Deep Grief, Deeper Joy
J & MELANIE McWHORTERIn College Station, Texas, J and Melanie McWhorter started working at a local coffee shop. Excellence and hospitality were the heartbeat of its day-to-day operations.
“There was so much diversity and a heart for loving people,” said Melanie. “Vlad had a vibrancy for life, culture, community, and coffee. We learned from having a space where everyone felt welcome.”
J and Melanie finished college, were married, and moved to North Texas in hopes of pursuing work in their individual areas of education. Melanie started coaching and J got into construction.
“J has a mind for the science of building furniture or designing—he just has this insane talent. And I have this passion for dynamics—cultural, community, and team dynamics. So I think we just knew that the Lord was going to use that. We became prayerful in that from really early on in our marriage.”
There were dreams and hopes for the future, but below the surface, Melanie was carrying a deep fear of failure. Back in college, she was living with her brother in a house their parents had invested in and restored. In her second year living there, Melanie left a candle burning one night, and the house caught fire. Within minutes, everything was engulfed.
“I remember before the firetruck arrived being on my knees watching everything going up in flames and being the most terrified and scared. Everything I had ever owned was in there.”
Melanie carried this deep-rooted trauma for years. In 2011, Melanie began going to Steps at The Village and working through her fear.
“My Steps mentor, Carolyn Gallagher, and I just prayed through all of those fears and let the Lord come into those tender spaces,” said Melanie. “And then for J, Steps was huge too. He experienced freedom in that he could branch out and do something that was going to take some time, some energy, and some unknown.”
Through their community at TVC, Matt’s preaching, and the prayers of those walking with them through Steps, the McWhorters could lay down those fears and trust the Lord with the desires of their hearts—opening a coffee shop.
Edison Coffee Co. launched in Highland Village and then moved to a bigger location in Flower Mound, where it thrived. Melanie and J were seeing their vision come to life, and they felt God’s hand on this venture.
In 2019, a series of events rocked their stability: a car accident that damaged the front of their building, COVID-19 shutdowns, and hacked social media accounts.
“We lost our social media,” said Melanie, “which was our biggest thing at that time. It was just another way of the Lord saying, ‘Hey, you think having a certain amount of followers is what’s sustaining you? Well, I’m just going to blow your socks off and show you that you can still have a business without social media.’”
But then in 2022, Edison Coffee Co. caught fire.
“The shop was probably the most beautiful it ever had been right before the fire,” said Melanie. “And within a day it went from a picture of ultimate beauty to ultimate decay. But I have seen the Lord make beauty from ashes so many times.”
To keep things going, J and Melanie began traveling to Amarillo to roast their coffee and driving back to package and ship out of their home. It was unsustainable, and they reached out to the church for help.
“The church was just like, ‘Hey, we got you. We have this space that no one is using right now. Come and package from there.’”
The McWhorters feel that what the enemy meant for destruction, God has used to illuminate the beauty of His Church and the power of community.
“Now we have a roastery in Old Town Lewisville, right off of Main Street, and we’re starting to do events there,” said Melanie. “We’re hopeful for the future as far as what the Lord will do with our business, but we’re very much just resting, recovering, and being in awe of what we get to do. We love from a deeper well now. A deeper well that grief dug, but now we get to have deeper joy.”
In 2019, a series of events rocked their stability: a car accident that damaged the front of their building, COVID-19 shutdowns, and hacked social media accounts.
“We lost our social media,” said Melanie, “which was our biggest thing at that time. It was just another way of the Lord saying, ‘Hey, you think having a certain amount of followers is what’s sustaining you? Well, I’m just going to blow your socks off and show you that you can still have a business without social media.’”
But then in 2022, Edison Coffee Co. caught fire.
“The shop was probably the most beautiful it ever had been right before the fire,” said Melanie. “And within a day it went from a picture of ultimate beauty to ultimate decay. But I have seen the Lord make beauty from ashes so many times.”
To keep things going, J and Melanie began traveling to Amarillo to roast their coffee and driving back to package and ship out of their home. It was unsustainable, and they reached out to the church for help.
“The church was just like, ‘Hey, we got you. We have this space that no one is using right now. Come and package from there.’”
The McWhorters feel that what the enemy meant for destruction, God has used to illuminate the beauty of His Church and the power of community.
“Now we have a roastery in Old Town Lewisville, right off of Main Street, and we’re starting to do events there,” said Melanie. “We’re hopeful for the future as far as what the Lord will do with our business, but we’re very much just resting, recovering, and being in awe of what we get to do. We love from a deeper well now. A deeper well that grief dug, but now we get to have deeper joy.”
