as told by Vince Frey, former administrator

Wally and Sue Fahrer and Vince and Marcella Frey lived near Springfield, OH, each pastoring Mennonite congregations. All of us knew the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Yet, in ministering to "hurting people," it was still frustrating due to the amount of time needed to help congregation members. The counseling also resulted in less than desired long term results in those who we counseled. At the same time, all of us had some unresolved hurts in our lives.

Around 1976, Marcella and I received ministry at a charismatic seminar by some Mennonite foreign missionaries who were on furlough. They recommended that we attend "Victorious Ministry Through Christ, Inc.," a charismatic seminar that moved from location to location with the training seminars.

VMTC was formed and led by Anne White, an Episcopal Church member.   She had a Board which helped her with the schools, and served as instructors. There were some differences in her theology and ours due to the different Church affiliations. VMTC's view of women was quite different to ours. Additionally, the schools were targeted toward Pastoral couples because they began on Tuesday noon and ran through Friday noon, in order to allow Pastors to return to preach on the weekends. Our lay people needed the training, but they needed to work as well. The cost of each school per couple was around $275. Many of our folks did not have that kind of cash available.

In the fall of 1976, we two Pastor couples, plus several lay persons, went to Atlanta for our first training. After the first school, we knew it was what we needed. We attended another school in western Michigan, and another in Detroit. Wally and Vince “graduated”, and our wives were “released seconds.”

In 1979, we had enough trained persons in the Springfield, Ohio area to begin an Anabaptist version of this ministry. We chose to call it the Agape Counselor Training School (ACTS) with an inter-denominational Board from that area—Ted Hanleck, who had earlier served on the VMTC board, Chuck Temple from a local charismatic church, and Wally Fahrer from North Ridge Christian Fellowship. VMTC leadership did not want anyone to reproduce their training, and to avoid that an attendee never received any written materials. We instructors at the school developed written materials as handouts.

Charismatic congregations and others who were open to fuller workings of the Holy Spirit came to the schools for training. ACTS at times numbered around 90 in attendance. The cost was kept very low because the local congregation's Hospitality Committee prepared the food, and we used the local Church's buildings. Local people offered housing to attendees from outside the area.

In 1980, the Freys moved to Orrville, Ohio. They returned as Instructors and took persons back to ACTS Springfield for training. Several of the Orrville area churches had people receive the training. The church that the Freys pastored became known as the “church that does free counseling”. People from many area churches called to receive help, and they were referred to the released leads nearby. We had three pastoral couples trained, plus maybe another 12 trained laypersons.

Three Released Lead counselors from Springfield moved to near Goshen, Indiana. They spawned a new ACTS there in about 1982. Counselors from the Springfield ACTS went to assist them until they could operate locally.

In around 1985, a number of Released ACTS pastors in the Cincinnati area wanted to begin their ACTS, and then another pastoral couple wanted their ACTS in Lexington, KY. About the same time, an ACTS was begun in Maine and another in Tennessee by the same methods. The Springfield ACTS was discontinued around 1988.

Vince and Marcella Frey moved to Eastern Pennsylvania in October 1993. With the help of Mahlon and Dorothy Miller, who had also received their training with VMTC, an ACTS was begun in the Hopewell Pottstown Church in February 1994. Mahlon had served on the VMTC Board, and we were assisted by some trained folks from Orrville, Ohio. Fifteen persons came for that training.

PA Agape Schools were held in 1994 with help from trained persons from Ohio. Then in 1995, we began holding schools with our own team. For the first time, we began reaching pastors outside the Hopewell District Congregations.

Since we are not closely linked together, we do not know what has happened to the other area ACTS that began except that the one in Indiana is currently doing well.

Vince Frey has been the ACTS PA Administrator from the beginning. Following the October 1994 ACTS, a number of persons were asked to work as a local Board to which the Administrator is to be accountable. Jim and Anna Ralph, Curt and Anita Malizzi, Lin Weber, and Linda Rush agreed to be Board members. The Board met soon after each school for evaluations, and improvements.

For several years, Vince wanted to train another Administrator so he could phase out of that responsibility. In November 1996, Anna Ralph indicated a calling and willingness to work toward becoming the ACTS Administrator. She worked with Vince as a co-worker and then assumed full responsibility of Administrator in 1997.

Financially, from the beginning, all receipts and all payments have been handled by the Treasurer of Hopewell Christian Fellowship, Telford.

In preparation for the March 1996 ACTS, Joy Newswanger took our teaching materials and transcribed them onto disks. The Ralphs then took the disks and re-worked the teaching materials into a beautiful more user-friendly form.

Anna Ralph served as Administrator of the Agape Prayer Ministry School from 1997 through 2007. During her tenure in this role, she took the School from Hopewell Fellowship in Elverson, PA, to Rockhill Mennonite Church in Telford, PA, to Bally Mennonite Church, Bally, PA.

Jim and Anna Ralph had the opportunity to take the Agape Prayer Ministry to the Meserete Kristos Church in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia during the early part of 2006. They are now following a call to serve as missionaries in this country, and to continue sharing the Agape Ministry for the next two years. For information on their work, please visit www.ChristOurFoundation.com.

Starting in 2008, Agape Prayer Ministry Schools were held at Perkiomenville Mennonite Church, Perkiomenville, PA. Christina Alderfer serves as Administrator of the Schools.