A Better Story

[I recently read Donald Miller's book A Million Miles in a Thousand Years and I very highly recommend it. It's about stories and life and life being a story--so make it a good one. He's going to give a conference in Portland about how to do this. For more information about the conference, go to www.donmilleris.com/conference
Also, here's a video about it:

Living a Better Story Seminar from All Things Converge Podcast on Vimeo.

He's also holding a contest to win a free trip for two to this conference. Below is my entry.]

Jen and I met while studying abroad at Oxford University, which is an excellent beginning to a story, if you ask me. While traipsing around England and Ireland, we discovered a mutual love for Jesus and coffee shops.

Also during European exploration, I learned about a whole new category of people who need Jesus--intellectuals. I think that since intelligent, wealthy people don't need anything physically, they are often forgotten spiritually and are off the radar to most Christians.

After our semester abroad, I returned to Nashville and Jen went back to California. I worked at a Christian camp that summer, and learned of a a missionary couple in Canada that work to share the gospel at a popular university. They hope that those who become Christians there will take the message of Jesus back to their home countries and help make a difference in the entire world. The idea made perfect sense to me and, really, seemed like an excellent strategy for furthering the kingdom of God.

A couple of years and many "I-still-don't-know-what-I'm-doing-with-my-life;-do-you?" phone conversations with Jen later, I had an idea:

What if there were a coffee house that was missional with both production and consumption?

The coffee house would be in an area of wealth and intelligence--think college towns--and would have a direct relationship with the village that grows the beans used for the coffee consumed there. Not only would the costumers be aware that their coffee was grown in Costa Rica, they would know the coffee-picker's name and if his daughter needed surgery. Coffee drinking would become much more personal and coffee drinkers could help those farming their coffee in personal and specific ways. On the other end, the coffee house itself would be a place of ministry. Coffee houses are comfortable. The environment is perfectly suitable for building relationships and discussing things of importance. The hope is that those who come in to study and get a caffeine fix would find community and faith.

Immediately upon the conception of this idea, I called Jen. Two years later, we are still in the "that's a great idea" phase.

See, we still love coffee houses, but we don't know the first thing about coffee farming or running a business. I don't even know how to make a pot of coffee (I don't even like coffee...we'll need to serve tea, too). We need help. I think the Living a Better Story conference could help us get started and develop a plan of action.

We know it's crazy to think two twentysomething girls who can't even figure out what to do next week could start something so big. We know it's a huge dream, a God-sized dream. We know we'll have to work hard and we're ready. We know if we don't try to make it happen, we'll always regret it, and if we do try, the worst that could happen is failure. And we think even failure can make a great story.