Outreach Update: Taking The Message To Our Schools
One of the most significant efforts of the month was a school outreach initiative that took our team to 14 high schools across the Boksburg area. We met with principals and teachers to explore how Village Mercy can partner with schools in addressing substance abuse among learners. What we heard from educators was sobering. The rate of drug addiction and school dropout is alarming, and it's getting worse. At one school we visited, 36 learners were recently suspended after being caught on video smoking marijuana within the school premises. That is not an isolated incident. It reflects a pattern playing out in communities across Gauteng, and it reminded us why this work matters. Despite the weight of those conversations, the response from school leadership was overwhelmingly positive. Doors have opened. Relationships have been built. The groundwork has been laid for what we believe will be a meaningful and ongoing partnership. We now await confirmation to begin presenting formally, and we trust the Lord to open those doors in His timing. Our presentations will feature testimonies from men who have walked the road of addiction and come out the other side by God's grace, stories that resonate with young people in ways that statistics never can.
A Word From The Director
Dear Friends of Village Mercy,
February has been a month of stepping out, beyond our walls, into schools, conversations, and communities where the need is urgent and the harvest is great. It has also been a month of tangible blessing, as generous friends have come alongside us in practical ways that have directly benefited our residents. And, like every month in this work, it has brought its share of honest challenges that we lay before the Lord and before you. We are grateful for every one of you who prays, gives, and walks this road with us. Your partnership makes this work possible. Your brother and co-laborer in Christ, Edward Matovu Executive Director
A Gift That Will Keep Giving: Computers Donated To Village Mercy
We are thrilled to share that five computers have been generously donated to Village Mercy by Ryan Weeks of Solve-IT-Support (solveitsupport.co.za). Ryan didn’t just drop off equipment, he came personally to install the computers and is actively working with us on how to use them most effectively for the benefit of our residents.
This donation opens exciting possibilities. We hope to use these computers to upskill our residents through short courses and digital literacy training, practical tools for reintegration into the workforce. Many of our men have never had access to technology in a structured, purposeful way. This could change that.
We are deeply grateful to Ryan for his generosity and his hands-on investment in the men of Village Mercy.
MEET THE TEAM
Nhlakanipho Sithole — Program Director
Nhlakanipho was born into a traditional Zulu family and grew up between KwaZulu-Natal and Johannesburg in a large polygamous household where Ancestralism shaped everyday life, from burning incense at night to sacrificing goats and visiting diviners. He is the seventh born of eleven children. Christianity was not part of his world.
That changed slowly, quietly, through the witness of his older sister Zama, who came to faith as a teenager and bore the cost of it gracefully. On New Year’s Eve 2016, Nhlakanipho attended a crossover service with Zama. As midnight approached and he began to pray, God overwhelmed him with a deep, unshakeable conviction of sin. He wept. He cried out. And he gave Christ his everything, counting the cost he later found words for in Matthew 16:24: (“Let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” — Matthew 16:24)
The following year, his mother came to faith too. Today, she, Zama, and Zama’s husband Nkululeko are all members of Kathorus Bible Church, a family transformed by grace.
Nhlakanipho studied Linguistics at the University of Johannesburg and has since pursued focused ministry training, including a Biblical Counselling course through SMTI and specialized addiction counselling training with The Addiction Connection (TAC). He serves as a regular preacher and Bible study leader at Kathorus Bible Church, Vosloorus, where he is also a candidate elder.
He has been part of the Village Mercy family since the very beginning, back in 2020, when the ministry was operating out of an RDP house in Phumula. He came in temporarily as house manager and Bible study leader, but through God’s providence, his role has grown in ways he never imagined. In 2022, he had the privilege of spending three and a half months in the United States, fundraising for Village Mercy and meeting in person many of the faithful supporters who give sacrificially to this work.
As Program Director, Nhlakanipho carries a deep burden for men to encounter the Word of God not as an obligation, but as living truth. He is the author of Rooted in Wisdom: God’s Blueprint for Life & Freedom, a 24-week devotional workbook for men in addiction recovery anchored in the book of Proverbs. He is currently developing a companion Facilitator’s Guide to serve as a practical training manual for counselors, pastors, mentors, and group leaders walking alongside men in recovery.
Nhlakanipho married Nothando in November 2025, and together they are building a home grounded in faith. In his spare time, he enjoys travelling and sightseeing, reading theology and history, following technology and current affairs, and photography. He has a particular love for Maskandi.
A Challenge
We Are Holding Before The Lord
We want to be honest with you, as we always try to be. One of our most pressing challenges this season is financial sustainability for our residents.
The majority of the men who come to us are from low-income communities and are unable to contribute financially toward the cost of their stay. This places real strain on our resources, stretching our ability to meet basic needs and to fairly compensate those who do the work of the ministry. This month brought more applications through our doors, and while we rejoice at every man who reaches out for help, we have had to be cautious. We cannot accept more residents than we can feed.
We are holding this before God and asking Him to provide. And we are asking you to pray alongside us, specifically that the Lord would raise up financial partners who can help carry this burden, and that families who are able to contribute something toward their loved one’s stay would step up and share in the responsibility.
“The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
— Matthew 9:37–38