Good brews, good news
Star barista brings new life to Honduras social enterprise and finds new life with Jesus
Photo: Carlos is one of the finest baristas in Honduras but he had a rocky road to faith
When mission partners Lindsey and Steve Poulson in Honduras needed to find a manager for their cafe ministry, they immediately thought of renowned barista Carlos. There was just one issue: Carlos was no fan of Christianity.
Cafe Alas in the town of Talanga is part of Proyecto Alas, a project to create safe spaces for at-risk children and young people in a context where gang violence, corruption and poverty affect many and limit opportunities for change.
The project includes a mentoring programme, bringing consistent and caring adults into the lives of young people who often feel abandoned.
The cafe is one of several businesses that bring in income for the project and provide employment opportunities for the teenagers as they get older.
As the cafe thrived in 2022, Lindsey and Steve were keen to appoint a manager, so that Lindsey could hand this task over to local hands. The name that had sprung to mind for them was Carlos, one of the top baristas in Honduras!
They knew Carlos through his wife, Carolina, and knew he’d won national awards and had much management experience. Yet Carlos was wary of Christianity – after being hurt by church in the past, Carlos remained open to the idea of belief, but was not open to church at all. Lindsey and Steve weren’t sure how he’d get on in a faith-based business.
Little did Lindsey and Steve know that Carlos and Carolina had also been thinking about Cafe Alas, and dreaming of what Carlos might be able to do there.
Carlos and Carolina came to Lindsey and Steve with a presentation about their vision for the cafe.
Just like Lindsey and Steve, they saw the possibility of not just making money, but creating future employment opportunities for young people, to counter a common impression that it is impossible to make a decent living in Honduras.
A clash of cultures
After much prayer and reflection, Lindsey and Steve felt that God was prompting them to appoint Carlos as the cafe manager, and he started work.
The first year threw up challenges – Carlos had come from environments where the main priorities were to get supplies as cheaply as possible and to make as much money as possible. He was used to shouldering much of the responsibility himself, with employees making mistakes not given second chances.
This contrasted with the values of Cafe Alas, where people are of utmost importance along with high quality coffee and good service. Taking a Monday off as a sabbath for everyone, in order for staff to rest, seemed counterintuitive to Carlos – shouldn’t they be using every opportunity to bring in an income?
A turning point
After this slightly rocky first year, and with some personal challenges coming up for Carlos, Lindsey and Steve wondered if they had done the right thing in appointing him. Then an incident led them to consider letting Carlos go. Yet Steve first took time to talk to Carlos, and was able to offer pastoral support outside of the coffee shop.
Carlos came to Steve to say thank you, and observed, “That showed that you care about me, not just the shop. Anyone else would have just got rid of me.”
This was a turning point for Carlos, and a few weeks later he commented, “You guys are like the Jesus that I’ve read about in the Bible. Not like the other Christians I’ve met.”
The Proyecto Alas team had given Carlos his first example of people attempting to follow Jesus and share his love without hypocrisy. From that point onwards, Carlos was more open to faith in Jesus, though wary of making any commitment.
Alongside these changes for Carlos, the opportunity came up for the team to open a second coffee shop, several hours’ drive away – and they felt that God was opening doors for this to happen without them pushing too hard.
To start this new venture, Carlos and his family moved to the new location in January 2024, but it was hard being far from their usual community. Sales weren’t as good as everyone had hoped, which also put pressure on the family’s finances – so Carlos and the wider team were tempted to give up.
Running on faith
Yet through it all, God was still at work. Around half way through the year, Carlos called Steve out of blue. He said, “A weird thing happened – a pastor came into the coffee shop and started chatting to me. The pastor said he had been on a prayer walk, saw Cafe Alas, and felt God put something on his heart to share with me.
“Then he started sharing a number of things with me and perfectly explained my situation, right down to tiny details, even though he had never met me. Then the pastor said ‘So far this coffee shop has been run on faith of someone else, but now it needs to be run on your faith.’”
Carlos felt challenged and convicted that this was God speaking. Carlos started seeking God, praying with his family and even going to a local church with his wife and son. Soon after that, he decided to give his life to Jesus.
Steve says that he has noticed a real change in Carlos in the months since he decided to follow Jesus: “At the beginning of 2024, his attitude was that he needed to work super hard to make this cafe work. After this step of faith, his attitude is now about making sure to pray.
“He has a much more relaxed sense of this not just being on his shoulders, as he is relying on God to make things happen. And as Carlos grows in faith, he is praying and listening to God – and now sometimes I am being ministered to by him.”
