How HTH Led to an Aftercare Home

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.