Village Outreach

In our small village there are so many physical needs. While we do not want others to become dependent on us, we do feel certain that God placed us here to meet some of the physical and spiritual needs of our village. This page will give you a glimpse into some of the ways that we are able to help on a regular basis. Food is a big part of what we do here at Mercy Ministries, we strongly believe that food should not be a privilege, but sadly in our village, it is for many. Actually many things, we consider basic needs here in our small village are a privilege, and that is why we have an ever growing compassion ministry. All of these outreach ministries are possible because of the love and compassion of many, many donors. Below are our primary outreach ministries and some snapshots of how your donations are being put into action.

Food Boxes

Each month, we provide a box of food for 12 families, some of which are widows in our local villages. Even with the lower food cost here in Kenya compared to many western countries, food is often times a struggle in our area. Due to widespread poverty family members are not always able to help each other and we do not have government food programs or church food banks available here. The boxes we send out are supplementary and contain some staple foods of the Kenyan diet. For about $20 a month (per family) we are able to lighten the burden these families face and help keep food in their bellies.

Feeding Ministries

With the high rate of poverty in our area many are just barely getting by. In the village barely getting by means you are not able to eat 3 meals a day. In times of crisis such as drought, crazy inflation, and shortages related to post pandemic supply chain issues we try and step in to fill the gap a bit. We provide both hot meals and food bags for families in need depending on what helps the most at that given time. Often times our focus is the children and elderly, but during the lockdown due to Covid we passed out small food bags to 500 households a week for 8 weeks. Our main goal with our feeding programs is to help lift the burden. It is not our goal to provide every meal or cause dependency.

In the last picture of this section you see several people getting water just outside our main gate. In November of 2021 we were blessed to be able to drill a new well and once that was in place we opened the old well to our village. Now our village has clean water for free. This has been such a blessing to many and wouldn’t be possible without many joining together to stand in the gap.

Project Nyumbani (Home)

In our area most of the homes (nyumbani) are made of sticks and mud. If they are built correctly and maintained they will last a long time. The most expensive part of the home is the iron sheet roofing and where most people need help. From time to time we find some homes in such terrible condition that we raise funds for the materials needed and coordinate the construction of a new home. This allows us to involve our church and the family and friends of the ones we are helping by getting them to help with the mudding to cut down on labor cost. We have built several widows and families homes and it has been such a blessing to them. It is hard to understand what you are providing with you help with these projects, but is it so much more than a fancy house, it is a more stable and safer home for a family or widow.

Jigger Treatment

Jiggers are small parasitic fleas that burrow into the skin of a warm-blooded host before laying eggs. Jiggers live in the dry ground and embed themselves into mainly the feet and fingers. Removal is a relatively simple process; however, due to a lack of education on what jiggers are many Kenyans will live with jiggers for extended periods of time. Many in our area believe that jiggers are a result of witchcraft and therefore leave them alone. Jiggers affect adults and children alike and are quite painful. Over the last few years we have helped remove many, many jiggers and with the help of a mission hospital we have a better system for removal. We have also made it well know to those who live among us that we will help in this way and so often times people show up at our gate for help and they are treated on the spot.

Shoe Ministry

We are in the beginning phases of starting our shoe ministry. The shoe needs here in our area are quite overwhelming. With over 100 children living in our home, over 130 more coming to our schools, we are responsible for A LOT of feet. It is a huge blessing, but also an expensive responsibility (all of our home and school children have a pair of athletic shoes now). We have started collecting good athletic shoes (new or used) in the states and shipping them to Kenya since finding good shoes at a reasonable price here has proved to be a challenge for us. It is our goal to put shoes on lots of feet (focusing mainly on the children) to help protect their feet from jiggers. Our next goal it to get shoes on the of all of the children who attend church on Sunday and then spread out to the others living around us. If you want to help with this need or just learn more about it you can click the button below and it will take you to a page with more details on how to help.

Diapers for NICU Babies

In May of 2022 our team visited our county hospital to check up on a baby that was there. During our visit we were able to visit the hospital NICU which was an eye oping experience to say the least. We quickly learned that hospitals in Kenya don’t provide diapers, wipes, etc. to babies in the hospital. As someone who has had a child in the NICU (Reed the youngest Bys) we couldn’t imagine the added burdens these Mothers were facing. Many in more rural areas do not even use disposable diapers, but they are needed while in the hospital. After asking some questions we learned that the hospital canteen carries diapers and they can be purchased for about 25 cents each which many Moms are forced to buy. As soon as we left the hospital that day we went and purchased diapers and we have been supplying them since. Clearly we are not solving all the problems with this small diaper bundle, but it definitely helps some. The Mothers are so very appreciative that each Friday we deliver 20 small packages of 10 diapers, 20 wet wipes, and a gospel tract in Swahili to the NICU. The total cost of this each week is less than $40. We are praying that we can do more and more for these sweet babies and Mothers.

Will you consider donating towards these needs and the many others that are not listed here? If you want to meet a specific need such as one of these above, just add a memo on our normal donation form that shows after you submit your amount and we will do our best to apply it to that specific need as able. By God’s grace and His encouraging many like you to give we are bringing many blessings into the lives of those in need in Western Kenya. Thank you so much!