2019 End of Year Report | Mercy House Global

2019

Impact Report

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Table of contents 4

Seven Girls Rescued | She is Priceless

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Joy + Sorrow in Kenya

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Color of Hope

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MHG Refugee Candle + Soap Line

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Home for the Holidays Webcast

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Mercy House Global Begins its 10th Year in 2020

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Artisan Impact

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Our Global Presence

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Founder’s Letter

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Financial Review

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2019 Highlights

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Our Vision

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Our Model

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Our Values

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She is Priceless

BY FOUNDER, KRISTEN WELCH

I was sitting alone, trying to stay awake, in an airport in the middle of the night waiting to fly from one African country to the next. Sleeping sitting up wasn’t going well. The airport was nearly empty, and the only noise was the old TV monitor above my head. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants was playing in a different language.

As I stared at the screen and yawned, four friends shopped together. I pieced together the plot and remembered these girls found a seemingly ordinary pair of jeans that fit them all perfectly, despite their very different sizes.

They dubbed the pants the Traveling Pants and decided to share them while they were apart over the summer.

I nodded off after remembering it was mostly a movie about poor choices and pants that worked miracles (ah, Hollywood), but when I woke up to board my plane, I was still thinking about those pants. No, not the comfortable one-size-fits-all denim that will solve all my problems, but how when we share what we have, it’s multiplied. Maybe even miraculous.

You see, when my plane landed a few hours later in Kenya, I met some of my sisters who were desperate for a miracle and a second chance. When I embraced the new 13- and 14-year-old girls who were moving into the Mercy House Global maternity homes, their swollen bellies pressed against me, I whispered “welcome home” into their ears because the world had tried to ruin their first chance.

When a sister moves into this second-chance home in Kenya, she is afraid because she is completely out of chances. The world has let her down and she doesn’t know if this last-chance stop will really become home.

It’s the singing and screaming she hears first as the van pulls through the gate. This isn’t just a song, it’s the brave and holy cry of a sisterhood, more than 50 teen moms now, celebrating in their sanctuary of rest, lifting their voices loudly to a Father who turned their last chance into a second one. Their song isn’t one of sadness, although there is sadness in their story; theirs is a song of praise.

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It’s the song sisters sing to welcome sisters. The melody is one of acceptance and of love. It carries in its notes the unspoken truth of the common circumstances that have made this second-chance place, home.

And if the thunderous singing and shouting don’t put a smile on that new sister’s face, the dancing might. The earth quakes under the feet of this small army of teen moms marching around the living room for half an hour, with hips that have welcomed unplanned babies and babies who are toddling miracles, and this second-chance ground is holy.

The sweet new girls are wide-eyed and can’t contain their shy smiles any longer because who can resist a welcome like this? Outside of these gates, they have been shamed – their pregnancies are a stigma, their bellies a burden. Hands cover their growing grins, as they wonder if this home is heaven, where dinner plates are full of food, and they have their own bed for the first time in their lives, and medical care for the unborn child, and hope. My God, the hope is palpable.

Only He knows the suffering that comes with the kind of slavery these little girls have endured. But tonight, they are safe and sound in a sanctuary.

Inside this second-chance house, with sisters who

Thanks to your generous support, our

have walked this last-chance road, their unborn babies are a second chance at a brand new life, and they can hardly believe it.

She Is Priceless Giving Day provided for 7 rescues

And for most, it’s a first chance to lay down their heavy burden, to love, to learn, to really live. It’s the first day they believe they are priceless.

She is Priceless, the annual Giving Day for Mercy House Global, raised more than $80,000 for seven new sisters to join this sisterhood of second chances.

Joy + Sorrow

IN KENYA

IN THE SUMMER OF 2019, WE WELCOMED OUR 50TH MIRACLE BABY! It’s the babies who turn teen moms who are strangers into sisters.

It’s the babies who build a bridge, who close a gap, who bring joy where there is none.

It’s the babies who heal.

No matter what a teen mom has endured in Kenya that resulted in pregnancy, God allows the miracle of life to birth a new miracle of a second chance. This unlikely sisterhood turns unwanted teen moms into aunties and rivals into friends. Around the country, we are known as the home that has welcomed more than 50 miracle babies.

We know how to love a baby at Mercy House Global, but we don’t know how to lose one.

There isn’t a curriculum or a plan or a path that shows us how to endure such tragic loss. This year, we wept with Naomi, one of our teen moms who was rescued during our She is Priceless week, when she lost her newborn baby a few days after birth. We weep because we don’t know what else to do.

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Color of Hope In 2011, our Founder, author Kristen Welch, wrote these words on her blog about six months after the start of Mercy House Global - back in the early days when Mercy House had four fair trade products, handmade by the first few teen moms.

I was filling a few orders the other night – it was late and I was tired, but that’s when I noticed the colors of the first products we made in Kenya – they were dark and drab. I just assumed the varnish coating muted the colors of the paper and gave our fair trade products a dark tone. But after asking, I learned the teen moms chose the colors from magazines.

Something deep within me began to stir as I pulled the older product from the back of the shelf. I lined them up next to the newer items. The difference was unbelievable.

I didn’t realize what hope could do.

My oldest child opened the door to the garage. She found me in tears. She wasn’t surprised. (What can I say? This is an emotional business.)

I showed her the difference in the colors: before hope and after.

She said, “Mom, I was just reading an article about how color affects us. It was saying that we choose colors based on how we feel and what’s happening on the inside.”

My eyes pooled and I heard the soul-whisper: This is what hope looks like. I saw a rainbow of hope, a constellation of promise. I saw the color of hope.

All these years later, Mercy House Global believes that hope changes everything.

As the team at Mercy House Global was dreaming about creating more jobs around the globe in 2019, they saw the hope in cheerful colors and happy hues, and so the beautiful product was launched in the Color of Hope Spring and Fall collection.

From our teen moms in Kenya creating art from hand-carved stamps that have been turned into greeting cards to mothers on the street sewing bits of felt and creating a happy garland to refugees being empowered by new jobs to the grandmothers of our miracle babies hand-rolling tiny ceramic beads into bracelets - hope sheds light in the dark corners of the world, and it is changing lives.

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MERCY HOUSE GLOBAL

Refugee Candle + Soap Line In the summer of 2019, we expanded our refugee work in Houston, Texas, include a handful of Syrian refugees. These new arrivals to the USA were trained to hand-pour beautiful soy candles for our Fair Trade Friday subscription clubs. We were able to welcome these families at the airport in partnership with a local resettlement nonprofit, which allowed us to understand their immediate needs. Making candles has been a huge financial blessing in their new journey to the USA. We also began working with a refugee from the Congo to make small-batch soap. The refugees have learned and perfected their skills, and we are eager to launch their products in our wholesale and retail markets in 2020. Through providing dignified jobs, we have been amazed at the beautiful relationships that have formed, and we are eager to see how God uses work to further impact their lives.

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WEBCAST

Home for the Holidays The holidays beckon us home. Whether we celebrate with friends, family, or both, our homes can hold more than guests. They can tell stories of justice and empowerment. In November 2019, Mercy House Global stepped out in faith to produce a one-of-a-kind live webcast event filled with inspiration and fun, practical tips for incorporating Fair Trade items in our homes from a panel of speakers who are best-selling authors, influential bloggers, home stylists, musicians, and impactful leaders in the Fair Trade world.

The webcast was designed to replace the funds raised at our annual gala which support the budget of our maternity centers in Kenya. In addition to being a successful fundraiser, the Home for the Holidays Webcast was also an event that educated thousands of people on the work of Mercy House Global as it was viewed by more than 2500 households/churches. It’s our hope that this resource will be used by churches and events in the future to raise continual revenue for Mercy House Global.

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MERCY HOUSE GLOBAL

Begins its

10 Year th

IN 2020

As we look toward a new year at Mercy House Global, we are excited that 2020 marks our 10th year as a nonprofit! We are in awe of all God has done, and we look forward to seeing how He will use Mercy House Global and our collective yes in the next decade.

We will be celebrating all year with some intentional and practical ways for you to get your family involved. Happy birthday, Mercy House Global!

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Artisan Impact

What Mercy House Global has done since 2014 through Fair Trade Friday

Shipped approximately 250,000 packages from our Magnolia, Texas warehouse.

Purchased approximately $4,000,000 in Fair Trade product, Created 12 artisan groups in 5 countries providing countless jobs to that make custom product exclusively for women around the world.

Mercy House Global to sell. In most of these groups, money saving clubs have begun and artisans are being trained to use their proceeds from the product as seed money to begin their own businesses.

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W HERE WE WO R K Your support empowers women

around the world go, fly, roam, travel, voyage, explore, journey, discover, adventure.

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• Swaziland • The Philippines • Peru • Cambodia • Kenya • Haiti • Bangladesh • Ukraine • Malaysia • Ethiopia • Nepal

• India • Zambia • Uganda • Ecuador • Mexico • Costa Rica • Honduras • Malawi • Azerbaijan • USA • Tanzania

• Mozambique • Guatemala • Rwanda • Indonesia • Ghana • Sierra Leone • Jordan • Thailand • Israel • China • Vietnam

A LETTER

From our Founder

Dear friends, If you’re holding this End of the Year report, it means you have accepted the challenge to step into a deeper understanding of justice on behalf of the teen moms we serve in Kenya and the countless women empowered globally through Fair Trade job creation. We live in a world where slavery, trafficking, and oppression exist in untold numbers. Nearly a decade ago, when I traveled to Kenya for the first time, I didn’t know any of these things. I didn’t know what I didn’t know. But I learned about the world’s heart-wrenching normal, and it impacted my own comfortable one. I stood at a crossroads and I had to take William Wilberforce’s words to heart. “You may choose to look the other way, but you can never say again that you did not know.”

I wish the world didn’t need Mercy House Global. But it exists because 12-year-old mothers do. We are replacing undignified work with dignified jobs, one mother at a time. Mercy House Global is an enemy to oppression, a contradiction to the American Dream, an opportunity to the captive, an education to the consumer.

Someone once said, “Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are.” Today, it’s my prayer that you be encouraged by how your yes is helping us impact the world for Jesus. Together, we change the world.

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Financial Review 2018

2017

Contributions

$987,755

$876,758

Gross Profit Artisan Sales

$1,929,334

$1,395,488

Total Revenue

$2,917,089

$2,272,246

Program Services

$2,566,841

$2,037,107

Management and General

$147,920

$131,489

Fundraising

$102,478 $31,106

Total Expenses

$2,817,239

$2,199,702

Change in Net Assets

$99,850

$72,544

Net Assets Beginning of the Year

$553,889

$481,345

Net Assets End of the Year

$653,739

$553,889

PUBLIC SUPPORT AND REVENUE

EXPENSES

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*all financial data taken from Form 990 and CPA prepared compilation for 1/1/17 – 12/31/17. 2018 Financial statements are not available until filed with the IRS five months after the end of the calendar year.

2017 Form 990 is available upon request at info@mercyhouseglobal.org

Highlights FEBRUARY

RECORD BREAKING GLOBAL GIVING DAY

50TH BABY BORN

AUGUST

NOVEMBER

HOSTED 4TH ANNUAL HOLIDAY MARKET AT THE BIG RED BARN

COLOR OF HOPE WHOLESALE LINE LAUNCHED

MAY

JULY

REFUGEE CANDLE & SOAP LINE LAUNCHED

2019

HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS WEBCAST

DECEMBER

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Our Vision Mercy House exists to engage, empower and disciple women around the globe in Jesus’ name. Engage those with resources to say yes to the plight of women in poverty. Empower women and teenage mothers around the world through partnerships and sustainable fair trade product development. Disciple women to be lifelong followers of Jesus Christ.

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Our Model Mercy House Global is a 501c3 nonprofit organization. Our primary ministry is funding Rehema Rescue Center, which rescues pregnant teen girls, outside Nairobi, Kenya.

Rehema, the Swahili word for mercy, is a registered foundation and currently owns two residential compounds and leases a third transition home in undisclosed location. Every Fair Trade product we sell online in the Mercy House Global Marketplace, in our two local retail stores, and through our four Fair Trade Friday subscription clubs provides dignified jobs in Jesus’ name. All profits from these sales channels sustain these homes in Kenya.

We currently purchase products from over 100 artisan groups in more than 30 countries, empowering more than 5000 women.

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Our Values We value the gospel: to make God’s glory known by living out the redemptive story of Christ. It is the power we rely on for transformation (emotional, physical, psychological, spiritual) of the broken lives we seek to rescue.

We value the dignity of all life, from unborn babies to aging widows – we believe every life matters and is precious to God regardless of the circumstances under which that life was created.

We value keeping families together, preventing orphans and supporting the vital role mothers serve in the lives of their children.

We value telling the story of Mercy House with dignity and grace to engage others to say yes to God right where they are in order to make the Great Commission a daily mission.

We value education and equal rights for oppressed girls. We believe every girl deserves the right to an education.

We value integrity and transparency in our role as stewards of the financial and physical resources, so we do not detract from the overall mission.

We value economic empowerment of women as means to better the lives of their families and halt poverty.

We value prayer, servanthood, hard work, and sustainability.

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8000 Research Forest Drive, Suite 115-110 The Woodlands, TX 77382 info@mercyhouseglobal.org mercyhouseglobal.org