Nani | “Rooted, Built Up, Overflowing with Thankfulness”
There is something sacred about a young person standing before their church family and saying, this is where I became who I am. On May 17, 2026, three of our graduating seniors did exactly that, hear more from Mariani Mercado!
Nani grew up immersed in ministry from birth as the daughter of Pastor Jose. Faith wasn’t a new concept when she arrived at Coker. But Coker became the place where that lifelong foundation was put into practice. She arrived right as her freshman year began — a massive transition that meant a new campus, new community, and the lingering upheaval of a post-pandemic world. What she found here, she said, was a people who didn’t just teach her how to sit in a pew, but empowered her to step out and actually serve.
Student ministry challenged her to lead alongside her peers. She described the particular gift of sitting in a circle with other students, opening Scripture together, and realizing that God could use her to encourage someone else. “It taught me that my faith isn’t just for my own comfort or my salvation,” she said. “It is a calling to actively uplift, guide, and grow with the people around me.”
Coker also became a place where Nani’s spiritual gifts — including prophecy and a heart for deliverance ministry — weren’t turned away or made to feel strange. She watched this church host the Unseen Conference, hungry to learn and grow in the things of the Spirit. “You created an environment where the Holy Spirit was welcomed, not restrained,” she told the congregation.
And then there’s Coker Español — serving alongside her father in the Spanish-speaking community, watching him minister, being part of that alongside him. “It’s something I will carry with me forever,” she said simply.
Nani heads to UIW to study cardiovascular perfusion — the science of keeping a patient’s heart beating during open heart surgery. But her ultimate prayer stretches far beyond a medical career. She believes God has called her to one day open a nonprofit clinic in Africa, reaching people in severe poverty who cannot access life-saving care.
“My greatest hope is that this medical work will serve as a bridge,” she said. “I want to use physical healing to point people directly to our ultimate spiritual healer. I want to keep their physical hearts beating so that Jesus can transform their spiritual hearts.”
She closed with Colossians 2:6-7 — rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith, overflowing with thankfulness — and spoke the quiet, powerful truth of what Coker has been for her: “the rich, fertile soil where my faith was built up for this exact purpose.”
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