Having a willing heart, and a creative God, calls for a lot of blind hope.
We felt the push of "go" settling deep into our souls in April, and sold everything and went the next month.
We arrived in Arizona ready to complete our summer of preparation and carry on with that calling of go unto Mexico, and then we were abruptly stopped and told to wait through a brief email telling us our visa was denied, and we needed to come grab our paperwork Monday.
A Note: If you want to skip ahead to the end, we have bullet point updates and prayer requests if you want to follow along but don’t want the nitty gritty.
Being told to go one month, and then being told to wait, while already too far onto the path of going, requires a lot of blind hope, and an extra helping of prayer to sustain that blind hope.
We got the call to move to Mexico, began said move, got held up in Arizona. Our only option was to pray and ask; what now God?
The what now, was getting on board with what God has been doing in our lives, and what He wants to do through our move. Tyler Staton says it well in his book, "Praying Like Monks, Living Like Fools;"
The assumption of biblical prayer is that God's action always precedes my request. The aim is not to get God in on what I think he should be doing. Rather, the aim of prayer is to get us in on what God is doing, become aware of it, join it, and enjoy the fruit of participation.”
So we began praying. A lot. We began praying together, instead of separately, for the first time in our marriage. We began waking up early to sip a single origin pour over on the porch together and read our Bibles with intention and open hearts. We had a plan for our move, and didn't want to put a Christian label on it, but quickly we were corrected that if Christ is calling us, there is no way to move forward in His will without a Christian label. Being a Christian, and being called as a missionary is not cheesy, it is to be boldly worn as a badge of honor. It is a call to be a vessel for the redemptive work of God, to hold that title with reverence, transparency, honesty, and hard work.
Through those mornings of prayer, and shift in our heart towards the call of a missionary, God gently let us in on what He has been doing, and what He has gifted us and called us to be doing to participate. The wait that God had called us to, had been crucial to us having clarity on why we are moving to Bucerias, Mexico, who we are being called to, and to what kind of work.
We began to have clearer vision, alongside our blind hope, for what our future coffee shop ministry would be doing and why, and how our first year in Mexico would need to be dedicated to prayer, plugging into our neighborhood and our church, learning the language, and getting our kids acclimated to this new life. Though we had a lot more vision for the call ahead, we still were praying for verses to clearly define what God has called us to, because we know the Word of God is living and active and never changing, we wanted a mission that was aligned with a Biblical truth, not just Biblical principles.
The call was defined one morning when we read these verses at the beginning of the book of Acts, in ch.6.
Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word."
Setting Tables
Aha. That's it. It makes sense for us to be called to setting the table. Anyone who knows us can vouch that all of our natural gifting's are inclined towards practical service, hospitality, and including and loving on the marginalized. Of course our intentional God would be calling us to this role through something we both love and are gifted in as well, coffee. Even more so, of course our intentional God would be calling us from one of the most liberal and new age States in the US, to one of the most progressive and new age States in Mexico. We believe God is calling us specifically to this region in Mexico to be there as a beacon of His light, and a bearer of His good news, to expat families, new age dreamers from other countries, runaway young adults, bored retirees, liberal progressives; all of which are relocating in droves to this specific State in Mexico. Whether they are escaping their American life, or if they are on a spiritual journey to find their purpose among the deeply rooted new age practices in Mexico, we are feeling called to meet them there, and present them with the love of Christ, His sacrifice to offer us life, the beauty of His kingdom, and offer the security and belonging that a life with Christ offers. We believe that the vessel God is calling us to use in the mission is a Christian Coffee Shop.
So through lots of prayer and thought, we'd love to present our mission for our coffee shop and roastery that we will be opening in God's timing in Bucerias/Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
The Mission
Buenas Olas Coffee Co.
Making waves of good through..
Setting the table for the ministry of the word & prayer (acts 6:1-7) //
Hosting weekly prayer meetings
Being an available space for the local church to host Bible studies, outreaches, ministries.
Assisting the local church however possible in their hospitality and justice efforts.
Having a missional heart to bring the kingdom & Christ's love into all interactions we have with our customers through hospitality and intentionality. Sharing the gospel whenever opportunity arises.
Having a positive global impact //
financially supporting by donating a portion of profits to the anti human trafficking, and human justice work of varying Christian nonprofits.
sourcing all ingredients and coffee from local growers and sustainable practices, to support local farmers and businesses, and decrease our footprint and waste.
Intentionally loving our community //
Hosting community events often.
Being an inclusive, safe, welcoming space, that invites everyone in to experience and come to know the love of Christ through a great cup of coffee, intentional relationships, and bold sharing of the Gospel.
Being aware of needs in the community & being flexible to meet those, or connect them with the local church and other resources that can.
Blind Hope
The most difficult part from the last several months of us hanging out in this waiting period, is holding onto that blind hope, that God has us, that He sees us, that He is preparing a place for us where He has called us to.
Over the last several months we have been blessed enough to be able to return to visit the PNW and our church we called home in Mountlake Terrace, WA. On those visits, we met with pastoral staff and poured out our heart of what we feel called to, and what we think that looks like, and asked for advice for refining the vision and how to share that with others in a way that makes sense and has tangible prayer requests. The first piece of advice we received was to define if we were being called to become business owners who happen to be Christians, or if we were being called to be missionaries who own a business as their ministry. We knew we were being called to the latter, but were afraid that a label would scare people off and defeat our mission. We were gently rebuked that labels actually help define and bring clarity. Where there is clarity, there is security, and Christ can be proclaimed more boldly. This gave us food for thought and prayer until our most recent visit where we shared our vision that I just shared above, all of the details that God had given us, and asked for more advice. The team showed us that our calling we received from God isn't an independent calling, it is directly tied to the church. The verses in Acts describes a local church, feeling called to devote themselves to the ministry of the word, but needs faithful Christ followers to come free up their hands from the ministry of serving tables, of ensuring those gathered aren’t forgotten or sidelined.
So that means our calling, needs to be met on the other side in Mexico, with a churches longing and prayer for someone to come free up their hands for the ministry of the word. Cue the holy expectation and faith that is needed to believe that God is preparing a place for you that specific. But that is what we are called to, steps of faith, blind hope, holy expectation.
That is where we are at now. Sitting in even more anticipation for what God is doing than ever before, fervently praying for the church he has for us to plug into, and holding onto blind hope that He who called us is faithful to direct us and carry us through. After that second conversation with the pastoral staff in the PNW, we threw around the idea of quickly going down to Mexico to visit multiple churches, to be sure of what we were being called to through some external validation. But as we were praying about that, we were both thinking and reading about Abraham, how when God called Abraham every time he was being called to blind hope. Faith that God would provide a sacrifice, as he obeyed God to bring his son of promise on a fateful hike. Gen. 22:8 Faith that God would give clarity as he followed the call of God "not knowing where he was going" Heb. 11:8
Though scripture has countless accounts of thoughtful preparation before taking steps of faith, there are also countless stories of men and women, full of blind hope, being willing and eager to say yes to God even with not knowing fully what lies ahead. God has always called us to the latter, and worked in wonderful ways through our willing hearts and blind hope. As we have pressed on over the last 7 months, taking steps forward despite set backs, we have seen many ways that God has worked with our willing hearts and blind hope. He has provided us with a home to live, and peace within that home, despite past relational strain between my in laws and myself. Though we got denied for our visas immediately, through Stephen's family line, we found out we were eligible for citizenship. The citizenship process took his mom 5 months to complete, and once we solidified our vision and mission for what we want to do in Mexico, the whole citizenship process only took Stephen and the kids barely over 1 month. We have met God with blind hope, questions, willing hearts, and open hands. He has met us with "exceedingly, abundantly, more than we could ask or imagine."eph. 3:20
So we are continuing that trek of faith, trusting what God has called us to, with our new dual citizenships in tow, and moving down to Bucerias/Puerto Vallarta Mexico following this call of God, that is full of clarity and vision, but also holding onto blind hope that He has a church prepared for us to join and participate in God's redemptive mission for the Jalisco/Nayarit state in Mexico. Holding onto the mission God has given us to reach the expat community, serve great coffee, love our community well, and set the table for the ministry of the local church. Holding onto that blind hope, going out to the place we've been called, though like Abraham, not fully knowing where we are going. Walking in obedience, expectation, and faith.
Practical Updates (updated 1/17) Next Steps, & Prayer Requests
Stephen, Esther and Oliver have just now received their dual citizenship paperwork! God worked out what He needed to in our hearts and our mission, and as soon as He did, they got approved and their paperwork in record time- one month for all 3 of them to become citizens of Mexico!
Stephen's paid work with a family friend just ended, so he is working on his families second home for them, to help them fix it up to sell.
We will stay here in NE Arizona until Feb 6th! We begin renting our home God provided for us in Bucerias on Feb 10th.
God had abundantly blessed Abbie's sourdough baking since being here, she is selling bread and hosting sourdough baking classes to earn money for our day to day expenses here in Arizona. Give us today our daily bread has taken on a whole new meaning for us, as God is using this avenue to meet our daily needs.
Stephen is still roasting craft small batch coffee, to help us save for our move. If you'd like to try it and support us in this way, get yours here. Shipping will be unavailable starting Feb 1st, so the 31st is the last day to order coffee & our book.
We have multiple things that we'd love your prayer and support for as we are getting into the final month(s) before our move to Mexico;
Praise to God that He gave us Clear guidance on which month to move. There seemed to be an endless list of reasons to stay until April or May, But we both felt strongly the call of God to go sooner, and even though it does not make sense, God provided anyway! We had a moderator/realtor on a housing group in Mexico reach out to us asking if we’d be willing to rent his place and do maintenance and minor updates in exchange for cheaper rent. This home checks all of our need and want boxes and is clearly a gift from God!
Financial provision for the move and everything after. Our biggest financial burden right now is our car payment. To be transparent, we have $15,000 left on it and have been praying for means to somehow pay it off, or do a balance transfer to a 0% interest credit card before our move. We are praying for wisdom or a miracle with this car situation! The next financial need we have is for our day to day life in Mexico. We have enough saved to live, bare minimum, for about 6 months after getting to Mexico. (That doesn't include schooling for Esther, or travel costs for the 2 family weddings we have in Spring/Summer of 2025.) However, we feel called to dedicate the first year in Mexico to prayer, language learning, getting our kid's adjusted to life in another country and continuing to disciple them, serving in our local church and community, before opening a coffee shop. After we open our shop, our goal is for the shop to be self sustaining, and profitable to support the mission God has called us to with it. So, that means for that first year we will either need to get work, remotely or in Mexico, or monthly financial support from a mission organization, a church, or friends and family. Our prayer request for this, is that we would find work before or upon arrival in Mexico, or that God would begin to put our family and mission on believer's hearts to give generously to the work God is doing through our family and our time dedicated to prayer, service, and learning. For specifics, what we will need monthly to live in Mexico with all of our basic needs met (housing, food, misc expenses such as the doctor, toiletries, gas, etc.) we are estimating to be $1,000. For the extra expenses of our car payment, Esther's schooling, and transportation costs we are estimating needing an additional $1000 a month, with the monthly total of $2,000 a month. Please join us in making specific prayer requests for work, generosity, or both, to meet these basic needs, so we can keep our savings towards expenses that come up, or towards our shop we will be opening in 2025/26 in God's timing. If you feel led to give to us in this way, you can read more and do so here.
The Church that God is calling us to be a part of and partner with. Specifically that this church would have been prayerfully asking God to send someone to free up their time and efforts for the ministry of the word. That the church leadership would see the mission God has called us to with excitement and expectation for God's work. For us to make friends and our kids to make friends, in this church. We are praying for a holy appointment, and that God would lead us to each other.
Our final prayer request is for safety on our drive down to Mexico. We will be driving down the second weekend of February and covet prayers for safety & smooth travels for us and Stephens parents who will be accompanying us.
Thank you for reading our vision and testimony of getting here, and for bearing with us as we are fumbling into obedience and confidence in what God is calling us to.
Most of all, thank you, for praying with us as we embark on this calling.
Please continue to pray alongside us, and if God is putting it on your heart to give financially to us, or the opening of Buenas Olas Cafe, you're able to give here.
Please reach out if you have any questions or want to get more involved in what we are going to be doing in Bucerias, Mexico. We pray that we are able to host many, offer internships for young adults serving at our church and shop, and many more dreams;
we'd love for you to be involved every step of the way.
May God bless your commitment to Him and His mission.
With Love,
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