Here at Agora, time keeps passing and the weeks seem to be going faster than we can keep up with. We have had so many blessings come through the doors and can hardly keep up with everything that God is doing!  In the past few months we have received a large number of chairs which were very much NEEDED! Also, we were able to do some renovations to the sanctuary for the after school program. New carpet was installed as well as a fresh coat of paint to the walls.  The storage room by the sanctuary has now also become part of the after school program, it too has gotten fresh coats of paint.  Some carpets were also donated to us to use as reading corners for the children.  Two mini vans were donated to be used for the child care center as well as kids church.

Last Saturday evening we celebrated the annual Christmas party with roughly 150 kids and lots of helping hands filled with presents from WCMC. We thank all of you who donated a gift, made food, and most of all lifted us up in prayer for this special evening! I do not remember a night going so smoothly with that many children present. Thank you prayer warriors!! This was such a special evening and we look forward to it year after year. This could very well be the only gift a child receives this year. Every year us as Staff members find ourselves almost more excited than the children because of how much this evening will mean to them. We have been truly blessed at Agora with people that have hearts to be like Jesus. Prayers being heard from near and far around the globe. Keep the kids in your prayers as some of them will not have a joy filled Christmas. Pray that God’s protecting hand would surround them and that they would have opportunities to share what they are learning at church. The heart of a child is so precious and pure, Lord may we have faith as a child!

The Christmas program for Little Gems will be taking place next Monday evening. We ask you lift us up in prayer as this is a time where parents have an opportunity to see what their child has been working on as well as us as staff members to talk one on one with the parents and be a witness.

Also pray that He would keep bringing children through the doors of Agora for the child care center. Our numbers are down but, we are trusting in his plan for us. The Lord provides for his people.

Wishing a Merry Christmas and a joyous time as we celebrate the birth of our living Savior!

Last Wednesday evening, we were studying 1 Corinthians 12 where it talks about all the gift the Spirit left for each one in the body of Christ. One of the members in our group had a terrible headache. The Bible says to lift one another up in prayer. We layed hands on Jana and her headache was gone Jesus hears even the smallest troubles we have and cares for each one.

By 9:00 that evening, the vans are filled with many energetic children ready to hit the road home. Driving along I began to realize I have no headlights. I have a van load of children and have not dropped even 1 of them off yet…Oh Jesus, give me some wisdom! So I called Pastor Rich and we do not have any other cars to take kids home in…O NO! Ok Lord, this is all yours! I pulled beside the road and explain to the children what is happening. They all are more than ready to go home by this point, but were even more ready to take a minute to pray! I have never seen this many hands go up when I asked who would like to pray. At least 9 kids prayed while I was praying for this to be a time of witness and testimony for these children. I kept flipping the switch to see if they would come on..no, not yet. The Lord told me to get out and give the headlight that hadn’t worked for 5 months a solid tap. LIGHT!!!!! The kids were so excited..’so now pray for the other one!’ I opened the hood, knowing I couldn’t see a thing, but trusting the Lord. Then let the hood nicely shut with a solid thud…and LIGHT!!! Both lights are up and running!

In the mean while, James was running to Auto Zone to get us some new lights. The Lord had another agenda on His mind. Trusting Him. The people at the parts store couldn’t quite believe that James didn’t need the lights anymore..God is so good!!

Knowing the shape that our cars are in at Agora, please keep us in your prayers. We are looking to buy 3 mini vans for kids church and the day care. We are trusting to Lord for the provision and knowing that His timing is perfect. Always.

Also on Friday evening, Becky’s mother passed away. What a life of testimony she lead. Serve the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. She’s walking on those streets of Gold with the One who gives true Life. Keep the family in your prayers as they mourn but rejoice in seeing a wife, mother and grandmother finish the race to victory.

Though I have been at Agora for 3 ½ years now, I continue to be surprised by the trust that parents place in us. Many parents have never even met us.  They may have come out with their child the first time that they got on our vans, or perhaps they called to ask us to pick their child up.  But beyond that most parents have had little to no interaction with the people that pick their children up and are responsible for them twice a week.  To be honest, I have always blamed this on poor parenting.  I could not imagine doing the same if I were in their shoes.  This week God completely shook up that notion.

A few of the children that do chores on Wednesday and Saturday evenings like to save their money so I keep it in an envelope for them.  Once they have saved up about $5 I take them to the store so they can spend their money.  This week two girls had finally saved up enough money.  They had been begging me to take them to the store so I finally made some room in my schedule and took them.  Monday night I picked up Alyssa and Kerstin at their homes; both were so excited.  Kerstin even put her coat on upside down because she was in such a hurry!  As usual the parents did not ask any questions, even though I had not called ahead of time.  One parent had never even met me before, but I did not even get to introduce myself—she chatted with me the whole time I was waiting!

After the evening was over and the girls were home, I was thinking about all this as I drove home.  I realized that perhaps I had been wrong about why parents seem so comfortable with me (and other staff members) taking their children, even when they barely know us.  These parents know that we are from a church, that we are Christians; they know the values that we represent.  In their minds Christians are good people, so why would we not take good care of their kids?  This thought truly surprised me.  In the media and in my college classes I am often bombarded with accusations about Christians being hypocrites.  It was entirely new to me to have someone trust me especially because I am a Christian—This is how it should be!  We need to be living up to the example that Jesus set for us, not the one that the media presents.  People should see a difference in us because of the one who lives in us.  In this neighborhood the difference between followers of Christ and followers of the world is staggering, but I had to think: do I seem so different outside of this neighborhood? Do I stick out in my college classes? Do I stand apart in less obviously lost communities? The answer I think is no. What a humbling thought! I pray that God will help me to live like the person he has set me apart to be so that my life can be as obviously different to my peers as it is to the parents and children we work with.

Romans 12:2

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Last evening at church one little girl would not obey me.  I gave her several warnings which she disregarded, and then I took her into the sanctuary for a time out.  This did not go any better than my warnings.  As soon as I sat her down she bolted out of her chair and took off running.  So there I was, chasing down a 6 year old.  I finally caught her and tried again, except this time I held her.  It took a while but she finally calmed down and did her time out.  Afterward, I talked to her about it.  We talked about how important it is to listen to adults, and how much more fun it is to make good choices than to be in time out for making bad ones.  The whole time she sat there with her head down and bottom lip out.  She finally said, “I try to be good but I just can’t!”  It was a little hard not to laugh, but I knew she was telling the truth; she really feels like she can’t be good.  So I asked her if she ever prays to God about it, and I told her that he could help her be good even when its hard.  She turned her face to me and said very sincerely, “I pray but I can’t hear him.”  I can tell you that I was not expecting this answer!  “But he can hear you!” I responded. When a child says something like this, only God can give you the words to say, and I trust that he gave me the right things to tell her.  Nevertheless, it was so difficult to explain to a little child that God does speak to us in all kinds of ways.  Through his bible verses, our church teachers, our feelings, and yes, sometimes we can even hear his voice.  I asked her if she wanted to pray and she did.  We bowed our heads and she prayed first and then I prayed for her next.  Afterward, she still looked so sad.  I asked her what was wrong and she said, “Its not fair!  He can hear us, but we can’t hear him! Its not fair.”  I didn’t know what to do besides hug her and tell her differently.  I pray that it was the right thing and that she knows that she can hear God if she listens carefully.

In the end, the whole encounter really made me think.  Had my little brother, or a child from my church back home said this, it would have been a cute and funny story to tell on a Sunday morning, because we would know that the child would learn differently as they grew.  The problem is that this little girl is not growing up in a home where she will learn that God really does speak to her, and she really can hear him.  This church and we volunteers are the only opportunity she has to learn that.  I pray that God will speak to her in a way that she can hear and understand so that her young faith can be strengthened.  Please pray for her too!

As we were taking children home on the van, I had only one more boy left to drop off on a Wednesday evening after church.  He said he would have to go right to bed when he got home since it was his bedtime.  I started asking him what he needed to do to get ready for bed, and I was surprised when he didn’t mention brushing his teeth.  Upon inquiring about it, he said that because toothpaste is so expensive he can only brush his teeth once a day.  He went on to say that his family gets most of their food from the dumpster behind the store.  I was not sure how to respond.  It was not a family I would have suspected with this kind of a problem.  On a regular basis we have families asking for food and such but this is a family that we would not have guessed. The needs in the community are great.

Becky

Whenever something keeps coming up over and over again in my conversations or interactions with other people, I often find that it is because God is trying to tell me something.  On both Saturday and Wednesday night of last week I had conversations with children about Heaven and Hell.  The first conversation took place with Ranaja.  After church, Ranaja spent a long time drawing a picture for Jesus.  She wrote, “I love you Jesus” on the paper and drew  a beautiful picture of a rainbow and two people standing together.  When she was finished she brought the picture to me and put it in my hand.  Then she whispered in my ear while pointing, “If we die and I go down there and you go up there, will give this to Jesus for me?”  I have to admit I didn’t quite know what to say to this.  I was shocked that this girl who spent so much time writing a love note to Jesus thought she might go to hell.  I did all I knew to do and held her close and told her that as long as she loved Jesus just as much as she does right now, she never had to worry about going “down there.”  We talked a little while longer and when she left I think she understood, but she still looked a little sad. I realized that she had no assurance of her salvation.  She is a little girl, just 8 years old, and she truly loves Jesus, but somehow she doesn’t realize that this means she is saved from hell.

The second time this came up was a few days later on a Wednesday night when I was outside watching the kids play.  Some of them were misbehaving.  Lacea came up to me and whispered while pointing at the boys who were misbehaving, “They’re going down there.”  I told her that that was a pretty awful thing to say about someone and I asked her why she thought that, “because they’re being bad” she said sincerely.  I told her that if that is the case then we really need to pray for those boys, that they will get to know Jesus and stop being bad because hell is a terrible, terrible place and we don’t want anyone to have to go there.  She nodded and then asked,”Do you know that little red guy with a fork?” Was it God’s plan for him to go to down there?”  I was astounded that this question was coming from an 8 year old.  Once again I felt like I was so unprepared and unqualified to answer.  I said a quick prayer and told her what God put on my heart, “No, God never wanted anyone to go down there, but the devil, that red guy, made really bad choices.  He stopped loving God and went against what God said, so he had to go to hell.  Now when people do the same thing they also have to go down there with the devil.  That is why it is so important for us to love God and listen to him.”

I don’t know exactly why God placed me in these two very similar conversations.  I think that he was trying to remind me that salvation is not something to be taken lightly.  They were a reminder to me to talk to the kids about the salvation message, which  has never been easy for me!  I can spend all kinds of time showing love to kids and teens, but if I never tell give them the salvation message does it really matter?  The fact is that Lacea was not being mean in what she said about those boys; they really are living ungodly lives.  We can’t judge, but Lacea just spoke what she saw and unfortunately it was probably right unless they make some major changes in their lives.  I thank the Lord for a sad, but much needed reminder.

This is life or death.

Andi and I got a new challenge: teaching the teenager class on Wednesday nights. We both love the opportunity to serve there! At the same time we are very aware of how we depend on God and how we need his guidance and his spirit to get the class moving.

It’s his vision to see our girls become women who are confident in God and know how precious they are.
Since we just started to work in that class, it is also very important to us -and one of our current aims- to gain their trust and to build strong relationships with them.
Sometimes it’s not easy, and we can’t tell where the girls are because they’re having a hard time opening up. Especially when all the girls are together, it is hard for them to “out” themselves.

So a few weeks ago, when we went caroling, I was at the homes of two girls that come on Wednesdays. How much it meant to me that both came up to give me a hug!!

At another time, a girl came to me and just wanted to talk about things that hurt her. When she tried to start she just burst out into tears.

There are more stories like the two above. I’m so happy and excited that they are slowly starting to share about what’s going on inside and to trust us.

Please pray for God’s blessing upon this class!

-Miriam

About one week ago we had a Christmas party at kids’ church where all the kids got their own Christmas present. It was crazy. Most of the kids were excited and cheered (especially the little ones). After they all ate we came to the present part when we tried to make them all calm down and sit down–hard work Once they did, we sang a Christmas song together: “Away in a manger”.

Which brings me to why I’m writing this article. The moment that all the kids had sat down and begun to sing together really hit me. I think we had over 200 kids squeezed in the sanctuary. Seeing them all singing along was a great blessing to me. It showed once again what an awesome place Agora is–for the kids!!! How great is that: Rough kids, who most likely did not even know this song before they first came to Agora gathering together to sing a Christmas song in celebration of Jesus’ birth, and all in the sweetest voices!
May God continue to prosper and bless Agora and most importantly the hearts and lives of the kids!

Thats it, bye-bye.

~Miriam

This weekend I was so blessed by a little girl who has been coming to church for the past few weeks.  Her name is Ranaja, she is 7 years old, and the cutest little girl!  Ranaja is always running from one staff member to another giving hugs and giggling infectiously.  But besides being a sweetheart, she is also a great helper.  On Saturday night she asked to work like many kids do, butecause we often have so many kids who want to work our policy is that they can only work for 10 minutes so that everyone gets a chance to earn a little extra money.  Ranaja worked her 10 minutes in the kitchen, but when Meghan told her she could go Ranaja begged to keep working.  Meghan told Ranaja that she wouldn’t get paid for any more work thinking that would stop the begging (as it usually does).  However, Ranaja was not at all discouraged.  She replied, “You don’t have to pay me anything; I just want to help!”  Ranaja proceeded to help in the kitchen for 45 more minutes.  She was so excited to be able to help.  When I walked in she announced that she was going to “stay until its all done!”  Ranaja did just that, she helped until the kitchen was clean and then she ran to the sanctuary to ask Pastor Rich if he needed any more help in there.  She spent several more minutes helping out in the sanctuary.  She was laughing and beaming through all of this and announcing how much she loved helping.  This little incident reminded me of what service is all about.  The Bible says, “The Lord loves a cheerful giver.”  When we give of ourselves with a smile and joy (just like Ranaja) we bring joy to God.  What a blessing for Him and us!

I was pretty worn out and tired the other night when James and I went to pick up kids for church. Physically and mentally, I felt too tired to be much use to anyone.

We had gotten the kids into the van, and some worship song started playing on the radio. All at once the kids began singing along as loud as they could.

God used this moment to speak right to my heart. Once again he showed me clearly how special and wonderful it is that we here at Agora have the privilege of working with these kids. And, that God equips us again and again with new strength and pours out love for the kids.

~Miriam