Home of Grace
Home of Grace is a 24-hour residential care facility that provides holistic care to orphaned, neglected, and abandoned children in the Baliuag area of the Philippines.
Jason's Home
Jason’s Home functioned as the main center for the ministry of GHI for more than 20 years. Through its interdisciplinary and holistic outreach, more than 300 children have been placed in loving homes both domestically and throughout the world in partnership with the Philippine Adoption Program. Thousands of children have come through the doors of this home and found hope and healing as God has allowed us to be His hands and feet to the least of these.
In 2020, the property was marked for takeover by the Department of Transportation to make room for the development of a subway system in Metro Manila. We are currently in the process of moving all operations to Home of Grace in Bulacan.
Our Beginning
Thirty years ago, Denie Heppner, a Canadian humanitarian missionary, made a crucial decision to give up her ordinary life as missionary wife and mother and venture into an unfamiliar world of poverty and squalor. In 1989, she began using her skills as a nurse midwife and did her best to give indigent women hope of better medical care and treatment in childbirth. In August of 1993, Gentle Hands was founded as a Non-Government Organization (NGO) to operate as a birthing clinic to reach out to these urban poor women and their babies. This organization stayed on the cutting edge of modern midwifery for ten years, “changing the face of childbirth” in the Philippines.
Dennis and Denie Heppner lived in the Philippines for the past 3 decades. They reached out to all of Asia as well, especially India. They are the founders of Gentle Hands Inc. as well as the thriving ministry of the downtown outreach center, Beginnings Church.
They raised their four older children in the Philippines and then adopted their Filipina daughter, Emma, in 2006. They love the Philippines. It is their heart’s home.
Who We Are
In 2000, Charity Heppner-Graff, the eldest daughter of Denie Heppner, moved to the Philippines with her family to help expand the services of Gentle Hands. In 2001, Charity and her husband founded Gentle Hands Educational Foundation, hoping to bring education to street kids and out-of-school youth. They taught children to read and write in their own language where ever they could; in the garage of their home and under the bridges where the poor lived. Because of the need to offer basic education to these children and to ensure they had food, clothing and a safe study environment, in 2002, the D.A.V.I.D. Boys Educational Program was added. Also in 2002, the Jason’s Home Program was added to address the many children that were being brought to Gentle Hands needing short-term medical intervention, and rehabilitation. In 2003, Gentle Hands was licensed and registered with the Department of Social Welfare and Development as a Residential & Child Residential Facility.
In December of 2005, the birthing clinic was closed in order to make space for the many children that needed rescuing and rehabilitation and for the many boys that needed to be educated. In October of 2008, the decision was made to close the Boys Program and focus solely on the Orphanage and Foster Care Program for the children.
Gentle Hands is a child and youth welfare agency meant to be on the front lines of rescue (in coordination with Local Government Units) and rehabilitation of the medical, social, psychological, and educational needs of at-risk children and youth, advocating for the rights of children and working towards improving human community life through the love of Jesus and family centered care.
For over 20 years, Jason’s Home provided holistic and therapeutic residential home care rehabilitation services, including basic education, nutrition, and general health care to children in physical danger, those severely ill, malnourished, abandoned, sexually and /or physically abused, and otherwise disadvantaged children or those in other crisis situations as a result of poverty, uncaring family environment and other related problems, until such time as they can be reunited with their family, transferred to a long-term care facility, placed in foster care, or adoption is facilitated. These services are now provided through Home of Grace.
Gentle Hands is a 24-hour Residential Care Facility that provides social work, medical, nutritional, home life, educational, recreational, adoption counseling and Christian living programs to orphaned, neglected and abandoned children in the Philippines.
Statement of Faith
Gentle Hands, Inc. is a faith-based organization, and while clients and staff are not required to practice or convert to the same faith as the organization, they are expected to conduct themselves with integrity and morality. GHI clients and staff are expected to treat each other with respect, kindness, and fairness, and demonstrate the same for clients and their families.
In gratitude to God, and empowered by the Spirit, we strive to serve Christ in our daily tasks and to live holy and joyous lives. We rejoice that nothing in life or in death can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. We trust in God, who created the world good and made everyone equal to live as one community.
The Bible
The Bible to be the inspired and authoritative Word of God and the supreme authority in everything it teaches;
The Trinity
In the one true God, existing eternally as a union of three divine persons; the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit; each of whom equally possess all the attributes of the Deity.
Deity of Jesus
The Lord Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of the Father; and the living Word, who became flesh through His miraculous conception by the Holy Spirit and His virgin birth.
Salvation
The Lord Jesus Christ, through His sinless life, His crucifixion, His divine resurrection, and His ascension to the right hand of the Father, accomplished salvation for all who trust in Him alone.
It is the privilege of all who are born again of the Spirit to be assured of their salvation from the very moment in which they trust Christ as their Savior.
The Holy Spirit
Every believer is called to live so in the power of the indwelling Spirit and that the Lord Jesus Christ commanded all believers to proclaim the Gospel throughout the world and to disciple men and women of every nation.
Justification
God justifies us by grace through faith in Jesus and through the work of the Spirit in us, sets us free to accept ourselves and to love God and neighbor; gives us courage to pray without ceasing, to witness among all peoples to Christ as Lord and Savior, and to work with others for justice, freedom, and peace.