Twelve churches. Twelve women. One home, carried.
One church. One place. $500 a month. That is the entire idea.
Mercy Manor has twelve places. When twelve churches each carry one, the ongoing care of every woman in this home is covered — and every other gift the ministry receives is freed to grow the work.
$500 a month is one woman's everything. There are twelve of her.
On our Give page we call $500 "the whole number" — because it is. One woman's room, food, counseling, case management, transportation, and everyday needs: all of it, for one month, for five hundred dollars. The home holds twelve women. Twelve churches, each carrying one place, and the care of the entire home is covered — not helped, not subsidized. Covered.
Twelve places. Every one of them open.
This wall will fill. Each place a church covenants to carry gets that church's name, in gratitude, for as long as it carries it — here, in our annual report, and before the community. Right now every place is open, which means one thing: your church can be first.
One thing your church will never be given: the woman's identity. You will always know which place is yours; you will never be told who is in it. A woman rebuilding her life is not a fundraising exhibit — that line is written out in full in our privacy promise, and The Twelve honors it proudly.
Draft — recognition beyond this wall (honors at the annual Roundup, printed annual report) to be confirmed with Sharon and the board before publishing those specifics.
What carrying a place means for your congregation
Your name on the wall
Your church, named on this page and in Mercy Manor's annual report, for every month you carry a place. Due credit, publicly and permanently given — because a congregation that houses a woman for a year has earned it.
A quarterly letter from the home
Four times a year: how the woman in your place is doing — her milestones, her months, her progress — always in the aggregate, never her identity. Real enough to pray over. Guarded enough to be worthy of her.
A visit, every year
Sharon or a board member comes to you — a Sunday service, a missions night, a small group — to tell your congregation what its faithfulness is building, in person.
A year of rebuilding your people watched happen
This is the real return. Somewhere in Hood County a woman is getting her life back, and your congregation will know — not abstractly, but month by month — that it was carried by them.
Twelve carried places set every other dollar free
Today, every gift Mercy Manor receives has to stretch across everything at once — care, operations, the building, the future. When The Twelve is full, the care of the home's women is spoken for. Every other gift — every individual monthly donor, every one-time gift, every fundraiser — is then free to build what comes next: first, retiring the $95,000 remaining on the home itself, so that no dollar ever again leaves a woman's care to pay for principal.
Draft — longer-term expansion vision (additional capacity or future homes) to be stated here once the board owns it as a published goal.
How a church carries a place
A conversation
Your pastor or elders sit down with Sharon — in person or by phone. Every question answered plainly: the program, the finances, the guardrails. Nothing signed, nothing owed. Call 817-881-6613 or use the form below.
The covenant
Your church commits to one place for twelve months — $500 a month, given however suits you: a monthly online gift, a check from the missions budget, or your denomination's giving channels. Two churches may share a place at $250 each; the wall names both.
The place is yours
Your church's name goes on the wall, and the quarterly letters begin. From that month forward, one of the twelve places in this home is carried — by you.
Draft — a printed one-page covenant summary for elder boards is being prepared with Sharon; the twelve-month term and sixty-day notice ask below are proposed and await board sign-off.
Four ways congregations fund a place
A missions-budget line
$6,000 a year, budgeted like any other missions commitment — except this one is twenty minutes away, and your congregation can watch it work.
Twelve families at $42
Twelve households in your church, each giving about $42 a month, carry one woman entirely. Twelve carrying one, inside twelve carrying twelve.
A class or small group
A Sunday-school class or Bible study adopts the place as its own ministry — the model already carrying Mercy Manor's earliest church support.
A shared place
Two churches at $250 a month each. Both names go on the wall. Smaller congregations shouldn't be priced out of the covenant — and they aren't.
What church boards ask us about The Twelve
Can a smaller church join The Twelve?
Yes. Two churches may share a place — $250 a month each — and the wall names both. And if a monthly commitment isn't the right first step, start with the Church Partner Toolkit: a bulletin mention, a needs-list collection, a giving Sunday. Every rung on that ladder matters, and none of them obligates the next.
Doesn't a woman pay her own way after month four?
Partly — and that's the point of the program. Her first four months are fully free to her, carried by sponsors like you. From month five, once she's working, she contributes $500 a month toward her own care — a milestone of her rebuilding, not a replacement for your sponsorship. Your place carries her free months, keeps the place stable year-round, and funds the free months of the next woman who takes it.
Does our church choose or meet the woman in our place?
No — and this protects her. Your church carries a place in the home, never a named, identifiable woman. You'll always know which place is yours, and you'll receive updates on how the woman in it is doing, in the aggregate, without her identity. A woman rebuilding her life should never be someone's fundraising exhibit. That commitment is written out in our privacy promise.
Is the sponsorship tax-deductible, and how is it paid?
Yes. Mercy Manor Home for Women is a 501(c)(3) public charity (EIN 93-2122542); gifts are tax-deductible to the full extent allowed by law. Churches give however suits them best — a monthly online gift, a check from the missions budget, or through denominational giving channels. 100% of online gifts reach Mercy Manor; our processor charges the ministry no platform fee. See financial transparency.
What if our church has to stop?
Then you stop, with our gratitude for every month you carried. We ask for a heads-up of about sixty days so the place can be re-covenanted without a gap in her care — that's all. No contract, no penalty, no awkwardness. Churches have seasons too.
Does our denomination matter?
No. Mercy Manor is non-denominational, and its earliest church supporters already span traditions. The covenant is about one woman's year of care, not doctrinal alignment. If your church confesses Christ and wants a woman to have a bed, a counselor, and a year — you belong on this wall.
Tell us where your congregation is
No obligation begins here — only a conversation. Sharon reads every one of these herself. Prefer the phone? 817-881-6613.