a year, yet at the same time we know that is a huge sacrifice on the donors' part. We currently have lots of students who do not have a sponsor. While sponsoring a student now won't change the level of education and care they are currently getting at MCA it will allow us to keep educating, feeding, and caring for the students in the way we feel God has called us to do.
Since the beginning of 2023 we've been experiencing lower funding than usual, we've had more sickness in the home and school, we are still seeing a lot of inflation which has essentially doubled our food cost, and our power has been SO unstable we have had to heavily rely on our generator which costs about $70 a day to run. All of these things are making finances tighter which makes ministry more difficult and will cause us to make more cutbacks soon. Please continue to pray for the work that God is doing here and please pray that our rising financial needs would be met or that the Lord would show us where to cut back and how to adjust to a lower monthly budget.
