Mike and Lori Salley are the founders of Show Mercy International. They reside in Albany, Oregon with their two daughters Sarah and Katelin, ages 10 and 8. Mike and Lori were married in 1995 after meeting while attending Louisiana State University. They have a passion to assist the poor and hurting, specifically focusing on the orphaned and abandoned children in third world countries such as Uganda. They also have a desire to encourage people right here in the United States to pursue the dreams that God has placed in their hearts and to know that with God everything is possible. To invite Mike or Lori to share at your church or gathering click here.
A History in Business:
Mike graduated from LSU in 1992. In 1994 he began what would become a very successful business career with a fortune 100 company. After being promoted many times over the next several years, Mike and Lori moved to Tennessee where he was was earning a multiple six figure income and overseeing a successful region with hundreds of employees. Mike and Lori were also very involved in their local church in Knoxville, Tennessee. Mike was the worship leader and a member of the Board of Directors and Lori was involved in leading the Women’s Ministry. In November of 2002, everything would change.
Their Call to Ministry:
Mike began to sense a call of God on his life for "full time ministry." While this was out of his paradigm of thinking, he began to pray and seek God concerning this stirring that he was experiencing. One day while praying, Mike experienced an encounter with God that would change the course of their lives forever. Mike heard God speak to Him and tell him that he was to leave his business career in Tennessee and move to Oregon where His plans for Mike and Lori and their ministry would begin to be revealed. Neither of them had ever even been to the West Coast. They didn’t even know anyone living in Oregon. This would be a huge step of faith to leave the security and income that they were receiving. They decided in their hearts that they would pursue this calling if God would confirm to both of them that this was certainly His plan for their lives.
Over the next week, three major confirmations were given to them confirming this move to the West Coast. The final one was when they received a phone call from an individual that they had not seen or spoken to in many weeks. She told them that God had awakened her from her sleep a week earlier and told her to call us with a message. The message, along with many other encouraging words, was that God had spoken to her that we would be moving to Oregon! Soon afterwords, Mike resigned from his position with his company and the Salley family, moved to Oregon knowing nobody.
Founding Show Mercy International:
In September of 2003, Mike took a short term missions trip to Rwanda, Africa out of a passionate desire to not only hear about, but truly experience the Gospel that you read about in the Bible. He was not disappointed. Not only did he experience God in a powerful way, but he was enlightened to the extreme difficulty and suffering that the people of Eastern Africa were experiencing. He especially took notice of the plight of the many orphaned and abandoned children that he came in contact with. His heart was broken for these children as he saw them all alone on the streets, scavenging for food like animals and even prostituting themselves just to stay alive. Thinking about his own children and how he would feel if they had to experience this kind of existence, he recognized that this was not OK with God and that he could not just stand by and pretend that everything would be OK and do nothing.
When Mike returned home, he spoke to Lori and convinced her to go with him on an upcoming trip to Uganda and see what he had just experienced. They traveled together to Uganda in December of 2003. While there, Lori’s heart was impacted in a major way. She experienced God’s love for herself and the people of Uganda in such a dramatic way. Many events unfolded on this trip that pointed Mike and Lori in the direction of forming Show Mercy International.
In July of 2004, Show Mercy was officially founded and registered as a 501c3, nonprofit organization. From that point on, God began providing financial resources that enabled Show Mercy to begin build homes for many orphaned and abandoned children. Since that time, the ministry has continued to be blessed enabling them to continue providing assistance to hundreds of hurting children in Uganda and India. This includes providing shelter, food, clothing, medical care, education and love to many hurting children.
