His Joshua House not affiliated with Joshua Home in Bertram
While an investigation into a Bertram-based “residential home for troubled boys” continues, a Llano County organization is making sure people know they are in no way affiliated with the group home.
The confusion has come about due to the similarities in the names of the two organizations. Authorities on Wednesday removed eight juvenile males were removed from the Joshua Home near Bertram after an investigation into allegations of abuse, neglect, labor violations, fraud, licensing violations, and human trafficking.
Meanwhile, in Kingsland, is the headquaters of His Joshua House, a faith-based drug and alcohol recovery house for men. It is also a non-profit corporation under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.
“On behalf of the Board of His Joshua House, I want to make clear the His Joshua House is not, nor has it ever been, affiliated with Joshua Home in any way,” said HJH executive director Robert A. Hall in a statement Friday. “We at HJH are still a faith-based recovery house for men and stand firm on the Rock, Jesus Christ! Our God, yours and mine is much bigger than this!”
Authorities have not conducted any investigations into nor have they ever accused His Joshua House in Kingsland of any wrongdoing. However, they did recently begin to investigate the non-affiliated Joshua Home in Bertram.
During the past several weeks, investigators and officials from many state and local agencies conducted joint investigations into the Joshua Home, which is affiliated with a nonprofit organization known as The Joshua Home Ministries, the Burnet County Sheriff's Office said Friday.
As a result of these efforts, investigators sought and were granted a search warrant from the 33rd District Court of Burnet County. On Wednesday, July 25, investigators from the Burnet County Sheriff’s Office, the Texas Ranger Service, Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) Criminal Investigations (CID), and DPS Highway Patrol executed the search warrant at the Joshua Home, located in the 2500 block of Ranch to Market Road 243 West near Bertram.
Information and evidence uncovered during the execution of the search warrant led to the issuance of emergency orders for the removal of all eight juvenile male residents from the Joshua Home. Those boys range in age from 10 to 17 years old and have been transferred into the temporary custody of CPS until arrangements can be made to reunite them with their parents, all of whom reside out of state. None of the removed children were relatives of the directors or staff of the Joshua Home.
In addition to the agencies above, the following agencies participated in this investigation in an investigative, support, or advisory role: The Texas Attorney General’s Office, the Texas Comptroller’s Office, The Department of Health and Human Services Child Care Licensing division, The Burnet County Attorney’s Office, the Hill Country Children’s Advocacy Center, Child Protective Services (CPS) and the 33rd/424th District Attorney.
As this investigation proceeds, the investigators ask that anyone with additional information about the Joshua Home, Joshua Home Ministries, Joshua Home Lawn Care, Joshua Home Movers, or JJW Home Services to contact the investigations division of the Burnet County Sheriff’s Office at 512-756-8080 or by email to cidadmin@burnetsheriff.com.
Joshua Home is reportedly run by Gary and Meghann (Shaw) Wiggins, who formerly ran similar businesses in Alabama and Missouri. Meghann Wiggins is reportedly a Burnet CISD graduate.
No formal charges have been filed against Gary or Meghann Wiggins at this time.
