Background & History

The story of New Hope Life Center for Women is an account of God’s work through ordinary and commonplace men and women. It describes the extent to which a “Father” will go to in order to seek and save His lost sheep.  Kathleen McCallister, the founder of New Hope has become one of the sets of hands that He has used to go after those who are misplaced and hurting. This tells the story of how God has established a fresh work to bring “New Hope” and freedom through His love to hurting women in Omaha.

In the winter of 1999 Kathleen received an invitation within her local church to transport a few women living in a local recovery center to and from church once a month.  Her response was “Yes.”  And she faithfully began driving the women, but she noticed a turn-over in the faces she was transporting each month. So she asked the women why the women did not return each month. One replied, “It is really hard to stay clean out here; when I was in jail, I committed my life to the Lord, and we had a Bible study to attend, but we don’t have that here!” Then the women asked Kathleen if she would teach a Bible study at the half-way house?” Kathleen responded, “I don’t do that, but I will find someone who will.”   Of course, God was up to something she couldn’t see at the time; He wanted to use her.  She looked unsuccessfully for “someone qualified” to teach a study to these women.  A month later the same young women was transported to church and asked, “Can we start the Bible study tonight?”  Kathleen hesitated, but said “yes”.  Her mind was quickly racing to think of someone she should ask to teach the women.” She agreed to join them for one month and then she would move someone more qualified into the position long term.

She purchased some Bible tracts, went home to study them, and that evening, set off for the recovery home.  As she was driving, a little reality started to seep into her thinking; “I have no idea how to do this…I only teach children’s Sunday school!”  In the midst of a little panicked prayer, she said, “Lord, why are you sending me here?”  In a still small voice He answered, “I heard their heart cry and you were available.”  Repentant and weeping following the revelation of her own self-centered prayers, Kathleen began to pray that God would equip her to step into this house as His servant.

As she arrived, 15 women had assembled in the living room to attend the first study. Kathleen sat down and told the women that she had never done anything like this before.  She said, “If this goes well, it will be because God showed up, and if it goes poorly, it will be because of me. So, let’s pray that He will come and do this study with us.”  They prayed and of course His spirit joined them; it was all about Jesus and the ladies knew He was there with them.  Kathleen’s simple availability and transparency with the women created a bond that she did not understand at the time. But, she would soon comprehend the meaning of the first two of the “Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous” that the women were striving to live by:

• We are powerless over alcohol—and our lives have become unmanageable.
• A power greater than our selves could restore us to sanity.

As Kathleen shared her own weaknesses and testimony with the women she moved from being called the “church lady with all the answers” to identification with their powerlessness without God, and in need of turning everything over to Him.

This little study became the foundation of a Bible study that lasted in the women’s center for a few years.  Truly, He uses the foolish to accomplish His purposes, and He gets all the credit for the results!  God in His goodness healed the wounds of many during that time.  The Lord eventually added true teachers to come alongside her and trained the women in righteousness. In the meantime, Kathleen continued to learn to love and mentor the women.

After a few years, she began to notice (really the Lord began to show her!) that these women that become a part of her and her family’s life, continued to struggle when they left rehab, often relapsing into drug and alcohol use. This troubled her, but she felt that with God’s love, accountability and relationship a pattern of destructive behavior could be broken. The next few years would be a journey of faith to trust God for the impossible.

In 2003, a house went up for sale on 39th and Dodge Street; a God thought went through Kathleen’s mind “somebody could use the 100 year old 6,000 square foot house to help women in need of transitional living and support.”

Kathleen called Chaplain Eunice Arant at the Douglas County jail to discuss the possibility of the jail ministry starting a transitional home for women. Kindly, Chaplain Eunice declined stating that the jail ministry was her priority (as it should be!); she agreed the need was real, and referred Kathleen to two individuals who might be interested in the idea.

Two weeks and two meetings later God had provided a donor committing to thousands of dollars to get the project underway and had a 501c3 non-profit corporation-New Hope Fellowship in her hands. It truly was a sovereign act of God working to create a house of restoration for women in addiction recovery.

Within the next month, Kathleen and new board member Mike Whealy had examined the property for sale on Dodge Street, made a purchase offer, had it accepted, and applied for permitting with the City of Omaha. .  Talk about God at work!!

The City Planning Department agreed to a permit, but the City Council refused despite the need for such services in the City.  Kathleen and Mike Whealy continued to pursue this property and it made city headlines at the time. One day, Kathleen received a phone call from an old acquaintance who had read the news article. He had been working with an attorney in his office (Scott P. Moore) who had just moved back to Omaha after having served as a Department of Justice Attorney representing the United States Government in Fair Housing cases for six years (talk about the right guy to help…God is so good!).  Scott offered his services for free to help New Hope get the proper permits.

Through a series of excellent legal actions over the next couple of years, New Hope was given the right to permit and operate a transitional living center for women anywhere in the City of Omaha.  Now, the only problem was finding a property that would work since the original property had sold during the legal delays.  Kathleen and Mike Whealy looked and made offers on three other properties, all to no avail.

Then, in the summer of 2008, Kathleen received a phone call from someone offering to sell the property at 3507 Harney Street to “New Hope”.  Kathleen was still discouraged from what she considered a failed routine of seeking properties and was nearly ready to give up on the whole idea of a home for women.  But, a couple of weeks later Kathleen received a call from a friend who said she had seen a really great house for sale at 35th and Harney that she thought would be perfect for a women’s transitional home. Wondering if God was revealing this house to her, she had the New Hope Board look at the property. This old and unique house was found to be worthy of an offer to purchase the property.  The offer was accepted, terms negotiated, the owner agreed to provide the financing, and New Hope Life Center for Women was born when the deed transferred in September 2007!!

An amazing amount of support and coordination has gone into getting the house up and running. As always the Lord continues to provide an amazing team of women to write policies, procedures and to turn the house into a home; a warm loving environment for God to minister healing from the “Father’s heart” and to operate a 24/7 home for women.

• December 2007, the house was filled with donated furnishings.
• January 2008, staff and volunteers were trained by a nationally known and leading addiction expert.
• February 2008 New Hope Life Center for Women began non-residential programming with 40 women participating in our program.
• April 2008 following a wonderful Grand Opening the first resident moved into New Hope Life Center for Women!

We are amazed and grateful to the Lord and we give Him all the glory!