Project AGAPE and the NC GMC

What is Project AGAPE?

What began as a partnership between sisters and brothers in Christ in war-torn Amenia and the people called Methodist in North Carolina is now a religious humanitarian group invited by and recognized as partners with the Armenian Apostolic Church. We celebrated 30 years of working with them in 2023.

Armenians are Christians who are under persecution from their Islamic neighbors. Armenia proper is the oldest Christian nation in the world. Their very existence has been threatened because of their faith in our Lord, and God has placed it on our hearts to wlk with them through this difficult season in their journey. The current Project AGAPE headquarters is in Vayk, Armenia. The first was in Artsakh, and was taken by the Azer army when Azerbejan committed its recent genocide there. The Project AGAPE center is where our warehouse is located, as well as the Vocational Training Center for the Armenians who have been relocated into Armenia from their previous region. From that Center, help for families has come through donated goods, including the children’s Christmas boxes our drives here send over, and from the Vocational Training Center that is being completed.

For more information, go to: https://projectagape-armenia.org/what_we_do

What relationship does Project AGAPE have with the NC GMC?

That’s up to you! And it is dependent on you! For over 30 years, the UMC NC Conferences have been supporting our sisters and brothers in Armenia. Many people-in-the-pews were unaware of this ministry connection. We hope to change that in the NC GMC.

In the NC GMC, Missions is funded not by a centralized Missions Committee, but from active engagement by local churches in Mission. If you don’t fund it, it doesn’t get funded. The good thing about that is that now in the GMC, each church will be choosing and engaging with every mission they support. The challenge is that we’re not used to that. We think “someone” will help them. Well, we ARE the someone.

In the case of Project AGAPE, we used to support this mission with our apportionment dollars. Now, until each church and individuals within the church need to fund it or it will not get funded. We need our support to grow, so that the work in Armenia can not just be sustained, but grow.

What can we do to help?

2 ways you and/or your church can help:

-Humanitarian Aid: Send a 1 Time Gift or even better, become a member of the “Fellowship of 1000”.

-Collect Christmas Boxes.

What’s the “Fellowship of 1000”?

The “Fellowship of 1000” is the group of donors who have pledged to give $200/year to Project Agape. We need 1000 such donors. In the GMC, this could be individual people or families, Sunday Schools, Small Groups, Women’s Groups, Men’s Groups, Children or Youth Ministries, etc. Be creative. Ask your church who would like to pledge this way. Some families use this as part of their “Christmas Gift to Jesus” and pledge as a family to give in Jesus’ name. Fill out the attached form and send it in, or email it to missions.ncgmc@gmail.com.

Download this flier and mail it in, or email the information to missions.ncgmc@gmail.com: