Al Whitmoor-Pryer grew up on a rough Taunton council estate with a stutter so bad he couldn’t hold a conversation. He went on to build a care business worth millions, retire at 45 in Canada and live the dream along with his wife Heather, in the Rocky Mountains. Then they immigrated to Australia where Al lost every penny to people he trusted and they found themselves back in Britain with nothing but two suitcases.
Speaking at CTN Southwest in Exeter on 19 June 2026 June, Al shared what happened next and it’s one of the most remarkable business testimonies you’ll read. From the dole queue in Exeter to six care homes transforming the lives of the people society has given up on, Al’s story is proof that God isn’t finished with you when everything falls apart.
If you only read one business testimony this year, make it this one.
Al Whitmoor-Pryer shares his testimony at CTN Southwest
Well, really, I’m going to take you on a journey of my life, and there have been quite a few twists and turns in it. But the one thing I’ve learned over the years is that the life you’re living is composed of the choices you make and constructed by the words you speak, and by what other people speak into your life. So often people speak too small. But when you let God speak into your life, He’ll speak it right.
The other thing I’ve learned, living as a businessman in the marketplace, is that God has his own timing. The one thing we mustn’t do is get impatient, because His timing doesn’t work like ours. You can become very frustrated in the marketplace and I’ll be honest, patience is not in my vocabulary. It definitely isn’t.
But I always think I’m one of those privileged men that the Lord spoke to when they were very young. I’m 67 now, but going back quite a few years, I was brought up on a rough council estate in Taunton. I remember the house, and my parents sitting there with the booze on the table and their cigarettes. It was a very small place and there was a sense that we needed more in our lives.
What actually happened was that my mother became seriously ill and was in hospital. A nun came in and said to her, “If you’re going to throw your life away, throw it into the arms of Jesus.” She gave my mum a little Gideon’s Bible and showed her John 3:16, “God so loved the world.” And she said, “If you believe in Jesus, I believe he can heal you.” My mum took that on board and prayed that night. She didn’t really know who God was, but she said, “Lord, if you’re real, show me.” And the next morning she woke up completely healed.
As you can imagine, this had a huge impact on our family. Even so, my father was quite stubborn. He didn’t want to know anything about the things of God. But Mum kept pressing on, because she’d had a revelation of who Jesus was, and eventually my dad became a Christian through South Chard Christian Fellowship. You talk about the Toronto blessing. Years before that, at South Chard, I tell you what, we had a blessing. Meetings would start at two o’clock in the afternoon and roll on to two o’clock in the morning, and the baptistry was open with people being baptised the whole time. My dad gave his heart to the Lord and got radically saved.
Then at the age of six, and I remember it so well, in my little bedroom in that council house, my dad sat at the end of my bed and said, “Do you want to accept Jesus into your life?” I can still remember praying that prayer at the age of six.
Did I then live my life the Christian way? No, I didn’t. I got involved in martial arts. I used to beat people up, but God had put a thumbprint on me. At the age of nine, my dad gave me Run Baby Run, the story of Nicky Cruz, and The Cross and the Switchblade, about a skinny country preacher called David Wilkerson who worked with the gangs in New York City. When I read those books, something dropped into my heart. I said, one day I’m going to work with drug addicts and alcoholics. At the age of nine.
I was baptised in the Holy Spirit at 12 and baptised in water at 13. Because of the church my mum and dad were involved in, we lived in a home where signs and wonders were normal. People came in and got delivered. They got healed. I had the privilege of growing up in that, not realising how special it was.
However, I had a terrible stutter. I couldn’t hold a conversation with you. I would never speak publicly, and I’d never have got involved in business or anything like it. But at about 19 I’d learned guitar, and you may remember the musical ‘If My People’, which toured the Anglican churches. I had the privilege of being one of the guitarists. I remember being in a church in Taunton, and I had to go up and sing. Because of my stutter, I couldn’t do it, and they had to take me off stage.
Then someone prayed for me and said, “Go back up and do it.” I went back up and that broke my stuttering. I was instantly healed!
After I left school, I joined a band with a friend I’d known since the age of three, a brilliant musician. We were offered a record deal in America. We ended up in New York State, playing different venues, and we met a guy called Andy who used to be a hitman for the mafia and had been radically saved. That’s an amazing story in itself.
I sat down with Andy and told him I’d always wanted to work with drug addicts and alcoholics. He said, “I know David Wilkerson very well, and I know Nicky Cruz. Can I take you to the Teen Challenge centre in Brooklyn.” So I found myself standing at 444 Clinton Avenue, where the book had happened, and my heart said, I’m still going to do this. I’m definitely going to do this.
We had tremendous times in New York. We saw many people come to the Lord, and because I’d been brought up in quite a radical household, I was fearless about the Gospel. I’d ask people, “What’s stopping you accepting Jesus into your life right now? Come on, let’s do it.” I’ve never found that approach fail and I’ve seen hundreds come to the Lord with that little phrase.
I thought I was going to be a full-time musician. We had a label who wanted to sign us up and we had the privilege of working with Karen Wheaton in a huge American auditorium. A guy from Devon walking out onto stages like that. I thought we were living the dream, then somebody asked me, “Why do you want this?”
I said, “The fame, the fortune, the money.”
And they said, “No. God’s got so much more.” And immediately something dropped into my spirit. You need that right word spoken into your life at times.
Then there’s my wife, Heather. I first knew Heath as friend, along with her first husband, Frazier. Sadly, he died of cancer, leaving her with three young children. I was a single bloke, not interested in getting married.
However, I was asked to lead worship at a conference on Canvey Island in the Thames Estuary, where Edwin Louis Cole was speaking on Maximised Manhood. While I was there, we’d also to KFC, which we jokingly called Kingdom Faith Church. One day, walking in to get some fried chicken, I heard an audible voice say, “Heather.”
I turned round and there was nobody there. And I knew that I knew, that I knew, I had to go back and ask Heather to marry me.
Heather has her own side of this story, and she can tell you how God speaks in the 21st century, audibly, if you’re open to hearing his voice. I drove from Canvey Island to Carbis Bay in Corwall where she was staying. As we walked on the beach, she said, “I believe we can be together for the rest of our lives.” That was March. We married on August the 16th.
Heather’s children have become my kids too and I love them dearly.
For our honeymoon, I gave her a rucksack and said, “We’re going on an adventure.” She’d never travelled with just a rucksack on her back! We flew to Turkey and joined up with a hippie colony in the mountains. And I said to her, “I want to work with drug addiction, alcoholics and mental health, and I want you to come with me to New York City and work on the streets.”
We’d only been married a few months. She said yes. She was a qualified nurse, and we went into the ghettos of Brooklyn and Manhattan, and she sat there praying for the prostitutes and the drug addicts, and she loved it. I knew that I knew that God had put us together.
On returning to the UK, we both worked for Barnardo’s in Taunton for about five years, until we were made redundant. I said, “I still want to do drug addiction and alcoholics.”
Around that time we’d met a farmer called Glen Brooks who ran a big chicken farm, 95,000 birds, and I used to walk with him each morning. Glen stuttered like I had, and he said to me, “If I can stutter and run these businesses, you can do it.”
I said, “I can’t.”
He said, “Yes you can. You need the right people speaking into your life.”
So there we were, both unemployed, standing in the dole queue in Exeter with the homeless, the addicts and the alcoholics lining up for their benefits. I said, “I’m not staying in this queue. My wife and I have a good set of brains between us.”
Then a lady came out and took me into the office. She said, “What do you want to do?”
I said, “I want to run a business working with drug addiction, alcoholics and mental health.”
She said, “Right, we’ll train you in business.” She was old school and wouldn’t let a single thing go. I did the equivalent of an open degree over a year and a half, and I carried on studying after that.
We had nothing and needed the money. I had a vision to buy a care home but it would cost £250,000. We went to every lender we could find. Nobody would listen. But I kept going, and eventually I met a bank manager called Jim, down in Penzance. We sat in his office and he leaned back in his chair and said, “I’ve never heard anything like this before, but I trust what you’re saying.”
I said, “Give me a quarter of a million and I’ll pay it back in a year.” And he gave us the money!
We bought our first care home, twelve residents, all with schizophrenia. We walked in and Heath will tell. you, it was like the Addams Family. I said, “Just think of it as our extended family.” And she’s an amazing host. She loves people.
We grew that home from a 13-bed unit to 32 beds, then bought another, then opened a high security unit, taking some of the toughest cases in society. I’m fearless about approaching people with mental health conditions. I love all of them. Because I look at people and think, why is Satan dumping on you?
We grew the care homes and eventually sold them for millions. I retired at 40. One of my passions was to live in Canada, so we bought land in the Rocky Mountains and built the most beautiful home. Waterfall in the grounds, cinema room, the lot. We’d wake up, look at Grizzly Ridge and say, “Shall we ski this morning and waterski on the lake this afternoon?” We were living the dream. And if I’m honest, I’d become quite arrogant. I had to learn the hard way that it’s not about the money or the success. It’s about respect for what God wants you to do and holding things lightly.
Tough times don’t break you, they build you
Our son had moved to Australia, so we found ourselves out there, and I was introduced to a company involving three Christian guys. They asked me to join them. I said to Heather, “What am I going to do when I get bored of skiing and fishing? I need to do something.”
So we invested millions into that company. There were huge deals on the table, government contracts, a big manufacturing operation in Adelaide, and they offered me a role leading the social enterprise side, taking people with disabilities, addictions and mental health issues into work and off benefits. That was the bit I loved.
But I was naive. We didn’t do our full due diligence, and eventually they took us to the cleaners. We lost everything. Our house, our finances, absolutely everything. It was so tough. I very nearly had a nervous breakdown over it. Heather, bless her, sat beside me. That’s when you know you love each other, when you lose everything. You wake up in the torment of the night thinking, what have I done? How do I face people? Who am I to speak to business people when I’ve lost everything? I was a fool to be so trusting and I was arrogant.
We started to fast and pray, because we needed a breakthrough. And God brought two incredible prayer warriors into our life who walked in and said, “You two, stop fasting right now. You cannot kick the door in on God. Start eating, get your strength back and get yourselves to the UK.” A dear friend lent us £15,000 to come home, and we arrived back in Britain with just two suitcases.
I was done with the church at that point. I called Christians schizophrenic. Praise the Lord on Sunday, stab you in the back on Monday. I got to a point where I was so broken I could hardly communicate with Heather, and I said, “I’m not going to church anymore.” I didn’t know if God still wanted me.
But we got back on our feet. I said, “I’m going to get my care qualifications back.” We went down to Heather’s parents in Cornwall and I sat at that table week after week for six months, studying day and night, until I got my registration back. Then we had to think about buying a care home with no money. And again, this was in God’s timing and His miracles. If you’re broken, you can be repaired. God can stitch together a broken heart.
I went round all the banks again. HSBC, where we’d put millions through, didn’t want to know. Then I was in the Lloyds office in Exeter, asking for £1.2 million for a care home, and the manager said, “You must be off your head, you won’t get anything near that.” And as we sat there his computer pinged. He looked down and said, “I’ve never seen this before. You’ve just come back to the UK and you’re classified as new-start business entrepreneurs. There’s a significant discount on the finance. I’m going to lend you the money.”
We bought a care home behind the RD&E, and that was the beginning of the journey back. Then we bought a closed-down house and opened it up for drug addiction and alcoholics in Exeter. Today we’ve got six care homes.
The biggest thing you can do if you lose money is put it down as the most expensive training session you’ve ever paid for. That’s how I dealt with it. We did go to court with those guys, and I’d have hung them if I could, because we’d been badly played by so-called Christians. But God has redeemed us. He’s clothed us in fresh majesty. I know that I know that I know I’m not serving a bankrupt heaven. His resources are limitless.
You can get so wrapped up in the pain of loss that you forget who you truly are and who you’re serving. God’s timing is different from ours. Don’t panic. Get on your knees. How badly do you want it? Get back on the horse and keep riding. If I can come back from losing millions, a guy who used to stutter, who was never trained in business, who had a crazy dream about drug addiction and alcoholics that started at the age of nine, then if God can use me, he can use you.
One thing I’ve learned is to hold money very lightly. It’s all God’s. I’m just a steward of the finance. I lost millions and I could lose it again, and God can restore, because that’s what he’s done. And that brings freedom into our marriage. We honour each other.
One of the guys who took us for millions, I’ll call him George. We found a lawyer over in Australia, and took him to court. But I stopped the legal proceedings, because I felt God say, “Vengeance is mine, do not take it.” So we had to let it go.
We’d been back here about 14 years. I’d been back to Australia two or three times, and I used to hate it, because I knew George was still there. Then last year I wrote to George and said, “I’ve got to meet up with you.” He didn’t want to at first, but we did meet, in a little cafe in Glenelg just outside Adelaide, and I said, “George, I forgive you for what you’ve done. God has restored Heather and me, and I pray God brings you through. Let’s reset this.”
Then we went over again, and this time he said, “No, I don’t want to see you.” We were walking on the beach with Heather, James, our daughter-in-law and the grandchildren, and I said to James, “Our flight’s in two hours, but I’d love to see George one more time, just to pray with him.”
James turned round, and there was George, standing on the beach, pale as anything. He said, “I was at a barbecue, and for some reason I just knew I had to come down to the beach.” He’d driven right across and was walking there at exactly the same time we were.
He’d lost his wife to cancer, lost his business, his farm, his employees. And when we came out and he saw the grandkids and Heather and James, he broke down crying and walked off into the distance. Then about a month ago we had a phone call. George had died. He was only about 60.
God deals with situations, and I don’t pretend to understand it all. But be careful coming against the men and women of God, and I’m talking to myself on that one too, because God has a plan and a purpose for them.
Keep your heart pure. And don’t let anybody tell you to forgive and forget. The process of forgiving can take years. If you’ve been wronged by a Christian brother or sister or a family member, you have to work through that process. But forgiveness released blessing.
Strong men and women for tough times
Let me give you a few things I’ve learned about being strong men and women for tough times. Tough times don’t break strong men and women, they build them. “Consider it pure joy, because the testing of your faith produces perseverance.” (James 1:2-3) Steel is forged in fire, and the mighty are shaped through trials.
Strong men and women admit when they’re weak. When people ask if you’re okay, let the right people speak into your life. Get mentors, not advice. Ask a thousand people for advice and that’s all you’ll get. Find somebody who’s been there. Plenty of business people have failed two or three times, and they carry the wisdom of what broke them.
Strong men and women stand firm when others fall back. Act like men and women of God, be strong. That’s not a call to macho toughness, it’s a call to spiritual backbone. When temptation calls, resist. When fear rises, trust God.
Strong men lead their households well. “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:15) And strong men and women keep their eyes on God, not on the storm. Those who wait on the Lord renew their strength. Storms will come and winds will rise, but you don’t collapse. You rise up on wings like eagles.
Fight your battles on your knees. And learn to declare the Word of God over your life. Pick up the Bible and start to quote it, not just read it. “No weapon formed against you shall prosper”. (Isaiah 54:17) “The weapons of our warfare are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. (2 Corinthians 10:4)
God has got you right where he wants you. Don’t be proud. Get rid of any sense of your own greatness. Make God the senior partner of your company and you will succeed.
Is business exciting? I love it. I love deals. I’m 67 and I still want to go, still want to open homes for drug addiction, alcoholics, mental health, anybody broken in society. Because God’s purpose is my purpose.
We take some of the toughest cases in society, and I’d say we’re getting about an 80 per cent success rate. What drives me nuts is working with the authorities, the budget constraints and what happens politically, because it really affects the mission.
The homeless are not bad apples. They’re the precious ones. The reason Satan dumps on them is that if they were won for the Kingdom of God they’d be so effective they’d rattle the gates of hell. That’s why I take them on.
I’ve had people come to us out of the most horrific abuse, carrying psychological mess. I sit with them and I love them, and when they get tough with me, I can be tougher. They come to my office and I say, “Would you like a cup of coffee? Right. I will work with you, I will get your train back on the track, and I’ll be very tough with you. You think you’ve met your worst nightmare? Double it. That’s me. And I will love you through it. Would you like that coffee?”
Broken, bruised people. Those are the ones I pick up, and I say, I’m going to love on you. Love the unloveable.
Although actually, let me put one thing right. I don’t believe in unconditional love the way people often mean it. Think about the Prodigal Son. His father let him go and do it all in a far country. He didn’t let him disrupt the home. I say that to some of the families I deal with, where parents are struggling with how to handle their children. We’ve taken rules and tough love out of society, and there’s a spirit of entitlement we let go by. As Christians we can be tough by using the Word of God.
People sometimes ask me about taking on three children. I have spent my life widening the circle of love, first to my family and then to many spiritual children. However it’s not always easy. We don’t always talk about the tough times. I remember once having an argument with James, our son, and I felt the Lord say, “Do you not know that Joseph was My stepfather?”
Within the family of Jesus. There was a single mum and a stepfather. God chose that.
I have said to the kids, “I might not be your dad, but I’m going to try and do a first class job.” Cat is the only one who ever said to me, “You’re not my dad.” I said, “No, and your dad’s precious, and he’s with Jesus. But if I can, I’ll be the best second dad you could have.” And they’re great kids. They’re stable, they’re dynamic, and they know the family vision, the legacy of working with the broken.
So that’s my journey, twists and turns and all. A boy from a council estate who couldn’t get his words out, and a God who had a purpose for him anyway. Whatever stage of life you’re at, don’t let anyone speak too small over you. The life you’re living is composed of the choices you make and the words you speak, so let God speak into it. Find out what His purpose is for your life, then press in and take hold of it. And when the storms come, and they will come, fight your battles on your knees and get back on the horse. If God can use me, he can use you. He’s not finished with you yet.
About Al Whitmoor-Pryer
Al Whitmoor-Pryer is the founder of Kingdom Biz at Rediscover Church and the author of Kingdom Business, You Can Be God’s Entrepreneur. A businessman with a heart to see Christians flourish in the marketplace, Al has spent his career building care businesses that transform the lives of people struggling with addiction and mental health. Through Kingdom Biz he mentors and trains Christian entrepreneurs, running a business training course, a weekly mentorship hub and the annual Rediscover Business conference. This was Al’s second visit to CTN Southwest, having previously spoken on overcoming fear and negativity in business. See From Fear to Faith.
