Community Cafe – A Sacred Space

Volunteers start to arrive Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday about 12:15 to prepare our First Cup Café space for our Community Café that opens from 1:00pm-3:00pm. The popcorn machine starts whirring, snack bags lovingly packed by the PALS group are pulled out, and the hygiene closet is restocked for folks who walk through our doors. Our unhoused neighbors have found a space of comfort and grace in our Community Café since the winter of 2018. The Café has taken on a few variations since its inception, but we have found a rhythm of meeting immediate needs and working towards creating a self-actualized future for our neighbors. Our volunteers welcome neighbors, pass out snacks, share hygiene items, and make a cozy atmosphere for rest and relaxation. Neighbors can use our WIFI, charge their phones, or play a round of chess while enjoying a freshly brewed cup of coffee. I have the privilege of working closely with individuals who are ready to take the next step. I have worked on housing applications, printed resumes, applied for Medicaid and SNAP, offered clothing vouchers, held short term therapy/counseling, and problem solved alongside our unhoused neighbors. I can only do these things because of our awesome volunteers. I have also connected folk to wonderful resources across our beloved city to help meet needs that we cannot.  Our Community Café is truly a sacred space that was built to help us know our neighbors on a much more meaningful level.

I look forward to the ways that we continue to meet our unhoused neighbors exactly where they are in their lives. Following the life and ministry of Jesus means we show up, listen, and tend to the needs that we hear and witness. This is the very way that Lil’ Rock n’ Roll Wash, our mobile laundry van, was founded. Friendship is the greatest gift to us as we build community here in Little Rock. Everyone deserves to know that they are a beloved child of God. If you’d like to get involved in our ministries to the poor and unsheltered, please contact me. You can buy from our Amazon Wish List to sponsor items for the hygiene closet, donate $500 (or anything!) for a month worth of snacks/birth certificates/IDs, bake homemade goodies for the café one week, or join our Poverty Abolitionist group seeking to change poverty on a relational, local, and systemic level. There are many ways to join the work of that radical, shapeshifting Jesus that we follow and love. You are invited to be a part of it!

Rev. Haley