About Us
Putting love to work by helping break the cycle of poverty and homelessness
Agape Village is a compassionate ministry community that offers long term support and relationship to anyone looking to break the cycle of poverty, addiction, and/or homelessness. What started as an effort to simply provide a safe place for people to be has grown into a continuum of care and support for those working toward a new life.
Our Story
Our story began with Portland Central Church of the Nazarene's desire to truly live out the greatest commandment - to love God and to love our neighbor. In 2016 the church embarked on a journey to better understand the community they existed and began asking what does it look like for us to love this community like Jesus. After about a year of serving in the community, vision meetings, and planning the church made the decision to move forward with building a tiny house village on the property to provide a safe place for people to stay while they worked on finding housing and accessed other services. Then began the process of working with the city to determine necessary permitting and other zoning issues.
In 2018 Agape Village, the non-profit, was launched and building began. Construction was done with volunteers from Cascadia Clusters, Agape Blitz, Union Gospel Mission, Central Nazarene Church, Tivnu, and many other youth groups, schools, churches, and organizations from around the Portland area and even from throughout the country. It truly was a team effort! After all that work we welcomed our first group of villagers in December 2019.
Since that time we have added staff, added services, and even partnered with Nexus Church in Beaverton to help open a single family shelter on their property! All in an effort to love God and love our neighbors!
Meet The Team
Matt Huff
Founder & Executive Director
Matt has been pastoring Portland Central Nazarene Church for over 10 years. Agape Village started as a result of his leadership and the church’s desire to better love their neighbors. Prior to moving to Portland Matt and his family lived in Prineville, OR for about 7 years. There he engaged in a similar work and helped start Redemption House Ministries. Matt began his work with the unhoused population while in seminary in Kansas City where he served as a chaplain at the Kansas City Rescue Mission. He has been loving his neighbor, specifically the addicted and impoverished, for almost 17 years.
Sarah Chapman
Village Manager/Outreach Coordinator
Sarah has been an important part of our work since the beginning. She joined in the compassionate ministry efforts of Central Nazarene Church helping serve monthly meals to our unhoused neighbors with Operation Nighwatch in 2017 and developed many great relationships. She has lived in Portland since she was 13 years old and raised her children here, so as a heart to see the cycle of poverty and homelessness be broken in the lives of our neighbors. Sarah currently serves as our Village Manager and Outreach Director and has been in that role since we opened in December 2019.
Sterling Snowden
Professional Counselor Associate
Sterling grew up in the Redwoods of Northern California. He moved to the Portland area to attend George Fox School of Counseling where he received his Masters in Marriage Couples and Family Counseling. He has served in multiple churches as a youth pastor. He has been working in residential treatment settings since 2009. For fun he enjoys motorsports, cycling, and backpacking in the wilderness. He values time with his family and authenticity in relationships. He also appreciates the simple healing power of being understood.
Board of Directors
Dana Harden – Board Secretary
Retired Credentialist – Adventist Medical
Judy Johnson
Retired Attorney
Board member of Operation Nightwatch
Wayne Aus
Cloud Solutions Engineer – Oracle Corporation
Roxanne Brown
Oregon Pacific District Church of the Nazarene Missions International President
Family & Community Connections Pastor at Oregon City Nazarene Church
Max Jetton
Retired Pastor in the Church of the Nazarene
Our Partners
