-Humble Beginnings-

West African Mercy Ministries was founded in the summer of 2004 as a means of following Jesus Christ in his life of mercy. Exodus 33 demonstrates that one of God’s favorite means for displaying his glory comes through the exercise of his grace and mercy. Jeremiah 22: 16 suggests that it in the defending the cause of the poor and needy that we are involving ourselves in what it means to know God. And James 1:27 states that it is in the extension of mercy that we are actually and purely worshiping God. These passages of scripture and others just like them are what God used to call a group of people who were then involved in Kettle Moraine Community Church in North Prairie, WI to form West African Mercy Ministries (WAMM).

Three years later, in November of 2007, WAMM’s first missionaries moved to the Accra Metro community of East Legon in Ghana, West Africa. While spending time acculturating in their new environment, the McIntyres began a ministry of foster care in their own home which resulted in the establishment of House Of Mercy (HOMe), the first of WAMM’s official mercy ministries under the Ghanaian sister organization West African Mercy Ministries—Ghana (WAMM—Ghana).

HOMe opened in November of 2010 on the site of Echoing Hills Village in Madina under the direction and parenting of William and Priscilla Deku HOMe was designed to be a hospice and children’s home for orphaned and abandoned children in Ghana, especial (though not exclusively) for those with special needs. For this reason it was designed to be a relatively small facility with an intended maximum occupancy of 8-10 children. When it opened HOMe had two children in care, but that quickly changed and has been fluctuating ever since as children are placed in permanent homes and new children are bought into care.

By spring of the following year HOMe had moved to its own (rented) four-bedroom, self-contained facility in Adenta Housing Down. Not only did William and Priscilla use this facility to minister to the children in residence, but they also began to reach out into the surrounding community. Truly God is using their presence to have an impact in the lives of more than those for whom they serve as parents.

In the early months of 2013, Pastor William began a new ministry to the children of the refugees that live in an area of Accra know as Agbobloshie. These families have moved to a site adjacent to the Yam Market after having been displaced from their homes in the north due to conflict reaching back to the years just following World War I. Many of these children aren’t attending school due to educational and financial restrictions that their refugee status brings with them. William’s desire is to help as many of these children as possible gain and education. His program of evangelism and education is designed to bring these students to the point where they can enter school and of course to expose them to the love of our Lord Jesus Christ.

It was in 2018 that, through the provision of God working through the hearts of many his stewards, WAMM was able to purchase a piece of property in Teiman, Accra, Ghana. That piece is now the site of two 8-bedroom, handicapped accessible homes. What a gift from God to finally own our own facility. Again, the Dekus are using this property to house the children of HOMe but to reach out into the surrounding community with the love of Christ.

Such are the humble beginnings of West African Mercy Ministries. It is our desire to see this ministry grow in it attempts to worship our God through the extension of his mercy through the lives of as many of his children as we can possibly encourage toward involvement. We desire to see more children’s home started, We hope to begin a women’s shelter for single moms and moms-to-be. We hope to develop a guest house so everyday Christians can see what ministry looks like in a developing nation. We want to extend mercy by any means God presents to us. Jesus lived mercy every day of his life on earth. He has called us to follow him in this effort and West African Mercy Ministries desires to answer that call, and encourage others to do the same.