Distilling Pastor Darin's Wisdom

This year, Pastor Darin shared wisdom in each of our monthly newsletters so here are some highlights:

After Christmas, he reminded us that, "This building project has been a marathon, not a sprint. Since committing to the design process, we have weathered a pandemic, runaway inflation, years of bureaucratic delays, and socio-political chaos while reinventing ministry outdoors and expanding from San Diego State University to UC San Diego. Whew!"

In October he reminded us that our ministry is about “discerning a call to create systemic change to improve student access to affordable housing while also strengthening the long-term sustainability of campus ministry, Agape San Diego is developing plans to replace the beloved, small, aging house with a much expanded new campus ministry center, including housing for up to 50 student residents in a community setting, plus staff space and gathering spaces for up to 150 people. This process will replace our beloved (and very old) facility with more space for a growing community, create accessible gathering spaces with a warm welcome for students, donors, and others including dedicated quiet spaces for prayer, work, study, and focused gatherings, provide affordable housing through communal living spaces for up to 50 students or transitional leaders in formation, connect the Agape community to nature through green spaces, patio spaces, and spaces for communal service, retreat, and events, and expand sustainable operations with income-generating spaces to subsidize ministry.”

And, finally in our Easter edition, we read that, “Our final design revisions are in process, our financial model is updated and under review, and our prospective builder is revising their construction budget. SDSU administrators remain interested and encouraging with their offers to collaborate and share ideas across housing, finance, real estate development, and commercial departments of the university. Our staff and program planning are developing detailed plans to operate our planned campus ministry center.”

Thank you for a year of wisdom and a refresher on our mission on two campuses, “We look forward to celebrating this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to build on our 75-year legacy of campus ministry at SDSU, along with generations of saints before us who planted seeds, tended growth, and helped make this longed-for dream possible."