Silk City Coffee is celebrating its first birthday this weekend. It is amazing to see what the Lord can do with a group of available people committed to His purposes. Just under two years ago, I returned from a college visit in Nashville with my daughter. It was there I had visited and been inspired by a coffee shop impacting lives. I thought to myself, “I LOVE making a difference in peoples’ lives and I LOVE coffee. Maybe WE should open a shop like this!”

At first, this dream seemed impossible; but the more I prayed about it, the more I was convinced the Lord wanted me to pursue it. When I brought it up with my husband, Glenn, we decided that if it was going to happen we would need someone to run it and he encouraged me to pray about who that might be. In faith, I sought the Lord, and it wasn’t long before He answered…

Just over a week later, I was in a meeting with a young woman I had loved and mentored for years, Sarah. Without knowing what Glenn and I were thinking about doing, Sarah told me she had recently found journals she and her husband had kept while they were part of a leadership program I led in high school. She told me that back then I had asked them to journal their dreams for the future, and that she had been surprised when she realized both she and her husband Rob wrote exactly the same thing – that they wanted to marry the other and run a coffee shop in Manchester. Surprised, indeed! My prayers were being answered through people I loved!

As we began to meet and pray about the possibility of opening a coffee shop, we quickly realized each of the four of us brought different gifts and talents to the partnership. We started to call these our “quadrants,” and they offered clear structure to the initial business plan. When we discovered areas one of us did not have the ability to do well, we quickly prayed and sought others who had the gifts we needed. God was faithful and provided all we needed step by step, sometimes in the faith-building eleventh hour, to make the business a reality.

There are so many more pieces to the story behind Silk City Coffee, many of which I would term miracles – finding the perfect location at an amazing price, the hidden brick wall, the Lord providing just the right staff, the gathering of the wider-Christian community to prayerfully support us, and, perhaps the greatest miracle of all, how Glenn and I stayed married and in love through the process! (Grace upon grace, upon grace!) Should you want to hear more of the story, feel free to reach out to me. I’d love to share more with you over a latte – in fact, I know a great place! 😉

There were many times along the journey we almost gave up. Times where money felt tight and nerves were frazzled. It was during those times the community around us and the Holy Spirit within us reminded us to keep going – that it would be worth it in the end.

I stand in awe at all God has done in us and through the shop in 12 short months. We have seen broken relationships mended and new relationships begin, the Gospel shared with people asking to know where our joy and hope come from, and SO MANY prayer and practical needs met FOR the community BY the community (through the community needs board in the back of the shop). We have been able to give back thousands of dollars to local non-profit organizations making a difference in our area and, in keeping with our main vision, we have created a warm, welcoming place with quality coffee and food that helps to support the economy of the town we live in, love, and seek to serve. We are so thankful!

What dream is God looking to “birth” through your life? Does it seem impossible? Remember “nothing is impossible with God.”(Luke 1:37) Talk with Him about it and ask Him to give you the faith and courage you need to begin. Talk with OTHERS about it. Share the idea with some of the people closest to you and ask them to pray. Perhaps you’ll even discover some like-minded people with the gifts needed to help support you in making that dream a reality. If you’re willing, write to me and share your vision. I’d love to partner with you in prayer as you take steps leading towards the “BIRTH-day” of the special idea God has planted in YOU!

With you on the journey,