Coffee, Culture, and Collaboration

THE CALL: 2024-2025    |    3 MINUTE READ
AYNSLEY VERMILYA, STORYTELLING PARTNER

Like many young adults, Jake Routzahn works at a coffee shop alongside new friends within a community he is learning to call home. Unlike most young adults, Jake’s story takes place halfway around the world in Hungary, where he’s been living as a long-term missionary for the last five months.

Growing up in South Charleston, Ohio, it wasn’t until college that Jake felt a call to missions during his time at Ohio Christian University, where he was involved with a WGM group on campus. As part of that group, Jake was able to learn, train, and serve on the mission field, ultimately leading him to a life-changing experience abroad.

Traveling to Spain to work primarily with North African Muslim refugees, Jake witnessed the weight and spiritual darkness present in the lives of those he served. The Lord used this heaviness to invite Jake into long-term missions.

With his eyes locked on becoming a long-term missionary in Spain with WGM, Jake completed his education and began support-raising. In the midst of this process, Jake often felt a sense of uneasiness. So, when the door abruptly shut on his plans to go to Spain, Jake experienced a tension between grief and peace.

Many missionaries undergo experiences much like Jake’s. Their ministry area suddenly closes, or they’re forced to leave the place they once felt called to. Yet Jake remained attentive to how God might be changing his trajectory. Eventually, in January 2024, he found himself in a meeting with his leader at WGM where he was asked what his dream on the mission field was.

“Coffee shop ministry” was Jake’s answer.

He saw the possibility of meeting, connecting, and forming relationships with all kinds of people in this environment.

Much to Jake’s surprise, WGM had missionaries serving in Hungary who were intending to open a coffee shop in the near future for this exact purpose. After multiple conversations over a few short days, Jake was invited to serve in Hungary for one year. Once again, Jake obeyed the Lord by taking the next clear step that emerged before him.

Jake in front of the Hungarian Parliament building in Budapest

But again, God’s plan seemed to shift. When the intended coffee shop plans fell through, Jake found himself in Hungary, talking with the manager of Selah, a coffee shop that belongs to another missions organization. While Jake sensed God was closing the door to long-term coffee ministry, he found God was making an opening for him to be involved in coffee ministry while studying language.

While working at Selah, Jake has begun to see the same spiritual darkness he once sensed in Spain. However, in Hungary, Jake says that weight feels ten times heavier. Jake sees the need for God in the people he interacts with daily.

The coffee shop hosts an event on Friday nights called “Night of Life” where Jake has been able to meet people of all different backgrounds, specifically university students, and help invite them into a Christian atmosphere with a desire to build relationships with them.

Jake has been dedicating much of his current focus to language learning, as this will allow him to gain further trust and depth in the relationships he’s forming. He’s experienced much encouragement from the people of Hungary as they understand how hard the language is to learn. And there is a common ground between them as he seeks to learn Hungarian and they desire to learn English. This small step continues to help Jake build trust with those the Holy Spirit puts in his path.

Overlooking the Hungarian city of Normafa

Jake’s journey to Hungary has revealed a pattern of God nudging Jake in a different direction than he planned, and Jake faithfully obeying. He has learned that faith requires listening to God’s voice and saying yes when urged to act. Since this is a lesson that Jake is still in the process of learning, it’s difficult for him to fully see what God is going to do through him. Yet, Jake is learning humility and what it means to submit to God’s plans for his life, stepping into the uncomfortable when it is where God’s invitation is leading him. Even as he has stepped through the open door at Selah coffee house, God has used this to show him the need for university ministry in Hungary. 

In these moments, Jake remembers how God has always provided in the past. Throughout his life, God has been steadfast, and therefore won’t forget him or let him down now. Jake may find himself in his language classes, on the bus, or at the coffee shop in his day-to-day rhythms, but it is in answering God’s call to be a witness of the Good News of the Gospel that Jake senses his purpose, and he’s willing to trust the Lord with that calling and follow wherever He may lead next.

ACTION STEPS

PRAY: Is God nudging you, like Jake, to a certain place and people group? If so, take time to pray today, asking God to give you the courage to take the next step in responding to his nudge.

GO: As you discern God’s will, take a look at our opportunities map to see the many ways you can live out God’s calling on your life around the world!

Missionary Bio: Jake Routzahn is a missionary serving in Hungary. Jake attended Ohio Christian University and served in Spain for several months prior to serving in Hungary.