By Ken Kierstead, Executive Vice President of Agros International
This article was originally published in PCJH’s Summer 2025 Pinnacle, “Partners in the Gospel”
“Your Kingdom come, Your will be done; On Earth as it is in Heaven.” – Jesus
For 40 years Agros International has served with hope and opportunity to assist the rural poor to reclaim their dignity and reach their God-given potential. Agros’ work of holistic development and long-term relationships is an instrument of God’s Kingdom coming on earth – an expression of God’s mission of healing and reconciliation that transforms persons, communities, and systems.
To date, Agros has helped landless Latin American families permanently exit generational poverty by establishing 49 villages in Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, Mexico, and El Salvador. That’s nearly 25,000 people who have left the depravation, vulnerability and despair of poverty behind them.
See I will create a new heaven
and a new earth
The former things will not be remembered,
nor will they come to mind.
They will build houses and dwell in them;
They will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
My chosen ones will long enjoy
the work of their hands.
They will not labor in vain,
nor will they bear children doomed to misfortune;
For they will be a people blessed by the Lord,
they and their descendants with them. (Isaiah 65.17,21-23)
Because rural poverty is complex, Agros goes deep, prioritizing enduring impact over rapid scale. Agros invests in long-term, participatory partnerships with families that focus in Agros’ 4 Opportunity Areas: land ownership, health & well-being, financial empowerment, and the development of market-led agricultural businesses.
Today we partner with over 1650 families in 58 villages in the poorest and most remote areas of Nicaragua and Guatemala (launching in Honduras this year!). Agros provides a hand up, not a handout helping families build dignified homes, establishing community institutions of self-governance, improving levels of health and education, and incorporating market-led farming practices that create extremely productive and profitable farming business that allows Agros families to lift themselves out of poverty.
Agros families embrace hope, discover their own power to affect their lives (agency), learn how to steward the gifts given them by God, in the journey towards a life of true flourishing – them and their children and their childrens’ children. Agros offers an intergenerational “reversal of fortunes.”
The Agros Way
Agros’ holistic and comprehensive approach to community development is rooted in our faith vision and commitment to authentic, reciprocal and catalytic partnerships between North American communities (churches, donors) and our Central American communities. Agros approaches our work from a worldview informed and shaped by the life and mission of Jesus Christ. We understand our work through the perspective of Christ’s coming kingdom of healing and restoration active now through love’s agency of faith-in-action. We believe authentic, respectful relationships across boundaries — national, racial/ethnic, linguistic, socio-economic, cultural — hold enormous opportunity to make God’s love real and meaningful in all our lives as we participate together in the transformative experience with our families on their journey out of poverty.
We believe that we’re invited by Jesus to join him in his healing work in the world, and we seek to invite others – people of faith and all people of goodwill – to join us in Christ’s kingdom mission. At the heart of Agros’ work is the formation of a broad community of engaged and compassionate people dedicated to respectful partnership with the people of Agros’ communities in Central America. Our motto is “Somos Agros, Somos Familia” (We are Agros, We are Family). The Agros family seeks to live in accord with the Greatest Commandment: love God and love neighbor. Our work is established in the conviction that this love changes everything.
We are committed to follow in the Way of Jesus in our development model: love of God and neighbor lived out in faithful and authentic relationships, expressing generosity in the service of justice and dignity. We recognize that love is the supreme value, that relationship is an open invitation, and that our actions speak eloquently of our faith.
PCJH family, you’ve been an integral part of that journey for many years now in sending teams to serve with us, in your prayers for our ministry, and in your significant financial support. Please continue to join us as we walk alongside these families in their journey toward wholeness as they move from poverty to prosperity.
