The Rev. JongWook Hong currently serves as the Lead Pastor of Old South United Methodist Church in Reading, Massachusetts. Along with his pastoral duties, Hong is the founder of Journey Together, Inc., a non-profit organization. The organization is still in its infancy and trying to grow through several phases with big visions.
Phase one is to provide financial assistance to those in need of recovery counseling so that they can continue to receive it. Journey Together is now helping with the patient co-payments. The next step, Phase two, is to create a café in a local church building to support the ministry and mission of the local church and to use the profits to continue the ministry of Journey Together. In the final phase, Phase three, the goal is to create a program where the café in the church employs people who are willing to overcome addiction and rehabilitate, helping them reintegrate back into society.
Now in Phase two of their plan, Journey Together is very close to opening a café in a church. They are working with People's UMC in Newburyport, Massachusetts, to create a café and partner with them. Additionally, several other churches have expressed interest in café churches, but financial issues are under discussion.
Learn more by reading Hong's story, in his own words:
How it all started
About 10 years ago, I was serving at another church. The church was renting the church office and the worship space, which were located apart. Where the church office was located, there was a soup kitchen that was open 365 days a year, serving free meals to the homeless from 2-6 p.m. In the building we rented for the worship space, there were 26 different recovery meetings, including Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, and Gamblers Anonymous. I heard many stories from the pastor who served there, learned about the recovery ministry, and even attended a few open meetings.
I was praying and discerning about what ministries and missions were needed in the area I was serving at the time, and I would spend my mornings in the church office right after the early morning prayer. When I came to the church office after the morning prayer around 6:30 a.m., there was always a homeless man sleeping in front of the office door. I recognized him from the free meal program. At first, I was a little scared of him because he smelled of alcohol and weed, with red eyes, but after a while, I would wake him up in the morning and send him to a nearby homeless shelter. Eventually, we started to ask how each other was doing and joke around. One day, I joked with him about waking him up in the morning, but he said, “I don't need your pity, man. I need a job.” At first, we all laughed because it wasn't serious. But strangely, it haunted my memory.
After the Friday praise service in the worship building, I was locking the door to leave when a homeless woman tried to enter the church. She asked me if she could stay in the sanctuary for the night. Since we were renting the worship space, I couldn’t allow it, but offered to take her to a nearby shelter. But, she said she didn't want to go to a homeless shelter, so she'd take care of herself. I felt sorry for her, so I took her to a nearby restaurant and bought her dinner. While we talked, the homeless woman said, “I don't need your pity, man. I need a job.” She also asked if the church had a job for her. When I heard this again, “I don't need your pity, man. I need a job,” I felt like God spoke to me through this woman, and it stayed with me for a while. That’s what the world wanted the church to do in this day and age, therefore I chewed it over.
I asked myself, "What if we had a coffee shop in the church and provided a place for rehabilitation and re-entry for those who needed a job?" Rather than just bringing this idea to the congregation without any plan, I decided to do some research and attend a barista camp that year. I loved coffee, I was curious about it. To strike while the iron was hot, I took a vacation at the camp. There I met about 100 baristas and listened to their stories. I learned that many people use the barista jobs as a stepping stone for other jobs, and that basically it was an easy job to learn, an easy career path, but it didn’t pay well. Then I was certain that I could help people get out of addiction and get back into society as a first step and a stepping stone, so I decided to start the Journey Together ministry.
Ministry partners
This ministry started with a big vision, but it hasn't been easy for many reasons. For those moments, I've been blessed to have a lot of support from the pastors who serve on the board of directors. I've been able to establish a nonprofit organization and partner with local roasteries (where coffee beans are roasted and processed) to bring in coffee at wholesale prices and sell it at a profit, using that profit to help pay for rehabilitation counseling for people who are trying to overcome their addiction and get a job. We have a connection with The AdCare center and a counseling center run by Voice of America, therefore we can provide financial assistance (the co-payment, or the amount of money a patient pays for counseling that is not covered by insurance) to those with financial difficulties.
The members of my church heard about the vision and calling and helped a lot, some people ordered but did not actually accept coffee, therefore sending a certain amount of money to Journey Together every month. This financial support became very helpful. Since Journey Together is an organization that provides financial assistance to people who want to rehabilitate, financial support is the biggest need. Of course, our coffee ministry helps to supplement our finances, and 100% of the profits from coffee purchases go to this ministry.
Challenges for people transitioning back into society through rehabilitation
It's fairly difficult for people to quit an addiction, whether it's alcohol or drugs, and start over. Once they do, however, government insurance (Mass Health) covers almost 100% of the costs. But the problem is, once people get past that rehabilitation stage and get a job, they either lose their government insurance or they have to start paying all kinds of bills. When they've finally overcome their addiction, rehabilitated, and started walking on their own two feet, the cost of counseling becomes a huge burden. Even though it's necessary to continue counseling to overcome addiction, many recovering addicts skip counseling to save $100 to $200 each month. This is why Journey Together started this ministry, and why it wants to help patients pay for counseling, so that people can continue to thrive.
The future and vision of Journey Together
Where do I see this ministry in the next 10 years? I have a big, long-term vision for the ministry. It's not just about opening a coffee shop. It's about rehabilitating addicts and helping them reintegrate into society through rehabilitation and job training, and supporting the work of local churches. My vision is to create a coffee mission plantation in South America. I am praying and planning to partner with missionaries in South America to plant coffee farms, even small ones, to help local farmers financially and to create a more eco-friendly coffee and Biblical economic geography. Even if it is fair trade coffee, there is often a lot of middleman profit in interstate distribution. If we can cut out the middleman under a Christian spirit, buy coffee beans from coffee farms directly at a fairer price, sell good coffee here in the U.S. and use the profits to minister to people who are trying to break their addictions, that would be the best kind of capitalist ministry.
Personal stories from the ministry
Brewing and drinking a good cup of coffee requires a little patience. Over a good cup of coffee, we talk about our life and faith. Churches are a great place to provide that time and space.
My wife has been very patient with me as I began the Journey Together ministry. Even when I left the church and the ministry for a while to work and move into a small apartment, she supported me while working full-time.
I tried to start a coffee shop several times in the churches I served, but it didn't work out. When the pandemic broke out, the most supportive member of the church passed away suddenly, and there were many failures due to various problems that could not be solved. However, through perseverance and prayer, I realized that I should not dwell on these failures, but walk forward, slowly but surely. Therefore, I have been doing this ministry as much as I can, little by little.
It is important to walk together without giving up. That's why the name of our addiction rehabilitation ministry is Journey Together, because we are also walking with addicts in their lives. This is a journey that God walks with us. The journey is always about the process. While it's important to see where you get to and to see what the outcome is, it's also nice to see the flowers bloom, the trees grow, and the lives sprout along the way.
The Rev. CheonEui Oh is an ordained United Methodist minister who serves as the manager of Korean/Asian Leader Resources. He can be reached at coh@umcom.org.