“I Was One of Them” – The Story of Emmi and the Coffee House

So I’ve written two blogs now that reference Wongen Kafe’ without really saying much about it.  I also haven’t mentioned Emmi, our absolutely fantastic contact this month.  Let me see what I can do to remedy that situation.  Lighthouse in Action has four specific ministries: the slums, the University, outreach to a village north of Chiang Mai (we haven’t been able to work with them this month), and the coffee shop.  We spend only a little time – most of us from about 1-4 in the afternoon – at the coffee shop, and it’s a very passive ministry.  We hang out, relax, and help serve food and drinks during the lunch rush.  We also often eat there ourselves, or at least have one of the wonderful smoothies they make!  The purpose of Wongen is however much more than a coffee shop.  They have live music some evenings, movie nights on occasion, and offer afternoon English classes to anyone who wants to come by.  There is a bilingual church service Sunday evenings (and it’s a packed house!), and the third floor is dormitory space for college students that Emmi’s taking care of.  

The staff at Wongen are themselves testimony to the efficacy of Emmi’s ministry: many of them have been rescued from their old life at the bars, selling their bodies night after night to complete strangers to support their families back home because they can’t imagine any other way.  Now they have a chance – through the sponsorship of total strangers, they have the opportunity to work at Wongen, working in a God-centered atmosphere that is almost the total opposite of the environment at the bars.  God has led these women to Christ through the patient efforts of Emmi and the various World Race and YWAM teams that have come here, for maybe only a week at a time, but with the end result of lives changed for eternity.

So let me tell you about Emmi.  She is, first of all, the most energetic and excited person I have ever met.  She came back from a trip to the States just a week ago, and when we met her we all just about fell off our chairs.  She speaks perfect English at a mile a minute, and she is completely in love with God.  She started off by sharing her story – it’s incredibly powerful – and her heart for the ministry we’re involved in.  The coffee shop has been her brainchild since she started the ministry, and it’s been running for just over three years now.  She says she doesn’t serve anything but Heaven recipes in the shop, because everything they make they had taught to them by visitors.  Six months before they opened, Emmi didn’t even know how to make coffee – so a missionary came by out of the blue and stayed there and taught her how to run the shop.  She’s had an amazing number of incredible stories like that that just cover the whole history of the place – “It’s like the Big Guy upstairs actually knows what He’s doing!” she says.  She’s particularly passionate about our ministry with the lost sheep of Thailand – the young adults in university that spend their evenings living the party scene.  Some of these students even go out to the bars to sell themselves for some extra money.  I’ve already talked about how challenging it can be to have such short encounters with the kids.  Emmi tells us not to give up hope, that through us God will make a difference in their lives, because she was once one of them.  To see the change in her life, from barfly to barista, is inspiring and gives us all hope.  To see the way she lives life in constant excitement to see what God does next is amazing.  Emmi is the kind of person who really just radiates God in a way that is approachable and exciting – just spending time with her makes me want to encounter God in such an exhilarating way every day that I too have that almost tangible God energy coming out of me.  I’m so glad to have met Emmi and seen the change God has brought about in her life.  Who knows – maybe one one of the university students I meet for 15 minutes in the cafeteria is another Emmi waiting for a spark of love.

Here’s Emmi’s story: