We are a non-profit organization with a vision to reach people for Christ through providing food, education, medical assistance, and more.
History
Hand of Mercy Ministries came into existence through a divine appointment in 2014. Through a mutual friend on Facebook, Melody Howarth, one of the founders of Hand of Mercy Ministries, accepted a friend request from Apostle Dr Jean Daniel B., affectionately known as “Brother Daniel”, although she didn’t know who he was and wasn’t in the habit of befriending strangers on Facebook. Soon after, Brother Daniel’s son was in trouble, and Brother Daniel posted on Facebook asking for prayer for his son. Melody prayed for his son, and that night, she had a dream that she was in India.
In the dream, Brother Daniel and the whole church were worshiping on a balcony at a hotel facing the water. Melody was there as well, standing in the back wearing a sari and feeling like this was her church. Everyone’s hands were up in worship. Melody looked up and saw an ominous black cloud coming off the water, which looked and sounded like it was breathing. She pointed it out to the others in the church and yelled for everyone to get inside and grab the chairs so they don’t blow away. Everyone ran inside the lobby and hid under desks and tables, including Melody. But soon she got up and looked outside, still seeing the dark cloud. Then she thought, “Wait a minute – this is an attack of the enemy!” So she said to everyone, “Get up – you need to do warfare!” The men slowly began to get up first, and then everyone started to pray. The cloud stopped moving and stopped over the water.
After having the dream, Melody looked on Facebook to see where Brother Daniel was from and realized he was from India! Two weeks prior, she had attended a class that Gary Fishman gave about what to do if you have a word for another nation or another state. She wasn’t originally going to go, but had changed her mind. Remembering the class, she called up Gary, told him the dream about India, and asked him if she should tell Brother Daniel about the dream. Gary said let me think about it; later, he responded that he would tell him the dream. Following his counsel, Melody sent Brother Daniel a private message that she had a dream – and she didn’t know if he believed that God gives dreams – but she had a dream, and if he wants to know the dream and the interpretation, he should let her know. About 10 hours later, he sent her a message asking for the dream. He said that the dream was an exact picture of what had been happening.
After this, Melody and Brother Daniel started messaging more on Facebook – sending more dreams from both of them to Gary for interpretation and confirmation. At one point, Melody had a vision of a man dressed in white with a white beard, white hair, and a white hat with a glow about him, and God said that He’s bringing India back to the 1970s. When she shared the vision with Brother Daniel, he knew right away who the man in the vision was – Bro. D. John Rabindranath. It turned out that he had written Brother Daniel a letter when Brother Daniel was a young man – saying he was going to be a great man of God and that he was to stay humble and God would elevate/promote him. Melody looked up a picture of the man and confirmed it was the man in the vision.
Through dreams, visions, and words of knowledge, Melody Howarth and Apostle Dr Jean Daniel B. became friends, and Melody began personally supporting his mission organization, Victory of the Cross Ministries. Before long, she realized that in order to help more substantially, she needed to start a non-profit organization; and thus, Hand of Mercy Ministries was born.