Last year, God opened the door for hope.market, including our coffee shop Lespwa Coffee Co,. to open a storefront in the Dominican Republic when Mission of Hope expanded there. As we prepared to open our doors, we started to look for Dominican staff to run our stores. We invited several local men and women to interview and hired a young man named Wander.
Wander grew up in Ascension, a community near our campus. Growing up was not easy for him. “My father never cared about being someone in my life, and my mother, at times, did not know how to manage,” said Wander. Inconsistency within his family also brought financial hardship. Without his father in the picture, Wander felt the need to help provide for his family financially. Getting a job in the Dominican Republic as a Haitian is very difficult, so when Wander was hired onto the hope.market team, he was overjoyed.
Wander entered into our Retail and Hospitality training program, high-spirited and ready to learn. From the beginning, he was taking huge initiative in his training: asking questions, offering new ideas, and always willing to be a team player. He was trained to work behind the coffee bar and learned customer service skills, point of sale skills, and barista hospitality skills. At the same time, he entered a discipleship-based work environment where we, as a staff team, collectively opened and studied the Bible. He would ask intentional questions, showing that his desire to know and understand the things of the Lord was growing deeper—to the point that he ended up giving His life to Jesus!
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