On Humboldt’s Main Street rests a little place that so many Union students know and love – The Coffee Shop.
When students, or anyone for that matter, find themselves there studying or chatting over a cup of coffee, they will often be greeted with a warm smile and an “Is there anything I can do for you?” by owner Tammy Causey as she makes her way around to greet every single guest in her shop. If you’ve been there before, you probably already knew that.
“Whenever I am there, she always comes to check on me, see if I need anything, and she remembers my name every single time,” said senior music major Lydia Shoemaker. “She is so kind. She definitely tries to make people feel valued and important.”
What I learned today is that Tammy is the embodiment of The Coffee Shop’s tagline, “Where Coffee and Warm Conversation Flow.” I asked her if she’d like to share with me about her story and how it led her to start The Coffee Shop. She took me back to when she was eight years old, the age she accepted Christ. She walked me through her life story, because one needs to know the whole of it to understand the purpose and vision of The Coffee Shop.
For the next 45 minutes, I sipped my hot vanilla latte and listened in awe as she warmly and effortlessly allowed her testimony of Christ’s faithfulness to flow.
Even as a young child, Tammy knew that her purpose was and still is to serve Christ and share the Gospel.
At one point, that meant serving in the international mission field. Several years after marrying “her guy,” Guy Causey, the two lived in Ghana to serve with the International Mission Board and work as House Parents. Nearing the end of their second term with the IMB, they knew that they were being called to a new form of ministry — not in Ghana, but in Tennessee.
“As God always does, He had a plan, and so beautifully orchestrated,” said Tammy. “Mail comes kind of late overseas, and in July of ‘95, we received mail from February with a Help Wanted ad for the Tennessee Baptist Children’s home.”
So Guy and Tammy, now with two children, packed up and flew from across the world back to Tennessee, 45 minutes away from home, where they served wholeheartedly for 18 months in a position that was extremely taxing both mentally and emotionally.
“We moved back to Humboldt and were asking, ‘Where are we going? What are we doing? Lord, have we failed You?’” Tammy said. “We knew that we had been called to missions — without a doubt — and we knew that we had been called to the Boys’ home.”
“In all honesty, it wasn’t until about four years ago that the Lord said, ‘You were called and you did serve, and you are continually being called, and you are continually serving,’” she said. “The ‘Real Life Missionary’ that I thought I gave up the title of is the role of every Christian – you don’t have to be under a paid entity to be that.”
In 2018, Guy and Tammy were working typical nine-to-five jobs, until they attended a missions conference at their church.
“It came time to choose which breakout session to attend, and I was like ‘hmm…’” Tammy looked down at my phone, which was recording our conversation. “I’m making weird faces,” she said for the record.
She decided to attend “Transformational Business,” not because she was in business or aspired to be in business, but solely because the guy leading it was from the IMB.
“The main thing I took away was that coffee shop connections lead to Jesus conversations,” she said. “That’s probably not how he said it, but that’s what I heard. I don’t even drink coffee.”
That night, she said to Guy, “Maybe we should open a coffee shop,” which he kind of chuckled at and dismissed.
For days following, she could not get the idea out of her mind. Eventually, she sat down with a sheet of paper and asked the Lord if this idea was from Him, and she asked that if it was, He would deliver the details to her.
She began to write out the whole plan — the name, the location, the model and the mission statement.
“Our mission: ‘A place where salvation and grace of Jesus Christ can be shared lovingly and warmly with coffee and conversation.’ God gave that all to me right there,” said Tammy.
The couple started prayer walking downtown while asking people about the idea of opening a coffee shop. Tammy met a man on the streets of Humboldt one night who had a building on Main Street for sale. Three days later, the Causeys bought it and began to make the details Tammy had written on that piece of paper come to life.
Tammy reflected on all the tears that this place has brought her – sad tears, joyful tears, confused tears and even tears this morning as a customer told her she looked beautiful and shared her morning devotional with her.
“It was just God’s wonderful confirmation that we are doing it,” she said as she took off her glasses so that she could wipe her tears.
“The schedules are hard, the bills are hard, the logistics are hard,” said Tammy. “But is serving the Lord worth it? One hundred percent yes.”
