Women’s lives as they follow Jesus often take unexpected twists and turns. This is a story from Cynthia Stemple’s journey, although everyone close to her affectionately calls her “Cymp.” It invites us to see how fruitful ministry can unfold in surprising and ordinary places, through coffee, patience, and a deep belief in people who are rebuilding their lives.
A transformative purpose
Cymp and her husband Scott have spent decades serving others, including many years overseas as missionaries in Ukraine. There, they walked closely with students and families as they explored faith, asked questions, and looked to God to redeem and restore broken areas of their hearts and lives. Many came to faith in the process.
What Cymp did not expect was that one of her most demanding seasons of ministry would take place not overseas, but behind a coffee counter in the small town of Xenia, Ohio. Her community asked her to establish a café. In the years which followed others invited her to create two more in their towns as well.
Each café has the same unique focus: to help women break free from addiction, and become emotionally, spiritually, and financially healthy people.
At first glance, Coffee Hub Ohio looks like other well-run cafés. The coffee is good. Regulars often greet one another by name. But stay a little longer and a deeper purpose becomes clear. Each café has the same unique focus: to help women break free from addiction, and become emotionally, spiritually, and financially healthy people.
Unexpected friendships
As the mission unfolds through each business, a picture of the Kingdom of God begins to emerge. A college student who was just hired is being trained by a woman in recovery. A professional from the courthouse stands in line next to someone who slept in a shelter the night before. People who would rarely share space are sitting at tables together, disagreeing, laughing, listening, and learning from one another.
“I’m not in the coffee business, I’m in the people business,” Cymp says. People matter to her and that value has shaped the culture and what people experience through these businesses. People who visit and work at these cafés have together built communities of encouragement and hope. Together trust is nurtured and there is a sense that we can all change. The work expanded because faithfulness to Christ tends to create room for more others.
Creating more options
Coffee Hub Ohio works alongside Hope Hub, a nonprofit that Cymp along with her manager Missy from the Xenia location at that time started. Hope Hub intentionally supports women coming out of addiction by providing a transformational home and additional services that improve their chances for recovery.
Within Hope Hub, Missy and the Hope Hub team created a non-profit apparel company called Print for Purpose. Through that company they create custom apparel designs while providing additional skill training. Every purchase supports Hope Hub’s transformational living program and fosters its long-term economic sustainability.
What began as an initial café in Xenia, Ohio has now expanded to three cafés in nearby communities, a residential option to support women, and this new non-profit apparel company.
Cymp and her team increase the likelihood of long-term recovery.
Each grows out of a heart to help women truly recover. Since many carry criminal records, they can often be turned away repeatedly by potential employers. By creating multiple pathways including employment, housing, and skill development, Cymp and her team increase the likelihood of long-term recovery.
God heals when people are put first
Working with women recovering from drug addiction can be challenging and heartbreaking. “It can be beautiful,” Cymp says. “And it can crash and burn.” She smiles as she says it, the kind of smile that suggests hard-won honesty rather than denial. Some women relapse. Some leave suddenly. Some need far more patience than at times feels reasonable.
For Cymp, the transition from overseas missions to running these businesses and Hope Hub was not a departure from faith, but an extension of it. “It looks totally different,” she says. “But it’s still about people.”
They offer... dignity, accountability, and space to begin again.
“It’s stability,” she explains. “It’s fear loosening its grip. It’s someone believing again that God will meet them where they are.” Coffee Hub Ohio and Hope Hub do not promise a dramatic transformation. They offer something quieter and harder: dignity, accountability, and space to begin again.
“These women start as someone you’re helping,” she reflects, “and then one day you realize they’re encouraging you just as much as you’re encouraging them.”
Understanding God more deeply
Cymp admitted that in the past at times she subconsciously viewed God as demanding and distant. Now, a verse hangs prominently in her office: “Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; therefore, he will rise up to show you compassion.” (Isaiah 30:18, NIV).
She now sees God primarily through the eyes of grace and love.
“That verse changed how I see God,” she says. “And how I see people.” She now sees God primarily through the eyes of grace and love. As she has watched what God has done in the hearts and lives of women in recovery, she realizes the profound shift and work he has done in her own heart.
Her faith has grown significantly through the work, and she finds that she is far more loving and accepting of others. She is less proud, more forgiving, understanding and gracious—like the one in whose name she serves.
Why the future is bright
Cymp does not believe her most meaningful years are behind her. “The best is yet to come,” she says, smiling. “Not because life gets easier, but because God keeps working.”
In these cafés and Hope Hub faith does not announce itself loudly. It shows up early for a shift, trains someone who might not stay, and chooses patience when efficiency might be easier.
A powerful belief that no one is beyond hope.
Often it tastes like good coffee, shared in a place where people are slowly learning again that they belong. And when these “next chances” truly exist, they often begin not with a sermon, but with a shared table and someone willing to say, “Let’s have coffee together.” In that simple invitation lies a powerful belief that no one is beyond hope.
Mary Lederleitner has a MA in Intercultural Studies from Wheaton College and a PhD in Educational Studies from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (TEDS). She has taught as an Adjunct Professor in the graduate programs at both institutions, and currently in the D.Min. Program at TEDS. Mary served for twenty years in a variety of global leadership roles with Wycliffe Global Alliance and SIL Global. She has authored books including Women in God’s Mission: Accepting the Invitation to Serve and Lead which won a book-of-the-year award from Christianity Today in the Missions / Global Church Category. Mary now serves as Associate Professor and Director of the Women’s Institute at William Carey International University.
Benjamin (Ben) Mudahera is a Guest Writer at the Women’s Institute at William Carey International University. Ben is a development practitioner and writer who is currently completing a Master of Arts in Development Studies, specializing in Global Women’s Empowerment. Ben has over 15 years of experience serving across humanitarian and development organizations in Rwanda. His experience spans education, refugee affairs, WASH, and community development, with a strong focus on supporting women, youth, and marginalized communities. Through his writing, Ben brings a people-centered, reflective, and faith-informed perspective, seeking to amplify stories of dignity, leadership, and transformation.
William Carey International University (WCIU) seeks to provide innovative distance education to enhance the effectiveness of scholar-practitioners as they serve with others to develop transformational solutions to the roots of human problems around the world.
