Bringing HOPE to our Community

Where Children, Women and Men go from hopeless to full of hope.

Bringing HOPE to our Community

Where Children, Women and Men go from hopeless to full of hope.

Bringing HOPE to our Community

Where Children, Women and Men go from hopeless to full of hope.

Campus of HOPE and YOU

Alongside partners like you, GAP Ministries has been able to impact our community for over 20 years, bringing help and healing, but maybe most importantly, HOPE to every life we touch. From foster children who have experienced abuse and neglect, to families in crisis working to provide a better life for their children, formerly incarcerated individuals seeking a second chance through job training, to children in low income schools going home with a hot meal in their tummies. Together, we have broken cycles of abuse, neglect, poverty, addiction, and incarceration to bring whole life transformations. 

In 20 years we have never done a capital campaign or large scale plea to our donor base. If 2020 taught us anything, it’s that our world is broken and in desperate need of help. God’s timing is perfect, and we believe that God is calling us now to step out to provide a more stable, sustainable future for GAP. Children are being hurt, families are being destroyed and our community is struggling under the weight of this brokenness. 

That is why we are launching the Campus of Hope Capital Campaign. 

Founder Greg Ayers at launch of campaign in 2021

Why?

What?

How?

GAP Kitchen

The last Program on the Campus of Hope

All core programs of GAP Ministries are now fully functioning on the new Campus of Hope – the Family Engagement Center, Career PLUS, and the Community Warehouse. Only one vital program, the GAP Kitchen, needs to be completed. The GAP Kitchen serves over 90,000 meals annually to children, seniors, and others in need, and provides training to dozens of future chefs seeking a better opportunity. Additionally, our new kitchen will also be able to support food truck entrepreneurs as a “Community Kitchen”.

We are currently renting a restaurant kitchen to prepare all hot meals. Yet, even under these conditions, the culinary staff prepared 600 meals PER DAY to locations serving low income children. The Culinary Training Program has also continued, making a way forward for women and men coming from difficult backgrounds.

A Budget of $372,900 will allow us to finish the structure for the NEW GAP Kitchen at the Campus of Hope. The GAP Kitchen has retained the equipment from our old location, and has everything needed for a fully operational Production and Training Kitchen. All we need in order to be up and running on the Campus of Hope is the infrastructure (electrical, plumbing, walls, etc.).

Help us finish the GAP Kitchen by sponsoring 1 square foot with your donation of $200!
(We are asking that this be a gift in addition to your regular giving to GAP Ministries because we still need those funds to care for children, feed hungry individuals, and heal families!)

Phase 1
The Campus of Hope, GAP Ministries’ new home, is a 4.82-acre property at Prince and I10 that was purchased on December 2021. Owning our property rather than leasing saves GAP $20,000 per month.

Learn More.

Phase 2
The Administration building needed the least renovation and with the help of many volunteers was completed in less than 30 days. All the admin staff moved in February 1, 2022.

See photos of the before and after.

Phase 3
The new Family Engagement Center hosts our Foster Care training & licensing, Supervised Visitation between children and their families, and Nurturing Parenting training for families to learn parenting and be reunited with their children. All foster programs moved into this beautiful facility in June 2022.

See photos of the before and after.

Phase 4
Moving the warehouse from our old location to the new campus was quite an undertaking. Walk-in fridges had to be moved, shelving installed, and 40,000 square feet filled of pallets with food and products transferred. But all this was completed in time by December 2022.

See photos of the before and after.

Phase 5
The Career+ rooms are mostly finished and students are attending classes in the all new training center. This is the first step before they move to the hard skills training in Culinary, Warehouse or Retail.

See photos of the before and after.

Phase 6
The last program to be moved is our GAP Kitchen. In the meantime, we are using another organizations’ kitchen part time. While it’s been difficult, our culinary team is still providing 1000 meals per week to those in need and culinary students receiving training.

Learn how YOU can Help us Finish!

Stories of Hope

Jennifer

From Discouragement to Full of Hope

Jennifer was arrested in 2018, when she says “her life was saved”. She spent 5 months in jail before being released to a 2 month drug treatment program. After that she checked herself into the Gospel Rescue Mission Women’s Center for 3 more months of continued treatment. Once finished, she was accepted into a program where she could get section 8 housing and help obtaining all the legal documents she had lost – birth certificate, social security card, and ID. And she continued determinedly with her intensive outpatient recovery. 

     After gaining the security of permanent housing she became part of the Goodwill Adult re-entry program, where she found out about GAP Kitchen’s culinary program. She graduated GAP’s 10 week program with a culinary arts certificate and servesafe manager’s certificate. This helped her gain a cook position at the Bisbee Breakfast Club. She recently got her driver’s license, which had been suspended for over 4 years. Jennifer said, “none of this was easy so I’m extremely grateful to all the amazing people who have supported me, and God giving me the strength for the battle.” She will now have a better life than before the addiction stole it from her.

Nick

From Gangster to Gainfully Employed

When Nick was 12 years old, his addict mother “gave him” to a man she knew. For the next 19 years he dealt drugs for this man. During this time he got married and had four children. 

     In 2014, it all came crashing down and Nick went to prison for 5 years. His prison reading teachers were Christians. They helped him earn his GED, and shared with him that nothing he had done was too bad for God’s love. Nick gave his life to Jesus and immediately felt peace, like a “weight falling off.” He gave up drugs and has been sober since. 

     After prison, he enrolled in the GAP Culinary Training Program. There he learned structure and how a kitchen runs. Most importantly, he was surrounded by people who genuinely cared. He said, “It was a magical place,” right down to the Christian music playing in the facility.

     Since graduating GAP’s program, Nick has gotten his CDL license. He said the financial classes, life skills, and mentorship at GAP gave him the confidence to pursue a goal he always had to become a truck driver.

     Nick said before his life was total darkness, but now he’s like a new baby learning everything for the first time. His kids, 11-18 years of age, are getting to know an entirely different father than before.

Michael

From Neglected Child to Loving Dad

     Michael was 1 ½ years old when he came to GAP with his 3 year old sister. Both children had child-sized bite marks all over their little bodies, presumably because they were left unsupervised by drug addicted caregivers for long periods. Their 9 month old brother was placed with a different foster family.

     Michael was not verbal, and when he did speak he only knew a single swear word which had obviously been used around him frequently. As heartbreaking as this was, these were just some of the symptoms that spoke to the true reason he and his sister were placed with house parents Greg and Pam Ayers. 

    Both Michael and his sister were eventually adopted by the Ayers. Today, 20 years later, Michael has lots to smile about. He graduated from Bethel ministry school, got married and is expecting his first baby. He and his wife are now house parents at GAP Ministries, loving and caring for other children just like him and his sister were so many years ago. 

Campus of Hope Map

Ready to Bring Hope to our Community?

Timeline for the Campus of Hope

Phase 1 – Purchase of Property – COMPLETED

By purchasing our own property, rather than continuing to lease, we save nearly $20,000 per month, which can be better used for programs serving our community.

In 2021, GAP Ministries found our new home, a 4.82-acre property at Prince and I10. Formerly a factory where mining equipment engines were constructed, the campus needed quite a bit of work. But the bones were exactly what GAP had been searching for, with 4 buildings almost custom made for our programs.

GAP Ministries purchased the property December 2021, and began moving from the leased property on Flowing Wells to the new campus beginning February 2022, in stages as each building was renovated.

Phase 2 – Administration Building – COMPLETED

The building that was to become GAP’s Administrative offices was in perhaps the best condition of the 4 buildings on campus. While it hadn’t been occupied in several years and was in rough condition, the rooms and structure were such that we could make it work with very little renovation.

Much of the demo, laying down flooring, and other work was done by staff and volunteers to save money. Amazingly, this building was completed in just 4 weeks and ready for move in February 1st, 2022.

Phase 3 – Family Engagement Center – COMPLETED

The building that was to become the home of all GAP’s foster care programs was extremely rough, inside and out. But it had so much potential that we had a vision for it. Instead of children and their families spending time together in our old warehouse facility, this would feel more like a home once completed.

With the help of church groups and other volunteers, this building was amazingly transformed. The Phoenix Suns and Devin Booker’s Foundation built the Sports Court, In-N-Out Burger Foundation put in the playground, and the trees and plants surrounding the building were accomplished with the help of the Bert W. Martin Foundation and Lowes Hometowns.

Move in was June 2022.

Phase 4 – Community Warehouse – COMPLETED

GAP has cared for thousands of foster children over the past 20 years. But our desire is to stop cycles of poverty and abuse before the children ever enter the system. Poverty is the #1 indicator of abuse, neglect, and children entering the foster system. When a family has broken apart, it has a ripple effect out into the community that is both painful and expensive.

The Community Warehouse provides food and needed products to families already on the edge to help prevent them from reaching a crisis that causes their children to be removed and their family to break apart. The new warehouse was similar in square footage, but better suited to meet GAP’s needs.

Racking was moved from the old location, large fans were installed (and eventually even swamp coolers), concrete ramps were poured and other small renovations to make it a working warehouse. Move in was completed December 2022.

Phase 5 – Career Plus – IN PROCESS

GAP Ministries and Miracle Center are partnering together to update Career+ Training Program. This Career & Life Development program helps unemployed and underemployed individuals increase their value in the job market.

Along with hard skills training – Culinary, Warehouse, Retail and more – students are supported from beginning to end with life management skills, wrap-around support during their time in our program, and crucial follow up for 18 months after graduation to ensure their lasting success.

The Training Center and offices are in operation as they expand and grow to meet the needs of so many seeking a better life with upwardly mobile career skills.

Phase 6 – GAP Kitchen – HELP US FINISH!

Help the GAP Kitchen move to the Campus of Hope!

The first 5 Phases of the Campus of Hope Campaign are completed or in process. GAP Ministries’ core programs – the Family Engagement Center, Community Warehouse, and Career+ – are now fully functioning on GAP’s new Campus of Hope.
There is just one vital program that needs to be completed….the GAP Kitchen.

We need YOU in order to complete Phase 6 – The GAP Kitchen

We have everything we need to create an efficient Production and Training Kitchen… we just need your help to get there! The GAP Kitchen is currently using another organization’s kitchen to prepare all hot meals. Yet, even under these conditions, the culinary staff prepared 600 meals PER DAY this summer to locations serving low income children. The Culinary Training Program has continued preparing future chefs, making a way forward for women and men coming from difficult backgrounds.

We already have most of the equipment needed for a fully operational Production and Training Kitchen on the Campus of Hope. All we need is the infrastructure (electrical, plumbing, walls, etc.).

The GAP Kitchen will serve over 90,000 meals annually to children and others in need, and provide training to dozens of students seeking a better opportunity. Additionally, our new kitchen will also be able to support food truck entrepreneurs as a “Community Kitchen”.

Power Challenge!

Join TEP in helping us raise $250,000 for the Campus of Hope! We just need a few more to reach our goal.

Ready to Bring Hope to our Community?

GAP Ministries Annual Report

GAP Ministries on Guidestar

2020 GAP Ministries Annual Audit

GAP Ministries Testimonies

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