“I’ve seen a lot of healing happen, and just community and fellowship that comes from drinking a cup of coffee with another person.”
On July 20th, Calvary Grad Moriah Roberts opened a new coffee shop in Independence, Missouri. Roberts said the shop, called Joy Coffee, has been in development for a year and a half now. It is the fruition of Roberts’ long-time dream. She said, “That was always kind of the end goal, to open a coffee shop and to provide high quality coffee, a high quality environment, and high quality service.”
Roberts graduated from Calvary in 2015 with a degree in Advanced Biblical Studies and a minor in Theatre Arts. She said, “I felt like if I wanted to eventually be in coffee ministry, I really wanted to get a good foundation of the Bible and Scripture. And what I loved about the Advanced Biblical Studies program was the way that [our department head] pushed us to work out our theology and be able to defend it on our own.”
Before she began work on starting her shop, Roberts managed Calvary’s Warrior Café for four years. She said, “There’s something beautiful about the fellowship that happened around a cup of coffee, or hot chocolate, or tea… I’ve seen a lot of healing happen, and just community and fellowship that comes from drinking a cup of coffee with another person.” Roberts expressed her excitement to see conversations, community, mentoring happen through Joy Coffee. “I’m just excited that we can be a small part of someone else’s story.”