Leadership - Project Hope Recovery Center

Don Nordin

Chief Executive Officer
Michael Vecchio

Chief Operations Officer
Blake Paul

Chief Financial Officer
Jessica Vecchio

Corporate Trainer
Billy Jasen

Executive Director, Project Hope Arkansas
Rex Fitzgerald

Executive Director, Project Hope Florida
Jeff Johnson

Project Hope Texas - Executive Director

Blog & News

April 25, 2024

We’re Now Partners with Day Forty One!

We would like to take a minute to thank one of our newest ministry partners, Day 41 Apparel. The owner/founder, Justin, has a heart for people seeking freedom from addiction...
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October 31, 2023

Spiritual Emphasis 2023

This year we were able to bring all of our locations together for 4 days to celebrate all that God has done through the ministries of Project Hope and...
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May 12, 2023

Every year over 300 former addicts come together to worship God…

It’s time for Spiritual Emphasis 2023, well, at least it’s time to get it planned out! Every year we have our staff, interns and students from our 8 locations...
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Don Nordin

Chief Executive Officer

Don Nordin has more than 38 years of experience as a lead pastor. He is married to Susan Ashcraft Nordin and together they have two grown children and five grandchildren. Don and Susan oversee CT Church in Houston, a multi-cultural and multi-generational congregation, which has grown to encompass six campuses under their leadership. Pastor Nordin also holds a bachelor of ministry degree. His apostolic anointing and pastor’s heart motivate his visionary leadership.

Pastor Nordin’s denominational peers have elected him to a host of leadership roles during the course of his pastoral ministry. These include various executive level positions and committee chairmanships, including the position of CEO for Project Hope and Saving Grace in 2014. Pastor Nordin is an entrepreneurial leader. Donors have committed tens of millions of dollars to kingdom projects under his care.

Pastor Nordin’s two books, “Working at God’s Altar” and “The Audacity of Prayer,” have inspired thousands. He is the founder and president of Global Ministries Network (gmnonline.org) which credentials ministers and oversees the work of member churches.

Pastor Nordin travels extensively conducting revivals, altar worker training seminars, board and staff training, teaches on effective church structures and much more!

Each year Don and Susan host Empowerment Conference at CT Church. Empowerment Conference is a top-tier preaching and resourcing event. It draws hundreds of ministers from all over the world. Empowerment Conference features some of the premier speakers in today’s Pentecostal circles.

Michael Vecchio

Chief Operations Officer

Michael Vecchio has served as the COO for Project Hope and Saving Grace since 2017, and has been in full-time ministry since 2013. Michael previously served as the Executive Director for Project Hope, as well as the Marketing Director for Project Hope and Saving Grace. He graduated from the program of Long Island Adult & Teen Challenge, New York, in January 2013 and endeavors to see men and women experience the same freedom from addiction that he has. Michael serves together in ministry with his wife, Jessica, and they currently reside in Houston, TX.

“Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.”

Blake Paul

Chief Financial Officer

Blake has been in ministry for over 30 years and is a teacher of the Word and a gifted administrator. He has served on staff at churches in Arkansas and Texas in almost every role except Lead Pastor.

Blake currently serves as the Chief Financial Officer for CT Nation in Houston Texas. Blake is a graduate of Henderson State University in Arkadelphia Arkansas and holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration with a major in management and a minor in accounting and a bachelor’s degree in secondary business education.

In June 2003, Blake and his wife, Susan, started LBP Management LLC. A consulting firm that specializes in nonprofits. As it expanded in 2019 the name was changed to Paul Consulting Solutions, LLC. Blake and Susan’s bonus daughter joined the business in 2019 also and now works full time helping our clients. The emphasis of the business is to come along side Pastors and ministries in the areas of finance, bookkeeping, management, administration, ministry development, event planning, and volunteer assimilation. We currently serve many clients in roles from Outsourced CFO to recruiting and placing volunteers. Blake and Susan love the opportunity to partner with ministries and help lead them to become excellent.

They have had a friendship with Jay McSwain, the founder and author of PLACE Ministries, for over 15 years and the opportunity to teach the PLACE curriculum in churches, district offices, events, and most recently in prison. In the first year of teaching PLACE at Christian Temple, Susan and her team placed 164 new volunteers in ministry. PLACE is a game changer if you need more volunteers involved in ministry. Blake and Susan are also certified facilitators with Marriage on The Rock by Jimmy Evans and XO Ministries.

Blake and Susan live in Pearland Texas. They have two sons, Caleb and Joshua. Caleb is married to Randi Lynn and they have 3 sons and live in Pearland Texas. Joshua is married to Hunter Raine and they have one son and one daughter and live in Plano Texas.

Jessica Vecchio

Corporate Trainer

Jessica Vecchio currently serves as the Corporate Trainer for Project Hope and Saving Grace Women’s Home. She has previously held the positions of Corporate Marketing Director, and Executive Director. In 2020 Jessica helped to pioneer Saving Grace Women’s Home in Baker, FL, before making the move back to Houston, TX. Jessica has a passion for those that are lost, as she has also experienced freedom from a decades long addiction to drugs and alcohol. She works alongside her husband, Michael, and desires to train up the next generation of leaders in recovery ministry. When she’s not working, she enjoys spending time with her dogs; Lola and Allie, and her cat’s; Amelia, Autumn, Maisy and Baby G.

Billy Jasen

Executive Director, Project Hope Arkansas

Billy accepted the position to serve as the Executive Director in Arkansas in December, 2022. Previously he had served as the Corporate Marketing Director for all Project Hope and Saving Grace locations. Billy came up through the Project Hope program in Texas, where he graduated from in August 2019 before heading to Arkansas to serve as one of the staff members at that location. He enjoys teaching fitness classes with the students 3 days a week, as he has a heart to see men improve physically, mentally and spiritually during their time at the program. Billy serves alongside his wife, Tiffany, who is a senior staff member at the Saving Grace Arkansas location. They currently reside in Russellville, AR with their two cats.

“Be still and know I am God.”

Rex Fitzgerald

Executive Director, Project Hope Florida

Rex Fitzgerald serves as the Executive Director for Project Hope Recovery Center Florida. He has been with the ministry since August of 2017. Rex is currently in his third year of ministry training with the West Florida Ministry Network School of Ministry. Rex resides in Crestview with his wife Brooke and son Adam. Rex is an active member of Broken Chains JC which is a group of motorcycle enthusiasts that have found freedom in Jesus Christ. He enjoys spending his spare time riding his motorcycle and spending time with his family. His life verse is Psalms 23 1-3 “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2 He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. 3 He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake.”

Jeff Johnson

Project Hope Texas - Executive Director

Jeff and his wife, Connie, took the step to join Project Hope & Saving Grace at the end of November, 2022. Jeff serves as the Executive Director for Project Hope Texas, while his wife has come on board as the administrative assistant for Saving Grace Texas.

For years prior to coming to Houston, they had dedicated their life and time to serving as evangelists and missionaries to ministries like Project Hope, Saving Grace, Teen Challenge and others through their organization; In His Grip.

Jeff shares more about this here:

“Most of my life was spent bound up in drug addiction and criminal behavior. In the Fall of 2013 I came to the end of myself and cried out to God for help. I had been to several rehabs over the 28 year span of my addiction. I had also been in prison three times as well as countless near death close calls. None of these things ever seemed to bring an end to my destructive lifestyle. There was something different about this time though. This heart cry to God caused something to shift. After a nearly two week long withdrawal, God touched me and I haven’t been the same since. After my detox I went into Adult & Teen Challenge in Azle Texas and completely surrendered my life to God and his will for my life.

During that year God radically changed my life. He also healed my body a short time after coming into the program (my back was broken in 1999 and I had lived in extreme pain since). I have no pain today!! After graduation my wife and I sold everything we owned to respond to God’s call to do an internship at a Teen Challenge in SC where I served for 8 months. During that time, Connie, my wife, began to reach out to wives and mothers of the students that were there. She even played a key role in getting a pregnant wife of one of our guys into a Teen Challenge in California.

From the day that God touched me in the midst of the worst withdrawals ever, I have chased after Him with my whole being.
God has put a strong desire in me to preach the gospel and to point others to the blessed hope found in Christ.”

Blog & News

Rescuing Lives From Addiction Giving Hope To Those In Crisis