Early Mornings: Continued

More 5AM's, Cups of Coffee, and Community

In January of this year I sent out the longest post I’ve made so far. It was the story of how the tradition of hosting Early Mornings came about.

The idea was simple:

Wake up early. But with friends.

Make the coffee and tea, open the door. Everyone finds a nook in the house.

A quiet room kitchen/living room, full of friends, at 5AM.

The last 30 minutes, ask, “how was your morning?” and give space to hear from each person.

I received a lot of positive feedback from the story, and it even got featured on an author’s collection called The Remarkable Ordinary.

It’s Growing!

One of the outcomes of the post has been messages from others saying they would want to open up their own homes to host Early Mornings.

They said it stirred in them the desire to create space for community through hospitality.

It’s really neat.

I have started receiving messages from people I’ve never met before, saying they are having 4:30AM coffee and scripture/journaling time in their houses for friends and family.

Two weeks ago, Emily, a friend of mine who came to Early Mornings in 2019, let me know she is now married, living in Ireland, and is beginning to invite others over in the morning in her home.

Another married couple said they’ve been hosting Early Mornings in their house for over a year.

And just yesterday at 7AM, my friend Kelly sent me this video from her house:

Other Updates from Early Mornings in our House

Well, they’re still really hard to wake up for. That hasn’t changed.

Our current crew is really fun. There’s about 25 of us.

We’ve had a lot of fun.

The Coffee Urn

For the first 7 years of Early Mornings, manning the coffee pot was a big task. The pot only made about 7 cups of coffee, so if there were 21+ people, plus refills… that needed a lot of attention throughout the morning.

This year, I told my wife, I think we should get one of those big coffee urns that they have at the buffets… what do you think?

She said, “uh let’s lets do it. You know, I told you that like 4 years ago.”

I thought I was so original and genius.

Get this: The day after we bought the $50 coffee urn, a friend of mine randomly venmo’d me $50. No context.

Bro do you hear from God?

We also have a big tea drinking crew right now. We are currently working through a big box of Tetley’s (200 bags) and a new favorite of mine, Ahmad Tea’s English Tea #1, which is a black tea with a light touch of bergamot oil (the flavor of earl grey tea, citrus). Everyone is loving that one.

Sometimes my friends will say, “this is the best coffee I’ve ever had!” And I smile and say “sweet!” While I hid my tin of folgers

The Early Morning Bus

A friend of mine got jumped on the way over to my house a few mornings. I heard her scream at 5:26 am and ran outside with a friend to find her walking alone and crying, with her bag (bible, wallet) stolen.

That was a hard day. She came over and we did our best to comfort her. We spent the day at government offices, filing reports.

Since then, I decided to offer a ride to anyone who didn’t live close enough to walk or didn’t feel safe to walk.

So the ‘early morning bus’ began.

I have to turn on the coffee urn 30 minutes before serving anyways, so… it worked out.

But honestly, I don’t mind it. Going for a drive wakes me up, and my ‘bus mates’ and I have bonded quite a bit.

The Day Strategy

We decided to go to 3x a week, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday.

Not Mondays, because it’s hard to wake up early after the weekend.

Tuesday and Wednesday, back to back. Doable.

Thursday, take a break.

Friday, well… the weekend is soon. So even if we are tired, more rest is coming soon.

Are you not exhausted?

Some people hear what I do and think it sounds exhausting. Or they feel the need to thank me for doing such a grand thing as hosting these mornings.

But I think there are some things that God gives us to steward that are just a perfect fit. None of the hardship feels too hard, nor something I have ever wanted to complain about.

If anything, it’s been one of my favorite parts of my life.

The moments of sitting in a quiet home full of young people doing the hard work of processing, journaling, searching the scriptures…

Offering a warm drink to someone, and a restful place to be and sit…

Sitting around on couches and rugs, listening to each person on how the morning went for them/what’s on their mind…

I miss it by the time daylight comes.

-Josh Caliguire