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Mercy Schools children and teachers singing in the school courtyard

Children’s choir

They preach by singing.

The Mercy For Life Africa Children’s Choir is a ministry, not a performance troupe. The children who receive fees and food also give — in rehearsal, in worship, and on film.

Why a choir

A child who sings is a child who is still becoming.

In Makindye the choir is how many neighbours first meet the organisation. Drums, harmony, a gospel that can travel farther than a pamphlet. When a church in Idaho wanted to know if the work was real, they came and they listened. The children were already singing.

Every film below is from the Mercy For Life Children’s Choir YouTube channel. Tap a picture to open it on YouTube.

Support the children Open the YouTube channel

On YouTube

47 films from the choir.

From the field

The courtyard, singing.

From the field

The courtyard sings

The whole school in the yard — cream shirts, check skirts, papers waving, teachers at the back — singing together under the climbing frame. This is the choir as a neighbourhood, not a stage.

From the field

Merry Christmas, all around the world

The children hold lyric sheets and sing: I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas, all around the world. A small boy in a beige jumper keeps the clap. The gospel they preach is a song you can join from Idaho or from the next compound.

A child in a Mercy Schools shirt kneels before a statue of Mary on a chair

From the field

A child, a statue, a quiet minute

A Mercy Schools boy kneels before a small statue of Mary. The choir preaches by singing. Faith in this house also looks like a child who has been given time to pray.

Children in white choir robes with gold trim stand at a church doorway

From the field

In the white robes

Children of the house in choir robes at a church door. They do not only receive fees and food. They give — in rehearsal, in worship, and on a Sunday morning.

Mercy Schools children and teachers sing together in a paved courtyard beside a colourful climbing frame

From the field

The whole yard, singing

Cream shirts, check skirts, lyric sheets in the air, the climbing frame behind them. The choir is not a stage act. It is the neighbourhood, on its feet, preaching by singing.

A Mercy Schools girl in a cream shirt holds a lyric sheet while singing in the courtyard

From the field

A lyric sheet, a voice

One girl, one page, the rest of the choir around her. Rehearsal looks like this: a child who has been given something to sing, and is not ashamed to sing it.

Five Mercy School children in white and maroon shepherd costumes hold wooden staffs at a school doorway

From the field

Shepherds at the school door

Mercy School children in white robes and maroon wraps stand with wooden staffs at the office door. The choir does not only sing. At Christmas they become the story they have been rehearsing.

Mercy School children perform a nativity play in a church: a shepherd, Mary holding a baby, and a child in a zebra costume

From the field

The nativity, on a church floor

A shepherd, Mary with the child, a zebra in a white sheet — the Mercy For Life Africa Children’s Choir playing the Christmas story under a tree of lights. They preach by singing, and on this night they preach by becoming the gospel.