Okay, coffee-lovers! This one’s for you! And let me just tell you, you’re gonna DOUBLE LOVE this give-away, because it’s not just about some stinkin’ awesome coffee from all parts of the globe. It’s also about providing a living for the amazing people that grow it–and sharing their stories.

Love, love, love, love, LOVE!!!

Promise me right now, people, that if you don’t win today’s give-away, you’ll hop on over to Three Story Coffee and buy a bag (or 5) anyway. Now, let’s meet Sarah, and get this coffee bus on the road!

Me: We don’t know each other, Sarah, and only recently met online, so tell me (us!) everything there is to know about you.

Sarah: Well, I was born and raised in mid-Missouri and am the oldest of 4 children. I met my husband, Tony, when I was in the 4th grade, we began “dating” when I was a freshman in high school and were married in 1995.  We have been blessed with 3 great kiddos: a son, Sam (13), a daughter, Josie (10), and another daughter, Olivia (6). What a joy, but oh, what a challenge it is to be a parent! I’m not a worrier by nature, but if there’s anything that I worry about, it’s my ability to be a great parent to my kids. And then, they do or say something that makes my heart smile, and I know I haven’t messed up too bad!   How thankful I am for those reassurances!

God has also blessed me with a calling to serve and care for the sick. So, when I’m not busy doing laundry, planning meals, helping kids with their homework and the myriad of other things we moms do, I work as a physical therapist at a local hospital. In 2008, I felt God was calling me to go on a mission trip and, while looking into the trips that were leaving from our church, I found a small country in West Africa that still had active cases of polio.  As a physical therapist, this intrigued me, and ….well….I’ll admit it…. I thought that if polio didn’t exist in the United States, how could it exist anywhere else? This is just one instance of God bringing to my attention how crazy little my bubble was. Any way you look at it, He knew how to get my attention and I’ve been passionate about the people and country of Sierra Leone ever since.

Me: You and your husband recently started your own coffee company–wow! Tell us how this came about.    

Sarah: It’s so difficult to even know where to start! Funny enough, Tony and I can both remember experiences as children where we essentially begged God to NEVER call us to be missionaries. We know now that He probably had a pretty good chuckle at those requests! Tony has served on short-term mission trips to Honduras, Zambia and South Africa and he joined me in Sierra Leone in 2011 and 2012.

What God has spoken to both of us on these trips, time and time again, is how important it is to develop relationships with people. And, I’m not just talking about the people in Sierra Leone…or Zambia….or Honduras (or anywhere else in this great, big, magnificent world). I mean, yes, they’re absolutely important! But what about the lady at the drive through at the McDonald’s down the street that barely gets a passing glance, much less a smile as you make the exchange of money for food? We all have a story! The thing about relationships is that they’re hard.  They require you to work, to give something of yourself, to be purposeful.

This is why we’ve started Three Story Coffee. Our desire is to go beyond fair trade to actually developing relationships with our farmers. We want to share their story. We want to give our customers the opportunity to invest into meaningful relationships and become a part of the stories. Three Story Coffee truly goes full circle. For each bag of coffee that is purchased, a portion of the proceeds will be sent to missionaries, on the ground and already working at developing relationships, across the globe.

Me: More details please! What big dreams/goals do you have for Three Story Coffee?

Sarah: We have been working so very hard at just being obedient and taking things a day at a time, but God has been so gracious through the last 2 months to remind us that His plans are bigger than ours. We have watched Him in amazement as He has put pieces into place that we never could have imagined. Looking forward, though, I would say first and foremost, that we want to be a vessel through which God can do some crazy awesome things. We want to expect to be amazed!

Over the next year, we would like to personally visit and get to know each of the farmers who supply our coffee. We think it would be incredible to find a Sierra Leonean coffee farmer to love on! We are currently partnering with a kingdom-minded coffee roaster, but one of our goals would be to produce enough volume to be able to roast locally, right here in our hometown. And last, but not least, we are excited about the potential for involving and engaging our 3 kiddos in this coffee adventure….to give them a real, tangible picture of what it looks like to love others.

 Me: I love this so much, Sarah! Anything else you’d like to add? And what do you have to give away to one lucky winner today?

Sarah: We currently offer 5 different coffees: Brazil Bob-o-Link, Ethiopia Yirgacheffe, Guatemala Mama Carmen, Three Story Breakfast Blend, and Costa Rica Decaf. All of our coffees are available in Whole Bean or Ground and are roasted fresh upon order!

Thank you so much, Marla, for sharing our story with your readers! You can learn more about Three Story Coffee or place an order here. One lucky reader will win a 12 oz bag of coffee of their choice along with a cool, fresh off the presses, Three Story Coffee t-shirt!

Did you hear that?? Somebody’s gonna win a 12 oz. BAG of COFFEE and a T-SHIRT!! YES, PLEASE!!

Thank YOU, Sarah!! I look forward to keeping up with your global adventures and YUMMY coffee!!

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