For the past 20 years the Agape Center has been meeting both the physical and spiritual needs of individuals and families in the Moneta area. This past Saturday, volunteers and supporters of the ministry gathered at Eastlake Community Church to celebrate those two decades of service.
The event included videos featuring testimonies from both volunteers and clients of the ministry. The common theme of the testimonies from the volunteers was “we get blessed much more than we bless.”
“It’s always fun to serve others with those who love God,” said volunteer Ron Cordell in one of the videos.
In another video, Susanne Connors stated, “God has been so good to me; this is one of the ways I can give back.”
The Moneta Center is the original Agape Center, formed in 2004 as a clothing distribution ministry, through a local church, with a focus on meeting clients’ practical and spiritual needs. This work quickly expanded to include food and household goods and outgrew the church’s available space.
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After moving into a storefront location on Old Moneta Road, Sue Lipscomb became director of the growing program. She focused on organizing logistics, creating a board of directors, and establishing the mentoring program as the center of the ministry. Lipscomb and her husband, Jack, have been mainstays at the ministry and were honored at Saturday’s event.
Lipscomb continues to serve as executive director of the Agape Center, which has added partner Agape centers in Lynchburg, Vinton/Roanoke and the New River Valley. She is known for her relentless pursuit of new volunteers.
Bob and Nancy Stouffer were two of the many volunteers who found themselves recruited to serve at Agape after sitting by Sue at a church event. “(Sue and Jack) are an inspiration to us,” Bob Stouffer said.
“You have walked in obedience all of these years,” Nancy Stouffer said of the Lipscombs. “Look at the fruit of your tree.”
The Lipscombs said that Agape was the Lord’s work from their first day. “Every day we needed something, it would show up,” Jack Lipscomb said. “This program has done as much for the volunteers as it has for the clients.”
It didn’t take long for Agape to outgrow its Old Moneta Road location and the ministry leaders began looking for a new location. A new facility came open at Promise Land Road in Moneta and that location has been expanded in the subsequent years.
Known as the Moneta Center, it currently serves more than 600 families representing 2,000 individuals each month. More than 300 volunteers serve on a regular basis to keep the Center operating.
The Agape Center added its location in Lynchburg in 2019, followed closely by a location that serves individuals in Vinton and Roanoke. The fourth location in the NRV followed those.
All the centers operate under the umbrella of Agape Center Corporation.
The stated mission of the Agape Center is “to reflect God’s love by the giving of ourselves and our resources as we submit to the leadership of the Holy Spirit to mentor and help individuals turn or return to a Christ-centered life.” Agape does this by providing food, clothing, furniture, household items, gifts and more, all run through the mentoring program provided for each client.
The Agape Center also offers a Getting Ahead class, led by Tracy and Stephen Dunn. In that program students investigate and identify where they are in life, how they got there, and how to get to where they want to be. This class offers support and tools, teaches principles and skills, and provides spiritual direction to help improve their lives.
The Agape Center’s Vinton/Roanoke location opened in July 2020 under the direction of Sue Frase. She and her husband, Don, had served at the Moneta location since 2009.
Sue Frase, after serving more than a decade as principal at a private Christian school in Roanoke, said she felt led to open a center to serve the Vinton and Roanoke areas. When the center opened in July 2020 they had six clients. Now they serve more than 470 families a month and have some 100 volunteers. Close to 30 churches support the center’s work.
The Frases, who both serve as treasurer on the Agape Center board, were also honored at Saturday’s anniversary celebration.
“They are unsung heroes,” Lipscomb said of the Frases, adding that only eternity will reveal the number of lives that have been affected by their ministry.
Deb Kountz has been serving as director of the Lynchburg Center since 2022. She went from serving as the manager of a local business to serving as volunteer director at the Center. That location now serves more than 300 families—more than 800 people—every month. “Growth happens when our comfort ends,” Kountz said of serving at the Center.
Reg Crockett is serving as interim director of the NRV Agape Center. That location is currently assisting more than 360 families monthly. “When you get to the end of the day, the person who has really been helped is us,” Crockett said of those who volunteer.
Karen Jones, who now serves as director of the Moneta Center, agreed. “It’s not just the clients we’re helping; God is working in our lives. He’s stirring us up,” she said.
For more information on the Agape Center visit www.agapecentersml.org.
- Submitted by Tom Wilmoth
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