A 2020 letter from Veterans Education Success to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the Georgia Department of Veterans Services detailed repeated instances of defrauding soldiers and veterans. This included misleading students enrolled in education classes at the church about the use of their education benefits, charging higher tuition rates for veterans, misleading the VA about whether the church was a legitimate teaching organization, and forcing members to recruit new members, especially among younger service members and spouses.

Many of the former church members cited in the letter also say that they were recruited by other service members while on base. One wrote in the letter that they were “recruited by an Army sergeant (E5) at the reception barracks at Fort Stewart.”

Another,  “a Marine veteran and former student, says he was recruited this way in Okinawa, Japan.”

An Army veteran is cited saying that while on active duty and in uniform he “recruited soldiers at Fort Stewart, Georgia; Hunter Army Airfield, Georgia; and Ft. Gordon, Georgia.”

According to Veterans Education Success, in FY 2018, the House of Prayer Christian Church received at least $708,145.53 in Post 9/11 GI Bill funding.

The church was also described as more akin to a cult by former members. In the 2020 letter from Veterans Education Success, one female service member recounted being ordered to “live in a ‘woman’s home’” while on active duty because the barracks were unsafe. Another described being confronted by church members in the barracks after leaving the organization.

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