Return to story

Coffee links communities

November 21, 2009 12:36 am

BY AMY FLOWERS UMBLE

In Indonesia, a widow struggles to care for 25 orphans.

In Locust Grove, a group of Christians struggle to share their faith in an area filled with gated communities and busy commuters.

Two distinct, far-spread problems. And one solution: a cup of joe.

When planting churches, the Rev. Clint Clifton finds coffee shops handy. Showing up on someone's doorstep seems intimidating. But meeting them where they hang out--less so, he said.

So when Clifton and his church started Coffee With a Cause, they included the soothing music, free wi-fi and comfortable chairs standard in modern coffee shops. And they threw in the chance to help orphans in Indonesia.

Church members also hope the coffee house in a strip shopping center on State Route 20 will provide a common ground for Orange County residents. The coffee house is tucked in among a gas station-convenience store, pizza parlor, tattoo shop and other small businesses.

"Organized religion isn't as popular as it once was, and you need to get creative to meet people in a non-threatening environment," said Clifton, who has planted churches in Virginia and in Iceland. "The people who really need to hang out with God and with Christ are not the people who are coming to church."

Five years ago, Clifton started Pillar Church in Dumfries. About 100 people attend weekly services in a Prince William County elementary school. Two years ago, Clifton and some Pillar worshippers set out to start a church in Locust Grove.

They first noticed the lack of coffee houses. In fact, there were few hangouts in the area at all. So the group created some temporary hangouts: an outdoor movie, a paintball competition and a banquet for community leaders.

They met with limited success.

Around the same time, the church also sent a mission team to Indonesia, a Southeast Asian nation of islands in the Pacific and Indian Oceans.

One day, while walking in Nagara, a tourist town filled with both glitz and abject poverty, they came across a group of children. Clifton and the team learned they were orphans.

The man taking care of them had been killed in an accident 20 days earlier. His widow now cared for the 25 orphans. But her husband had been the breadwinner for the effort.

"Of course, our hearts broke," Clifton said. "They were hungry and the whole nine yards."

He introduced the group to an Indonesian friend who took in the orphans. But the friend didn't have much room.

Clifton went back home and told the story, raising $8,000 to build a larger house. He returned to Indonesia with a mission team. They started work on the house.

Today, the house shelters the orphans. But it lacks electricity and plumbing.

Clifton wanted to continue working on the house and find ways to provide long-term help for the orphans.

He needed a steady flow of money and turned to java.

A coffee house could both provide a meeting place in Orange and support the orphans, he thought. And after all, coffee is an agricultural export of Indonesia.

A recession isn't the best time to start a business or a new charity endeavor. Clifton put out a call for 100 families to give $250 each. Through the church and a Web site, Clifton raised $25,000 to start the shop.

It was just enough to get Coffee With a Cause going. And the shop opened early this month.

Determined to keep costs low, Clifton found countertops from a closing department store, brewing supplies from a folded coffee house and signs from a church member.

He also recruited two church members to come and work for minimum wage.

Both employees gave up salaries of around $60,000. Ben Cartwright's co-workers called him crazy when he quit his lineman job to work for a church. Last year, Cartwright was a 21-year-old single guy with his own house in Fredericksburg and a brand new car.

Now, he drives a beat up Jeep with neither heat nor air conditioning and lives with his parents.

"Even though I'm broke a lot of the time, I'm well taken care of, and I love what I'm doing," said Cartwright, who also plays guitar at churches and leads a youth group. "I don't want anything else."

Store manager Phillip Scott was preparing for his wedding when he left his job as a contractor to manage Coffee With a Cause. He had long wanted to start a Christian coffee house and felt passionate about the idea.

"If Jesus Christ were to come today, be crucified, buried and resurrected, and the Apostles went to spread that message, I could see them doing this," Scott said. "You meet the people where they are, minister to them and share the Gospel."

But the coffee shop won't be preachy, Clifton said. Someone could walk in and not even know they were in a faith-based business, if they didn't listen closely to the lyrics of the Christian music played over the speakers.

"We're not trying to be obnoxious. We don't want people to come in and see Bible thumpers. We want to start a conversation," Clifton said.

The two employees and the volunteers who sometimes work the counter are always eager to share the cause and talk about the orphans and Indonesia. And they don't mind talking faith either.

So far, they haven't had too many customers. But those who wander in seem committed to the cause.

On a recent rainy day, Lake of the Woods resident Cynthia Geracoulis stopped by for a quick treat. She said she'd been by almost every day since Coffee With a Cause opened.

"I'm so excited there is a coffee shop in Locust Grove," she said. "I just feel like, God and coffee, it doesn't get any better."

Amy Flowers Umble: 540/735-1973
Email: aumble@freelancestar.com