What a Great Way to Use Coffee!

Just recently, Steve VanMeter at the Grace Church Medina East Campus in Ohio shared some great news with us! In order to get people thinking about different cultures and global missions, their church decided to make coffee at their weekend services specifically from the place where they were sending a short-term team later on that month. They had a whopping 20 pounds of coffee from Mazatlán, Mexico! They were hoping to use that 20 pounds of coffee from Mexico for four weekends in the month, but on the first weekend, they used 10 pounds worth­­ (that church must really love coffee but who doesn’t, right?). Though their coffee supply depleted faster than they had hoped, a really cool thing happened. Everyone seemed to take notice of the creative idea and the church saw a great deal of cultural awareness and appreciation. They even had close to 40 people ask about the missions trip to Mexico with genuine interest! This creative idea was so successful, the church wants to get loads of coffee from France where they are headed next. They hope that the coffee will serve once again as a fun way to promote cultural awareness and participation in global missions within their church community. This is such a great idea! At Encompass, we absolutely love hearing these kinds of stories. What is your church doing to celebrate cultures and creatively promote global missions?