Come back often!

Break the Grey Assemblies and Ballenger Concert

There are hardly words to express the way God came through for us during this awesome week. The assemblies were a great success with Bill's compelling testimony and the powerful dramas by the Masters Commision. The students all were captivated by Bill whilst the school administrators were moved to tears as the reality of the state of dire need that their students sunk in. To read testimonies and a review of the assemblies and the concert click here.

Break the Grey Battle of the Bands

In preperation for the Break the Grey school assemblies and Ballenger concert we heald a battle of the bands for local bands to participate in and compete for the opening slot for Ballenger's main even on April 29 2010. The battle went off and had a great turn out. We like to thank Slingstone Apostle, the winners for participating. We also want to ackowledge Set On Fire who won second place as well as The Mantle for coming out to take part. A special thanks also goes out to our judges, John Costin, Kurt Johnson and Mark DePalma. We are also grateful to Radiant Church for allowing us to host our event in their youth facility.

In The Wildflower Weekend Intensive

God moved poewrfully in this weekend intensive. We had 9 ladies attend, some coming from as far as Pennsylvania. The ladies and three facilitators including Val Norton, walked through the ten step program included in In The Wildflowers and we believe that some level of healing was achieved in each lady as they allowed God to work in their pain. The fellowship, prayer and worship that took place allowed for a greater measure of healing in each lady then what we could have imagined!

One woman spoke of the weekend, "it was so awesome to get to know (these ladies) better this weekend. It was indeed amazing. What a change I have noticed, already!"

Extraordinary Women Conference

    Val Norton, President/Founder of House of Hope S.W. Michigan and Cindy Eckhardt President/Founder of House of Hope Hillsdale traveled to Sterling Heights (Bethesda Christian Church) to attend the Extra-ordinary Women's Conference together. They went in behalf of their Houses of Hope. They met Sara Trollinger (President/Founder of Orlando House of Hope and National House of Hope) there along with others from House of Hope NorthWest Michigan (Traverse City) and House of Hope Gobles.

    It was a time of supernatural God connections and a time to further House of Hope S.W. Michigan's networking and volunteer base. Please pray it will also lead to donors. There are already plans to attend next year's EWomen's conference in Sterling Heights in behalf of Michigan Houses of Hope. We were all in awe of the incredible speakers and music. The various Houses of Hope visited with Chonda Pierce, Karen Kingsbury, Thelma Wells, Carol Kent, Angela Thomas, Al Denson and Julie Clinton. There were around 3,000 women who attended this wonderful conference!

    Plan now on attending if you are in Michigan at Next Years EWomen's Conference, called "Free to be Real". The date is October 9-10, 2009. Price at the door will be $89. Follow the link to find out early registration costs. You will be blessed by God if you attend!

Set Apart Girl Conference with Leslie and Eric Ludy

This weekend conference was a huge success as God lined up all the needs supernaturally. Our venue, Radiant Church's youth facility, was packed with 200+ girls and women who were able to come and have a sincere God encounter. Through Eric and Leslie's powerful sessions to the moving worship with Abbey Johnson-the atmosphere was just right for the women to learn what it really means to live a set apart life for Christ.

Testimony of girls who attended-

 I cannot thank you enough for the Set-Apart girl conference, Mrs. Norton! You and your ministry both look so incredible, and the fact that you were able to get the Ludys to come here to Kalamazoo was fantastic! I was blessed beyond words at the conference, and I have no doubt that everyone else that came was, too! =D 

Acts 2 Training

There are several ACTS 2 House of Hope training seminars each year. 15-25 members of Houses of Hope travel to Orlando House of Hope and stay on the grounds and are trained in various parts of the ministry. This August's training was in Parenting training and prayer. It was a time of intense intimacy with the Lord. They learned how to deal with bitter root jugdments, Triage counseling, Internet awareness, how to deal with addictions, how to identify pills teens may be taking, how to conduct a weekly counselors meeting, gender issues, the importance of prayer and intercession, Healing resources, ministering to unmet needs, prayer counseling, The Believers Authority, and breaking generational curses and much more. The most inspiration part of ACTS 2 was the intimate interaction between other Houses of Hope and sharing experiences, advice and inspiration.

Annual House of Hope Conference

American Association of Christian Counselors

(ongoing)

MITI Training

House of Hope NorthEast Indiana Non-Resident Training

Three staff members went to House of Hope NorthEast Indiana to sit in on their Non-resident counseling training and were able to have supper afterwards with Arley (Head of counseling department) and Connie Higgenbothum. We were also able to see the Higgenbothum's church. It was a wonderful time of getting questions answered and seeing Indiana's House of Hope.Thank you, Arley for the Non-resident Counseling questionaire you shared with us!  If you would like to learn more about NorthEast Indiana House of Hope go to www.houseofhopeheals.com  

Non-Resident Counseling Initiated

Pastor Ernie Rose of New Life Church on M-37 has graciously offered for us to use his church building for our newly established Non-resident Counseling. Thank you, Pastor Ernie! We are looking forward to God doing amazing things in bringing healing and restoration to those taking part in this time. We have already begun our first sessions, and God is working!

COMMERCIAL FILMING UPDATE

The commercial was filmed at the Westlake Rd. Property Tuesday, October 21st with the beautiful backdrop of colorful fall leaves. The young people interviewed were Matt Recher, Amanda Jimenez, Emilee Strickler and Roxanne Johnson. Please pray for the final outcome of the commercial and that it will reach the eyes of the right possible donors. We will be posting the commercial here on the website in the near future! Be looking for the commercial on Comcast and Charter Net cable stations in the very near future!

Big Thank You to J-AD Graphics

We would like to thank J-Ad Graphics of Hastings, Michigan, for their donation of 10,000 brochures for House of Hope S.W. Michigan! Please consider using J-Ad Graphics for your printing needs. They do an excellent job!

1351 N. M-43 Hastings, MI 49058

Toll Free: 800•870•7085

www.j-adgraphics.com

NHOH Conference and ACTS 2 Training:

Some of our staff just returned from the National House of Hope Concerence and a training seminar, Val, the president/founder of House of Hope South West Michigan has written briefly about their expirience.

Five of us attended the National House of Hope Conference and afterwards, the ACTS 2 intensive training at Orlando House of Hope Aug. 20-28th. The theme was The Glory of His Presence.We were blessed by many anointed speakers. Here is just a few: Bobby Conners of Eagle's View Ministries, Roger Parrot who is the President of Belhaven College in Jackson, Mississippi; Chonda Pierce (National House of Hope Spokesperson and Christian singer and comedienne who hosts Extraordinary Women conferences all over the world), Dr. Caroline Leaf (a Neuro-Scientist who has studied the human brain for over 27 years and speaks about the scientific principles of the brain to emotional and intellectual issues in a simple and practical way), Donna Rice Hughes with an internet protection ministry, Kathi Oates, Dr. David Appleby of Liberty University, Vance Murphy of Atlanta Revival Center and The Father's House,- (Christian Orphanages), Brenda Peters of Open Heart Ministries International, Corey Russell of International House of Prayer, Dr. Ed Smith of Theophostic Ministries, and Jayne Solomon of A Woman's Place Ministries, a ministry that fights abortion.

We learned much and were challenged to be better prepared in our personal lives to serve in the House of Hope. Much has been happening since returning home from the conference and ACTS 2 training. God is busy bringing his plan about, and we are enjoying the ride! Continue to pray for us as we continue pursuing God's plan for House of Hope S.W. Michigan!

From My heart to yours,

~ Valerie Norton

Praise Report:

We want to take this oppurtunity to share with you that we recently recieved a generous donation of $5,000 from a very generous donor. We can see God moving in big ways, and this awesome surprise is just the beginning of what we are expecting Him to do! We covet your prayers, and thank you for all you do!

Honorary Ribbon Cutting:

On Thursday, July 24th we enjoyed a well attended symbolic ribbon cutting initiating community awareness and the launching of a capital campaign to raise the necessary funds to purchase the land at 6312 Westlake Rd. for our ministry. There were almost 40 in attendance, including State Representatives Jack Hoogendyk and Fulton Sheen. Mr. Hoogendyk encouraged us in pursuing the mission of bringing Christ's healing to wounded teens and their family and said that it was a very needed ministry. This event was mentioned in two seperate newspaper releases, you can read them here.

HOH Property Viewing:

We had a great turn out at our property viewing. Despite the rainy weather we had about 30 of our close friends come and take part in this special event. It was a moving experience to walk through the rooms and halls that we hope to see filled in the near future with residents! We took some time to pray over the house before we left. It was an emotional time as we asked God to do a work in order to provide the finances for the house. We were reminded of all the hurting teens that need a touch from God and House of Hope's support. It was a great time to reflect on why we are doing this. It was a time to be encouraged and get excited for what God has in store for this fund raising campaign!

We'd like to extend our thanks to all who came out, and a special thanks to the Avery family for allowing us to have the viewing!

Also don't forget to take a look at our photos that were taken during the walk through of the house!