Who We Are

First and foremost, we’re Christians. At The Agape Co., we aim to emulate God’s love in our daily lives; to show love to others that is so infectious that people will know we are God’s children from our actions alone. John 13:35 sums the idea up best, “Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”

We’re also adventure-seekers, dog-lovers, Netflix-bingers, and firm believers in two mottoes: “When are we going to be here again?” and “Enjoy the little things!” Jacob is always down for a polar plunge or waking up in the middle of the night to go stargazing. Kestra, not so much. She likes her sleep and tends to steer clear of cold water, claiming that “someone has to take the picture.” Traveling has allowed us to each step out of our comfort zone and do some really incredible things— things we wouldn’t have experienced if we’d stayed hunkered down in familiar places! So we ask the same question to you: When are you going to be there again? Take risks, ask questions, explore unfamiliar surroundings, and truly live in the moment. Whether it’s your dream vacation or your child’s Christmas pageant, time goes by quickly, so soak it up while you still can! About Jacob

ABOUT Jacob

Hey everyone it’s Jacob here! I’m the wannabe photographer with limited editing skills, past-his-prime athlete, and the chatty Kathy of the group. Luckily, I’ve got Kestra by my side or I’d be a total mess 😉 I’m actually a Pennsylvania boy, but I’ve been in Iowa since 2002. I still long for trees and forests, but I have grown to appreciate the open plains and endless skies. Growing up, I was an all-hands-on-deck kind of child. I loved climbing, running, jumping— you name it— and I’ve been very blessed to still hang on to my “inner child”. I still love all sports (except ice skating that just hurts), I love new foods, and am truly a die hard Iowa State Cyclone. I am happiest with Kestra by my side and an adventure on the horizon. I’ve been to a whopping 5 countries and 38 states but have many more in front of me! A few trips I dream of taking include visiting Antarctica, exploring New Zealand, and backpacking in the Canadian Rockies. I also dream of a summer spent hiking the Pacific Crest Trail and a winter spent skiing down the various Alps in Europe.

About Kestra

Hello my name is Kestra! Extra points if you know where it’s from. If you don’t, maybe we’ll tell you, maybe we won’t. Depends on how nice you ask. 😉 Although I was born in Minnesota, I grew up in the beautiful state of Wisconsin. (Yes, our cheese is good, thanks for asking.) Growing up, I was involved in several sports, but none as infamous as log rolling. It’s the ultimate lumberjack-based Wisconsin sport. I enjoy playing basketball, eating Mexican food, rooting for the Wisconsin Badgers, and watching Christmas movies before Thanksgiving. So far I’ve traveled to 8 other countries and 32 U.S. states. A few trips I have on my bucket list include visiting the Lofoten Islands in Norway, hiking up to the base camp of Mt. Everest in Nepal, and exploring Machu Picchu in Peru!

What We Do

Just to make it clear, we don’t travel full-time. Yes, we would love to, and maybe it will happen someday, but we’re also extremely grateful to have a place we can call home. We just graduated from college and are still trying to find a foothold in the world— adulting is difficult!

So in the meantime, we take trips when we save up enough money (or find a super cheap flight that we don’t have the willpower to turn down!) We enjoy exploring nearby parks, visiting the polar bear at the zoo (mostly for Kestra), and splurging on new ice cream flavors and pints of chocolate milk.

We blog about places we’ve visited, tips we’ve learned along our journey, and adventures we suggest doing, because, “when are you going to be there again?” We want to show off all the beautiful corners of this magnificent earth— including the ones that generally go overlooked. We chase joy. We chase happiness. And we want you to find the joy in life’s little moments.

Occasionally, we also work with brands. We only promote brands/products that our values align with and we personally believe in, brands we think will help you either strengthen your relationship with God, encourage you to step outside your comfort zone, embrace the world around you, or ease some of the inevitable craziness that comes with planning and taking a vacation!

If you believe you have a brand or product we would love, Contact Us to find out more about how we can work with you. We look forward to hearing from you!

Why We Do It

We ask ourselves this question daily. It’s time-consuming, it’s stressful, and it can be expensive. But most importantly, we don’t want to spend our lives glued to a screen. We don’t want to take adventures just because we “need content for The Agape Co.” We want to live life, unplug, and enjoy the company around us.

So why do we do it?

We do it for ourselves as much as we do it for you. We enjoy documenting our time together, we enjoy encouraging others to take life in stride, and we want to use our platform to elevate the Lord. While we continue to document and share our adventures, please remember this is a personal journey all of us are taking together. So buckle up, read along, explore the world, and share your thoughts and journeys with us. We can’t wait to hear your stories; after all, what is life but one grand adventure!

How The Agape Co. Began

On the first day of college back in 2014, we met while playing basketball and it was love at first sight… not! After realizing we lived in the same dorm at Iowa State University (shoutout to Helser Hall) we instantly became friends. Although the next three years were spent in the friendzone (for one of us) we eventually started dating during our junior year.

Just before we began dating we planned a trip to Iceland, which would be our reward for a tough and hard-fought year of school ;). It just so happened that we started dating before the trip actually occurred— and because of God’s timing or because we spent so much time together planning…. who knows!

Through this trip, we realized that we not only felt closer to God by exploring His creation, but that traveling could be used to strengthen our own relationship as well. And viola! The Agape Co. was born!!

Adventure and Budget Travel Blog

The hub for all the knowledge we’ve acquired through our travels resides in our blog. We pride ourselves on creating HONEST reviews. Was a destination hyped up too much? We’ll tell you. Was the food not that good? We’ll tell you. Was there a lesser-known (or cheaper) location we found and thoroughly enjoyed? We’ll tell you.

We disagree with perfection

We disagree with bloggers who write about how everything was perfect for their entire vacation and nothing could have been better. Yes, we’ve been on some awesome vacations (Iceland, for example). But the weather wasn’t always perfect, the food was extremely expensive, and some locations were disappointing. We still want to return to Iceland someday, because it was AMAZING, but now we know what to do and what to skip— and we want to share that information with you.

We offer advice

It’s hard to fit everything you want to see and do into a single vacation, so hopefully we can weed some things out, allowing you to spend more time at truly awesome locations!

Follow The Agape Co. on Social Media

Instagram

We love sharing our adventures and stories with others on our Instagram. We enjoy learning from the experiences of those who have gone before us, as well as returning that knowledge to those who will go after us. We hope to be a small light in your day by providing encouragement, fun-facts, and goofy moments!

YouTube

One goal we’ve set for 2019 is to step up our vlogging game on YouTube. We currently have an “About Us” video for you to enjoy (and hopefully laugh at the amount of times Kestra falls down), but we will begin sharing more moments from our daily lives. Hopefully, we can shorten the distance between “our life” and “your life”. We’d love to hear from you guys, so don’t be shy!

Pinterest

Our Pinterest is filled with blogs, travel guides, and bucket list destinations from all around the world. It’s where we share what inspires us to travel. We hope to see you over on our Pinterest and would be thrilled if you would share our content on your profile!

Facebook

Facebook is a wonderful tool we use to share our content from multiple platforms. We would be honored if you’d like our page and join our community! Thanks for your support!

Twitter

We’re just getting involved in the Twitter-sphere! It’s where we share our articles and other travel resources on. We’d love to connect with you there as well! Please excuse our occasional absences 😉

Thanks for reading along! We are so happy you’ve decided to stop by today and would be thrilled if you would subscribe to The Agape Co. newsletter. To show our gratitude we’ll even send you 15 Tips to Finding Cheap Flights and Saving Hundreds for FREE! Just cause we like ya that much 🙂

God Bless,

K+J