Another Good Day At Agape

This morning we appointed two new ministries at Agape. Dr. Kilnam Cha and Kyung Cha are both from Korea and active at Cascade College. Kyung is the college nurse and Kilnam is professor of Old Testament. Kilnam will begin a survey of the Old Testament, a short introduction for people wanting to learn about God's grace. The class will be the first of many classes in our Biblical Studies Ministry. Darla Hailey, the owner of City Bean Coffee House, has offered to let us use a room on Thursday evenings. We are excited about this new ministry and appreciate Kilnam's desire to help us learn the Bible. Kilnam received his PhD from Baylor University and did his dissertation in the Psalms. Kilnam is a scholar and he and Kyung radiate Christ's love in their ministry to Korean students and those in Portland.

Zak and Kathy Zumwalt were discharged out of the Navy, having been stationed in Honolulu, and came to Portland. Kathy is a graduate of Cascade and Zak has been accepted to Multnomah Bible Seminary. Zak will complete his M.Div. and then return to the Navy to serve as a chaplain. Zak is required by the Navy to hold a ministry position and has served the Honolulu Church of Christ as director of small groups ministry. God has led them to us and they are raising support to serve as our Recovery Communities Minister. On opposite Thursday nights we will begin a training for men and women to lead recovery support groups. These groups will meet at the City Bean and will prepare members to start groups for various addictions such as drug, alcohol, pornography, abuse, depression, and other struggles people face. We have many people who attend Agape who have overcome addictions and desire to provide home communities for others who struggled with similar issues. The Zumwalts will help us unleash these men and women to reach people hurting in Portland. Then they will take this ministry back with them to the Navy.

We prayed for Toby Conklin, the contractor who provided our lumber for the Agape Blitz. He was encouraged and we were glad to have him with us. He told us that what we owed on the lumber was not necessary. "Use the money to help others. I like what you are doing here!"


We celebrated the second day of our Agape Blitz. Brad Barbarick brought 15 of his Basket Ball players from Concordia Univ. and 5 Cascade students finished the tasks at Dignity Village and Anawim. All in all we had 220 serving over both Saturdays (we set a goal of 150--God blew it away).

We had 18 teens and their friends at the beach this day as well. Our youth had a beach retreat and returned home sore, tired, but excited.

As the Foo Fighters sang, "It's times like these you learn to love (Agape) again!"