Our History

In 1996, Reverend Douglas Diehl, pastor of Crossroads Baptist Church, in conjunction with the San Antonio Baptist Association, identified a need in northwest San Antonio for a pro-life crisis pregnancy center. Maria Hutton, a member of his congregation, responded to his request for volunteers to spearhead this mission and began assembling other interested people to serve on Agape’s board. For almost two years, the board worked to build community support among local churches and sympathetic individuals and, in October 1998, Agape opened its doors to its first clients at its northwest location.

Over the next four years, through word of mouth, newsletters and annual fundraising banquets, Agape’s pro-life mission gathered momentum. Our client advocates faithfully attended to the emotional, material and spiritual needs of nearly two thousand women. Some women found their salvation through a personal relationship with Jesus at the Center; all experienced God’s love and concern for their lives, reflected in the care given by our counselors.

In May 2002, God blessed the Center with a particularly successful banquet. New churches came forward with an interest to expand Agape’s pro-life vision into other areas of the City. By October, an ideal location for the second Center was found in downtown San Antonio, nestled between San Antonio College and Fox Tech High School and a block away from one of the City’s most active abortion clinics. In November, a lease was signed, new client advocates were trained and renovations began. In January 2003 we opened our second facility on San Pedro Avenue.

It took about a decade for our board to realize that, while the name "Agape" conveyed exactly the tone of our Centers, the term meant nothing to the vast majority of our clients and was often mispronounced by them. It was time for a face lift and a more contemporary name, a name that would resonate with our Generation Y clientele. After considerable research and field testing, we began doing business as Life Choices, reserving the term Agape for our loyal supporters. The announcement was made at our 2010 Banquet.

The clients kept coming, but our financial resources were not keeping pace with our expenses. The downtown center, though in an ideal location, was not growing in the number of clients served. We soon had to make the difficult decision of closing the downtown center, which became effective in August 2010. As soon as we closed these doors, God began to open others, doors that would lead to the fruition of the dream of our founders over 15 years ago: to be-come a medical facility offering free sonograms to all our pregnant patients. (See Medical Clinic Conversion) We will perform our first sonogram in January 2012 and are looking into offering STI/STD testing and treatment in 2012. 

That brings us to our present, but our future has already been written. Everyone involved in this ministry – from its Board to its volunteers to its supporters to its clients – has felt God’s hand on its activities. We have seen Him work miracles, both in the lives of our clients and in the growth of the Center. We are confident that God’s will is being done on earth, at least in part, through His healing touch at Life Choices-Agape.