For as long as I can remember, I have loved coffee. Even as a little girl (and I mean little) I loved it. Just to give an example, for my 8th birthday I requested coffee cake, coffee ice cream, and coffee for my birthday party. And here I am now, loving it even more. I’m sure most of you can relate to what I mean-- coffee is a way of life in most parts of the world. It symbolizes ritual and tradition. And oftentimes, it’s a reason to gather. Almost every time I make plans to see a friend, it’s just assumed that getting together means meeting at a coffee shop. Coffee to me is something that unites us. And because of my love for coffee, it has become a dream of mine to use it to do ministry.
Here in Honduras, jobs are hard to acquire. The desirable jobs are generally only possible for those with a degree, but it’s hard to get a degree without a good job because of college expenses. So lots of people have to settle for jobs that pay next-to-nothing and just try to survive. On top of that, there are too many people and not enough jobs, so even to find an opening in a job that doesn’t require a degree is hard due to the poor economy. It’s an unfair, discouraging cycle of poverty. And it’s one that I want to break. I believe it is so against the heart of God and it absolutely robs the abundant life that Jesus desires to give us (John 10:10).
What does coffee have to do with all this? A lot, really. It’s definitely a huge part of mine and Mario’s hopes for the future of our ministry. Using coffee, we hope to provide community and refuge, as well as jobs, opportunities, and freedom, not only for people here in La Venta, but hopefully other areas in Honduras as well. Our long-term dream is to have a coffee shop close to La Venta to provide jobs for people here and in nearby villages. And not just a coffee shop, but a whole area with different spaces available for rent for others who have business ideas but no way of executing them. Think of something like a food-truck court-- individual businesses with a shared space. We would offer the spaces either rent-free for a designated amount of time, or maybe a low rent that would be possible for anyone who would want to put in their own business, whether it be food, a barber shop, a small shop of handmade crafts and goods, or really anything. Our goal is to create opportunities for the people who seemingly have none. There in our coffee shop, we would provide employment for people interested in baking and barista-ing, specifically for women as it’s often even harder for them to find jobs. We also would need to hire people to roast for us, which would provide more jobs. And the coffee grown here in Honduras is some of the best in the world, so being able to find a family that lives in the mountains and grows coffee to buy from would be a way of positively impacting lives outside of just La Venta. So many of the mountain villages where coffee is grown here in Honduras are extremely isolated with no job opportunities, so by supporting a family in that way could be a huge blessing to not only those who work on a coffee plantation, but also their kids and even the whole community. It would be amazing to get to the point where we can help coffee growers here in Honduras export their beans to the States and in so-doing, change their lives. Because that’s the goal in all of it: changing lives; bringing freedom; restoring hope. All in the name of Jesus. All for the glory of God.
Just talking (or, in this case, writing) about all of these dreams makes me so excited and anxious to start. But we’re not quite there yet. God is slowly opening doors and giving different ideas of what He would have us do now, in the present moment. We don’t have the coffee shop, nor any of the essential elements of one, and quite frankly I’m really not ready yet because I’d have no idea where to start, but God is always reminding us of that hope for the future. So right now, in pursuit of this dream, Mario and I are taking classes to become certified baristas. We’re halfway through (4 classes in total, 5 hours each) and really enjoying it. This course is equipping us to pursue our cafe, and we are looking forward to being able to use it as our training someday when we hire. We are also currently beginning to talk more seriously about starting our cafe, just on a much smaller scale for now. We’re waiting to move into a different house here in La Venta that will make our in-home ministry plans so much more possible, and we hope to be able to turn it into a part-time cafe. There is nothing like that here in La Venta currently, so we don’t know how well it would take off, but the focus at this point would be more about opening the doors of our home to invite in the people here in the community and give a place to rest and gather. There’s not much to do here (and what little there is to do is not often good, such as drinking and doing drugs), so we want to be able to offer something life-giving where everyone feels genuinely welcome and can come enjoy coffee and homemade treats and have game nights or other kinds of events, all in an environment that is focused on Jesus.
This is a project that we can never accomplish in our own strength, so we ask for your prayers. We need prayers for the house that we’re waiting for; it’s been a very long, very frustrating, very discouraging process, but we believe that that is where God wants us and He’s teaching us patience and faith through it all. We also ask for prayers for wisdom, guidance, and provision with this dream of using coffee as a way of doing ministry. May the Lord be glorified through it all.
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