We rise by lifting - Adullam House
4
Rev. Peter Spackman (President) Mr. Brian Paterson (Vice President) Angela Spackman (COO) Rev. Johnny Jones Mr. Dave Bryant Mrs. Gladys R. Watson Mr. Bob Messick Mrs. Naomi Hellums Mrs. Rachel Harborth We rise by lifting others Robert Ingersoll These amazing young ladies come voluntarily, from many different states and countries to give their love and time to our babies, who are born to mothers in prison. During their internship at Adullam House, not only are they full-time, sweet mommies to our babies, they also become great friends to our older teens, who want nothing more than to “hang out at the Intern House”! Just imagine your teens having an endless supply of lovely God-fearing, young people to do life with. It is God’s wonderful provision to surround all of our kids with inspirational young people, who have chosen to give precious years of their lives to pour love into others. Also pictured, is baby Ja ’dah, whose progress many of you have been following. On her last trip to Children’s Hospital in Birmingham, her specialist remarked how well she was doing. He told our ladies, “Whoever her nurse is, please tell her she is doing an amazing job”. Of course, we had to tell them that it wasn’t a ‘nurse’, but a small army of dedicated, loving, young angels. Oct/Nov 2016
Transcript of We rise by lifting - Adullam House
Rev. Peter Spackman (President) Mr. Brian Paterson (Vice President)
Angela Spackman
(COO) Rev. Johnny Jones Mr. Dave Bryant Mrs. Gladys R. Watson Mr. Bob Messick Mrs. Naomi Hellums Mrs. Rachel Harborth
We rise by
lifting others
Robert Ingersoll
These amazing young ladies come voluntarily, from many different states and countries to give their love and time to our babies, who are born to mothers in prison. During their internship at Adullam House, not only are they full-time, sweet mommies to our babies, they also become great friends to our older teens, who want nothing more than to “hang out at the Intern House”! Just imagine your teens having an endless supply of lovely God-fearing, young people to do life with. It is God’s wonderful provision to surround all of our kids with inspirational young people, who have chosen to give precious years of their lives to pour love into others. Also pictured, is baby Ja’dah, whose progress many of you have been following. On her last trip to Children’s Hospital in Birmingham, her specialist remarked how well she was doing. He told our ladies, “Whoever her nurse is, please tell her she is doing an amazing job”. Of course, we had to tell them that it wasn’t a ‘nurse’, but a small army of dedicated, loving, young angels.
Oct/Nov 2016
all I ever wanted to do was help people.
When I was about 8 I knew that I loved to be around children. When I am around children I
feel complete. I soon started babysitting and my
mother always knew at Thanksgiving, I was going to be sacrificing my time letting another family shop for their
children’s Christmas. So when I was told about Adullam
House I prayed, and the Lord answered with a big
“Yes”, multiple times! When I learned that these children’s moms were in prison I knew immediately
why the Lord wanted me there. I
have a grandparent in prison which is why the work is so dear to my
heart, and so I feel a close
connection to the children. Thank you Lord, for allowing me to pour
into their lives, and them into mine.
Our Interns, who come to care for our children, often have no means of transportation while they are here in Alabama. Sometimes on their ‘day off’ they have no way to go into town to shop, or simply to have a ‘change of scenery’. After we made this known on our Facebook page, it was only a matter of hours before we received a call from Grays Tire and Service Center, who donated this amazing Pontiac for the use of our staff. This business has been so kind to Adullam House in so many ways, including taking our kids
for special days on the Lake! On behalf of all these young girls who are now mobile—a great big thank you to David and Julie Gray!
From Calsie, an Intern-My mom once told
me a story of when I was four and holding my doll. I looked up at her and said, “When I grow
up I just want to hold babies.” I have helped in
our church Nursery for as long as I can remember and have never lost
that feeling of wanting to help
children. When I visited Adullam House last February
God told me, ”This is where you
are supposed to be”. I love it, and the kids have blessed me so much!
Honoring Our Volunteers They say that volunteers and donors typically stay with an organization for about 2 years. We beg to differ. Some of our donors and suppor ters have been helping Adullam House for more than 20 years! Likewise, some of our volunteers have been coming to Adullam House and rocking babies for almost 15 years. Phenomenal! Last week we hosted a luncheon “fit for a king” to honor these precious ladies. Several of our children shared “cardboard testimonies” and reduced every one present to tears. The ladies were served by young women that they had held on their laps, when they themselves were babies. Those faithful volunteers wept, as they reminisced, seeing the fruits of their labors, now in turn serving them. Miss Ruth, who has been helping for a dozen years or more, swore to keep coming to love on our little ones until the day she died. She is in her 80’s!
Dominos—It Starts With One! It was October 1996, exactly 20 years ago, when I last sat down to help write the Adullam House newsletter. Back then, the crazy dream of David’s Cave was no more than a tiny seed planted deep in the hearts of Pete and Angie Spackman. At that stage, I was a brand new Christian. I was being overwhelmed with humility and compassion at the sudden realization of the scale of sacrifice my sister, her husband, and their family had made in their commitment to serve the Lord and save the lost. It had compelled me to put
down on paper what they would never share personally, and the feedback from that article was mind blowing. I still have letters that people wrote to me in response. For those of you who have faithfully stood alongside us from day one, or indeed, joined us along the way, you surely have witnessed how that tiny seed of hope has been lovingly and beautifully nurtured and cultivated by our amazing staff, volunteers, and you, our dear friends and supporters. It has also been supernaturally harvested and multiplied by our bountiful God.
I could not have imagined back then, the vision of God’s goodness and grace I see before me today: Materially, God’s provision has been mighty, but in human terms, the impact of change in the lives of our children is incomparable. The babies I cuddled 20 years ago are now amazing young men and women, towering above me, fully equipped and eager to establish their place in the world and their part in His plan. They are eager to be ‘sent’ and to start changing lives themselves. How blessed we are to bear witness to these transformed lives and wave off an army of disciples such as this. But do not fear; at the other end, the Lord just keeps delivering those babies to us, one after the other – we have 10 in our nursery right now “Praise Jesus”!
As I reflect on the amazing changes that the past 20 years have brought forth to the life of the ministry and in the lives of the children who have found refuge here, I am forced to acknowledge that some things haven’t changed at all…….... Financially, the doors of Adullam House stay open as a result of prayer, hard work, sacrifice and generous donations from friends like you. Whilst practically, we are eligible to apply for government funding, such funding would require full licensing as a state children’s home with the Department of Human Resources (DHR). This process would subject the ministry to strict state/federal governance and regulations. There are a number of significant ‘faith based’ grants available for which Adullam House is considered to be a perfect fit. However, for whatever reason, these ‘faith based’ awards demand that the ministry surrenders the right to insist that the children attend church. Angie and Pete took the difficult decision many years ago that in order to raise the children fully in the Gospel and without the constraints of administrative ‘red tape’, they would completely depend on God for their finances and forfeit the right to any state or government funding. Unsurpr isingly, this has meant lots of ‘hairy’ moments along the way. With around 35 staff now, plus typically 10 interns and approximately 35 active, growing, hungry children to support, plus numerous sites to keep going, life is certainly busy! And we’ve recently been asked to consider taking over 3 orphanages in Moldova, Eastern Europe! Crazy, but what an opportunity! Every single month we hold our breath, believing God for the finances that will continue to help us do all of this. And do you know what? Every single month our Great Provider always comes through. Thank you so much for partnering with Him and with us to keep this ministry going – every single dollar you give is changing lives in an incredible way!
A Matching-Grant Offered To Adullam House Miracle after Miracle. That’s what Adullam House has been built on. We have worked like
everything depends upon us, and prayed like
everything depends upon God, and God has always made a way. Recently a call came into
the office, offering a matching-grant to help
build the second wing of our school. A matching-grant of $50k! Wow! That means
if we can raise $50k we will have $100k
towards building the much, much needed extra classrooms. Next year we will have some
combined classes with almost 30 students in
them. When we build the new wing of our school each grade will be separated and
numbers kept small, enabling children to get
individual attention. This is vital to many of our Adullam House students who often
struggle with learning difficulties resulting
from their past, and sometimes with behavior
difficulties resulting from the effect of drugs or alcohol in utero, or just the trauma of the
Our 2nd Annual Golf Tournament took place on the 6th of October. It proved to
be a fabulous day just as expected! Every penny
raised will go towards our school’s Expansion Project. Because of the matching-grant offer, the
roughly $38k that we grossed will be doubled! We
have until the end of 2016 to raise the remaining $12k or we will lose that portion of the matching-
grant. Please consider how you might help.
Thank you to every sponsor and participant who made the tournament a huge success, and mark
your calendars for the first Thursday of next
October. We hope to see you there!
Needs List for October 2016 Operating Funds
Diapers (especially newborn & size 5) Baby Wipes Resinol Crib sheets (white)
Paper Products (plates, cups, paper tow-
els, napkins and toilet tissue) Cleaning supplies Laundry detergent (by the ton!)
Baby & Children’s Tylenol
provision
Christmas will soon be upon us! With that in mind, we would like to suggest a way you can help bring in some much needed funds for
our kids at this busy season: Do your Christmas
shopping online at Amazon Smile. Pick
New Convictions Outreach (Adullam House) as your designated charity and a
percentage of all your purchases will go to
support our children. How easy is that?!
Last month we asked for our partners to help us to cover the cost of our children’s school tuition, books and uniforms. Because of your kindness, many of our children were able to receive a fully paid scholarship. We are grateful and humbled. Thank you so much!
(COO) Rev. Johnny Jones Mr. Dave Bryant Mrs. Gladys R. Watson Mr. Bob Messick Mrs. Naomi Hellums Mrs. Rachel Harborth
We rise by
lifting others
Robert Ingersoll
These amazing young ladies come voluntarily, from many different states and countries to give their love and time to our babies, who are born to mothers in prison. During their internship at Adullam House, not only are they full-time, sweet mommies to our babies, they also become great friends to our older teens, who want nothing more than to “hang out at the Intern House”! Just imagine your teens having an endless supply of lovely God-fearing, young people to do life with. It is God’s wonderful provision to surround all of our kids with inspirational young people, who have chosen to give precious years of their lives to pour love into others. Also pictured, is baby Ja’dah, whose progress many of you have been following. On her last trip to Children’s Hospital in Birmingham, her specialist remarked how well she was doing. He told our ladies, “Whoever her nurse is, please tell her she is doing an amazing job”. Of course, we had to tell them that it wasn’t a ‘nurse’, but a small army of dedicated, loving, young angels.
Oct/Nov 2016
all I ever wanted to do was help people.
When I was about 8 I knew that I loved to be around children. When I am around children I
feel complete. I soon started babysitting and my
mother always knew at Thanksgiving, I was going to be sacrificing my time letting another family shop for their
children’s Christmas. So when I was told about Adullam
House I prayed, and the Lord answered with a big
“Yes”, multiple times! When I learned that these children’s moms were in prison I knew immediately
why the Lord wanted me there. I
have a grandparent in prison which is why the work is so dear to my
heart, and so I feel a close
connection to the children. Thank you Lord, for allowing me to pour
into their lives, and them into mine.
Our Interns, who come to care for our children, often have no means of transportation while they are here in Alabama. Sometimes on their ‘day off’ they have no way to go into town to shop, or simply to have a ‘change of scenery’. After we made this known on our Facebook page, it was only a matter of hours before we received a call from Grays Tire and Service Center, who donated this amazing Pontiac for the use of our staff. This business has been so kind to Adullam House in so many ways, including taking our kids
for special days on the Lake! On behalf of all these young girls who are now mobile—a great big thank you to David and Julie Gray!
From Calsie, an Intern-My mom once told
me a story of when I was four and holding my doll. I looked up at her and said, “When I grow
up I just want to hold babies.” I have helped in
our church Nursery for as long as I can remember and have never lost
that feeling of wanting to help
children. When I visited Adullam House last February
God told me, ”This is where you
are supposed to be”. I love it, and the kids have blessed me so much!
Honoring Our Volunteers They say that volunteers and donors typically stay with an organization for about 2 years. We beg to differ. Some of our donors and suppor ters have been helping Adullam House for more than 20 years! Likewise, some of our volunteers have been coming to Adullam House and rocking babies for almost 15 years. Phenomenal! Last week we hosted a luncheon “fit for a king” to honor these precious ladies. Several of our children shared “cardboard testimonies” and reduced every one present to tears. The ladies were served by young women that they had held on their laps, when they themselves were babies. Those faithful volunteers wept, as they reminisced, seeing the fruits of their labors, now in turn serving them. Miss Ruth, who has been helping for a dozen years or more, swore to keep coming to love on our little ones until the day she died. She is in her 80’s!
Dominos—It Starts With One! It was October 1996, exactly 20 years ago, when I last sat down to help write the Adullam House newsletter. Back then, the crazy dream of David’s Cave was no more than a tiny seed planted deep in the hearts of Pete and Angie Spackman. At that stage, I was a brand new Christian. I was being overwhelmed with humility and compassion at the sudden realization of the scale of sacrifice my sister, her husband, and their family had made in their commitment to serve the Lord and save the lost. It had compelled me to put
down on paper what they would never share personally, and the feedback from that article was mind blowing. I still have letters that people wrote to me in response. For those of you who have faithfully stood alongside us from day one, or indeed, joined us along the way, you surely have witnessed how that tiny seed of hope has been lovingly and beautifully nurtured and cultivated by our amazing staff, volunteers, and you, our dear friends and supporters. It has also been supernaturally harvested and multiplied by our bountiful God.
I could not have imagined back then, the vision of God’s goodness and grace I see before me today: Materially, God’s provision has been mighty, but in human terms, the impact of change in the lives of our children is incomparable. The babies I cuddled 20 years ago are now amazing young men and women, towering above me, fully equipped and eager to establish their place in the world and their part in His plan. They are eager to be ‘sent’ and to start changing lives themselves. How blessed we are to bear witness to these transformed lives and wave off an army of disciples such as this. But do not fear; at the other end, the Lord just keeps delivering those babies to us, one after the other – we have 10 in our nursery right now “Praise Jesus”!
As I reflect on the amazing changes that the past 20 years have brought forth to the life of the ministry and in the lives of the children who have found refuge here, I am forced to acknowledge that some things haven’t changed at all…….... Financially, the doors of Adullam House stay open as a result of prayer, hard work, sacrifice and generous donations from friends like you. Whilst practically, we are eligible to apply for government funding, such funding would require full licensing as a state children’s home with the Department of Human Resources (DHR). This process would subject the ministry to strict state/federal governance and regulations. There are a number of significant ‘faith based’ grants available for which Adullam House is considered to be a perfect fit. However, for whatever reason, these ‘faith based’ awards demand that the ministry surrenders the right to insist that the children attend church. Angie and Pete took the difficult decision many years ago that in order to raise the children fully in the Gospel and without the constraints of administrative ‘red tape’, they would completely depend on God for their finances and forfeit the right to any state or government funding. Unsurpr isingly, this has meant lots of ‘hairy’ moments along the way. With around 35 staff now, plus typically 10 interns and approximately 35 active, growing, hungry children to support, plus numerous sites to keep going, life is certainly busy! And we’ve recently been asked to consider taking over 3 orphanages in Moldova, Eastern Europe! Crazy, but what an opportunity! Every single month we hold our breath, believing God for the finances that will continue to help us do all of this. And do you know what? Every single month our Great Provider always comes through. Thank you so much for partnering with Him and with us to keep this ministry going – every single dollar you give is changing lives in an incredible way!
A Matching-Grant Offered To Adullam House Miracle after Miracle. That’s what Adullam House has been built on. We have worked like
everything depends upon us, and prayed like
everything depends upon God, and God has always made a way. Recently a call came into
the office, offering a matching-grant to help
build the second wing of our school. A matching-grant of $50k! Wow! That means
if we can raise $50k we will have $100k
towards building the much, much needed extra classrooms. Next year we will have some
combined classes with almost 30 students in
them. When we build the new wing of our school each grade will be separated and
numbers kept small, enabling children to get
individual attention. This is vital to many of our Adullam House students who often
struggle with learning difficulties resulting
from their past, and sometimes with behavior
difficulties resulting from the effect of drugs or alcohol in utero, or just the trauma of the
Our 2nd Annual Golf Tournament took place on the 6th of October. It proved to
be a fabulous day just as expected! Every penny
raised will go towards our school’s Expansion Project. Because of the matching-grant offer, the
roughly $38k that we grossed will be doubled! We
have until the end of 2016 to raise the remaining $12k or we will lose that portion of the matching-
grant. Please consider how you might help.
Thank you to every sponsor and participant who made the tournament a huge success, and mark
your calendars for the first Thursday of next
October. We hope to see you there!
Needs List for October 2016 Operating Funds
Diapers (especially newborn & size 5) Baby Wipes Resinol Crib sheets (white)
Paper Products (plates, cups, paper tow-
els, napkins and toilet tissue) Cleaning supplies Laundry detergent (by the ton!)
Baby & Children’s Tylenol
provision
Christmas will soon be upon us! With that in mind, we would like to suggest a way you can help bring in some much needed funds for
our kids at this busy season: Do your Christmas
shopping online at Amazon Smile. Pick
New Convictions Outreach (Adullam House) as your designated charity and a
percentage of all your purchases will go to
support our children. How easy is that?!
Last month we asked for our partners to help us to cover the cost of our children’s school tuition, books and uniforms. Because of your kindness, many of our children were able to receive a fully paid scholarship. We are grateful and humbled. Thank you so much!
