Agros Blog

Where do you go to “connect”? Do you network in your neighborhood, church, school or online? Who is your community?

Last Saturday night for just a few hours the “Agros Family” connected at Tierras de Vida, held at Seattle Pacific University. It was a time for sharing with friends and family what happens through Agros. It wasn’t about the food, it wasn’t about the displays, it wasn’t about the eloquence of the speakers… it was about the relationships that are formed and that continue to be nurtured through the special relationship with Agros and the people served in Central America and Mexico.

More than one third of the 350 people at the event were new to Agros. This was their first experience. We all heard the Agros story from Skip, the founder. We listened to Libby Boatwright paint a picture of the squalor of people in need in Honduras… a people of incredible integrity who want what most people want - a way to earn a living and provide for their children.

We heard from Mario Gaitán, Executive Director of Nicaragua, explain how the Agros model works — from land purchase to community development to passing on the blessing to other communities.

Three short videos, shown after each speaker, provided a real look at life before Agros, and at what happens in the process as communities move from despair to dreams realized.

Tim Dearborn from World Vision, the keynote speaker, painted incredible word pictures by sharing with us stories of people he had recently met in Nicaragua on an Agros vision trip. These are people who are waiting on Agros to provide a different kind of tomorrow, one changed from despair to hope.

Tim challenged us to consider that we, in that room, were much like a traffic cop. We had the power to metaphorically hold up one hand and say NO to despair, and with the other hand to say YES to hope. Tim invited us to challenge the despair of the many families waiting to begin a new life, and to say yes to their dreams.

On Saturday night the group at Tierras de Vida responded with generous donations of more than $350,000 — far exceeding our goal for the evening.

All of this so that we can continue to connect with the message that even though despair is so prevalent and powerful in the lives of many… it is hope, combined with the will to work toward your dreams, that is far more powerful. This message, and the people who are willing to put resources and will behind this message, all came together last Saturday… connecting us here in Seattle and parts around the US, and even more profoundly — connecting us with families in Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, México and Guatemala.

So thank you for connecting in a real and powerful way. Thank you for connecting to the Agros family both here and there.

See you next year!

To see photos from the event, click “rest of this entry” below

Standing room only…
Kay and Greg Schroedl with Mario Gaitan and Mario Morales (Agros Directors in Nicaragua and Guatemala)

Table Display

Partner Display

Greg Rake translating for Mario Gaitan