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!