Every Friday morning the Agora staff and volunteers gather early in the morning for breakfast and a devotional.  We begin our devotional time with each person sharing highs and lows of the week; things that were good and things that we found difficult throughout the week.  This week at Agora felt like a rollercoaster ride from one extreme high to another very low. The week began with very sad news: one of our volunteers, Lukas, was diagnosed with Sarcoma.  As the week went on, he spent his days in the hospital and with doctors doing test after test.  At first the news was not good at all and we passed word around to everyone we knew to be praying.  I believe that God heard our prayers because yesterday we got the best news possible given the situation.  The cancer has not spread and Lukas will almost certainly be able to keep his arm.  He will begin chemotherapy in about one week.  After two months of chemo he will have surgery.  We praise God for this good news and we ask you to keep praying for Lukas.  We know that God has the power to heal and we pray that his favor will rest on Lukas.  In addition, please pray for his family.  They are at home in Germany and will not be able to come to the United States until the time of the surgery.  As you can imagine, it would be very difficult to be separated from your family during a time like this.

While Lukas’s diagnosis was a definite low, we also had some very exciting things take place this week.  I guess God knew how much we needed some good news!  On Tuesday Rich and Becky met with our childcare licensing specialist and the meeting went great!  She had some wonderful things to say about our center and gave us a completely doable list of things to finish.  She is coming back on Monday and we are very hopeful that we will be licensed then!  It is such a great feeling to be so close to opening our center!  We have really appreciated all your prayers and support up to this point and we ask that you keep praying for us as we prepare to open.

Prayer Requests

• Lukas and family
• Opening our childcare center
• Tremendous financial pressures

I hope that this post finds everyone safe and enjoying our first sunny day in quite some time!  I know I am, this weather is absolutely beautiful.  With that said, I did love the snow (and the day off of classes).  Sadly we were unable to have church this past Wednesday.  The residential streets on the Hilltop and in the Bottoms were still very icy and in some case nearly impassable so we decided it was not safe enough to be transporting 120 children through those streets.  We all miss the kids and are looking forward to having church tomorrow night!

This week has been very busy for everyone working on the childcare center.  We had a couple of inspections this week and one big final inspection coming up on Monday.  Please say a prayer that everything will go as planned and that we will pass the inspection!  Some people have been busy cleaning classrooms and most of the room are now sparkling clean.  Also, we started putting furniture together.  A few of the rooms are all set up, how exciting!  I love walking into the rooms and imagining them full of children.

A huge blessing this week was the donation of Sunday School curriculum.  The Sunday School teachers at Agora are so thankful to the family that purchased and donated wonderful Sunday School curriculum.  We have been in need of this for quite some time.  We often looked into buying some or creating our own, but never had the money or time to do either.  Thanks again!

Thank you for all your continued prayers and support.  It is greatly appreciated!

Prayer Requests

• Financial pressures
• Staff members
• Pastor Rich & Becky

I apologize for the long time between updates!  Since Christmas, things at Agora have just been so busy (check out the childcare update videos) and I have not done a very good job of staying on top of our updates.

So here is an update!

One of our volunteers, Nils Ruppel, returned to Germany on January 18th.  It was really difficult to see him go, but we know that God has amazing plans for him back home.  God has provided Agora with remarkable volunteers and Nils was no exception.  We already miss him so much!  Please keep Nils in your prayers; adjusting to life back home is difficult for every volunteer and they need to be surrounded by prayer.

On a more exciting note, two of our volunteers became engaged to each other over Christmas.  Josh and Anna are busy planning their summer wedding.  Keep them in your prayers as well!

Church nights have been very busy for us.  We consistently have 120 children coming for church and we are thrilled about it!  We made some adjustments to our program that have made a huge difference.  Becky now teaches a children’s class on Saturday nights for children in the 1st grade or below.  The children love it!  We also solved some transportation issues that have enable us to get children home earlier on school nights.  In addition, the staff have been able to get home by 10:30 most church nights.  What a blessing!  We used to get home around 11:30.

Another exciting addition to church has been a Bible memory program.  Children can memorize a verse and receive a small prize each time.  It is incredible how much the children love this!  Each week a group of children line up to recite their verses.  Some of the recently memorized verses are Galatians 5:22-23, Philippians 4:13, Matthew 21:22, and Matthew 4:4.

There are some very exciting stories to share as well.  Becky (Pastor Rich’s wife) does a great deal of ministry work with women in our community, mostly mother’s of children who come to Agora.  As you know this is a huge deal; many of our children go home from church to parents that do not know the Lord.  When we see parents decide to live for Christ we often see changes in the child’s life follow.  Becky began leading a weekly Bible study with  a group of women in the fall.  Please keep this in your prayers.  The Enemy is always eager to disrupt and we have seen him at work trying to disrupt this Bible study.  Please take time to pray for this ministry that Becky is doing.

Last week was so exciting!  Becky has been visiting one mother whose 3 children all come to Agora.  Two her children have severe behavior problems beyond anything that we have ever seen before.  We are committed to working with the children, but many times we have felt overwhelmed.  One of the boys seems to be particularly distressed when we speak to him of God’s love for him.  He often responds by screaming at us, swearing, and saying that, “Jesus hates him.”  With that said there have been moments of victory and we do see improvements.  We continue to pray for the children and discover how we can work with them better.  As I was saying, Becky has been visiting the mother and getting to know her better.  Last week, the mother recommitted her life to Christ!  Isn’t it amazing how God works?  We pray for a breakthrough with the children and God responds by working in the mother’s life too!  Please keep this mother and her children in your prayers, they have many struggles and often feel overwhelmed, but we know that our God is greater than all those things!  Pray that she will find comfort in the truth and learn to rely on Christ for her strength!

To close I would like to leave you with a verse that some of our children have memorized.  It is a short verse, but one full of truth and encouragement.

Philippians 4:13

I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

Our renovations are winding down, and we need equipment to use in the childcare center. We already received generous donations that helped in stocking the childcare center with equipment and toys, but we still need a bit more to open our doors. If you are willing and able to help, please either take the time to find a great deal at the local thrift store, or if you have the resources please take advantage of our registries with the following stores:
TARGET REGISTRY,WALMART REGISTRY,KOHL’S REGISTRY,BABIES “R” US REGISTRY

Here are the links to the Flier and List files, respectively:
AGORA BABY SHOWER FLIER and AGORA BABY SHOWER LIST

Merry Christmas!  December has been a very busy month at Agora.  We started off the month with our annual Christmas party.  A sister church sponsored each one of our kids and made sure that they had a gift.  The church came down on a Saturday night; they provided a meal for the entire group (over 200 people!) and brought gifts for all the children.  We had a wonderful evening celebrating the birth of our Christ and sharing his love with our kids.

Progress on the childcare center is going full-speed ahead.  The floors are almost done (the guys are putting a late night in as I type this).  Almost every day we get packages in the mail with furnishings for the childcare, chairs, mirrors, toys, etc..  How exciting!  We are all thrilled for this new stage of Agora’s ministry.

While much progress has been made in building projects, what is most exciting is seeing progress in the children and teens.  The last weeks have given us much to praise God for.  Several of the teens in our job training program are really doing good!  Not only have their attitudes been better, we have seen them become more conscious of the fact that they are role models for the younger children.  I have been blessed by seeing our teens mediate arguments between kids and encourage younger kids to make good decisions.  I told one young man that I had noticed how he seemed to be growing and that I was really proud of him, he replied, “I gotta change somehow, I gotta do better.”  God is good isn’t he?!  I am amazed at how he can work in any life, no matter how lost a person is.  Sometimes, this is the only hope that we can hold to.  Many times, we have seen lives that are such a mess that we can trust only in the knowledge that God is far greater than all the darkness that is in their life.  Please continue to pray for the young men that are a part of our job training program, that they will allow God to continue to break in on their lives.

As we prepare for Christmas, I challenge you to remember what life is truly about.  God sent his son that we might have life, I pray that that knowledge will revolutionize your life.  Just a few days  ago a fellow volunteer asked me, “What if Jesus came back just one day before this childcare opened?”  I stopped in my tracks.  My first reaction was to think, “Oh no!  What about all the work we did?”  As I have reflected on that statement these last days I have realized that if we can’t fully welcome Christ, without regret or hoping for a little more time then we need to evaluate just what we are living for.  I am very thankful that God had someone speak those words to me.  I was reminded that I am called to live for Christ and in anticipation of his return, desiring to bring others with me to Heaven.  When my focus becomes the work and not the ministry then I am living for the wrong reasons, no matter how good my deeds may be.  As followers of Christ we are called to greater glory than the glory here on earth, my prayer is that we will fully embrace this knowledge and allow it to change our lives!

I pray that you will be blessed with a very merry Christmas!  Keep in touch!

Prayer Requests

• Parents of our children
• Safety as volunteers travel this Christmas season
• Continued financial provision

Greetings everyone!  All the staff and volunteers are wrapping things up at Agora and getting ready to spend time with family this weekend.  We are all looking forward to spending time with our families, relaxing, and of course, eating a lot of food!

November is always an exciting time at Agora as we get ready for our annual Christmas party in early December.  This year it is December 5th.  Every year, a sister church of ours blesses our children by buying them Christmas presents.  Early in November, we go and get a stack of JC Penney catalogs and all the kids get to make wish lists for gifts up to $50.  Our sister church then orders all the gifts and members of their congregation pledge $50 increments for 1, 2, 3 or more kids each!  Then, the church brings all the gifts down to Agora in early December; they prepare a meal for everyone and hand out presents to all the kids.  Of course the kids love this!

A few weeks ago the JC Penney catalog came out.  I went to the store and got a stack of them.  When I got to church, I rounded all the kids up and announced to them that we were going to start our Christmas wish lists that night.  All the little kids were SO excited!  They could hardly believe that someone they don’t even know would get them Christmas presents.  Since we have so many new kids, many have not been at Agora for a Christmas party yet.  Over the last weeks, I have heard many of these kids ask their friends if they will really get Christmas presents; they just couldn’t believe it.  The sad part is that for many of the kids we work with, Christmas is not a very happy time.  They often don’t get presents because their parents do not have the money, or they spend their money on other things… Worse, the parents often promise their kids all kinds of presents and then are not able to follow through.  From time to time, kids won’t make a wish list, even when we promise that there will be a gift for them; they have just experienced too many broken promises.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I want to take a quick moment to share some of the things that Agora is thankful for this Thanksgiving.

• You- thank you for being interested and thank you for praying!  Prayer makes such a powerful difference, often we face situations that are so tough all we can do is pray about it.  God answers every time!  So thanks for praying!
• The Oak St. house sold last week- it was a job training project that was finished and put on the market.  Shortly after that, the housing market took a downturn and along with the present state of the economy it took a couple of years to sell.  Finally, last week we closed on the house!!! Praise God!
• Donations- Thank you to all the individuals and businesses that have contributed to Agora; we are so blessed by your giving.  Just yesterday Meghan went to pick up supplies for the child care center, the company she purchased from gave us the supplies at half price!  Thanks so much!
• Volunteer groups- thanks so much for the time that you have given throughout the year.  Each group has a unique and lasting impact on Agora, whether in the form of kids that start coming after a group invites them to church for the first time or a building project that transforms  our church building or houses, you guys do tons!  Thanks!
• The kids- our kids bless us every week!  We love you guys
• Full time volunteers- these guys do an amazing job.  If you see an Agora full-time volunteer let them know what a blessing they are.  These volunteers give up a year or more to do voluntary service.  Many come from Germany and leave friends and family to come serve God.  Thanks guys!

Have a great Thanksgiving!

What a long time it has been!  That should be a testament to how things are going here: busy as usual!

Little Gems Early Learning and Childcare now has paint on the walls, floors in some places, ceilings, electrical, and much more!  The guys have been working so hard.  They often work very late and on their days off.  Tell them thank you if you get a chance because they have put so much into this childcare!

Church has been going great!  We are seeing an average attendence of about 100 kids.  It is such a huge blessing to have so many kids coming.  They are always so excited when they get here.  If you are feeling down, just stand outside when the kids show up; they all come running and screaming and it is normal to have 3-5 kids hugging you at once :)  We all love it, and we love them!  Each child/teen is so special and precious.  They all have gifts and talents and were fashioned by God.  That is what makes it so difficult to see the lives that they live.  Just yesterday I had a conversation with a teen that broke my heart.  He told me about some of the choices he is making (non of which were good) and expressed his hopelessness for a normal life.  When I turned the conversation to hope in Christ he said, “I know Jesus died for sins, but I have done so much bad stuff.  I know God doesn’t what me to do it but I do it anyway.  I ask for forgiveness, but then I just go back to my dirty ways.”  I couldn’t stop the tears.  How sad it is that this teen feels like he has done so much bad stuff that even God won’t forgive him?  What  a life of hopelessness.  He sees no way out.  As you read this please take a moment to pray for this young man, pray that he will realize how much God loves him.

Last Wednesday night we had a special Wednesday night service.  We had our annual Hallelujah Night.  We let the kids dress up (even us staff get in on it!) and we have  a special service all together with skits, songs, and a short message.  After that, all the kids are dismissed to play a variety of carnival games that we set up and to eat dinner.  It was so much fun!  Our theme this year was “Fear Not.”  We did skits about David and Goliath, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, and Daniel and the Lion’s Den.  We talked to the kids about how all these people chose to trust in God, they put their faith in Him and He delivered them from danger.  It was a really great message to share with the kids, especially around Halloween when there is so much focus on scary stuff.  I would like to add that none of this would be possible without our partners from Plain City, OH.  Thanks guys for all the work that you put in on Wednesday nights!

Thanks for all your prayers!

Prayer Requests

• Khannah Smith (a young lady at Agora)- her mother passed away unexpectedly
• Financial needs
• Pray that the staff and volunteers will continue to find the energy to work the long hours necessary at this point and that they will find time for refreshment

Click here for November 1, 2009