Agape Home is a educational housing facility for Roma and Romanian teenage boys that wish to continue their educations but cannot due to their extremely impoverished families. The boys live with Christian house parents that minister to them with the love of Jesus.
The goal of this program is to prevent teenage pregnancy by collaborating with their parents to agree not to arrange their adolescent boys’ marriages until the boys are done with their education. In the city of Oradea alone, 4 or more children per week are abandoned. The Agape Home project shifts the focus from reacting to abandonment, to a program of proactive, preventive measures.
This project includes a home and a small farm with a large garden and a large chicken house. We produce our own meat chickens during the warmer months of the spring and during the summer and fall to use for our boys and the house family that ministers to them. The House Father spends time each morning with the boys in prayer and bible study. The House Mother is a licensed teacher and helps them with all their homework assignments and teaches them how to organize their time for studying. This is a huge blessing for these boys since none of them have educated parents and therefore would have no resource at home during the week. During the weekend and school vacations, the boys return to their families to keep their relationships strong with their parents and siblings.
All the boys are required to work on the farm to stay in the facility under the supervision of our House Father. Additionally, we are teaching the boys life skills such as basic cooking and domestic budgeting so they will be properly prepared for fatherhood in the future.
Our hope is that all of the boys will make a decision to accept Jesus as their Savior so they will have the joy and hope they need to finish their education, seek gainful employment, start a family and, most importantly, raise their children to know Jesus!