God has been making promises to Pastor Hubert Nolen since 1976 when Luke 4:18 proclaimed ?The Spirit of the Lord is on me,?because he has anointed me?to proclaim good news?to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners?and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free. Pastor Nolen planted churches and ministered to the captives in Brazil, Haiti, India, Israel, Cuba and Kentucky, yes even Kentucky. He planted Brookville Road Christian Church in 1983 and pastored there for 32 years.
In 2006, the Lord gave Pastor Nolen another promise which came from the shortest book of the Bible. Haggai 2:18-19 ?From this day on, from this twenty-fourth day of the ninth month?from this day on I will bless?you. Pastor Nolen first wrote the promise in his Bible as he knows the Lord?s time table is not at all our time table and it is important to record all the promises made from the Lord and he revisited the promise every September 24th for 10 years.
The Lord stirs our hearts and He plants dreams within us. Twenty years before Hope Center Indy became a reality, Pastor Nolen's heart was stirred at a conference when he learned about a Dream Center to reach out to the community to?the least of these?to love the unlovable.
Fast forward to a New Year's fast in January 2015.Pastor Nolen asked God what God wanted done. The Dream Center came to mind and a Google search showed the Dream Center was now a reality in Los Angeles. He watched a testimony of a woman who had been transformed by the love shown from the Dream Center and Pastor Nolen wept. He wept at the full realization of God?s grace and goodness and he wept with thanksgiving this young woman now had a purpose for living. He then heard God whisper, ?if you are going to do this, get on with it because you are not getting any younger.
So at age 59, Pastor Nolen stepped aside from 32 years of pastoring Brookville Road Community Church. On March 1, 2016, Pastor Nolen along with son David began casting vision for this center of hope.It did not have a name and it did not have a facility, it did not have anything other than a heart-stirring dream. Pastor Nolen just continued to share his vision and had Wednesday night prayer meetings.
Pastor Nolen laid out the statistics, ?there are countless women between the ages of 12 and 18 being trafficked. The epidemic is huge and the typical life span of these girls is short and virtually none make it out. The prostitutes you see on city streets are actually being trafficked.These women have been raped thousands of times before they are rescued or killed.
He toured his inspiration, the Dream Center in Los Angeles and knew his center of hope had to offer much more than a 30-day intervention. It would take 12-18 months to transform a young woman from the horrors of being sex trafficked. These women need education and they need to learn a new profession to provide employment.They need significant healing. Pastor Nolen returned to Indiana and started looking at many different residential facilities.
Stop Looking ? Start Praying
When they looked at the facility which is now Hope Center, Pastor Nolen knew it was the place. He stopped looking and started praying. He shared the vision with Pastor Mark from his daughter church, Brandywine Community Church. Pastor Nolen made an offer on the building with money he did not have. When an offer of 2 million did not get a response, son David suggested 3 million. They did not have that either, but it did not stop them.
Pastor Nolen visited Pastor Mark?s church on the 25th?day of the ninth month of 2016.As pastor Mark spoke about the dream of Pastor Nolen for the Hope Center, he spoke with full authority. He put a picture of the Hope Center campus up on the screen and proclaimed ?this 140,000 sq. ft. 25 acre complex will be the largest aftercare center in America to help victims of human trafficking. Pastor Nolen was stunned. It was prophetic. He had never thought of it this way. All he knew was he had a dream, he found a facility, he had no money. Pastor Mark said they needed to immediately pray.
From This Day Forward I Will Bless You
The next day on Monday September 26th, Pastor Nolen received a call?(out of the blue)?from the attorney for the property (who had ignored their two low offers) and asked if they would be interested in a lease. Pastor Nolen had already offended them twice with low offers on the 6 million dollar building and he did not want to do it again. He prayed and settled on an amount he thought he could live with.
On Wednesday September 28th, He boldly asked for a monthly rent of $10,500 and he wanted that amount returned to the property in capital improvements. Pastor Nolen reflected ?$10,500 is a lot of money when you don?t have it, but it is surely a miraculous rent as it calculated out to just 7.5 cents per square foot when commercial real estate rents for $10 per square foot.? This might have been the third and final offending offer, but on Friday, September 30, 2016 the offer was accepted. Pastor Nolen was on his combine harvesting soybeans when the call came in. He got off the combine raising his arms toward heaven and said ?thank you LordI think.
…to be continued
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Hope Center Indy
11850 Brookville Road, Indianapolis, IN 46239
Phone 317-434-5040
Polly Riddell writing as G. Polly Jordan is a free-lance journalist connecting people through the stories they tell.