New Green Hills coffee shop uses money for missions

New Green Hills coffee shop uses money for missions

The Well, a coffee shop with a special mission, opened its doors this summer in Green Hills. This trendy new spot for students to lounge and study has a slight twist. It’s a non-profit organization geared toward ending poverty. The Well is tucked away on Richard Jones Road in Green Hills, just across from Trader Joe’s. The coffee house donates its proceeds to help create sustainable solutions for people without water and food across the world. Adjunct Bible Professor Rob Touchstone and five other men comprise the board of directors that essentially runs the booming new business. “It’s a way of addressing poverty in the world,” Touchstone said. “This is our effort to give back. “Our goal here is to be a non-profit missional coffee house where we’re giving away all of our profits to try and alleviate poverty by bringing sustainability to different parts of the world, mainly in Africa.” While it’s only been open for a little over a month, The Well has already completed one project to give back. Touchstone said the coffee shop’s proceeds bought a new washing machine for an infirmary–essentially a nursing home–in Jamaica. Touchstone said he was enrolled in Earl Lavender’s missions graduate course about five years ago when he was asked the question, “What would the church look like outside the walls of the church building?” He challenged his group of friends to tackle this question head on. Touchstone said his goals for The Well were to “take down the religious barriers that sometimes get put up by church buildings, stained glass and formal religion and to try and get in to the...

Lumination Newscast, Aug. 30, 2012

In the semester’s second installment of Lumination News, Clay Smith and Brynn Watkins are behind the news desk to update you about what’s happened on campus during the past week. Whitney Jarreld gives you the political low-down in a new segment, preparing you for the November presidential election. Crystal Davis shares what’s new in entertainment news, while Jeremy Keck brings you up to speed with Lipscomb sports and local football teams. Kelly Dean offers a look at the weather forecast. Videos feature a recap of the President’s Convocation; a look at Futuro, a Hispanic student organization; details about a Relay for Life event planned by Lipscomb students; tips about purchasing books on campus; a look at what students think about having Maggie Moo’s on campus Thursday nights; and a Nashville Spotlight on Hillsboro Village....

[Column] My journey back to life

I’m one of the not-so-young students here on campus, so I experience some things younger, normal-aged Lipscomb students might not – like losing your life, your meaning, your point of being here. I’m almost 25, a Lipscomb senior with an Associate of Science, and I’ll be receiving my Bachelor of Arts this fall. I’m what you call ‘extremely indecisive about life.’ After a lot of soul searching, I first decided I wanted to be a doctor. I had my heart set on being a pediatrician. I got through a few random courses at a small community college and then finished my Associates degree at another community college in Franklin. I came to Lipscomb still intending to pursue my pre-medical coursework. Then my world fell apart. At 23, my parents decided to divorce after 32 years of marriage. My father told me about it as we were sitting in the hospital while my mother was having surgery to remove a tumor the doctors thought was cancerous. It wasn’t, thank God. You would think, being an adult, the divorce wouldn’t hit me as hard as it would a child, but not only did it hit me – it knocked me over, beat me up and threw me back down. I had no idea how it would change me forever. The divorce consumed me. The whole process ended up being pretty nasty. I was pushed and pulled on both sides, as my parents started to treat me more like an equal than a daughter. I wasn’t shielded from any information or opinions. I ended up mediating their divorce and settlements just to get...

Friends with Kids presents unique style of parenting

You would think walking in to a Green Hills movie theater at 10:25 on a Sunday night that it would be empty. Not that night! It was full! Friends with Kids, the new movie with several members of the Bridesmaids cast, had minimal promotion in Nashville, but apparently it was a smash. Newcomer Jennifer Westfeldt and Jason Scott find themselves the only single people in a group of close-knit friends. The movie addresses that sensitive time of people’s lives when they make the transition between life without major responsibilities to life with families and kids and all that comes after. Maya Rudolph, Kristen Wiig, Jon Hamm and Chris O’Dowd round out the cast and provide most of the comic relief. Westfeldt and Scott play best friends who decide they want to have kids after their close friends have children and embrace married life. The movie addresses the good times and the rough times throughout the journey of Westfeldt and Scott having a child and raising it in a divorced-parent-like style. It gives some alternative views of how to raise a family in a non-traditional lifestyle. It’s not something most people are familiar with coming out of a Christian school, but it has become more and more the norm in the last couple of generations. This R-rated film includes some scenes with semi-censored sexual activities, which may be offensive to some people. There’s an abundance of foul language, not appropriate for a younger audience. I think all of these situations are intended to be funny and thought provoking; the director tries to produce a bigger picture–a romantic comedy wrapped up in the...