MORE THAN JUST A CUP
For many of us, coffee can help change our morning.
For families in Juárez, it is helping change lives.
We moved to Juárez, Mexico believing the call on our lives to help bring more to the community here. We didn’t know all of the details and we didn’t have a complete plan. We just knew that God had more for our family and more for the people of Juárez. So we came to start a church.
After nearly four years into establishing the church here, we have learned that the call for “more” goes beyond our understanding of church. Our call is to be more as neighbors, friends and a community.
The book of Acts tells us this about the early church in chapter 4, verses 32-35:
“All the believers were united in heart and mind. And they felt that what they owned was not their own, so they shared everything they had. The apostles testified powerfully to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and God’s great blessing was upon them all. There were no needy people among them, because those who owned land or houses would sell them and bring the money to the apostles to give to those in need.”
One thing that we have learned is more of the physical need here. Two questions that we always receive here are,
“Do you have work?” And “Do you have food?”.
Following our lesson from Acts, we have tried to become more aware and sensitive to those needs.
One of the answers that the Lord has provided is coffee.
Through purchasing green coffee beans we are able to provide fair commerce throughout Mexico. By bringing those beans to Juárez, we are able to provide jobs to families in our church. We pay families a fair wage to clean, process, roast and package our coffee beans. We then make our coffee available for purchase both locally and throughout the US.
All profits from our coffee sales return completely to the community job program. This allows us to continue producing coffee and search for more ways to help provide for families in our city.
One new job that is currently being developed is the addition of Más Café. This is our coffee shop that we are planning to open within our church to serve our community. The desire is to hire more locals to provide multiple coffee drinks, sweet breads and simple sandwiches to our neighbors that pass by the church.
