Forging the Path from Victory Home Resident to Program Director

Victory Outreach International has grown into a network of churches and ministries in 30 countries. One of its ministries, Victory Home, provides a safe and supportive Christian environment for men and women struggling with drug addiction who want to change the direction of their lives. Many come with prison sentences, backgrounds in homelessness and as former gang members. There are now more than 300 Victory Homes across six continents.

Salilo Moimoi is the director of the all-male Victory Home in Escondido, California, supported by The Father’s House church in San Marcos. He came through the program in 2000 after serving a 10-year prison sentence. He learned about the program from a list of referrals he was shown a few weeks before he was released and said he feels lucky he found it.

“Our ministry was founded to reach out to the streets of everywhere and anywhere in the world,” Moimoi said. “Some people don’t realize that there’s opportunities and places where they can go to clean up and be taught the love of God.”

When he was 12 years old, Moimoi began drinking and getting high. In his teens he founded a gang that led to his prison term at 19 for assault with a deadly weapon. Before his release, he knew he would need help.

“I knew that if I got back to my neighborhood, I was going to be dead or in prison for the rest of my life,” he said. “[Victory Home] said I didn’t need anything and just to come.”

Now as the director, Moimoi lives with the 13 men at the Victory Home and provides a structured weekly schedule. Each morning, the residents wake at 5 a.m., pray and eat breakfast together. They have a curfew and must stay off alcohol and drugs.

“On the street they can do whatever they want,” Moimoi said, “but here we have structure. We have rules.”

When Moimoi came to Victory Home 23 years ago, he had a lot of anger and sees th

at same anger in most of those who come through the program. To address this challenge, the program offers residents anger management courses. Diffusing this anger helps them realize they’re not just being given orders.

“Once they surrender, you’re able to work with them and now they’re open for help,” Moimoi said. “For some of these guys it’s their last chance.”

Victory Home is free for its residents and is structured into two phases. They first learn skills in reading the Bible, praying, giving devotions and evangelizing. In the first phase, the men work various jobs in landscaping and contracting work with all of their earnings going back to Victory Home to offset the costs of the home. They have a curfew and must stay off alcohol and drugs. After nine months to a year, they receive a certificate to mark their accomplishment of completing phase one.

The second phase was designed to provide residents more time to develop a clear direction for their lives as they transition out of Victory Home.

They continue to live at the home but work their own jobs and keep all of their earnings. They also must stay involved in all of Victory Home's community and church events as they did in the first phase.

One of the most important functions of Victory Home is to help those in the program reconcile relationships with families.

“We’re teaching them how to live life again but under the umbrella of home and with God,” Moimoi said.

Families can join residents for Sunday service, and each Saturday family members and friends can visit to spend the afternoons together at the home.

“It’s just a good time to relax and unwind,” Moimoi said. “It reminds them that there are people who love them and gives them something to strive for.” Moimoi is proud of the program’s effectiveness and has continually witnessed changes in the men’s attitudes and goals. After completing the program, many of the graduates want to become involved in full-time ministry. The Victory Education Training Institute (VETI), Urban Training Center (UTC) and the Directors Training Institute are a few of the ministry opportunities offered by Victory Outreach. For those who want to work internationally, the program also helps them obtain passports and raise money for their relocation.

“We have a lot of pathways for these guys when they finish,” he said. “We launch them all over the world.”

Moimoi has been the director at Victory Home for more than a year and for now believes it’s where he’s meant to be.

“I’m just doing my best to be faithful to what God’s calling me to do.”