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August 6, 2024
The owner of an embattled Christian coffee shop in Colorado said his business and ministry are continuing to persist despite a barrage of protests from communists and LGBTQ protesters over the past year.
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Jamie Sanchez, founder of Recycle God’s Love, once again joined CBN News to offer a powerful update about the Drip Cafe, the coffee shop he launched as part of his affiliated ministry, Project Revive.
Sanchez said the coffee shop, despite facing an ongoing onslaught of chaotic demonstrations, has been training and helping its first homeless worker. It’s a recognition of his ministry’s efforts to help the homeless through employment and connections to much-needed resources.
“[Our goal is to hire] homeless individuals, to give them a real W2 job, and to also disciple them while they’re working alongside us,” Sanzhez said. “And the project encompasses everything from providing housing to financial advising with them, spiritual guidance.”
The first hire, Scott, has reportedly had a wonderful and fruitful experience. Once Sanchez heard Scott needed some help, he realized it was the right time to finally launch the program.
“God just put it on my heart,” he said. “So, I hired him on and … it’s crazy, because I hired him, he comes in, we’re making sure he’s staying sober, giving him everything right up front, like, ‘Hey, like this is serious. We’re treating this job like a real job. If you’re late, if you don’t show up, it’s just like a real job. If you don’t show up to a shift and you don’t call, you’re let go.’”
Fortunately, the process has gone very well, with Scott persisting. Even if someone is let go from the job, Sanchez said his ministry will still help with discipleship, finding housing, and other relevant needs.
Already, Scott, who excelled at the job, is leaving his shelter and moving into housing through a local partner ministry.
“It just shows … how God really … when you put the trust in Him, what He does,” Sanchez said, noting working alongside like-minded people has helped Scott thrive. “It really just proves that the chains that come with being homeless can be broken with the power of Jesus Christ.”
Despite this success, Sanchez said the protests against his cafe still unfold one day a month, with the chaos generally taking place on what should be his busiest day for business.
As previously reported, people began gathering last June outside the shop, shouting, and taking aim at the fruits of the ministry’s labor. A statement affirming biblical sexuality on the Recycle God’s Love website was reportedly a catalyst for the protests that began in June and haven’t ceased.
The original statement read:
Homosexuality: This organization is opposed to homosexuality as an alternative lifestyle. Additionally, this organization holds that a homosexual lifestyle is contrary to Gods Word and purpose for humanity (I Timothy 1:10). The Bible instructs that it is a sin that leads to death. Moreover, this organization is instructed to love those living such lifestyles, while abhorring their sin. 1 Cor. 6:9 says the following: Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders. Members of the church are forbidden to practice such sin. Any member found to be in such sin and unrepentant shall be subject to dismissal.
Sanchez said he changed the language not long after the cafe opened to make the ministrys intent about love and truth more straightforward. You can read the new verbiage here.
Posts on the Denver Communists Facebook page have called for protests against the cafe. The goal, Sanchez said, has been to shut down the cafe but, thus far, to no avail.
“It’s a spiritual warfare going on,” he said. “By now, they should realize they’re not affecting us the way that they thought they would. Their goal is very clear; it’s on their site; it’s on their posters. They want to shut us down.”
He said these protestors show up claiming the cafe hates gay people and seeks to exploit the homeless, with Sanchez accusing them of “making up all kinds of lies.”
“They stand outside with a blow horn and they’re screaming,” he said. “If a customer tries to walk in the door that just is a regular person trying to come in, they will scream in the blow horn and say, ‘Don’t go in there! Don’t go in there! Literally scare them from even wanting to come into the cafe.”
Sanchez, who has young kids, said he has been the subject of personal attacks, including some surrounding his late first wife.
“They’ve even actually gone as far as attacking me personally and saying that I’m using my late wife’s death as a tool to get people to feel sorry for me,” he said, noting such attacks “hurt” but help confirm he’s following God’s call on his life. “It’s also a confirmation of how powerful my testimony is that Christ has given me through my life that the enemy would try to pull that out and use it as a tool against me.”
Rather than give up on the Drip Cafe, Sanchez said he has persisted, trusting in the Lord throughout the journey and keeping focus on the broader mission.
“For me, the cafe is not mine. I don’t really see it as my cafe,” he said. I don’t see it as Recycle God’s Love’s cafe. I see it as God’s cafe. He gave it to us; if He wants it to go away, then He’ll make it go away.”
In the end, Sanchez said “God gets the glory” for the cafe’s ability to remain open despite the chaos.
“There’s no way we would still be there if it wasn’t for God and the body of Christ really supporting us,” he said. Find out more about the cafe here.
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