how it all began

In 2014, as the epidemic of Heroin overdoses began to receive attention, in Hamilton, Ohio, 18 people died in one week, and 14 of those that died were taken to one funeral home. Jordan Mullins was an employee at this funeral home, and he called his cousin to tell him about this tragic situation. His cousin happened to be Lawrence Bishop ll, a Pastor at Solid Rock Church in Monroe, Ohio.

That Sunday morning, Pastor Lawrence told the congregation there at Solid Rock in Monroe, that they needed to do something about this tragedy of not only people dying, but the fact that people were dying, lost for eternity, without Jesus as their Savior.

Pastor Lawrence stopped everything and held a meeting with the staff members that were there, right on the platform, and declared that they would do a series of meetings on one weekend in Hamilton, Ohio and that they could call it Hope Over Heroin, if no one thought of a better name.

Pastor Lawrence also said to the crowd there that morning, that he had to get his friend, Billy Price, pastor of City On A Hill in Cincinnati, Ohio, to come on board, or this meeting would never take place. Pastor Lawrence got the name right! Hope Over Heroin was born, thanks to that inspired moment, and our direction toward destiny was engaged!

The reason for that statement by Pastor Lawrence about Pastor Billy and City On A Hill, was because City On A Hill owned an outdoor stage and sound system that was desperately needed to do that event, as well as that Pastor Billy Price was a musician, together with Pastor Lawrence in The Livestock Band, a Christian Rock Band they had evangelized across the country with, and that they would also use as the musical act for this event.

Pastor Lawrence called Pastor Billy, and that initial event, the first Hope Over Heroin, over a three day period of Friday, Saturday and Sunday in August, 2014, became the moment that had been years in the making! And on that weekend, 12,000 people showed up in attendance, 154 people were baptized, over 500 gave their lives to Jesus for the first time, along with some in re-dedication to serving God!

But that would never have happened, if God had not done miracles of provision, starting in 2008, with City On A Hill. In May of 2008, God specifically gave Pastor Billy the vision of a sound system, a stage and roofing system, lights, a massive power generator, and a specific amount of money that he needed to make that happen: 1 Million Dollars.

Pastor Lawrence and Pastor Billy had traveled across the United States together since 2004, they had ministered in prisons and events around the nation, but this was a seemingly impossible amount of money to commit to something like this! Pastor Billy’s Church only had about $20,000.00 in the bank; not enough to buy power cables for a generator that God had shown him was needed!

But through a moment of prophetic, risk, where the multiple Pastors of City On A Hill agreed to mortgage their property in response to this word of God, God began the process that provided the monetary means to perform what God had declared to Pastor Billy, and within 6 days, City On A Hill was being contacted by a development company seeking to buy their property, and their property never had to be mortgaged! That’s how God answers desire for the Kingdom!

This miracle, in 2008 has become the catalyst for every single Hope Over Heroin event since its 2014 beginning. From Montana to the outskirts of Washington D.C., Hope Over Herion has been driven by God’s provision and servants who willingly give of themselves and their time, to the desperate and broken!

City On A Hill has continued to make investments and capital improvements to all of its gear, and today, the outreach tool that God has given to Billy Price and City On A Hill has fulfilled that initial, visionary, prophecy to the exact detail! This word from God, given to Billy Price in 2008, has been a major reason why Hope Over Heroin has become, and continues to be, the largest outreach of its kind in the world today, committed to harvesting souls from drug addiction and salvation from the inevitability of an eternity, in the torment of hell. And this is just the beginning!

Hope Over Heroin became the catalyst for City On A Hill to begin Heritage House; a Men’s Residential Recovery program. Our dream is to be able to use the tool of Hope Over Heroin, in every location and city where the events are held, to harvest those men caught in the death-grip of addiction that very weekend! City On A Hill has identified a Detox center, and a Women’s Residential Recovery Program, as the next needed elements to save this generation from certain destruction! And God will perform this miracle as well!

Another major reason for the initial HOH event that launched this amazing Ministry, was Pastor Josh Willis, founder of The Good Samaritan Inn, the men’s Drug program that Pastor Billy had become connected with in 2004, and who Pastor Lawrence had known for much longer. Pastor Josh was a major contributor to the Hamilton HOH event’s success. Pastor Josh and his men and associates in ministry, canvassed the entire area, block by block for months, day after day, knocking on every door of every house in Hamilton, and organizing Churches to make everyone aware of the initial event. Other churches, such as Solid Rock, came out weekly to cover Hamilton in conjunction with Pastor Josh’s daily outreach. Thank you Pastor Josh Willis for your commitment to the addicted and broken!

And from the last night of the initial HOH event in 2014 in Hamilton, Pastor Cleddie Keith and his church, Heritage Fellowship, have become partners and faithful supporters of HOH.
When the power of this outreach was first realized that late summer and fall of 2014, and Pastor Lawrence and Pastor Billy realized that HOH needed to be its own individual non-profit ministry, that creation was commenced.
Pastor Lawrence and Pastor Billy both agreed that Pastor Cleddie was the answer to be the third board member of HOH, and that was an incredible decision!

Amazingly, the very Sunday morning that God was speaking to Pastor Lawrence on the stage at Solid Rock Church, God was speaking to Pastor Cleddie at Heritage Fellowship on his stage, about this same Heroin epidemic! Pastor Cleddie told his congregation, “If I know God, I won’t be sitting on the sidelines during this thing”!!
Pastor Cleddie was at one time a Teen Challenge director, and had dealt with heroin addiction in ministry, over 5 decades ago! Pastor Cleddie was a personal friend of David Wilkerson, and had seen how God had used that man to evangelize the world and to begin the amazing, ministry of Teen Challenge!

Pastor Cleddie is a patriarch of the Gospel, a living Apostle to thousands of ministries around the world, and part of every major move of the Holy Spirit in the last 50-plus years, and once again, he has touched a ministry that is touching the world!

And the story continues…

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