One Church One Village urgently calls the church to respond to the massive orphan crisis in Sub-Saharan Africa by coming alongside an existing African church or new church plant to rescue and raise a village of orphans. Agathos Foundation, along with other groups already on the ground in Africa, assists churches respond by helping determine how and where to focus their efforts. Agathos and its partners will link an interested church with a needy area in Africa and assist in establishing, developing and managing an orphan village there.

The orphan village will be modeled in a Christ-centered environment where Biblical norms of sexual purity and financial stewardship are understood and lived out. To this end, marriage is honored and self-sustenance is pursued as an expectation of Christian living. These convictions help raise the children with a clear understanding of two of the most crippling ills that are devastating Africa - sexual impurity, and a mindset that Africa (and the African) can only survive on handouts from others.

By focusing on self-sustenance, and requiring that each village be self-sustaining, costs to each participating church are limited to a specific amount – capital costs. No further funding will be needed for each village.

Once the capital has been raised to fund the village and its self-sustenance component, usually a farm or local business, the partner church continues a relationship of mentoring and caring for the orphans being raised as well as with the local African church.

Agathos and its partners will assist in the local African church plant to whatever extent is needed. The intent of One Church One Village is to develop an on-going relationship of care, connecting the partner church with the local African church and the children being raised.

To this end, short-term mission trips play a key role in the relationship between the two churches and the children being raised. These trips will be planned around the needs of the orphan village including basic activities such as construction and work in the village as well as intensive training and mentoring of the pastors and members of the local church.

An Urgent Call to the Church It is our prayer that, as your church considers the enormity of the massive pandemic Africa now faces, you will recognize the amazing opportunity to reach a generation of children for Christ and, in so doing, also reach out to the community in which we raise them by assisting or planting churches that further the work of Christ on earth.

The crisis in Africa has already left 14 million orphans in its wake. Within the next five years, another 20 million children will be orphaned, many of these in critical need of basic care. As the church, we cannot turn our backs on the clear command of Scripture to help these children. Knowing the crisis exists and doing nothing is not a Christian response. We have to ask the rhetorical question that the apostle John asks in 1 John 3:17 where he questions how the love of God can be in one who has the means to help yet fails to help a brother in need.

Many Christians have the means and the desire to help, but have no idea what they can do. One Church One Village is designed to make it possible for any church community to rise up and help rescue and raise children as they also fulfill the great commission by facilitating church planting.

The opportunity to impact Africa for Christ as a result of this crisis is unprecedented. By merely responding to the cries of orphans we are able to do so much more for Africa. Christ is the answer to the pain and suffering that Africa faces. By mobilizing our massive resources, one church at a time in one location at a time, we will shine the hope and light for which Africa is crying out – true life in Christ.

Imagine the body of Christ uniting in response to this crisis!

Imagine thousands of local African churches being planted or strengthened through ongoing relationships with their partner churches! Orphans, Orphans, Orphans

Imagine thousands of churches all over Sub-Saharan Africa rescuing and raising orphans in the nurture and admonition of the Lord!

Imagine thousands of local African churches being salt in their communities!

Imagine a true reformation of discipleship in Africa! “Now unto Him who is able to exceedingly abundantly beyond all that we can ask or imagine, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen!” Ephesians 3:20-21 (NASB)

Because of the enormity of the present orphan crisis in Africa, it is our belief that the entire church must respond. Agathos and our partners are therefore non-sectarian and will be facilitators and managers with any church that chooses to be involved. Our core beliefs are the same as the core beliefs of the church at large and wish to work with any caring Christian church.

We do not replace the local church; rather, we provide oversight and basic accountability in order to assist the partner church in its mission and help the local church develop the means to raise the orphaned children in a way that avoids the inherent pitfalls which currently exist in the African culture. Churches with a heart to reach Africa’s orphans may be lacking in knowledge of the crisis or of African culture – Agathos fills that knowledge void.

How Does OCOV Work?

Our structure is much like that of a franchise. Just as Starbucks or McDonalds are able to replicate their models all over the world at an amazing rate, we wish to see orphan villages develop at a similar pace. This requires the four following key elements that we have embraced as our pillars:

1. The method must be African. We will not be able to respond to this crisis by spending massive amounts of time and effort creating first-world conditions and expectations. We must bring Christ and his principles into the African context in a culturally relevant way.
2. The method must be simple. The scope of this crisis calls for our response to be simple and understandable. By being simple and humble in our methods, we are able to draw in local Christians who may be lacking in resources or education, but who are able to be the key to rescuing the orphans within their reach. One Church One Village is a program of Agathos Foundation
3. The method must be pragmatic. The scope of this crisis calls for us to do whatever it takes to succeed. Failure means that children are left to fend for themselves facing vulnerability and dangers that are unacceptable for us to allow. Our viewpoint is that of a country at war. We do whatever it takes to succeed.
4. The method must be replicable. The crisis calls for us to be able to replicate wherever there is need. From both a practical perspective and a financial perspective, the methods we use must be able to be replicated rapidly. It must therefore be inexpensive and self-sustaining.

Partner Church Role The partner church commits to a long-term relationship to the church it plants or supports and to the orphan village attached to it.

Financial: This involves a financial commitment to the establishment of the orphan village. This amount is calculated at the outset of the relationship with Agathos or one of its One Church One Village partners. This amount is raised outside of the normal church budget and is viewed like the capital funds required when a church is raising funds for a new building.

The funds are raised through both the monthly commitments of individual church members and through specific fund raising efforts. These two efforts combined raise the capital needed to fully fund the village and the farm or businesses that provides ongoing sustenance to the village.

A typical farm and orphan village could cost between $75,000 to $450,000. Some 40 to 250 people each giving $25 per month for six years could accomplish these amounts respectively or the church could raise money plus enlist people who each pledge $25 per month for six years. The partner church can decide on how it will fund its financial commitment as it would when deciding to fund a building project. Capital needed up front may be provided by the Agathos Genesis Fund if needed and available.

Relational: God is a God of relationship. Christ reconciles people to Himself and to other people. The heartbeat of One Church One Village is the dynamic relationship between the partner church, the orphan village and local African church or church plant. Each partner church will commit to engage in regular mentoring and communication. Individual church members will develop prayerful and real relationships through activities as simple as letter or e-mail writing. Relationships will be cultivated even further through short-term mission trips and/or occasional long-term mission trips.

Local African Church RoleThe local African church or church plant commits to be in relationship with the orphan village in the following ways:

They will work with Agathos Foundation in identifying and providing the “parents” and caregivers to raise the orphans.

They will work in a relationship of accountability with both the Agathos Foundation and the partner church. To this end, they will submit to the financial training and accountability of Agathos’ regional staff and maintain a close relationship with the partner church.

They will provide a spiritual home for the staff and orphans in the village providing care and discipleship as any church community should.

They will help provide oversight and leadership in the orphan village. Working with the partner church, they will seek ways to reach and disciple their local community in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Agathos Foundation was founded by Africans who know the African culture and way of life, including the strengths and weakness that exist.

This knowledge is critical for success in Africa. More than $500,000,000,000 - one half trillion dollars - has been poured into Africa in the last 20 years by the United States alone, yet there is very little to show for it. The Agathos Foundation seeks to assist the church by providing solutions to the orphan crisis - solutions that understand the pitfalls and snares of working in Africa. By working with a group like Agathos, the partner church is assured of accountability, training, on-going support and sustainability.

Agathos therefore protects the investment of time and money committed by the partner church. Without the structure that Agathos can provide, the risks of hasty involvement in Africa can be significant. Many caring groups have spent large amounts of money only to see it squandered by inefficiency or corruption. Others have spent fortunes creating unnecessarily first-world solutions for third world problems and sadly have had very little long-term impact.

By working with the Agathos foundation, your church will find its investments of time and money highly effective. Agathos will provide continual accountability and oversight over the care of the orphans your church wishes to raise in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

Recognizing the overwhelming need for immediate action, Agathos Foundation was conceived by Africans residing in the United States. They were joined by businessmen, medical doctors, humanitarian workers, and Christian ministers in establishing the Agathos Foundation in 2002 with a mission to provide assistance on a large scale.

Dedicated to empowering Sub-Saharan Africa’s orphans and elderly to achieve healthy, prosperous and fulfilling lives, Agathos Foundation raises and educates these children while providing health care and AIDS prevention instruction. With the purchase of profitable farms or other successful business to provide for their continuing financial support, the young and the elderly live together in a familial setting where the practical skills and Christian values critical to spiritual, economic and health advancement are practiced and nurtured.

The uniqueness of Agathos Foundation is in its determination to achieve economically self-supporting communities. Existing orphan programs require a continual influx of capital to maintain childcare, remaining dependent upon a recurrent source of funding. The purchase of a profit-generating farm or business to carry the weight of financial support for the village removes this burden. In essence, a one-time infusion of capital begins a process that provides all necessary financial support to maintain multiple generations of orphans for the duration of childhood.

Because HIV prevalence is directly tied to poverty, and rates of unemployment in Africa reach 50 percent, Agathos Foundation implements a myriad of measures to assure the economic success of the orphans who have grown to adulthood. These About Agathos Foundation measures include the development of apprenticeships, education and professional scholarships, and micro-loans for budding entrepreneurs.

The creation of a vibrant, thriving Christ-centered community, full of life, is the most important goal of Agathos Foundation. Encouraging an attitude of dignity and a mindset of self-sufficiency, children are provided mentorship, love, discipline, education and skills to equip them for a successful life.

More information is available by reviewing the Agathos website at www.agathosfoundation.org, or by talking to staff members at 1-866-3AGATHO(S).

Further information and application forms are available on the www.onechurchonevillage.org website. This website will continue to change with new and added information.

Our Statement of Faith can be viewed at: www.agathosfoundation.org/about/statement_of_faith