Northwest Yearly Meeting of Friends (Quakers)

Green Plow Coffeehouse, in Redmond, Oregon, is looking for a summer intern. Below is a letter from the ministry leaders, Pat and Mandy Schmidt, and a description of the opportunity.

As with most things in our life right now, this internship idea is a bit experimental. We anticipate it to reflect the individual’s strengths, talents and interests. We’d like to share a bit of our vision for this position and begin a conversation.

Some background: We have been involved with “experimental”/ house church/lifestyle/emergent (whatever the word of the moment might be) ministry for the past 14 years…. most of our married life. This latest adventure began with a desire to bring a sense of community to our little town of Redmond, Oregon, home for the last 10 years. Redmond was lacking a gathering place, and so the idea of a community coffeehouse was born. Our goals are to love on the people of Redmond, provide great coffee, and eventually provide a living for our family. We have all sorts of hopes and dreams of book clubs, simplicity groups, worship through art groups, to name a few ideas, but the logistics of running a start up business and a family take up almost all of our time. Northwest Yearly Meeting has helped us get established and we are an official “ministry point.”
During the summer, our kiddos (ages 11, 9, and 7) will be out of school. This means that Mandy has more hours that need to be spent at home and less hours available for the coffeehouse. We would love to have someone partner with us for the summer months.
Here’s where the internship idea comes in.

This is what we picture: The intern would receive room and board by living in community with our family. (He/she would have a separate bathroom and bedroom. We would share household chores, meals, and could practice some organic living skills like composting, gardening, bike commuting, etc.) The intern would learn valuable barista and management skills, providing 30-45 hours (approximate) of coffeehouse work a week. This work might also include special events, group hosting, and networking opportunities within the community. This part of the internship could be tailored to the interests of the intern. Other aspects of the internship would be: child care of the Schmidt kids when Mandy needs to work at the shop, and possibly some readings/ discussion/ research of alternative ministry ideas. Compensation would be $1800 + room and board. We would hope that the intern could start mid-late May and be available through August.

We are open to all aspects of interests: business, environment care, social justice/peace work, computers, ministry, education, art, etc. Let us know how you think you might fit in.

We will show preference to a potential intern with NWYM connections. We are looking forward to some “iron sharpening iron” time with someone of similar values. The applicant would need to be over 18 years of age.

Know too, that compared to most I-5 corridor towns and cities, Central Oregon can be a bit of a culture shock. Come with an open heart and a willingness to learn.

The rest of the process would look like this: Fill out an application, write a page on what you would hope to accomplish with this internship, pass a background check, visit and interview with us. Contact Pat for an application.

Peace, Pat, Mandy, Kjiersten, Micah and Juliana Schmidt
www.greenplowcoffee.com
www.redcupdesign.com
www.greenplowcoffee.blogspot.com
www.creatinggoodsoil.blogspot.com