This business is not only the result of a passionate enthusiasm for fresh roasted coffee but also part of my testimony as a Christian.  My name is Simon Forth and if you would like to read my story, read on...

After about ten years living in Japan in the 1990s (I am originally from Australia), I wanted to have qualifications in Japanese and so left Japan and came to Sheffield University to study. While I was there, a short term job offer teaching Japanese became available at Stirling University and after passing the interview, arrived in Stirling in September 2001.   At the time I was teaching, I joined the rowing club and started going to the local Pentecostal church and as I found that I liked the life there, decided to stay on even after the job ended.

I had become a Christian in Sheffield three years before, and (to my amazement) I actually found that Jesus Christ was not only alive but loved me and was on my side! I wasn't easily convinced that God existed but I found that I could not explain the healing of deep seated pain that I had carried day by day for all of 25 years. I had tried counselling, hypnotherapy, Buddhism and other things but after only a few months of joining a Bible study class and trying to do things God's way, I found that deep inside me, the heavy load I'd been carrying was becoming lighter.  It had to be God, nothing else fitted. One of the most important things I learnt was that it was not observing religious rituals, such as sitting in church, that Jesus was interested in, but rather, He wanted to have a loving father/son relationship with me, Him and I together. It was not at all hard to do and our relationship grew stronger as the years passed.

I decided to respond to the call of Jesus that I give all of my life to Him. That is, instead of me making all the major decisions in my life, I let Him do it. As an analogy, it is like getting out of the driver’s seat and letting God drive. You can suggest ways to go to the driver but it is the driver that ultimately decides. With Him driving, there will be no more ‘dead ends’ in life when I would have go back and start again after a failure. He would be there to guide me though all of the hard times in life. At that time, I asked Jesus to be my Lord and saviour, to forgive all my sins. I then had the feeling of being intensely loved by God, I knew I was safe, I knew I was connected to God by an everlasting bond that would last through all the ages. This is what being born again meant. New life in Christ for all eternity. Interestingly, before I was born again, I was spiritually dead but I didn’t know it! After I was born again though, I sure knew that I had been spiritually dead before.

As time passed, Jesus continued his healing. Time after time, I have felt the love of God around me, a perfect peace, and a great protection against evil. Jesus said, 'Walk with me and work with me – watch how I do it.  Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.  I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you.  Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly". Matthew 11 (The Message Bible). I have learnt to love the unforced rhythms of grace.

One day, a few years later when I was walking along a beach, I repeated my vow to Jesus in saying “There is no reason why I cannot give you my whole life”. Immediately, I heard a voice reply but not with my ears, indeed, there was no one nearby. I heard it inside my head, it was a man’s voice, of no particular regional accent and it said, “No my son, none”. I knew it was the voice of Jesus and He called me His son because when I was born again, I became a child of God (Bible, John 1: 12-13).