Church hopes coffee house will change the lives of Ethiopians
P astor Renault Van Der Riet started a coffee shop, Axum, in Winter Garden to benefit an Ethiopian village of the same name. He hopes to expand the business to further benefit the village. All profits go to the village. ( George Skene, Orlando Sentinel / December 30 , 2013 ) On the walls of the Winter Garden coffee shop featuring peppermint bark latte and gingerbread whoopie pie are black-and-white photographs of an impoverished African city and its people. The city and the coffee shop share a name: Axum. Axum Coffee was started three years ago by Mosaic Community Church pastor Renaut van der Riet to improve the lives of the 60,000 residents in Axum, Ethiopia. "The heart of Mosaic is to make real redemptive change, locally and globally. The heart of Axum Coffee is the same thing," said van der Riet, 40, who was born in South Africa. The plan was for the coffee shop's profits to go to his Oakland-based church's missionary work in the African com