History of Hands of Mercy

Hands of Mercy, (HOM), began as the internship project of Deaconess Patricia Nuffer Nov, 2006, as a partnership with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in South Sudan(ELCS) to reach people with disabilities, through two goals: bringing the tangible love of Jesus Christ and marketable skills training. HOM was incorporated in the state of Indiana in 2008 and received 501(c)(3) status in May, 2010, plus the RSO(Registered Service Organization) status in June 2011.

HOM operated out of a hut donated by the ELCS until August 2009 when it opened its first permanent structure: a building with a classroom, a shop, store room, office and a photo studio. A second building was begun March 2010 and opened August 2010 with a classroom for special needs children and the Adult Learning/ Deaconess Training Center.

Hands of Mercy South Sudan is currently run by Hands of Mercy, Inc., headed by an LCMS deaconess, Patricia Nuffer and a Concordia Theological Seminary deaconess intern, Katelyn Hiett, plus its Board of Directors. Local visits to the Center in South Sudan are made twice yearly for a month at a time and last summer, Katelyn served part of her year long internship on site. At all times, a local Sudanese woman is the on site manager, and a local pastor is the spiritual leader. A full time cook is employed and the center provides a hot meal daily to twenty-thirty people with disabilities, plus the mothers and children involved in the Special Needs Classroom. Two of the HOM people served are also paid employees to teach the Adult Learning classes and to run the bakery and photography business.

Self sustainability has always been a priority with HOM. Our early efforts were directed toward the development of craft, jewelry and clothing for sale. Solar recharging was added as well as solar drying of local fruit. A small bakery was built and we began to sell bread to the community. We purchased goats to raise and sell and are currently initiating our poultry business with 100-day-old chicks to raise for egg production and sale.