How 'Manna from Heaven' Helped One Mother Fulfill Dream To Employ People with Disabilities at New Coffee Shop
As the opening of her dream coffee shop drew near, an Arizona mother said an encouraging message from a dear friend convinced her to keep moving forward even when she was ready to throw in the towel.
Karin York told The Western Journal earlier this year that she’d been dreaming of starting a business specifically catered toward hiring individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities since 2006. After a trip to Wilmington, North Carolina, to visit a coffee shop with a similar vision, she knew that a coffee shop of her own was the perfect place to start.
York’s dream was fueled by her passion and advocacy for her own son, Spencer, who has Down syndrome, and the other students she taught as a special education teacher.
Even though she was able to challenge her students in the classroom, she realized that many of them lost support after graduating from high school.
Her son Spencer was able to join a transition program that lets him be a part of daily devotions, worship and work in the afternoon.
Those kinds of resources, however, aren’t available to adults who may be high-functioning but have some kind of cognitive delay that can make working a job difficult without extra support. York calls them “gray-area kids.”
These are people who may not have any physical indicators of a delay like those with Down syndrome, but are still challenged in similar ways.
“They want purpose. They want to be a part of something. A lot of them are unfulfilled and lonely,” York told The Western Journal in March.
After noticing this need and praying about it extensively, York felt like the best way to help them would be through a new kind of business — one that not only provides a service to the public but also helps equip “gray-area” adults with necessary skills to find and maintain a job.
This past spring, she and her family dove headfirst into demolition and construction contracts hoping to open York’s dream business named after her son by the end of the year, despite the sacrifices and challenges that laid ahead.
Delayed construction projects and multiple failed inspections have pushed the opening date further and further back.
“It’s been far more challenging and overwhelming than I would’ve ever thought,” she told The Western Journal.
After being faced with a couple of large estimates, York said she began thinking it would be better to pause her dream, go back to teaching and try again when they had more money saved, and to her surprise, her husband even agreed.
When she told one of her friends from Young Life about her plans to go back to the classroom, however, she received an encouraging message that helped spur her on despite her discouragement.
“[My friend] thought about it for a second, she goes, ‘So you’re going to be like the Israelites? They complained that they didn’t have meat and were ready to go back and be enslaved in Egypt.’ She said, ‘You’re going to go back and be enslaved?’ And I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh,'” York recalled.
“She said, ‘I don’t think you’re going to get all the financing done in one big bundle. I think it’s going to be like manna — just a little bit of manna from heaven.'”
Her friend’s message, which pointed to Exodus 16, reminded York that God’s provision rarely comes in the way we expect it to.
That same day, another friend handed her check for $1,000 — and that’s only the beginning of the blessings York has seen since that conversation.
From friends helping the construction projects go more smoothly to overwhelming attendance at a T-shirt sale to random messages from people asking how they can pray, she believes she has seen manna come.
“A little here, a little there,” she said. “It’s just kind of been God math.”
York told The Western Journal each time she received one of those blessings, it reminded her that she was “on the right path” and encouraged her to keep pushing forward.
She hopes to officially open Spencer’s Place by the end of the year, but they still have inspections to go through and a few finishing touches.
To read more about Karin York, her son Spencer and the dream behind Spencer’s Place, you can read the original story by clicking here.
The Western Journal will be following Karin York’s journey as she works to open Spencer’s Place in Surprise, Arizona, so continue to check back for updates.
If you would like to support the coffee shop, consider visiting its GoFundMe account or following the Facebook page.
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