As we continue to celebrate 40 years of Mercy, we want to share with you some encouraging stories about God’s provision for Mercy Multiplied. From the beginning, God showed Nancy that this would be a ministry built on faith and over the years He has shown up in incredible ways!
Today’s story is an excerpt from Founder & President Nancy Alcorn’s book “Echoes of Mercy”, about the beginning of our first home in West Monroe, LA. We hope this story encourages you and builds your faith as you read about God’s faithfulness.
We were still holding to our commitment not to receive state or federal funding, and the Lord honored our obedience. However, we still couldn’t afford a home and had not been able to find the right place. And because so many people had now heard about us, we were receiving calls from more and more young women seeking help. We prayed daily, believing God would provide the property and an appropriate house.
One Saturday I met with two friends to pray for the provision of a home. After our meeting, I stopped at a gas station to fill up my car. As I was pulling away, something inside of me said, “Go get a newspaper.” I almost ignored the impulse but decided that God must be trying to tell me something. I got a newspaper and turned to the real estate section.
The last advertisement I came to caught my attention. It described a large house with many bedrooms, a large recreation room, a pool and pool house, and a privacy fence surrounding the premises; yet the price was extremely low. I looked at the house that night—it was better than I could have possibly hoped. Because it was a few feet outside the city limits, no zoning laws applied. It was perfect!
The house was owned by a man and his large family who lived next door to his elderly mother. As he had prospered, he had added to his home several times instead of moving because he wanted to look after his mother. As a result, he overbuilt his house for the neighborhood and could not recover his cost.
That Saturday evening, I was so excited about the house I could barely wait to show the board members on Monday. When they saw it, they joined me in my excitement. It was obvious to all of them that this was the perfect home for Mercy Multiplied.
“There’s only one problem,” one of the board members spoke up. “We don’t have the money.”
“That’s not a problem,” I replied, smiling. “We just need to sign the purchase agreement and trust God to provide the funds within the thirty days before closing. He’s found us the right home. He’ll find us the money to pay for it.”
“During that time we can let the people who have expressed interest in Mercy know what we’re doing and give them an opportunity to help. I have a list of people I’ve met at speaking engagements who asked to be contacted when we’re ready to build. Let’s get in touch with them and tell them we’ve found a home that’s perfect for our needs priced far below the cost of building a new one. We’ll also let them know we have a deadline.”
We talked about it for a while and agreed in prayer that we should sign the purchase agreement and trust God to direct us in raising the money.
A few days after we signed the agreement, Dr. Smith came to me with three board members—Jerry Hightower, Bill Husted, and Susan Cordell—and offered their help.
“Nancy,” they said, “we’d like to introduce you to all the businesspeople we know in the area so you can share your vision with them. We think they might want to help you raise the money to buy the home.”
“That’s great!” I exclaimed. “Let’s go for it!”
During the next thirty days the four of them introduced me to numerous businesspeople with whom they had established relationships over the years. God moved both Christians and non-Christians to offer substantial donations to Mercy. The size of their gifts varied, but the average donation was about three thousand dollars. At the end of the thirty days, we had two-thirds of the money in cash. To make up the difference, one of the members of the board graciously volunteered to sign a short-term loan.
With the money we received and the loan (which was paid off within a year), we bought our first home. The gentleman who sold us the house was pleased with how we were planning to use it. I assured him we would take good care of his home and check on his mother regularly.
Now that we owned the home, we were ready to begin renovating it to meet our specific needs. We put the word out to different churches from all over the Monroe area. People from all denominations responded, coming together for several workdays in which we cleaned and painted the house. So many people were willing to help that we had to eat lunch in shifts from a huge pot of chili. Not only did a great deal of work get accomplished, but we had a wonderful time of fun and fellowship as well.
You can purchase a copy of Nancy Alcorn’s Echoes of Mercy, by clicking here.