The Hannah House

Hannah House Plaque

The Good Works Hannah House has been thus named to reflect a living prayer that the men and women who come to live in this house will, like the Old Testament prophet Samuel, learn to hear the voice of God and become a prophetic influence in their generation (see I Samuel 1-3). Hannah, the mother of Samuel, travailed in prayer that God might grant her a son and when her prayer was answered, she dedicated this child to serve God all of his days. In the same way, we too labor over those whom God has entrusted to us and we pray that each person at Hannah House will experience a new birth and a life dedicated to being a full and functioning member of the body of Christ! Therefore, we ask that by God’s grace we may have the persevering love of Hannah who demonstrated sacrificial and ‘suffering love’ for Samuel. Hannah House is not only a physical house—a place of transformation, but is also a people; a people whom scripture calls ‘living stones’ (see I Peter 2:4-5) . Our vision is to allow God to create a spiritual house, which will nurture, develop and rehabilitate the poor into men and women with the inner strength to stand firm. We want the power of HOPE to propel our residents to see beyond what they are into the future of possibility—into how God sees them.

Psalm 127:1 “Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain”

Our experience of providing long-term care for homeless men and women dates back to 1990 when we began our Lorene project as a second step transitional house for residents after they left The Timothy House. In 1994 we re-developed this ministry to offer a “live-with” approach at Good Works’ Transitional House, renamed Hannah House in 1999. Located on the Good Works Luhrig Road property (about 2.5 miles from The Timothy House on Central Avenue) Hannah House has an apartment for live-in house managers, 6 bedrooms, 2 living rooms, a dining room, kitchen and two dorm rooms that will hold 30 people. We can accommodate up to 6 residents and 6 interns at one time. Click here for a map to Good Works’ Properties.

LIFE IN TRANSITION

The Hannah House seeks to provide a long-term solution for single men and women who have been “caught” in the revolving door of homelessness. Our goal is to help people to work on long-term issues in their lives in a supportive Christian Community. Through the support of ordinary members of the body of Christ who volunteer to live at Hannah House for 6-12 months (click here for information about the Hannah House Internship), we have developed a program to mentor recovering homeless people, helping them to establish holy and healthy habits in the context of Christian community. We believe that talk only has a limited impact, but our life examples have a great deal of power. At Hannah House we expand the concept of discipleship and take it out of the classroom and work it into a life-style. This is why we called the program LIFE IN TRANSITION. Hannah House Interns and residents both pay a monthly program fee of $200.00 to participate in the program. Community meals, house chores, house meetings and the practice of hospitality all help to form a COMMUNITY OF HOPE. We want our work, prompted by love, to be alive and for our lives to empower the poor and homeless to love God, love themselves and love their neighbors. More about Life in Transition