“So that all may hear.”
This is at the core of why Witness Coffee does what they do – offering up the best, freshly-roasted and fairly-sourced coffee available in KC.
“We want to bring awareness to the need for unreached people groups to have access to the Gospel, give an avenue in which people can buy great coffee and support the work of missions,” said Co-founder Shelby Morris.
Witness Coffee began as “Janie’s Coffee” 11 years ago when founder John Morris began roasting beans. He gave it the name “Janie” as a nod to his grandma, Mary Jane, who helped point him to Jesus.
John had picked up an air popcorn popper from Goodwill and began the process of learning how to roast. After giving samples to friends at work and receiving positive feedback, he put together a grill roaster. This gave him the ability to roast 2-3 pounds at a time, instead of 2-3 ounces, bumping his output to nearly 80 pounds a month.
Two years ago, John purchased a 3 kilo roaster and it is now in a shared roasting facility with Overflow Coffee.
It was after John and Shelby attended an event at church in April 2021 that Janie’s Coffee became Witness Coffee. They learned that about 40 percent of the worlds’ population has little to no access to the Gospel.
“Our minds could not wrap around that information without being broken over it,” Shelby said. “And in the life we have lived so far, we cannot imagine how hopeless we would be without Jesus. We began praying and having conversations about what it might look like to take this ‘hobby’ and turn it into something that would give us the ability to be generous givers and equippers. In the fall of 2021, God gave us the name Witness Coffee based off the verse from Romans 15:20-21.”
And I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, unless I build on someone else’s foundation, but as it is written, ‘Those who have never been told of Him will see and those who have never heard will understand.’
Romans 15:20-21
Each month, a portion of Witness Coffee profits go to support missions around the world. In March and April of 2022, Witness supported Send56, an organization out of Kenya that trains people to take the Gospel to unreached people groups in Kenya and Uganda.
In May and June, proceeds are going toward sending a team of six Kansas Citians to Africa to connect with Send56, to strengthen partnerships and learn how to support the spread of the Gospel into the future.
You can learn more about Witness Coffee at https://witnesscoffeekc.com/.
