Jamie Sanchez : We ended up opening the drip cafe in 2023. It seemed so easy for us to just get in there and open the coffee shop. The Denver Communists start posting up outside with signs that say, the Drip Cafe is anti gay.
They say they want to make sure that everyone know the owner's stance against homosexuality.
Jamie Sanchez : They don't deny that they're satanic. You can feel the demonic presence when they show up. I would see them just screaming, spitting on my window. We were seeing these guys five times a month. They were bent on shutting us down. Even though we're opening this cafe to provide jobs for homeless people, it was very discouraging. I'm Christian. Like, I can't change that. I'm not going to change that. So we're just going to have to fight through this. All God asks of you is faithfulness. Then conquer we must for our cause.
It is just and this be our
Jamie Sanchez : motto in God is our trust. We need desperately to have men and women of courage and discipline, for courage and discipline are contagious. My name is Jamie Sanchez. I am the owner and lead minister to Recycle God's love. I met my late wife Carolyn in high school. Me and Carolyn started to read the Bible more. And then we started our own little Bible study on Sundays. And we were like, well, next Sunday let's not just read. Let's go, like, act on this reading and let's go show people his love and give to people who are needy and stuff like that. After that, we had immediately realized there was like a huge need in Denver for the homeless population. And we were just so blown away of how many there were. We were like, well, we need to do more. So we like, made more sandwiches. We just knew that's what God wanted us to do. One day we're making the burritos for the homeless, and Carolyn, she goes in the bathroom and comes back out and she's crying. And I'm like, what's going on? She's like, well, I just coughed up blood. And we find out that it is a, ah, sort of cancer, that she had. She was in hospice and, it wasn't, you know, much longer that she passed away. I started drinking and even thoughts of like, should I even be here? You know, suicidal type of things. And it was definitely the enemy trying to sneak in and capitalize on my loss.
But.
Jamie Sanchez : But through that time, I never stopped seeking God. One morning he just like, put it on my heart of. Are you done with your tantrum? That's kind of what it felt like, like a father to a son, kind of like, are you done kicking and screaming? Like, you gotta go do stuff? And so he was like, you're not any good to anybody if you're just gonna sit in your room and cry all day and drink all night and, like, you're not any good to your kids. You're not any good to your family. And you're definitely not any good to the people I've called you to help out there who need help. We went out that Sunday and just, like, gave out burritos. And then they started asking about Carolyn, and I had to tell them, like, that she passed away. And, like, there were homeless people out there crying with me and mourning with me and praying with me. It was just crazy that I thought I was there to help them. And, like, they're out there blessing me. That was, like, a big turning point in my life to where I realized, like, we're all God's children. No matter where we're at in our life, we all have something to give each other.
Ed Vitagliano: My name is Ed Vitagliano, and I'm executive vice president at American Family Association. Death comes to all of us. All of us are going to, at some time or another, be impacted by it. But then the question is, what do we do after that? how do we respond? Grieving is certainly a part of the human experience and is a natural reaction to death. But then what? So whatever happens to us, whether it's the death of a loved one, or anything else, that's catastrophic, we, are eventually called to return to the walk that God has for us and be obedient and carry out the vision that God has given us.
Jamie Sanchez : So a couple years ago, God had put it on my heart to, you know, make the next step. What we had the vision to start is Project Revive. And Project Revive is pooling the most important resources into one program so that people can get from being on the street one day and making the decision, I'm sick of this life. I want to change my life. Like, I know God can pull me out. They go from there to being that person sitting next to you at church that you would never even know they're homeless. We want to give them all the tools in between. And so that starts with sobriety. That's housing. That is a real job. That is fellowship, connection and community. Last year, God had presented an opportunity for us to open up a coffee shop for Project Revive. We ended up opening the drip cafe in 2023, in June, on a first Friday which in Santa Fe is the Art Walk. on Santa Fe, street there, the Art Walk is where all the, art galleries open up, and they put all their art on the sidewalk, and, you know, a bunch of artists come out and try to sell stuff. super cool event. And so it's supposed to be the busiest day of the month, and so we are opening on that day. We're like, this is gonna be awesome. It seemed so easy for us to just get in there and open the coffee shop, and that's because God knew what was coming. Protesters gathered in Denver tonight outside a new coffee shop in the Santa Fe Arts District.
They say they want to make sure that everyone knows about the owner's stance against homosexuality.
Jamie Sanchez : The Denver Communists start posting up outside with signs that say, the Drip Cafe is anti gay. They've got their own table, They've got pamphlets, they've got signage, they've got pride flags. They were telling every single person that walked by our front door, don't go inside there. Don't go in there. They hate gay people. Or don't go in there. They're terrible people. just making up any lie to scare anybody from coming in. The front doors all the way down from, like, Santa Fe in 6th to Santa Fe in 13th just flooded with flyers of, ban the Drip Cafe. Don't go to the Drip Cafe. The Drip Cafe hates people. It was very discouraging. What had happened was on the Recycle God's Love website, we have our list of beliefs of what we believe in. One of those things is that we believe God created us man and woman, and that, you know, sex outside of marriage and homosexuality is a sin in God's eyes. Someone I don't know who, obviously, you know, the Enemy and his minions saw it somehow, and they decided to use that as a platform, knowing that this street is very heavily lgbtq. the enemy knew how to use that tool to say that we hate gay people, we discriminate against gay people. They were already saying before we opened, they were saying, we hire and fire gay people because they're gay. And I was like, we haven't even opened yet. How can we? We haven't even hired anybody. And so they were, like, just starting all these lies that we are, like, so hateful for some reason, even though we're opening this cafe to provide jobs for homeless people. My lawyer did, like, more research and found out who these groups were, and he was like, yeah, Ah, these guys are. They do this kind of stuff, and this isn't the first business that they try to shut down because they're Christian around this area. And I was like, okay, cool. So it's like, I guess that's okay. I'm Christian. Like, I can't change that. I'm not going to change that. So we're just going to have to fight through this. I decided day one, I was like, God, you put me here. And you wouldn't have made it so easy for me to get in here if you didn't want me to be here. So for the first few months, the Denver Communists showed up on first Friday, which is, supposed to be our busiest day of the month and turned into probably our slowest day of the month. Then they were coming every Saturday for the first few months, too. So we were seeing these guys five times a month. I would be like in the cafe and without even seeing them show up, I could feel like the darkness come in. And then I would be like, look outside. And they're showing up super demonic. Like, they don't deny that they're satanic. They have it on their shirts. They say, I hail Satan. Like, they're not afraid to share that. And like, you can feel the demonic presence when they show up. More attacks started going on, and then the Communists started doing a ton of fake reviews on Google. So we had like a 5 rating. It was like terrible. All like 1 star reviews. None of them were real, so we weren't getting any business because of that too. And so they're attacking us there. They're totally like, spamming us on Instagram and Facebook and, all kinds of stuff. And they're calling us on the phone and being like, you guys should die. You should just leave. We hate you. You're not welcome here in Denver. Like, you need to go away, like every day, all day. So eventually we just stopped answering the phone. They were just trying to hit us from all angles. Like, they literally were bent. And, they still are bent on shutting us down. I, got asked by an interviewer from an article saying, we heard and there's a picture of a Nazi inside your coffee shop. I was, I wouldn't know if a Nazi from Adam is in my coffee shop because they're all people that I'm serving. I don't ask them their sins when they walk in the door. You know, like, how are you doing today? What sin are you struggling with? You know, like, that's not how I do it. You know, we serve them and if an opportunity opens up, we bless them and pray for them or minister to them, right? But they asked me, well, they tried to kind of tie me up in a question. He was like, well, do you, If there was a guy who came in and he said he was Nazi, would you serve him? So what I did was I just let God do the speaking. And I told him, well, if I had the cure to a sickness and someone came in who was sick, would I deny them the medicine? That's all I said to him. And the interview guy was like, and he's not a Christian. He's like, that's a good answer. I was like, I guess Jesus said that. Like, that's the answer is if someone's sick. Like, obviously, I don't agree with what the Nazis did, right? So if someone is sick, I want to give them the gospel and give them that. That's the cure. I would look outside and I would see the hate in their eyes. I would see them just screaming, and they're spitting on my window and they're just chanting. And, like, just the rage and the hate. I pictured them doing that at the foot of the cross to Jesus. And I just remembered what he said when he was up there. Forgive them, Father. They know not what they do. And so I had to position my heart that way. I wouldn't be where I am if it wasn't someone praying for me and showing me your, love God. So how can I steward that and show these people your love? And so my prayer changed to knowing that it's not personal. It's not personal, even though my name is on the sign and it says Jamie is so and so. And Jamie does this and Jamie does that. It's not personal because really their hate is towards God.
Ed Vitagliano: The communists, they are engaged in spiritual warfare. They're being used as pawns. Sometimes these individuals know intellectually they intend to try to disrupt the work of the gospel. But what they don't understand is that the enemy has slipped into their lives, as we see in the NewSong Testament, the devil filling people's hearts with. With, impure motives and rebellious ideas. that being said, God often uses, I think, the work of demons, even if they're trying to hinder Christians in order to perfect their faith, to call them to a determination that they are going to serve God no matter what. So in the lives of Christians, they may find themselves, as Paul says, engaged in combat, it seems like, against human enemies. But they're also called to recognize who's behind that. And so Christians are called to love their enemies because we have the understanding that These people who are trying to hinder the work of the gospel are actually being used by demonic spirits. Paul says in second Timothy, chapter two, that these people are held captive, and we were held captive at one time. So with compassion for people who were as we were, we are called to love our enemies even as we steadfastly continue to do what God has called us to do, regardless of the blowback we get from the people around us.
Jamie Sanchez : going through that persecution and, like, the satanic, like, demonic, like, stuff going on was the second hardest thing I had ever been through, you know, second to losing my first wife. They're still showing up on first Fridays. Their numbers go up and down. it seems like it's the same main three people. And then they just kind of rotate out whatever minions they can trick that month to come, and then they see that it's not working, so they never come back. So eventually they're going to run out of people who want to show up with them. I would guess. But for me, we just don't pay attention anymore. So inside we just worship and we fellowship, we hang out, we do businesses as usual. And they're out there expending all their energy, and we're just inside fellowshipping, hanging out. And their main goal to shut us down isn't working. And we even have people who are telling us they'll make a donation every time they show up to make sure we get rent. So now we're at this point to where the church body is supporting us in such a way that no matter what these people do, like, we're gonna be supported and we're gonna continue to do our thing. We start getting people driving from, like, Castle Rock and Colorado Springs. And if you're not from Colorado, that's like an hour away, you know, to just come to our cafe in Denver. Then some other news outlets picked up our story, and then we're getting people praying for us from, like, out of state, people from out of country, like, emailing us like, hey, I'm from Germany and I'm, like, praying for you guys. I'm sorry about this persecution and sending us scriptures and, like, from Australia, like, all kinds of crazy places that no one would have even ever known this tiny little cafe in Denver existed if it wasn't for this persecution that has come upon us. And so God, like, flipped the persecution and turned it into a blessing. And now, we partner with Grace City Church in Denver, and we serve about 300 meals every other month. We're, handing out tons of clothes and shoes and hygiene. Ah, we're doing haircuts. There's live worship going on. There's like hand care and like manicure type stuff going on. There's the mobile DMV comes out and helps people get their IDs figured out. And most importantly, this space that Gray City Church allows us to partner with them and use. It allows the homeless to come in and sit down and it allows us to sit, sit with them and like, actually talk to them and get to know their story. And so it gives us that time to minister to them and pray for them and again, just know their name. I always tell people, if you don't know what to say to a homeless person, ask them what their name is, just do that. And you're going to change their whole day, maybe their whole life. Because their identity is being stripped from them as they become homeless and they're just being pulled into the rest of the homeless community. Community. This past event that we were just at, we had three people who were once being served are now volunteering and serving actually on the other side of table. And they're like, we don't want to help people. And so, like, just to see the transformation in people's lives just from, you know, being seen and loved and prayed for and like, that kind of thing actually makes a big difference. Just to see that impact has been huge.
Ed Vitagliano: It's an encouragement to the Christian to see faithfulness rewarded even in this life. Although I don't know Jamie personally, I love his story and I love it because Jamie is a young man who is called to do what he's doing. This isn't a job for him. It's clear he has a passion to try to alleviate the suffering of those around him, and he's called to do it. And it's as much of a ministry and a calling as someone called to preach, or teach God's word or minister to the sick. And when a person is called that way and when they answer that call with the faithfulness and fervency, that Jamie has demonstrated, they are willing to suffer, the slings and arrows that come with that and do not wither in their commitment.
Jamie Sanchez : This past month, we chose a candidate to start with Project Revive. He's super awesome. his name's Scott. He's going through the program now. And now God's like, showing us all that stuff that you've been through. Like, I wasn't ever gonna let it hurt what I have going, because this is our purpose.
Scott Robbins: My name's Scott Robbins, and I've been working here at the Drip Cafe for about two weeks.
Right?
At two weeks, I'm two weeks clean from a drug and alcohol problem that I've had for 40 years. And I feel like I'm that one person at this coffee shop that's given an opportunity now again to get things right. And that's my goal. And I praise the Lord that I have the opportunity to do that.
Jamie Sanchez : Obviously the enemy's gonna persecute us and try to distract us because Satan doesn't want homeless people to get out of homelessness. He wants them to be stuck there and hopeless and addicted. Like that's where he wants them. God doesn't want them there. And that's why God has really carried Project Revive through in the Drip Cafe through this. Because that's what God wants to happen is people for their lives to be revived, you know? And so now we're giving that opportunity to people who would have never had it. And we're right in the thick of it where Satan doesn't want us and God's showing us that you're going to help people, even in this dark place. It's been a crazy, crazy ride. but all I can say is just super grateful to God that he would die on the cross for someone like me who lived such a sinful, selfish life for so long, and that he would choose to reveal and take the veil away from my eyes that I can see the truth and see him and see that Jesus is the son of God and died on the cross and rose from the dead and he crushed the head of the serpent and death has no power over me anymore. And so just to know that, and to know that I can trust him and walk in boldness of, knowing he's got my back everywhere I go is just so powerful now because of all the things he's put me through and just super grateful for everything he has done and, is doing in my life.
