Denton: Grounded at TWU

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This year, the Baptist Student Ministry at Texas Woman’s University opened a little cafe in our building for students. It’s called “Grounded”—not just because we grind our own coffee, but because we want our students to be grounded in the word of God and rooted in community.

sharel kaye gaskey200Sharel Kaye GaskeyAt Grounded, we have everything you can think of a cafe would offer—multiple flavors of teas, coffee and hot chocolate drinks with milk alternatives for our students who can’t or choose not to have dairy in their coffee. The cafe started off making only a few coffees a week. Now, we are making coffee every day multiple times and a variety of kinds.

Our hope for this cafe is to connect people, building community, draw people in and serve our students. It has been amazing and surprising to me the connections we have made with students—connections we might not have made without the coffee between us.

We have been able to train each of our student leaders to be a barista, as well. So not only are our students learning how to make really good coffee, but they also are learning how to serve others. In all, they are gaining great work ethics and skills for a future job.

Besides serving our students great coffee and providing a great atmosphere to create relationships and study, we also serve fellow faculty and staff here at TWU.

denton grounded menu225On top of all that, the proceeds go toward our student missions fund. It will support our $2,000 annual missions budget as a BSM. That money goes to send our students—as well as other students all over Texas—to missions all over the world from one week to one year or longer. Funds also go specifically to our students who want to go on a mission trip with our BSM to South Padre Island for Beach Reach during spring break 2015.

This year, we have had the most students interested in missions than we have had in a long time, and the sign-up sheet for our spring break mission trip is completely filled. Now with the cafe open and donations coming, including a $20 donation from a staff member who doesn’t even like coffee, we will be able to send these students where the Lord is calling them, and we are so excited about the possibilities of that.

We are starting relationships with students, one cup of coffee at a time. While I was preparing coffee for one student, he asked questions about Bible study. As I made his coffee, I had the opportunity to tell him all about it and the opportunities of the BSM. This is only the beginning of what I know God can do through coffee.

Sharel Kaye Gaskey is serving as a campus missionary intern at Texas Woman’s University in Denton through Go Now Missions.


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