Testimonials
“I’m Inspired!” by Rachel Wims (age 14)
In April, 2009, I traveled to Africa with my family to assist the victims of poverty and crime in Kenya. Before we left, I tried to learn as much as I could about Africa. I learned that many Africans needed assistance building schools, acquiring books and learning about America. I asked friends at school and on sports teams to donate money or dental supplies. I collected over 200 toothbrushes before we left!
When we arrived in Kenya, most of the people I met were kids. I talked to them because I wanted to help them. They told me that the most important thing they needed is clean water. Without clean water, they are forced to drink contaminated water from the lakes and rivers. This causes diseases which prevent them from going to school.
The kids also wanted to learn. Without education, they will not get the opportunity to do what they want with their lives. Many want to become doctors or teachers. I learned that if they did not pass certain exams in middle school they are not able to move on to “Form One” which we call Ninth Grade.
The children in Africa are begging for the same choices which American students have. We take these opportunities for granted. Since my trip to Africa, I have become more aware of the need to take advantage of the opportunities and the education which has been provided to help me succeed.
I have always done well in school but this experience has motivated me to do even better. I am grateful that I was able to go to Africa. I will continue to help the people I met there. As soon as I got back home, I started raising money; so far I have collected $3,000.
Kenya Adventure - Susan and Gary Hess
Purpose:
This was a combined humanitarian and tourist trip to Kenya. As many of you know, we’re involved and supporting a community in the Rift Valley area of Kenya – Mercy Center in Lare.
Mercy Center:
At the site, we met the clinic staff and two key players – John and Father Evans. Sister Rose, the Kenyan nun here in Washington, D.C. who initiated this whole project, has chosen the Kenyan partners well. John has been the construction manager for all the buildings so far and oversees the operation; he is a solid citizen besides knowing his way around contracting. Working with an architect, he’s overseen delivery of quality buildings on the site. The clinic and staff house are exceptionally built. The clinic staff is well qualified and eager. The clinic is orderly, well-maintained, clean and accessible – a real resource for this rural community. Father Evans has been a critical link to the church and civic relationship structure and both he and John have been remarkably successful in avoiding the graft and corruption that plagues any project there. They know their way around and how to get things done the Kenyan way.
Conclusion:
After visiting Kenya and the Mercy Center site, we have high appreciation for the incremental and focused approach this project has taken. The effort here is to provide the basic essentials – clean water, basic health care. The Board – both Kenyan and US members – are caring, frugal and committed as they work to husband, grow and apply small resources.
Staff and Board members speak English, share common understandings and same business sensibilities. These are huge advantages in conducting this work across two continents. Africa has enormous needs, but the steadfast concentration of effort in this Kenyan community is yielding results.
The Mercy Center project is visionary without being grandiose. It is advancing the community, doing it the Kenyan way, increment-by-increment, which is the only way it will work.
Susan and Gary Hess October, 2007
My Trip to Lare
My trip to Lare began when Jocelyn Bell asked me to join medical students from Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine and volunteers from International Christian Resources on a trip to Kenya. I was torn. The cost of the trip would consume a significant portion of my entire net worth! Plus, it would require me to quit my job. After months of prayer, I decided to go. In retrospect, I know I made the right choice.
On February 25, 2006, my ten-day trip began. It took a day and a half for our group of 38 travelers to arrive in Lare. The area was unlike anything I’d ever seen. Everything was lifeless. The vegetation was dead, the earth was dried and cracked, and the animals were emaciated.
The people, however, were filled with life. As we got off the bus, we were surrounded by children. At first, I was a bit nervous. So many of them surrounded me, grabbing my legs and body. My fears went out the window when I realized I had never seen such happy, excited children. The other volunteers and I organized a game of soccer. It took me a few minutes to notice that none of the children wore shoes. There were animal feces anywhere but no one had any problem stepping in it, barefoot.
The medical clinic lasted four days. One day, I was part of a group that walked around the rugged land. With translators from a local school, we went from house to house and talked to people about their lives. Everyone told a story of destitution. No one had a job, the living conditions were dreadful. It was the first time I had been inside a home made from mud and leaves. Five or even ten people resided in a space that was the size of a small bedroom.
On my final day at the clinic, I joined some volunteers who delivered medicine, clothes and Bibles to the people living in the surrounding hills. We roamed the countryside, talking with everyone we met. I felt safe and secure; no one wanted to go back when it came time to return.
That a trip of this magnitude succeeded continues to amaze me.
Throughout the journey, our group was kept safe. No one got sick and our mission achieved all of its goals. God truly works in wondrous ways!
Michael Pomponi
Rick’s Testimonial
In this day and age, much of my information comes from the media, newspapers, magazines or the Internet. Events come and go with such ease that I hardly feel them. As I experience life from afar, I have become somewhat isolated, detached and desensitized. It is safer this way, less risky, less personal. It is truly exceptional to experience first-hand, up close and personal, an event that will live in my memory for the rest of my life.
My trip to Kenya in March 2006 was such an event. It rocked my world. It shook me. It excited me. And, it pained me. It touched my heart and nurtured my soul. It was real and it was unforgettable.
For 10 days, I was part of a medical mission to a little village halfway around the world. As treasurer of the Mercy Center Foundation, my goal was to discern how I might be of aid. Instead, I was the beneficiary as the villagers of Lare showed me what life, in its most essential nature, is all about.
Although each day was unique, my most vivid
memory is the time I spent with a high school
student who volunteered to be my interpreter
for the day. Side by side, we traversed the
hilly countryside, chewing a stalk of sugar
cane while discussing life with the villagers.
With warm smiles and open eyes, they welcomed
me into their life.
It is a hard life, a life of abject poverty.
Their thatched-mud homes have no windows, no
electricity, no kitchen, a minimum of furniture
and few material possessions. Water is carried
from a ditch or from the well funded by the
founder of the Mercy Center Foundation, Albert
Forte. Their five-acre farms are worked with
simple hand tools and yield a meager harvest.
There is nothing to share with a friend or neighbor
but a kind word or a smile. One might say they
were dealt a bad hand, or that circumstances
had conspired against them.
But it was here, in a place that time has seemingly
forgotten, that I was reminded what really mattered
in life. The people of Lare had nothing but
each other. The absence of the most basic comforts
revealed what really mattered. Although their
days were spent scratching a meager existence
from a plot of rocky land, their nights were
spent cooking, talking and laughing with family
and friends.
The villagers of Lare don’t see their
primitive circumstances; they are unaware of
their destitute plight. Quite the contrary;
they are filled with hope, faith and optimism.
Because of this, I, a stranger, was welcomed
with genuine kindness. I was invited into their
homes. I was allowed to take pictures, to ask
questions, and to see how they lived. I saw
that status, power and possessions are nothing
when compared to relationships and a generous
spirit of compassion.
A year has elapsed since my return from Kenya. I often think of the people I met. I don’t want this experience to be crowded into the recesses of my memory by the challenges I face on a day-to-day basis. My work with the Mercy Center Foundation keeps me grounded and focused on relationships, family and a commitment to share my abundance with others.
Rick Rice,Board of Directors
2004 - 2008
"The Mercy Center Foundation
is advancing the community, doing it the Kenyan
way, increment-by-increment, which is the only
way it will work."
Susan & Gary Hess
Kenya Adventure - Susan and Gary Hess
"My work with the Mercy Center Foundation keeps me grounded and focused on relationships, family and a commitment to share my abundance with others."