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Being a Good Neighbor with the Help of Coffee from Honduras

January 2, 2019

Chris Meehan

When he left Woody Nook Christian Reformed Church in Lacombe, Alta. about four years ago, Rick Abma could not have predicted how he would see God at work in such activities as putting a new roof on  a neighbor’s house.

“I  was able to open myself up to a totally different world that didn’t even know about such things as the Holy Spirit. I found God using people, who may not know much about God, to show me more about God,” he said about this transition.

Abma had been a youth pastor at Woody Nook CRC for 23 years. A series of circumstances led him to leave this position in 2014. He enjoyed the ministry, and yet felt a tug toward a different form of work.

Initially, he wasn’t sure what that would be. Soon, he came to realize that he wanted to become a missionary by sharing the gospel message and developing followers of Christ in his own neighborhood and community. 

The particulars of how that was to happen, however, was an evolving process.

“I left Woody Nook asking the question, ‘How do I go out and make disciples?’ I had a vision of how to do that, but at the same time I really wasn’t sure what I should be doing.”

Stepping into the Neighbourhood

Inspired by Neighbourhood Life, a ministry founded by Karen Wilk, a former youth pastor at The River Community Church in Edmonton, Alta., Abma opened his imagination, he said, to the leading of Holy Spirit.

Wilk’s approach resonated with him. Her focus for the last few years has been on connecting with, getting to know, and creating spaces for worship with her neighbors. Wilk has come to see the neighborhood and the people up and down her block as being the key to ministry, not necessarily a church building or an emphasis on Sunday gatherings.

Given that this approach tends to be informal and unpredictable, Abma learned fairly quickly his new calling would mean setting aside agendas and “learning how to dance with the Holy Spirit.”

He had to leave behind a ministry defined by the church week, its services, meetings and calendar.  He saw the need to become more vulnerable to his circumstances so he could be “an incarnational presence to my neighbors.”

In the process, he launched Good Neighbour Coffee, a ministry in which he sells organic, hand-roasted Honduran coffee to people and businesses in Lacombe and nearby Red Deer. He also opened the  Good Neighbour Coffee Shop in downtown Lacombe, with help from friends. These businesses provide him with an opportunity to get to know people and have conversations.

In addition, Abma’s ministry involves bringing his grill — purchased with the help of those supporting his ministry — for people to use in gatherings, including block parties and family events. Usually he brings the grill, sets it up and, if needed, teaches people how to use it. Then there is his espresso coffee bike that, weather permitting, he rides into neighborhoods to mix up a thick and tasty brew for people. As they sip his coffee, Abma gets to know them.

Using more traditional methods, he occasionally holds Bible studies and corporate times of prayer, in his home and elsewhere, often mixing these times with cups of coffee and food.

“Hospitality is important …. Jesus taught us of the importance of being hospitable to our neighbours.”

Using Espresso and Coffee to Meet People

The crisp morning sun is climbing into the sky and the rolling, snow-covered Alberta plains stretch in all directions outside Abma’s rural home as he shows two visitors his espresso machine and bike, and then leads us into to the building where he stores the sacks of  coffee from Central America. Every week, he will spend time breaking open the sacks, roasting and grinding beans, and placing the finished product in  bags.

He sells coffee to area grocery stores as a way to cover expenses, but the coffee also provides him a way to connect with people. Many individuals in Lacombe and Red Deer are his customers. Mostly, the coffee is not about the money at all.

“The coffee is a gift that I have to offer. It is something I can bring to the table,” writes Abma in Neighbouring for Life, a book in which he reflects on his ministry.

“I share my coffee with my neighbors often, and I encourage them to share the coffee with their neighbors as well,” he explained.

Keep Your Eyes Open

One evening, Abma and his wife, Joyce, sat at a table in the Good Neighbour Coffee Shop with three friends, Thelma Ten Hode, and Denis and Doreen Hainsworth. The friends spoke of why they decided to link with Abma and his Neighbourhood Life ministry.

Denis and Doreen connected with Abma a while ago and learned that he was a pastor without the trappings of a formal church. This appealed to them. They had both stopped attending traditional church, not because they had drifted away from their Christian faith, but because the congregations they had been part of kept breaking apart over personal struggles and pastoral leadership.

They began to believe that it wasn’t worth the effort to be part of a church. They could pray and stay close to God without attending Sunday worship. In fact, they could do it in their everyday lives.

“We liked what Rick was talking about — that what is expected of us in the New Testament is to be vitally connected to people,” said Doreen, a Christian school teacher. “As soon as you have a structure in place, it can be the undoing. I find it liberating to meet new people and not feel it is necessary to invite them to church”

At times, they have gathered with Abma for prayer, reflection, and discussion. Other times they find ways to link with people in their lakefront neighborhood — such as helping to support an annual Christmas party at a local community center.

Denis added, “Being part of Neighbourhood Life helps us be aware of being more intentional and finding ways to connect with people ….. It’s not that all institutions are bad, but we do live in age in which people have become more suspicious of institutions.”

Thelma Ten Hode met Abma after returning from doing overseas missionary work with her husband. She said that connecting to Neighbourhood Life has taught her to keep her eyes open to the little things.

Ten Hode mentioned, for example, that she would not normally go up and introduce herself to strangers. Last year, however, her three cherry trees had a bumper crop. Once she made jam, she took some over and knocked on her neighbor’s door. The elderly neighbor invited her in and they have since gotten to know one another.

“I grew up in the Pentecostal church and mostly met with people who were already in the kingdom,” she said. “I still don’t think I do Neighbourhood Life very well, but Rick teaches us to relax and let God do the work and make the connections.”

Jesus said ‘Go!’

When we step out of our comfort zones, said Abma, Jesus will be with us wherever we go. In fact, Jesus is the one who tells us simply to “go.” Abma did that when he left Woody Nook, when he ventured into the coffee business, when he purchased a large barbeque, and when he meets his neighbors in the area where he lives.

“I am here because of covenant theology,” he wrote in his book. “I write this book out of a sense of urgency for me, and many others in the church, to be encouraged to put on our shoes, walk out the door and respond to this word ‘go’.”

The Stories

We are to move forward and be shaped by the new stories  and the new people we meet — and Abma relates some of these stories in the book: how he was asked by a single mother to conduct the funeral of her father; how he had the chance to see neighbors gather regularly to support a family whose home was destroyed by fire.

Several of these stories of being sent and meeting people are sketched on the backs of bags of coffee he distributes.

“The key to being sent, of having Jesus say ‘go’ and of responding to that commission, is that we gather stories to develop our faith, ” said Abma. “We are not asked to live vicariously through other people’s stories, but to grow through our own.”

One of the stories that exemplifies the Spirit-led dimension of the ministry is one that Abma never tires of telling.

Abma and 20 or so neighbors had asked their neighbor, Joe, if  they could fix his roof, which had fallen into disrepair. Joe’s wife had deserted him and left him with their four children. Abma said they were wary of asking Joe if they could help because he was not a friendly man.

He had no problem, however,  accepting help from Abma. And once the work began, he was on the roof to help.

“It was, admittedly, a little overwhelming for him, but the whole event had a celebratory feel to it and and was done very tastefully,” said Abma.

While working on that roof, a car pulled up in the driveway and a middle-age couple got out.

Climbing off the roof, Abma went over to greet them and learned they were Joe’s parents. They had made the nine-hour drive from Regina, Sask., to be there. Tears filled the mother’s eyes as she told him that they made the trip to see for themselves how the neighbors had come together to help their son in his time of need.

Later, when the roof was finished, they all sat around a campfire and Joe’s parents spoke “about Joe’s hard story and how grateful they were that this community was rallying to support him,” said Abma. “They said they had been telling Joe to move to a different area, to get away from this place, but now they were glad he stayed where he was.”

As for Joe, he has remained a loner — even so, the fruit of the roofing project keeps emerging.

For instance, two neighbors, Tom and Henry, had been enemies for years, but both showed up to work on Joe’s roof. As they tore off shingles and hammered nails, they seemed to get along. Later, neighbors reported seeing Tom and Henry waving to one another on the road.

“The Tom and Henry story humbles me,” said Abma. “It reminds me there is always so much more going on than I could control or plan for. I had simply been obedient, but God did the real work of transformation.”