The past 2.5 years have been amazing but since the second week of the World Race I knew that this would be the last over seas mission trip I would be taking for a while. I have spent the past year in the field preparing for my own ministry. I am very excited to tell you and invite you to be apart of Pals Community Coffee!
How the dream came to be was a long waited story. Most Midlanders know where Midland Center is and know that Prom happens there. In 2012 at my senior prom I looked across the street and saw a blue door with red trim and immediately had the thought, “I want to open a coffee shop.” I went to college for business management, but decided to learn more hands on than in a classroom. I applied at Sam’s Club and worked my way up for the next 3 years. Afterwards I was called into missions and have been doing that ever since. I gave up on the dream of a coffee shop when the Lord called me into missions.
Before going on the World Race I only had one thing in mind that I wanted to learn, how to dream with the Lord instead of having Him do it for me, co-creating if you will. While in Chile I told God, “I don’t know how to do this or even where to start.” God replied, “What was your last dream?” I thought about it for a minute and was brought back to prom night and the moment I saw that blue door. I told God, “The coffee shop.” Then God replied, “Yeah, that, go for that!” and ever since I have been praying, dreaming, imagining, and preparing for just that. At first I was kind of confused because I knew the Lord had called me into a life of missions but I never thought I would be called to my own Nation. Its easy to see the US as a Christian nation because most people consider themselves Christians but how many of those people closely follow and have a personal relationship with Christ?
Pal is another name for friend. 2 years ago when I asked the Lord how He wanted me to make disciples and He replied, “Through being a friend.” “I no longer call you servants because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.”- John 15:15.
Community Coffee comes from the way people are designed to be in community. We are designed for community but most people don’t have one. I realized this the first time I came home from YWAM (Youth With A Mission). I went from 5 months of never being alone to completely alone with no Christian friends. During the day when my parents and friends were at work I would go to Starbucks to be around other people and hope to start a conversation. As I looked around I started wondering if these people wanted the same thing I did, community. Why else would someone study, do taxes, or read in a loud place? I think people are looking for community but don’t know how to form it. So I want to help give them a positive, loving, Christian community. This can be a community they have quite possibly never experienced before even as followers of the Lord. I want to create an environment to receive Godly friendships, discipleship and community outside of the church to reach the people outside of church. With a mandatary breaks to evangelize and form relationships with customers and eventually introduce them to the gospel, offer prayer, and discipleship.
Things are still scheduled to change but I know, that I know, that I know the Lord wants a coffee shop centered around fellowship. It might just not look how I imagine but isn’t that just like the Lord?
Things to be praying for:
Location – Where does God want this coffee shop to start and continue
How – How to get the finances to start and continue
Equipment – What to buy and how it will be provided
Most importantly, pray that this will be a place of the Lord and will STAY a place for the Lord.
