When is drinking a delicious cup of coffee serving your neighbor? Many of you are doing that right now…..or maybe you’ve finished your coffee for the day.
In response to so many needs throughout the world, Calvary’s Jr. High Youth partnered with Cozzee Coffee to be in ministry internationally and nationally. On April 2nd and 9th, the youth served the delicious coffee and sold bags to use at home. Not only are the coffees delicious, but most importantly 100% of the profit goes to special projects throughout the world. The youth were able to choose two projects from the list supported by Cozzee Coffee where they wanted to make an impact for Jesus Christ.
The first ministry is Nuru International which provides agricultural loans and training to farmers in East Africa. According to Cozzee Coffee’s website, “Since 2008, Nuru International’s focus is to end extreme poverty in remote, rural areas. Resources are limited and the need is both urgent and overwhelming. To compact this issue they have designed transferrable systems and workflows that can quickly address need, create lasting impact and facilitate their expansion to more countries. The heart of the Nuru Model is to deliver a self-renewing and self-sustaining pipeline of leaders and finances to enable lasting change in extremely poor remote rural communities. Their projects must operate efficiently and effectively without dependency on long-term international support. They believe that the most powerful solutions for ending extreme poverty lie within the very same people who live in it every single day.”
The second ministry is Beloved Atlanta which provides counseling to survivors of sex trafficking. Again, from the Cozzee Coffee website, “Atlanta is the number one city in the U.S. with the highest sex economy income of $290 million each year. When a woman from this industry is welcomed into the BeLoved Atlanta Home, she has often experienced years of trauma and hopelessness. In fact, 95% of women in prostitution are victims of sexual abuse as children, teaching them at a young age that they are not valued, loved or safe but the BeLoved team believes in their value and that they deserve to be respected by their community. When the world often looks at these women as criminals, BeLoved believes each woman is gifted, strong, and trustworthy; they are survivors. Through a discipleship program the Beloved team provides Christ-fostered healing.”
Our youth are passionate about making a difference in our world and this is a practical way of doing so. I’m so proud of our youth for their huge hearts. If you didn’t have an opportunity to participate in this ministry, there will be other opportunities to reach out…..the choices are all around us. And….you can go to Cozzee Coffee’s website at any time and get your coffee fix for a cause.
(An amusing aside…..Laura Burke, our Director of Junior High Ministry, was told by the coffee company that most people want whole bean coffee….so she ordered more of that. However, as it turned out, Calvary coffee drinkers prefer ground coffee. With many requests for ground coffee, Laura found herself purchasing an inexpensive coffee grinder to personally grind bags and bags of coffee….only to find that it took too long. A trip to HyVee who graciously allowed her to grind coffee there, resulted in an overworked coffee grinder (Laura, did you break it?)! So…..rest assured that Laura Burke got your coffee ground just in time for you to pick it up that Sunday!)
Questions or discussion? Click here to comment.
Tomorrow on the Daily Connection: A Light to My Path
About the Author
Debbie Reese is the Co-Directing Pastor of Calvary UMC