In this picture from left to right: Angie, Alea, Ashley, Rachelle, Jessica, Melissa, Jeneshia, Jennifer, Erika. Front row: Kristi, Sarah, Courtney

Our hearts were filled with joy as we celebrated an amazing night of graduating four additional residents this year from our Hope Program. This year total we graduated 7 residents that lived at the Scarlet Hope house full time. God brought all together in the year 10 residents, 7 of which stayed full time through our 5 month gospel centered transitional living program and graduated! Praise God for the work he has done.

Graduating 7 residents our first year of opening our home is a dream come true for so many of us that believe that a safe place of refuge, rest and renewal are imperative to each woman’s walk with the Lord that we serve. After two full years of home renovations to get the donated home we were given up and running to state code, developing our program both in biblical classes and life-skill curriculum, hiring staff to operate and run a 24/7 facility, raising money to support each woman that came to us, with the strength and direction of the Lord we accomplished it! (Philippians 1:6).

A day in the life of a resident

The fall semester started in August and ended December 13th. Each woman that came to us applied and was interviewed to be apart of our program. Our goal was 6 residents for the fall semester, doubling our capacity from the spring semester that we held. God brought six amazing woman to the hope program. Each moved in and spent the first thirty days learning how to both live with one another, but also rest and renew her mind. This stage of our program is crucial as many of our residents come from chaos, homelessness, and addictions. Our hope for them as they enter our program is to find rest in the Lord and a peaceful home where they feel safe and loved.

We partnered with Brown Mackie – Occupational Therapy Program and their students and instructors came each day and taught life skills classes for several hours out of the day. They learned things from budgeting, creating a resume, sewing, coping skills, work ethic, and so much more! Their day was packed with classes and intentional 1-1 time with their teachers and mentors. Each resident received a staff mentor and an outside mentor whom she met with on a weekly basis both growing in her faith and expanding her friends and networks of influence.

By the third month in the program each resident was searching or landing a job. This semester God gave great success in this area as two of them landed a job at UPS, another one Amazon, and another started her own sewing business and has done very well! God also allowed one of our residents to complete and graduate with her CNA license while in our program which was a huge accomplishment that she desperately wanted to have!

In the evenings our residents cooked meals together or took shifts and each of them cooked and cleaned the house! We had so many good cooks this semester, their food was amazing! They utilized donated food and went grocery shopping on a shoe string budget each week for the additional items they would need. This taught them to plan, coordinate, and execute a daily routine with each other. After dinner they met together for bible study led by our house mom Sarah, attended Celebrate Recovery at Springdale Community Church, attended Club Zero part of Scarlet Hope programs, and our group therapist Sara L came every other week! Needless to say their schedules were very routine and packed to make the most out of their time with us!

During the last month in our program they were working, planning their exit plan from our program and figuring out how to trust the Lord with everything they have. Though the enemy was very present trying to distract, discourage and put fear in their hearts about leaving and returning to former way’s of life, our God is a big God that loves them so and provided for their every need! Praise the Lord!

On December 13th at Southeast Christian we celebrated all that the Lord had done in their lives. Each resident read their testimony in front of the 200 attendees that came out to support each of the ladies! The testimonies were powerful accounts of how God had brought them up and out of a pit. How he had redeemed their lives and were going to use them for his glory. We celebrated three baptisms during our program, deeper relationships with Christ, freedom from addictions and trauma that they were still suffering from. There was so much to rejoice for that night and there is still so much to rejoice in for God is good all the time, He is faithful to the end and we know His ways are always better than what we plan~

We want to give a special thanks to all the amazing volunteers who sacrificed time to mentor, counsel, provide donations, and make our hope program first year possible! We thank the Lord for you! Thank you to Melissa our Hope Program leader who worked long endless hours making sure the residents were taken care of, listening to hurting cries, and throwing sleep overs just to have fun! For Sarah our house mom who was consistent and so loving in her care of our residents. We are so thankful for the work he has done~

Enjoy the graduation pictures below.