Tim Agee is not a "typical" missionary, at least according to his standards. Yet he has seen God work to lead him and wife Kirsten to their first long-term construction missions assignment in New Orleans with Operation New Orleans Area Homes (NOAH) Rebuild. Operation NOAH is a partnership project among the North American Mission Board, Louisiana Baptist Convention, New Orleans-area associations and churches and The Salvation Army to rehabilitate more than 1,000 homes and 20 churches.
"I’m living proof that God can take anybody and use them," said Tim, who serves as a construction coordinator for NOAH. "He took a heathen, sent him on a missions trip and saved his life."
The Agees, members of Pine Hill Baptist Church in Bethel Baptist Association, ended up in New Orleans after a journey that began a little more than five years ago. It started with Tim’s first missions trip to Irvine, Ky., to construct a church building.
During that trip, he began to suspect he had never truly surrendered his life to God’s control. Although he was a church member, he rarely attended and it was only through his wife’s influence that he went to Irvine. A Christian, Kirsten had been attending Pine Hill Baptist regularly when she heard about the trip and decided to go, encouraging her husband to participate as well.
After fighting God’s call for a few years and a few trips, Tim finally gave his life to Christ. The Agees continued to go on construction missions trips in the United States and even traveled to Thailand in 2005 to rebuild the homes of survivors of the tsunami that hit Dec. 26, 2004. After two weeks of construction there, the church team returned to Alabama but Tim stayed behind to assess jobs and coordinate volunteers and materials, some of the very things he would later do in New Orleans.
"That’s about the time I realized that [long-term construction missions] is something I’m supposed to be pursuing," he recalled.
When Tim returned, he discussed it with Kirsten, who had already been praying for her husband and how she could help him. "I had an idea it was coming," she said. "God had been working on him awhile."
The answer she received was "Support him." Right away, Kirsten began asking God in what way He wanted her to support Tim. She realized that she was willing to go wherever God called him to go.
"We’ve both had construction backgrounds, so we have something unique to offer to church construction," she said. That, combined with God’s call, led the Agees to dedicate their lives to construction missions, preferably through long-term assignments.
They began praying and looking for opportunities to serve, and about a year later, an article in The Alabama Baptist pointed them toward Operation NOAH. Kirsten called the Operation NOAH headquarters to ask how they could help, and after a couple of conversations with the project’s leadership, she and Tim were offered full-time jobs.
Commissioned by Pine Hill Baptist, they moved to New Orleans July 1, 2006, to help the city’s residents rebuild their lives.
As a construction coordinator, Tim assesses the homes of those who have requested help to see if NOAH’s volunteers will be able to help. He also helps teams on the sites and coordinates the delivery of building materials to the sites.
Kirsten is a volunteer coordinator, scheduling teams to come, housing and other needs for them. She said her work-world experience has prepared her for the balancing act of coordinating volunteers and leading a life that’s based in New Orleans and Pine Hill.
Although it can be stressful, "[i]t’s been very refreshing just having peace [through] knowing you’ve done what God wanted you to do," she said.
Both Tim and Kirsten agree that the work in New Orleans can be overwhelming because of the sheer volume that still needs to be done. They regularly attend Calvary Baptist Church in the Algiers neighborhood of New Orleans, where the construction headquarters for Operation NOAH is located. The support of Calvary Baptist’s members, plus that of Christians back home, helps them stay focused.
The Agees are committed to staying until the project ends or God leads them elsewhere. For now, they will be in New Orleans until August 2008, which is longer than the original Operation NOAH deadline of March 2008.
After that, the possibilities are endless, Tim said. "God’s going to show us."
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