IT STARTED WITH A CHANCE MEETING

In Christianity, AGAPE is the highest form of love and is reflective of the love of God for man and of man for God. In a word, Agape love is PERFECT. When you look at Liberia, West Africa, there aren’t many places on the planet that are more in need of Agape love than Liberia.

Having survived two civil wars and an Ebola crisis, the country is now trying to claw its way back from extreme poverty (the eighth poorest in the world). With this at the heart of its mission, the Agape Empowerment Center is a response to the desperate needs of orphans and children in that country who have suffered greatly because of extreme poverty conditions.

For Chong and Dave Schwartz, it all started in 2015 when they were introduced to a young child, Zachery, and his mom, Austina, who was originally from Liberia, prior to a church service. This led to this wonderful Liberian family becoming a part of Chong and Dave’s family, and just as importantly planted a seed of love for the country of Liberia.

Chong and Dave had the opportunity to go to Liberia in 2022 as Dave was working as the Missions Director at a large church in Iowa where he vetted organizations throughout the world. Having reviewed so many African nonprofits who lacked the governance, structure, transparency and financial support, he was hesitant to look past these indicators to take a closer look at any such organization.

This all changed in 2022 when Chong and Dave had the opportunity to visit Liberia to look at a couple of organizations. While the entire trip was eye-opening, what happened on September 11, 2022, changed EVERYTHING!

On that day, they had an opportunity to watch some of the boys from an orphanage play a soccer match. It occurred to them that both teams were wearing orange jerseys, very few of them had shin guards, and there were just a few tufts of grass on the unmarked field for them to get a clean swipe at the ball.

It also dawned on Dave that on this same weekend in his home state, the Iowa Hawkeyes and Iowa State Cyclones, with joint athletic revenues of more than $262 million, played in front of over 70,000 fans with all the requisite pageantry.

Later that day, they witnessed something they couldn’t unsee – four boys eating out of the same bowl of rice and then sharing a chicken bone. And, finally, as they returned to their room that evening, they received the great news that their newest grandchild was born in a beautiful hospital in a reasonably affluent suburb in the Midwest.

After digesting all of this, they couldn’t help but ask each other, “where’s the fairness in all of this”? How can children, who by no choice of their own, be brought into the world under such different circumstances? And just so they could soothe their collective conscience, they stated the obligatory “someone needs to do something about this!”

And that was the end of it for about thirty seconds when they turned to each other and said, “WHAT ABOUT US”? For Chong and Dave, that changed everything. And, with that, the journey to bring positive changes to the eighth poorest country on the planet began and the miracles started to happen.

When they got back to the States, they worked with an architectural firm to begin designing a modern campus that could accommodate hundreds of children to give them the type of opportunities so many children in this world take for granted. They begin putting the structure together, developed the 501c3, built the Governing Board, recruited professionals for an Advisory Committee and sought out Liberian Americans to lend their name and support to an Honorary Cabinet.

And, then they started telling the story, and by the grace of God, people were moved by the narrative and began to rally around the mission. This, of course, brings us to today and your prospective involvement. Join us, won’t you?