Deb Kluttz, Executive Pastor at Westview Community Church
and Program Director at Homestead Ministries shared with us how a Hands That
Heal training in October of 2009 led to the creation of an aftercare home in
her community:
“Back in October 2009 two of us girls from our church went
to a HTH training in Indiana at the Wesleyan Church headquarters. We cam back
and shared what we learned with some of the women at our church and all of them
became super passionate about the issue of human trafficking. We read some more
books, educated ourselves, and began holding prayer events in the local
community at strip clubs and truck stops quarterly for the next two years. We were
just in a time of prayer, saying ‘God, we know we are supposed to do something,
but we don’t know what.’
After two years one of the women in our ministry tragically
and unexpectedly died and her husband donated $25,000 to the women’s ministry
because he knew how passionate his wife was and trafficking prevention. Then,
we got a call from a couple at our church about an empty rental property they
had that they wanted to be used for our anti-trafficking ministry. So we had
this chunk of money and this empty house. Things just started to snowball and
the Lord really began to unfold what we were supposed to do. A local furniture
store donated to furnish the entire house with new furniture and in July 2012
we opened our doors.
Since then we have had 30 ladies, 4 graduates and expanded
the Homestead to have local families take in women with children and provide
them with the same support off-site (as the aftercare home is 18+). We see
ourselves as the last prong on the road to recovery– reintegration into
society. We put our girls on a new career path, usually with local business
people, and help they start a new life.
It really is HTH that was the catalyst that started it all.
I continually go back to the resource, share it with others and remind myself
of all the good information in there.”
Right now, please join us in praying for Homestead
Ministry’s annual volunteer training this weekend (April 15-16), and for the funding
and people to expand their workforce so that they may continue to help more
young women out of the trafficking industry. Please visit The Homestead website to give a gift or learn more about the home.
