The Mercers
The Mercers
Missionaries to South Africa
Oct. – Dec. 2025
Precious Prayer Partners,
Missionary letters are either called prayer letters or news letters. Down through the years, and even recently, people have asked me, “What can we pray about for you?” That has always been so encouraging to know that people want to and do pray specifically for our needs. Recently, during an evening service at one of our supporting churches, it was so nice to see a missionary’s letter on the back of their church bulletin and to hear them pray specifically for the needs mentioned. Our letter this month may not have much news, but it does include some prayer requests. Thank you to all who pray regularly and specifically for us and our needs.
Marion and I hope that you had a wonderful Christmas, and we pray that your 2026 will be filled with spiritual fruit, good health, and all the rich blessings of our Heavenly Father. Once again, we are so blessed to have had another year of your love, prayers, and financial support, and we thank you and praise the Lord for it. It is all so undeserved, but then that is exactly what our salvation and every other blessing from the Lord is: Grace, Grace, Grace.
Opportunities to share the Gospel have been few and far between, and not seeing anyone get saved for some time really concerns us. I would like to blame it on “end times,” but that is only partially the problem. When I think of what we used to do and what we do now, I am quite ashamed. Age and health are also only partial excuses, not sufficient in themselves. Please pray for the Lord to motivate us and to open doors of opportunity for us to witness and to be a testimony for Him. I did have one decent opportunity about a month ago, but again with no positive result. I have not played golf for about fifteen years now, but I did go into an interesting golf shop recently. It was more like a museum, with old books, golf clubs, and different golfing artifacts. I struck up a conversation with the owner, a very nice man, an ex-professional, and a relation of the late great golfer, Payne Steward. The conversation went well until we got onto the subject of salvation. The man is a well-read Roman Catholic who has rubbed shoulders with high-ranking Catholics worldwide. He almost bragged about his good knowledge of the Bible. Once I steered the conversation to spiritual matters, and specifically salvation, he began to get a little “hot under the collar.” With a raised voice and quite agitated, he said, “I don’t believe this nonsense that there is only one way to Heaven (ie, through Jesus Christ), and that all we have to do is receive Jesus as Savior.” He had obviously heard the truth before, did not like it then, and still did not like it now. I shared some Bible truths with him, but did not push it, hoping to have an open door to go back. Please pray for him, and for the Lord to give me wisdom as I return.
Our five churches in South Africa are all holding their own. They are faithfully doing whatever they can to get the Gospel out and to grow their churches, but things there are also slow. There is definitely greater hostility today towards those who share the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I recently received a letter wherein the government over there is targeting churches in different ways. Please pray for courage for our people over there and for us over here.