Today we’d like to introduce you to Andrea Smith.
Andrea, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
My husband Marcus and I moved to Cookeville, Tennessee 8 years ago along with our three youngest children. We moved here from Bangkok, Thailand, where we served as missionaries for 3 years. After going through a couple of years of healing and restoration for our family, we thought that we would go back to Thailand to start a House of Prayer and do missions work again there, but the Lord had other ideas.
Instead, He directed us to start a House of Prayer in Cookeville, Tennessee. I could not understand this because I knew there were already so many churches and ministries in Cookeville, so why would God want us to stay in Cookeville instead of go back to an unreached place like Thailand? But the Lord made it very clear to us that He was going to plant a House of Prayer in Cookeville, and replicate it in the nations. The nations still have our hearts and we love to travel in and out sharing the good news of our King Jesus.
With very little money or resources, we weren’t really sure how to even begin doing this. We began doing worship services in our home with our children, which then spread to our local church we were attending at the time. About 2 months later, someone introduced me to a local realtor in town and she wanted to hear our story and our dream for the House of Prayer in Cookeville. As we shared with her the dream God put in our hearts, she began to weep and said. “God told me 25 years ago there would be a House of Prayer here in Cookeville and I’ve been looking for it ever since. The Lord told me to start my own realty agency and I rented this big building that I didn’t need. Now I have this big space available and here’s the key to the other end of the building. You can start your ministry here.” We were amazed and overwhelmed at what the Lord was doing!
In November 2019, Restoration House began. Slowly people began to trickle in from across the region from all different churches, denominations, and various backgrounds. The Lord was bringing us together to pray during a time of deep wounding from the tornados that had hit our region. Then as Covid took a toll on the land, the Lord had established us to pray for our country and our families together.
About a year later, we found out there was a bigger building behind the little storefront we had been meeting in and we rented that space to have a bigger prayer room. About two weeks after we finished the new prayer room, we got a call from a local owner of a coffee shop in Sparta who said they had bought a new espresso machine and the Lord had told them to give their old espresso machine to us at Restoration House. We were amazed!
We knew the Lord had called us to have a coffee shop, but we had no idea how to do that. We had been in full time ministry for 20 years at that point but had never run a business before. The day before she called, our friend Paul had been in the prayer room spending time with God and he felt impressed that the Lord called that space the Red House. He couldn’t understand why because nothing in the room was red so he said, “Lord, I don’t understand, and the Lord put three words in his heart; Restoration. Equipping, and Discipleship. That is exactly what we do at Restoration House and Red House Coffee. Even more interesting was that when we went to pick up the espresso machine that they gave us, it was red!
Red House Coffee was built mostly by four women and a whole bunch of pallet wood. Then we looked around the state to find the best coffee beans we could find. We found them at Honest Coffee Roasters in Franklin, Tennessee. Their coffee beans are responsibly sourced from around the globe and meticulously roasted. They make a smooth, and delicious cup of coffee.
Red House coffee opened in March of 2021. Today we enjoy the peaceful and charming atmosphere of a space that once was a prayer room for a year. People often comment on how peaceful they feel when they are there. Many people make their way there each day to enjoy a latte or iced coffee and meet friends or get their work done.
Our baristas love to write encouraging words for people on their coffee cups. We’ve had many people share how deeply the encouragement has touched them. We are not just a coffee shop, but a place for people to gather, a place for Bible studies or small groups to meet. We love serving great coffee and watching people enjoy it, as well as enjoy each other.
In August of 2021, we started a third non-profit called Heart Garden Ministries. Heart Garden Ministries exists to help people who are struggling with past pain or trauma, or who feel stuck in areas they don’t know how to change. We are a prayer based ministry that lays a table for people to come and meet with God. As the One who made our hearts, He is the One who knows how to heal them. We have seen hundreds of people receive healing and freedom from deep pain of loss, abuse, and neglect. We have trained approximately 90 people from around our region and other states to do Heart Garden Ministries. We have a Heart Garden Hub in New England as well as Kampala, Uganda and soon in the Nation of the Republic of Congo.
We look forward to the future of continued expansion for Red House Coffee. We have dreams of expansion with a coffee truck as well as a Red House location in Livingston, TN where we are currently serving a church there called First Church Kaleo.
Restoration House is open to all who long to draw closer to God. The prayer room is open for prayer 24/7 in Cookeville, TN.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Our greatest struggle has been trusting God for finances since we are not a church where people brings their tithe or regular giving, but God has constantly taken care of us and led people to give as they have been blessed by the ministry.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
We have lived all around the country over the last 28 years of our marriage. We worked as children’s pastors, youth pastors, and my husband as a worship pastors for 15 years in churches in Florida, SC, California, and Ohio. We spent 5 years as missionaries where we served in Chiang Mai and Bangkok, Thailand before moving to Cookeville, TN. We loved living in Thailand. Our 4 youngest kids really loved it as well.
Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
God is always faithful. He is a good Father and we can trust Him. We have also learned to love people and the importance of building real and lasting relationships. It’s not always easy, but we don’t have to constantly agree with people in order to love them and do life together. So many times, especially in the church we are quick to walk away from each other because of hurt or differences of opinion. Yet Jesus commanded us to love each other so that the world would see Him through our love, The church hasn’t really done this well. But we’ve learned that as we let God heal our hearts, we can forgive others more easily who have hurt or offended us. Its so healing for our hearts as well, as forgiveness leads us to freedom.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Redhousecookeville.com
- Instagram: redhouse.coffee
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/heartgardenministries
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@heartgarden9189?si=8IeE8JnAmOTW1BqA
- Other: rhopc.org and heartgardenministries.org
