About Us
Our History
In March 1985 with the help of a graduating student from Miracle Bible College, Alejandra Albano, Lesley founded a home for people in desperate need. Victory House offered counseling and temporary shelter for ex-offenders from the Regional prison and Young Offenders Rehabilitation Centre, street-boys, child prostitutes and homeless adults.
In December 1986 Lesley married Peter Gomez. They moved to bigger accommodation and became licensed foster parents for teenage boys in need. The handful of government-run children’s homes were insufficient, so Peter and Lesley’s home began to meet the needs of the Region, becoming a more specialized home for the long-term care of runaways and homeless youngsters. The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) later extended their foster-care license to provide for a growing number of boys until they could license the home as a Residential Care facility. It was named LAMA House.
With the support of individual sponsors and churches, mostly in England, the present LAMA House was built in the town of Bauang, La Union to house around twenty boys plus staff. Several of the government-run homes in the Region were closed down shortly after our new building was completed in 1997.
Programs were developed to provide education and support services to teenage boys in a family setting, including runaway teens, at-risk children and youth, and developmentally, emotionally and behaviorally challenged children. The age limit is continually stretched from the original 13—19 years of age, to provide for children outside of these ages who have nowhere else to go for safety. At present we care for children from age 7— 24 years of age.
Over the years, LAMA House has played a key role in supporting the DSWD in the rescue and temporary shelter of children from child trafficking, child prostitution and prison and helped to enforce the Child Labor Law offering shelter for victims of child slave labor. In 2000 the Home was licensed and then Accredited by the DSWD and has maintained continuous Accreditation since.
Peter and Lesley Gomez
At a young age Lesley responded to an altar call at Keswick Convention pledging to give her life to missions at home or abroad. This call became clearer when Rev Clyde Shields visited England in 1975 with The Philippine Choir of Miracles, when Lesley’s Father, Rev. Leslie Keenan invited them to minister at his Anglican church in Yorkshire. She kept in touch with Rev Shields saving her pocket-money so she could send a pound note to the Philippines regularly.
She continued to support Rev Shields work through her Nurses training in Gloucester. He advised her to work for at least a year before volunteering for mission work in the Philippines with him. He died before her year working as a staff nurse was completed.
In September 1983, shortly after her 22nd birthday, she left England for a six month visit to Miracle Bible College where she worked as campus nurse. She learned total dependency on God to provide her needs and help her meet the daily challenge of a different culture, a new language, and strange tropical diseases.
On her return to England she knew she would be going back to the Philippines to live but not as a nurse, instead to work with the poorest and most needy in the cities surrounding San Fernando, La Union. After sharing about her feelings of inadequacy for the task she felt God was calling her to a friend gave her Chasing the Dragon by Jackie Pullinger to read. She couldn’t put the book down and prayed that God would make a way for her to meet Jackie Pullinger. God answered her prayer shortly after through a chance meeting with a man who had been visiting Jackie’s work in Hong Kong, he arranged for Lesley to visit Hong Kong and work with Jackie Pullinger. The training she received there led her to open a home in the Philippines to help people struggling with addictions, alcoholism, the homeless and ex-prisoners. The home was called Victory House. After Peter and Lesley married, they built and established LAMA House.
In 1986 Lesley married Pastor Peter Gomez, a Filipino Pastor she met at Miracle Bible College. His Father, Rev Andres Gomez was one of the co-founders of the Bible College with Rev Shields.
Peter and Lesley have three children; Michael 18, Ana and Simon 15 (2008)
Our Vision
"A beautiful and safe home, with a strong family atmosphere -where we experience God's love, and find hope for the future."
To promote greatness in the boys as we help them develop the courage to live by God’s absolute standards, above the unhealthy influences of today’s world—as God’s gentleman!
Our Values
FAITH: Faith in God. Faith in and for the boys in care and others we minister to in the name of Jesus.
SERVICE: Acts of service to the poor and needy, knowing that whatever we do for the least, we do for Jesus. Practising daily the servant-hood of Jesus, when He washed the feet of His disciples.
MERCY: Accepting the mercy God offers us then extending it to the boys and people He brings across our path. His mercies are new every morning.