Gathering in the church foyer to enjoy a cup of coffee after the worship service is not a new concept.
Rowenhorst family
Photo by Tanya Rowenhorst
But for the Rowenhorst family, who are members of Living Water Community Church in Orange City, Iowa, coffee also holds a much greater significance. They sell it as a way to raise money for their pending Ethiopian adoption.
“Someone mentioned a company that combines coffee and adoptions,” said Tanya Rowenhorst, explaining how she found Just Love Coffee Roasters, a fair-trade coffee organization that helps families gather the funds they need to facilitate adoption.
The Rowenhorsts have a virtual store through which people buy their coffee. The family receives roughly 25 percent of all of the proceeds, and another 5 percent helps to provide clean water to countries that don’t have it.
Because the Rowenhorsts are adopting from Ethiopia, they tend to buy Ethiopian-grown coffee for their use.
Living Water Community CRC served the Rowenhorsts’ coffee in January to draw attention to the family’s enterprise.
It seems a little strange, perhaps, to connect two things as unrelated as coffee and adoption, but the Rowenhorsts are not thrown by this.
“We’re trusting God with this,” said Tanya. “We’ll see where he takes it.”
About the Author
Kate Padilla is a staff writer at the Spencer Daily Reporter in Spencer, Iowa, where she is a member of Hope Church.