PROJECTS
Independent Clinics​
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​Agape’s desire is to encourage and enable other like minded physicians in the former Soviet Union to open clinics that promote the values of Agape. That to promote true health, we must not only nurture and care for the physical, but also for the mental, the social, and the spiritual aspects of those we serve. We also desire that each clinic reach out into their local communities and provide care for those with little access to care. Each clinic should be self supporting and autonomous.
Medical Center Agape is our primary partner in this endeavor and as an independent, locally owned clinic, serves as a model for others.
Medical Center Agape - Hands of Love
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Seeing the great need, we opened Medical Center Agape in 2005, which is now an independently owned, wholly Russian medical clinic. Opening the clinic revealed the tip of an iceberg. One day at the initiation of our staff, our Hands of Love program was born. Started as an outreach to migrant workers, the opportunities to provide compassionate medical has mushroomed. Since 2008, Hands of Love staff have helped over 8,500 patients through our programs. Our outreach now includes:
Free clinics for migrants, refugees, destitute pregnant women and single moms, and women desiring to escape the prison of prostitution.
Nursing Home ministry. Our doctors visit nursing homes in the region weekly on a rotation basis.
Homeless Centers. Our medical staff provide compassionate medical on a regular basis. During our first year at a state-owned Homeless Center, 1777 men and women were seen by our Agape medical staff. In one year alone, deaths were reduced during the winter months from 12 the previous year to one. The administration credits Agape for this dramatic saving of lives.
Rural Medical Expeditions​
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Imagine you are an 86-year-old woman living in a wooden hut in a rural area cut off from the rest of the world. You have developed a severe cough that keeps you awake at night. There are no hospitals or doctors in your village. Your only son is in drug rehab eight hours away. Your daughter, who lives in a village located two hours away, is in an abusive relationship and refuses to talk to you. Scenes like this are common, everyday occurrences in rural settings.
You cry out into the darkness, “What will happen to me? No one even knows I am alive.” Then there is a knock on the door and strangers with smiling faces crowd into your living room. “Agape? A doctor? You have medicines?” Can you imagine the tears streaming down her face when she hears, “God loves you! He has not forgotten you.”? Agape goes where no one else dares to go and helps those no one cares about.
Agape conducts medical expeditions into remote areas, taking doctors, medicines, and supplies to the people who live there. Teams travel by trains, cars, and public transportation, In some cases, they may even travel by boat, horse sleigh, snow mobile, 6x6 trucks, or reindeer sleigh. After meeting the physical needs, Agape team members are often able to address deeper spiritual needs.
Orphan New Life School​
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​The Bible says, “There is a time and a place for everything.” When we first acquired the farm, we talked about a training home for orphans, but it was not possible … until now.
The Problem: Government stats reveal that after orphans are released or “graduated” from an orphanage, most of the boys end up in prison, 80% of the girls end up in prostitution, and 10% of the orphans commit suicide each year. This is a tragedy. Most orphans have no one to guide them into a healthier, saner life based on biblical principles. These are not just statistics. We received the sad news that Lidia, one of the orphans we have befriended for nearly ten years, died on Christmas Day, January 7, 2017. This deeply saddened us. If Lidia had been able to attend a school like our “New Life” School, she might still be alive today.
The Solution: We cannot help Lidia now, but we can help future orphans take a different path. The Lidia’s “New Life” School will be a place where graduated orphans participate in our “Live and Learn” outreach. Students will gain job skills, learn to manage their finances, learn how to live moral lives, and develop healthy family relationships.
