Coffee and Relationship

One of the mandates God has emphasized over and over for us is loving the person in front us. One of the ways we’ve done this is at rest stops. We never knew how many truck drivers were on the road until living full-time in an RV.

Waking up at a rest stop surrounded by trucks and trailers one morning, I (Josh) had this thought, “I bet truckers like coffee.” Of course, we just happen to have 700 lbs of coffee in our trailer! So, after making a very large french press, I brought it out to our neighbor next door.

“Who is this guy? What does he want? Should I open my window?” 

I stood there a couple feet below his window, smiled and waved. The look on his face said this: “Who is this guy? What does he want? Should I open my window?” After staring at me for 5 seconds, he opened his window. I said, smiling, “Do you want some coffee?”

From this one act of kindness, relationship began. This past summer, we asked God if we should bring coffee on the road. We knew it would be a lot of work and could create a lot of problems. We prayed and had peace about it. The look on that truck driver’s face said 1000 words.  

After that experience, we realized that there are thousands of truck drivers on the road for days/weeks at a time. Do they have a community? Do they have a group of people that support and encourage them? For some, I think it’s a very lonely life.

I don’t think we’re starting a full-time coffee ministry to truck drivers, but God has opened our eyes to the need. It is definitely something we look for at rest stops now. The last time we served coffee to our truck driving neighbor, we met a man named Raymond. After following me all the way to our RV, Mary poured him some coffee and he said, “How much?” We kind of laughed and told him nothing of course.

We met Raymond at a rest stop. We gave him some coffee and prayed for his work.

He looked a little thrown off and asked why we’d do such a thing. We had an open door to share. Coffee is a great gateway to share the gospel. I won’t go into how many times Jesus ate with people, but it’s all over the gospels. Jesus even commented on the Pharisees scoffing at how He ate and drank all the time. I believe it was because when you sit down with someone and share a meal, or even a coffee, relationship begans. Eating and drinking are part of a common human experience.

So, pray for people like Raymond. We were able to minister to him and pray for his needs of getting a new load to bring back to Chicago. God cares about people more than we can imagine, and they’re all around us all the time. We just have to open our eyes.