Jubilee Hall
Many years ago, Christina had a deep prophetic feeling that God was going to do something really special at the intersection of NE 122nd and Burnside. Before watching the video below, let’s hear how Christina describes the back story in her own words:
The dream of Jubilee started a couple decades time ago when I was a college student in Atlanta. I was part of an unconventional little church that met in a coffee shop that closed its doors for business and opened its doors to worship and to break bread together, particularly to the unhoused population. That sparked the idea of Jubilee and how to use something like a coffee shop, think outside the proverbial box, and use it to give back to serve and love others.
Fast forward about 15 years to Portland where I was talking to some friends from church and shared this dream that never went away. One of my friends suggested that the cafe could be used to train refugees and immigrants. That same friend sent me a real estate listing of a few places where Jubilee might be and one of the places that stood out to me was right on the corner of 122nd and Burnside. At the time it was an empty small pizza kitchen and an empty plot of land. So I prayer-walked in that area and could sense that something could happen here, but that this was not the right time and I wasn't going to do it alone.
Fast forward another few years. I was “coincidentally” helping organize a Faithful Friends event while, at the same time, my husband was at a refugee regional workshop (that also “coincidentally” current Faithful Friends staff member Tim organized). It was there that my husband first met Sam's amazing coffee and chai, then Sam himself. Turns out Sam not only had the same idea of having a cafe that trained refugees and immigrants, but also was several steps ahead in the dream and in talks with the new owners of the building at the exact location I prayer walked years ago (he also arguably makes the best chai in Portland!).
Several years, one global pandemic, and lots of waiting and trust later, we are humbled by God's faithfulness and thrilled to be open and to serve our neighbors near and far!
