Coffee. Something that brings so many together. Typically something that is part of many people’s day, even sometimes many times throughout the day. Something that, in my experience, has often represented relationship and discipleship and doing life together. And since 2017, it has been the main idea of a big dream of mine…
Taza de Gozo, or Cup of Joy, began to be a hope in my heart after I became a barista. I started to dream of owning a business, specifically a café, where I could open the doors wide to receive anyone and everyone who needed community and the transforming love of Jesus.
When Mario and I married, we took some barista classes together at a cafe in Tegucigalpa (he didn’t know anything about coffee, and I wanted to learn more in-depth and scientific). A little less than a year later, we were able to do some work on a little area outside of Mario’s mom’s house to create an outdoor cafe. It was a lot of work, and every time we were open it required a lot of setting up and tearing down, but we were trying to practice being faithful in the little and it was honestly so fun! Due to difficult family circumstances, we were only able to run the cafe for a few months that first year. It wasn’t until a year and a half later that we were able to get it going again, and this time on the porch outside of our new home. Almost a year after that, we were able to do a small addition to the porch and now have more space, an outdoor kitchen, and a beautiful cafe that is more than I could’ve hoped for! Truly, it is a place of much joy (Cup of Joy) and laughter!
*the space we had outside Mario's mom's house 2020/2021
*our porch 2022/2023
*our newly-renovated coffee house 2023!
{In February of 2020, I came up to Cody for a quick trip and my family put together the first Brewhaha, a fundraiser designed to help us open a café. The following December was when we started just outside of Mario’s mom’s house, and the donations we had received from the Brewhaha is what made that possible. With them, we were able to buy a small (semi-professional) espresso machine along with the necessary accessories, a work table, and some pretty basic tables and chairs that lasted us the first couple of years. We had Brewhahas again in May of 2021 and in February of 2022. From those two events, we were able to cover operational expenses and buy new, stronger tables and chairs, along with some other details like beautiful bulb lights, some more things we needed for both the espresso and food sales, and some board/card games.
Below are some of our hopes for this year's Brewhaha (2024):
-a stronger foosball table (the one we currently have is a bit flimsy...)
-start saving toward getting a second espresso machine (the one we have is only one group head and I'd like to have two!)
-maybe look into getting a solar panel or diesel generator to be able to open even during power outages (which can be very often!)
Thank you in advance for any donation given, it is always helpful and so encouraging!}
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