WINTHROP – Ken and Bev Merrill of Winthrop will spend two or more years in an African village teaching and caring for orphaned and vulnerable children and teens.

They will work with the Rafiki Foundation, a 20-year-old Christian organization that is establishing schools and homes in 10 African countries: Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.

The Merrills will work in the country where they are needed most when they are fully funded and ready to go. Ken recently spent six weeks in Rwanda on a short-term mission to help with construction of facilities there, but the Merrills’ long-term service may be in one of the other countries served by the Rafiki Foundation.

The Merrills’ service, like all Rafiki operations, is funded by tax-deductible contributions from individuals and organizations. As of June 1, they had sold most of their possessions and have raised 50 percent of the financial support needed to put them on the mission field.

Ken retired in 1999 from the Alaska state troopers after 20 years as a game warden. Bev was a registered nurse before raising three sons. Both were raised in Andover, before moving to Alaska in the 1970s.

For more information, they can be reached at 512-5012 or [email protected]. For more information about the Rafiki Foundation, visit http://www.rafiki-foundation.org.