Encountering the Unexpected with Uncommon Grounds
My experience at Uncommon Grounds Cafe, a ministry of Church Army, was rewarding in an unexpected way. A recent graduate of AGMP’s Agape Year gap year program, I was sent to Uncommon Grounds by Rock the World’s Josiah Project. Going into the “urban” cycle of our summer program, I was expecting the experience to be “urban” as well. Uncommon Grounds’ focus is creating a safe space for the residents of Aliquippa where the staff can make relationships with them and spread the Gospel. Naturally, I pictured that our time with them would be similar to that goal. I imagined we would spend all of our time in the cafe talking with strangers, making relationships, and sharing the gospel. As I’ve been learning at Josiah Project, our expectations are often let down for the better.
Another Josiah Project team member, Sarah Grace and I spent the last two weeks cleaning up and organizing the cafe’s basement. You might think that this was an extreme disappointment for me, but I LOVED IT. If you don’t know this about me already, I love organization and cleaning. Don’t get me wrong, making relationships and sharing the gospel is nice and everything, but bringing order to a space that’s in disarray is like Christmas for me. It seemed like they had let me off the hook with the fun job.
The staff saw it differently. Shari, who put us in charge of the basement, came down the second day and asked if we wanted to do work in the kitchen to get out of the basement. I realized that she was trying to have grace on us and give us a break from the “hard job.” Meanwhile, I was secretly hoping that I could stay downstairs and that she wouldn’t make me go up to the kitchen. I smoothly talked my way out of it.
As time progressed, I began to realize how much we were helping them by cleaning the basement. What seemed like fun to me was really a huge blessing on them. Sarah Grace and I started with the individual rooms at the front of the basement, and by the end of our time there we had decluttered and re-organized nearly every area all the way to the back wall. On the second to last day, one of the staff members, Andrenna, was brought to tears when she saw how much we had done. Everyone kept saying “you have no idea how much of a blessing this is.” I didn’t really know how much they meant that until I saw Andrenna weeping in the basement.
What happened at Uncommon Grounds, I’m proud to say, was a short term mission gone right. We didn’t impose our expectations on them (eg. demand to make relationships in the coffee shop). They told us what they needed, and we did it! The reality is that the people working at Uncommon Grounds spend all of their time ministering to the people in the cafe, but they never have time to work on things like organizing the basement. If we had focused on ministering to the people in the cafe, it wouldn’t have made a big impact. Clearing out the basement for the first time in five years, however, has lifted a huge burden off their shoulders and made it easier for them to do ministry. So I’m so glad that my expectations were let down, because it turned out much better than I could have imagined.
Kiran Kirby is from Gainesville, Florida, and his home church is Servants of Christ Anglican Church. He is currently studying interior architecture at Florida International University in Miami. He was a fellow on the Agape Year program, and he is currently on Team 24 of the Josiah Project under Rock the World.