The Agape Service Project fosters service, community, and prayer as participants encounter Christ and uphold the dignity of our migrant brothers and sisters.

Agape Goals:

• To serve the migrant community of Whatcom County by providing food, clothing, and community support with the ultimate goal of building personal relationships with those we serve
• To teach participants about Catholic social justice, especially in response to issues affecting the migrant community
• To inspire and encourage participants to continue answering the call to service throughout their lives
• To create a space where participants can grow in their faith and meet Jesus through prayer, people, and service
• To do everything with agape love

                   

Agape is a 6-8 week long service project that serves the migrant farm workers in Lynden, WA. Groups of middle and high school youth come to Bellingham to serve for 6 days at a time, and stay in the parish hall at Sacred Heart Catholic Church. They learn about the human dignity of every person they meet and practice this Agape love through their service. The week involves collecting food donations at grocery stores, running a food and clothing bank, working on a local farm, building friendships with children at a migrant camp, education on Catholic Social Teaching, and rooting all we do in prayer and the Sacraments.

The Agape Service Project is two-fold. The first is with our youth volunteers. We focus on an immersive education program where they learn about issues affecting migrant farm workers, human dignity, and why and how we as Catholics are called to serve. One goal is that our youth leave our program as better people, more grounded in their faith, and as change-makers in society. We teach our youth to know Christ and to serve Him in every person they meet for the rest of their lives.

The second part is just as important: the people we are serving. We are constantly asking ourselves questions such as what does the community we serve need? What impact are we making and how can we do better at it? In Spring 2018, we began working with local organizations to improve the outreach of and the resources for our food bank; we have been able to expand our games and activities for our outreach at the farm worker camps.; and we offered our first ever Agape College Scholarship for farm workers seeking higher education. We are always looking to do more for our community, our neighbors in Christ. 

Kelsey Harrington                                                           Archdiocese of Seattle
Director, Agape Service Project                                    Office of Pastoral Ministries
kelsey.harrington@seattlearch.org                                710 9th Ave
(425) 941-2042                                                                  Seattle, WA 98104

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