S
ue Lipscomb believes in
miracles.
How else does one explain
how a ministry that began operating
from a closet in a Bedford County
church has grown to serve some 500
families a month?
Or
how
an
all-volunteer
organization with an all-donation
budget facing a critical space shortage
finds a perfect new space a half-
mile away – and raises 80% of the
building’s nearly half-million dollar
purchase price in four months?
Or howsome 150 volunteer staffers
from all over Bedford and Franklin
counties work so well together, fit
so seamlessly and selflessly into their
roles – and do it with such joy?
Lipscomb is the executive director
of the Agape Center in Moneta, an
outreachministry which now includes
five Bedford County churches and
which aims to meet the physical,
emotional and spiritual needs of its
growing client base. As she looks back
on the ministry’s remarkable growth,
Lipscomb beams and shakes her head
in amazement when she recounts
some of the miraculous milestones of
its nine-year journey – including her
own unexpected involvement.
“At the grand opening (in 2004),
my role was to be in the parking
lot making fresh lemonade for the
guests,” she says. “That was to be the
extent of it.”
But God, she says, had other plans.
About six months after the ministry
began, she became executive director.
“At that time, it was very small,”
she says. And while it was clear there
was a real need for the services the
Agape Center was offering, those
involved with the ministry could not
have imagined its remarkable growth
over the last nine years.
“If you would have told me then
that we’d be where we are now,”
Lipscomb says with a laugh, “I might
have run the other way!”
The Agape Center describes itself
as a “God-directed outreach ministry
with the goal of attending to the felt
needs of man while addressing man’s
spiritual need in a manner that gives
God the glory.” Raymond Sellers,
president of the ministry’s board of
directors, says that from its inception
as an outreach of Radford Baptist
Church, the goal was to “open a
center that did more than just fill
clients’ (physical) needs.”
To be sure, the Agape Center
fills a wide range of physical needs,
from food and clothes to furniture
and appliances. There is a firewood
ministry in the winter, through
which volunteers cut and deliver
loads of firewood, and assistance to
those in need with fuel and electric
bills. Sellers says the center has also
received grants from both Bedford
and Franklin counties to help clients
with some specific medical needs.
What sets the Agape Center apart,
however, is its focus on developing a
relationship with each of its clients.
Sellers explains that every client who
makes an appointment to come to
the center for assistance meets with a
mentor.
“They’ll sit down together for
15 or 20 minutes, talk about what’s
going on in their lives,” he says. “(The
By Tom Rickard
AGAPE
The
CENTER
mentor) might ask how we can help,
and then they’ll always have a word
of prayer.”
Lipscomb
says
developing
relationships with clients is critical to
the Center’s success in meeting their
needs, as well as to providing them
with a broader sense of hope.
“It is very, very difficult for many
of our clients to come here and ask
for help,” she says. “We want to
treat them with as much respect and
dignity as we possibly can.”
The role of a mentor in that
process, she says, is invaluable.
“The mentor’s main role is simply
to listen,” she says. “Many of our
clients just don’t have anybody to
talk to (about their struggles). They
are not expecting that, and that’s why
they come back.”
Lipscomb says she believes that
service is unique in the Agape Center’s
coverage area, which is approximately
a 50-mile radius from its location on
Promised Land Road in Moneta.
“As far as I know, we’re the
only ministry doing one-on-one
mentoring with every single family
we serve,” she says.
One of those clients is Robin
of Bedford County, who with
her husband is raising her two
grandchildren. The family came to
the Agape Center for help after Robin
was injured in a car accident that left
her left disabled and unable to work.
“They really make a difference,”
Robin says. “Sometimes you need
a few things just to get through the
week.”
Robin says she’s been moved by
the volunteers who’ve helped her and
her family as they have struggled, at
times, to make ends meet.
“I was so surprised that so many
people volunteer their time just to
help other people,” she says. “We’ve
been blessed.”
The
Agape
Center
is
unapologetically
Christ-centered
Discover Smith Mountain Lake
Winter 2014
39
38
