Five Year Anniversary
I love a good trip down memory lane! Last month A New Life Herbs Coffee & Tea Cafe celebrated its 5 year anniversary! I'll never forget opening our doors for the very first time during Cotton Festival. Prior to opening, I sought a lot of counsel; everyone loved my idea but no one thought it would ever make it in Somerville TN....but God had a plan. It didn't matter that I was broke and the single mom of two teenage girls. It didn't matter that I am a terrible business owner (or so I was told) or that none of us knew what we were doing nor what we were in for! My starting staff consisted of myself, a handful of children, and my good friend Diana and most of the work was volunteer. People from the community volunteered and helped me from day one. Honestly, I can't take any credit because it was really just a huge miracle from God. This little shop still stands because of God. It has fed many people, provided a place of peace and hope for many people, guided many people to getting on their feet, led many people to follow the Lord, and has provided freedom in one's own healthcare and healing to many people.
We opened our doors in September of 2019 and COVID hit in the early spring of 2020. God saw us through yet again! In fact, God used COVID to bring many people into better health and wellness and He used our little shop to do so! Our Anti-Virus, Immunity Boost, and Respiratory & Cough formula became extremely popular! It was also in 2020 that I married the most amazing man I've ever known. A man I had met right down the road as I ministered in the projects. He was searching for peace and he found it in my shop, so he came everyday. Many people came everyday just to sit in a peaceful place and escape the chaos of the streets. This man, however, probably got more than he bargained for. The Lord so clearly knit our hearts together against all odds and against many peoples opinions and desires for my life. On November 27, 2020, Geo Giles and I were married and two years later the Lord blessed us with a son! So the journey continues!
Over the last year we have made some pretty dramatic changes! Starting with the desire to go farm to table. We began to raise out our own free range chickens for meat and eggs and to raise out our own forest raised pigs. Our produce comes from local farmers as much as possible. Our deli meat and bread comes from our local Mennonite bakery, Backermann's Country Market. We now bake all of our pastry items and cookies fresh and have changed all of our syrups over to homemade, in-house syrups! We just recently changed our coffee supplier to Coffee Memphis, a local, family run, small business that is committed to providing the freshest coffee around. They deliver freshly roasted coffee to us weekly!
On the herb side of things, we teach herb classes every Wednesday and do herb walks monthly. There is a fee for these classes but we do not turn anyone away that has a desire to learn regardless of their ability to pay. We have also started a few night and Saturday classes a month for those that work full time. In addition to our herb classes, we also host chair yoga weekly at no charge. We teach the Bible every Friday at 11 and then we teach it again at 4:30 to young girls! Over the last year we were able to open up our shop to a new church plant, Calvary Hope Fellowship, every Sunday and Thursday evening. We love opening our doors for others! Calvary Hope Fellowship has now moved to Whiteville and they are continuing to serve their community!
Wow! What a walk down memory lane! There is so much more in the making, join us, and stay tuned!