Trustee Geoff Ward met with residents at Hope House recently, and related the story of how the house and Adam Outreach Project began.
The story of Hope House and Adam Outreach Project started in 1996, at a time when I had reached a very low point in my life.
But – unknown to me then, and in spite of the situation I found myself in – God already had plans for my life…
I was the owner of a guest house in Lowestoft – the Albany Hotel. I’d bought it when it was run down and had turned into a prosperous business. I had also bought the house next door and another property locally.
My dream at that time was to live in Spain, living off the income from my buy-to-let properties.
Building a house on sand
Like the parable in the Bible of the man building a house on sand, what I had built was starting to crumble away.
The hotel was successful for a while. But then, with fewer and fewer clients making bookings and less and less money coming in, I was at risk of becoming bankrupt and losing everything I had worked hard for.
One other problem was that I had not been paying VAT for the previous three years – ?? due to bad advice from my accountant.
And as I was already maxed-out on my credit cards, I no had money left to pay what was owing.
I was facing prosecution, which could even have resulted in a jail sentence.
Like the parable in the Bible of the man building a house on sand (in Matthew chapter 7, verses 24-27), what I had built was also starting to crumble away.
I had been guilty of arrogance and pride – I had too much belief in myself, an attitude that was like an addiction.
An angel of the Lord?
One day, when everything seemed at its worst, for reasons I can’t explain I accepted an invitation from a sales rep who wanted to sell me cleaning products for the hotel.
I wasn’t interested in buying cleaning products, certainly not on a day when I had plenty of other things to worry about. Water from a burst pipe had flooded through the ceiling into one of the bedrooms and I was frantically trying to deal with that.
That sales rep was Val George, who when I looked back, seemed to have arrived like ‘an angel of the Lord’. She contacted a plumber that she knew, who quickly turned up and sorted out the problem with the burst pipe.
Then Val asked me a strange question – she said “Have you known the Lord?”.
I had, many years ago, made a commitment to accept Jesus as Lord of my life, but then had drifted away from God. I was no longer ‘walking with the Lord’ – I was not living like someone who put their trust in God to help them choose the best path in life.
What she asked me left me with food for thought, and planted a seed in my mind. Before she left, she invited me to a local church where she was a member.
So the next Sunday, I went to that church. As a lapsed Christian, it felt like coming home. I realised I had to give my life back to God, and almost overnight I found my old arrogance and pride was broken.
Choosing to trust in God
I prayed to God “You must do as you will with my life, because you have a better plan”
But I still had to deal with the VAT bailiffs, who had come to seize assets from the hotel. I managed to sell one of the properties I owned within 24 hours, which meant I could clear my debts immediately.
And from then on, I learned again to put my trust in the Lord. I prayed to God “You must do as you will with my life, because you have better plan for me than the one I have chosen.”
Two days later, I woke up with the conviction I was to start a project – one with a mission to see men, who had been broken by life’s circumstances, being healed and restored by the power of the Holy Spirit.
The following week, I was asked by Suffolk Social Services to take in a young man who was homeless.
Accepting God’s plan
From the beginning it was a sharp learning curve, that certainly tested the faith I had put in God
I had to make another important decision – to trust God that this was his plan and say yes, or to give in to fear and distrust and say no.
I decided to trust, and agreed to offer a place in the hotel to the young man, whose name was Adam – a name given by God to the first man in the Bible.
And from the beginning, it was a sharp learning curve, that certainly tested the faith I had put in God.
Not long after he arrived, Adam stole my car, a sports car, and wrote it off…
But word got around that I had started to take in people who were in need. I had fewer and fewer guests, again, but this time was providing rooms to more and more people who were in difficulties, some of whom were alcoholics.
I felt by now that I was not experienced or equipped enough to do this on my own, so approached a Christian friend, David Brown, explaining what I was doing.
He believed too, that this new direction for the hotel and for me was of the Lord. He helped me to set up a charity, which we called Adam Outreach Project. David has been the chair of trustees ever since.
Setting up Hope House
We found a location for the project at 29-30 Kirkley Cliff Road, a former elderly people’s home that had been empty for two years, and named the building Hope House.
The Albany Hotel was sold to Lester Morse, who set up East Coast Recovery there.
And the first manager we appointed at Hope House, in 2008, was Val George.
In the years since then, we have provided a home for over 350 men, a space where they can take time out to get their lives back in order, before they go back out into the world as useful members of society.
And we continue to pray every day, that you may enjoy the success that God has for each one of you.
Making the right choices, day by day
Every day we each have to make choices – life is all about choices – and if we ask God to help us make the right choice, and trust him, he will help us.
This isn’t easy, especially when everything seems to be going pear-shaped.
But we only have a limited view of any situation: only God has the complete overview, and undertands what is best for us.
As it says in the Bible (in the book of Proverbs, Chapter 3 verses 5 and 6), we should trust in the Lord and not in our own understanding.
I thank God every day that, back in 2006 when I was in a difficult situation myself, I was able to trust in him and make the choice to open the hotel to people in need.