LIBERTY COUNTY, Ga. (WTOC) – A non-profit that supports veterans says they’ve been warning about the House of Prayer Church in Liberty County for years.
Veterans Education Success helps former service members find opportunities to further their education.
In the fall of 2020, the organization compiled a report of wrongdoings of the House of Prayer church and sent a letter to Veterans Affairs.
The report says the House of Prayer committed fraud by taking funding from the GI Bills of veterans and not providing a proper education in return.
“So, in this particular case, students came to us and identified that they’ve been having some challenges and hearing some things that they weren’t quite comfortable with, that the school was doing. So, they reported that to us,” said Will Hubbard with Veterans Education Success.
According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs GI Bill Comparison tool, the House of Prayer Bible Seminary has 55 GI Bill students. In a tweet today, Veterans Education Success renewed their call to have the House of Prayer removed from the VA’s website.
“Right now, as of today, these schools are actually still live on the comparison tool. There is a feature, that’s supposed to be a caution flag if something of concern as come up, for example, an FBI raid, but there are no caution flags today.”
The Georgia Department of Veterans Service says they’ve also received these reports.
In a statement from the Director of Georgia’s State Approving Agency Bobby Davis, the agency received the complaint from Veteran Education Success and that quote, “many of the allegations were criminal in nature. The Georgia SAA provided the complaint to the VA Central Office.”
Fort Stewart, which is near the House of Prayer, issued the following statement regarding the church.
Fort Stewart-Hunter Army Airfield leaders are aware of the organization known as House of Prayer Christian Church in Hinesville through our local law enforcement partnerships, however the organization is not on the installation’s Off-Limits Business Establishment list governed by the Armed Forces Disciplinary Control Board. As we receive more information on the reason for the raid and potential allegations of fraud to our Soldiers, we can recommend to the senior commander to add this organization to the off-limits list.
WTOC has reached out to the VA for comment on the Veterans Education letter as well as the church, and haven’t heard back yet.
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