Reviving Hearts, Renewing Minds, Releasing Leaders
Merryfield Village is modeling after LIV Village, a children’s village outside of Durban. The areas of ministry placed in the hearts of the founders of Merryfield are similar to LIV’s, and the graphic below represents how the village could be laid out. Depending on the size and shape of the property we acquire, and future needs, it could change. For more information on the vision, please click here.
One of Merryfield Village’s dreams was to have horses for therapy with our children. In our planning, we thought it would be a program started in phase two or three. Just a few months ago, we were introduced to a lady that had a horse farm, she told us she needed to sell a horse, and a family in the U.S. donated money for MV to purchase it! So now horse therapy is a phase one outreach. Also, not long after that, a woman approached us and told us she had two rescue horses. She said she didn’t know then why she took in the horses. But now, after hearing of Merryfield, she knew she rescued them for us. She has donated those two horses. We are excited as this type of therapy can be a tremendous tool in helping children coming from traumatized backgrounds. Over the past month or so we’ve been to able to take children and adults out to the horses to introduce them to this type of therapy.
“We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps.” Proverbs 16:9
Click on Continue Reading to learn about the Vision
Some 9 years ago, the Lord allowed a prophetic word spoken over us to burn in our hearts for years, not knowing when that word would come to pass. The day we had prayed towards and dreamed about, has finally arrived when we received our first two foster children into care under the ministry of Merryfield Village. It has been a long, learning process to get to this point of being able to help some of the over 5 million orphan and vulnerable children of South Africa. We are beyond excited to welcome our first two sisters into care. This is so exciting as we have prayed and planned and seen God’s hand through it all. It’s such an exciting step towards helping these children and seeing the Lord’s plan of a children’s village come to fruition. To read the full story behind the dream of Merryfield please go to https://merryfieldvillage.com/the-village/history/
Not long after we moved into our home we needed to buy something in order to cut our lawn. We couldn’t afford a lawnmower so we were looking at purchasing a weed-eater, because that is the choice of equipment here for cutting your lawn on a budget. As we were standing in the store, Julie and I were debating whether to get one or not because we were very low on funds. We knew if we purchased one, it would cut into our grocery budget. Unbeknownst to us, Sterling overheard our conversation and told us we should get one and just trust that God will take care of us. Oh, out of the mouth of babes. So we decided to buy the weed-eater. That night as I was checking email I received a message informing us that a friend of ours had donated $200 to us. When we told the boys how God had provided, Sterling just looked at us and said, “Told you so”. God showed our family his faithfulness through a simple act of faith through our son.