Dear Friend
Cups Café is a very special place where teenagers can experience the warmth and comfort of mom’s kitchen and the fun atmosphere of a downtown coffee shop. They love to pop in, flick their book bags and coats to the floor, and jump on a bar stool for an after school snack with friends. The teens visiting Cups Cafe are searching for...
TRUTH...Spirituality...love...fOOd...fun...someone to text ;-)...mystery...new facebook friends...
someone to listen to them
Thankfully there is a place in Medina Ohio like Cups Café where teenagers can go to find all of these things...especially someone willing to listen to them.
One thing that is cool about Cups Café is the fact that you don’t need a cell phone or computer or access to the Internet to experience it. A person can just walk through the front doors (at 126 North Court St. Medina Ohio)to catch the scent of fresh popcorn, sit down in an overstuffed chair with a hot chocolate topped with whipped cream and syrup, and poke the person next to them or simply have a conversation.
Everything at Cups Café is free. That’s right! The cafe does not charge for its products or services. If you’re hungry, stop in for a free cup of soup. If you’re thirsty, drop by for a cup of coffee on the house. If you just need to talk, someone is available to listen.
Cups Café (formerly the Medina Café 41:11) is a connecting place where guests can expect to find: Coffee, Comfort, Conversation...and so much more.
The vision statement of Cups Café is: Serving Hope - one cup at a time. The Hope we serve is Jesus the Christ and we serve Him through our work and to our guests.
The purpose (or mission) of Cups is: to be a community café existing to connect the physical, mental, social, and spiritual needs of young people (ages 12-25) and families with free resources and to connect them to Jesus Christ and His Church. Cups Café is doing a tremendous job of connecting needs with local resources ever since it opened for business in 2007.
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“People here have helped me out a lot. It’s the caring and loving that they show, everybody shows, especially you. I was going to be homeless and had help from you and Jeff. It’s a good environment and a positive place to be. The free food is my favorite. It’s a place to get away from trouble. I can come here and calm down and listen to the conversations and feel the positive energy.”
-19 yr old Guest
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The café relies on volunteers to run shifts. They work to serve and care for one guest (one cup) at a time. This is not always possible simply because we serve an average of 32 guests during a three hour shift. Volunteers exhaust themselves and sacrifice a lot to serve each guest:
- free cups of coffee, specialty coffee drinks, tea, & hot chocolate
- free cups of water, juice, kool-aid, iced tea, & milk
- free cups of soup
- free sandwiches, popcorn, breads, bagels, cereal, donuts & desserts
- free bibles, prayer, other literature
- Hope - one cup at a time
Cups Café is able to operate in this way because it is a non-profit organization registered with the State of Ohio and a 501 (c)3 organization under the IRS regulation. Support for Cups Café comes from local businesses, civic organizations, supporting churches, and individuals.
Cups Cafe is a Christian organization but it is NOT a Church. Cups Café is THE Church in action. The Apostle John wrote, “Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue, but in action and in truth” (NIV, 1 John 3:18). Many people will never step one foot inside a church but they will walk into a coffee shop or cafe. And so Cups Cafe is a great vehicle for the Church (God’s People) to have a more visible presence and greater impact in serving the community and reaching those in need of Hope.
One very special part of Cups Café is its Community Service program. People on probation through the court system can fulfill their hours at the café.
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“All the volunteers I worked with did a really good job of not forcing people to talk about Christ but bringing it up in a way that gives them a chance to share their knowledge. I have a church, but I don’t always go.”
-Community Service Worker
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Cups Café is unlike...any...other non-profit organization in Medina Ohio. This is because the café is living out all of the actions mentioned by Jesus in the twenty fifth chapter of Matthew’s gospel.
The volunteers literally give food and drink and welcome strangers in off the street (vs35). They give clothes to those in need and visit the sick in the hospital and juveniles in the detention center and work nearly every day with individuals on probation and assigned to community service through the local courts (vs36). They labor and endeavor to serve each guest as if it were Jesus Himself.
Cups Café needs your financial support.
Will you give $10 $20 $30 a month or more (click here to download pledge card form)?
If even 100 people committed to giving only $10 a month to Cups Café, that would generate $1,000 in new monthly support.
JUST $10 A MONTH!
The cafe needs monthly contributions of food, time, supplies, and money. So if you can’t give $10 a month maybe you can...
- pass this letter on to 10 friends so they know about the café
- or buy 10 supplies for Cups the next time you’re at the grocery store (contact us for a detailed list of needs as it changes often)
- or volunteer 10 hours a month.
If you already give in any of these areas, thank you!!! Please pray about increasing your area of support in some small way.
Cups Café wishes they could offer you a guarantee or a return on your investment but any type of growth or return is up to God, “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building” (1 Corinthians 3:6-9).
The ministry can GUARANTEE:
- you a tax-deduction (via a statement at the end of the year)
- to labor where God has placed us
- to include YOU in the ministry with stories of cafe life via email newsletters, facebook, twitter, mailings, videos, etc.
- to be honest, forthright, and good stewards of your donations
- your donations will stay in Medina
Think back to when you were a teenager with nothing to do and nowhere to go in your home town.
How cool would it have been to have a place like Cups Café to hang out at during the summer and after school?
Please click here to download our pledge card, print it, fill it out and mail it in.
Your monthly support can make a huge difference in one young person’s life and help to establish this ministry for years to come for teenagers growing up in Medina.
Will you support Cups Café with a monthly gift of $10 or more?