When Jamie Sanchez launched The Drip Café to offer homeless people Biblical discipleship, skills and job opportunities needed to get off the streets, he never anticipated the spiritual attack that would war against the coffee shop’s presence.
The Drip Café opened on June 3, 2023, in Denver’s Art District on Santa Fe, a vibrant street where thousands attend a popular art walk held the first Friday of each month.
From day one, the protesters came—triggered by a doctrinal statement on the ministry’s website noting that God purposefully designed man and woman for one another and that homosexuality is a sin.
Members of the Denver Communists and Antifa, garbed in rainbows and shirts inscribed with “All hail Satan,” suffocated the café’s sidewalk. Some carried bullhorns, booing at customers attempting to enter. Consequently, would-be patrons scattered, afraid to confront the group.
The protesters spat on the windows and defaced them with profanity and words accusing Jamie of bigotry and of hating LGBTQ people. Windows were shattered overnight. When Jamie and the café workers attempted to converse with them, they ignored them or screamed in their faces.
By scaring off customers, the protesters believed they could achieve their goal—to drive the ministry from the city. Nearly two years after its opening, the Denver Communists still protest around the café during the street’s First Friday Art Walks, in which shops and restaurants along the street typically flourish with business. Screaming protesters continue to appear in numbers of 20 to 30 and chalk the café’s sidewalk with lies, but the ministry has stayed afloat, largely due to believers’ support.
Jamie, 35, says the spiritual opposition was clearly demonic.
“The spiritual side of it was so intense,” Jamie told Decision. “I’ve never felt anything like that before where I felt like the walls were closing in on me. All we knew to do was pray. It was very clear that they’re all being led by demons because they have it on their shirt. They’re not afraid to claim that they’re following Satan.”
The Drip Café is part of Recycle God’s Love, a ministry Jamie founded in 2012. Dedicated to serving Denver’s growing homeless community, the ministry spreads the hope of Christ while aiding people’s physical needs.
After the café staff discovered that the doctrinal statement on their website sparked the uproar, they realized the depth of the spiritual battle. Every day, Jamie fought spiritual lies that were seeking to discourage him, telling him he was alone. He found that one of his main sources of strength was prayer.
“If it wasn’t for the constant prayer of righteous men and women around me, there is no way I would’ve gotten through it,” he said. “I felt like they were going to do anything to eliminate me. I don’t think I’ve ever asked for that much prayer my whole life. It was a constant prayer, fasting, nonstop.”
The Christians in Jamie’s life were his prayer warriors, surrounding him and visiting the café to encourage him.
Jamie also found solace in spending time with the Lord on the café’s back patio.
“Jesus was always doing so much work for His Kingdom, and He would always escape away from everybody and go commune with the Father. The Father is the only One who can refuel me. There were times when I had to go be alone with God to continue to endure.”
Before the chaos started, the Lord used a series of events to cultivate Jamie’s compassion for the homeless community, and to prepare him to persevere in the midst of adversity.
When Jamie moved to Denver at 4 years old, he lived in a homeless shelter with his mother and three siblings for a short time. Since his childhood, his mother has stood as a godly example of helping the needy, even during seasons of lacking.
But it wasn’t until God transformed his heart at 21 that Jamie became devoted to loving others through serving as Christ’s hands and feet. He and his late wife, Carolyn, who married in 2012 as high school sweethearts, had encountered a season of financial difficulty and realized their need for Jesus’ work on the cross.
“God intervened and convicted us, and we changed our life around, and He showed us that other people were more important than ourselves.”
Jamie, Carolyn and Jamie’s sister Tristen then started a Bible study and came upon 1 John 4:10—“In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
Struck by the verse and how they might live it out, the three of them, along with a growing number of family members, neighbors and friends, prepared meals in their homes and went to the streets every Sunday to hand food to the homeless. Crowds of hungry people flocked to them. And the ministry Recycle God’s Love was born.
The work of Recycle God’s Love halted in 2017 when Carolyn was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. She passed away in February 2018, leaving Jamie and their two daughters, Jaycee, then 2, and Jalynn, who was 6.
That loss sent Jamie into the darkest season of his life and drove him to seek answers through Scripture.
“I definitely found Him during that time,” he said. “When I was reading through one of the Gospels, I came to the part where He was whipped, had a crown of thorns put on Him, and was brought to the cross and crucified. It clicked in my head that He knows what I feel, and He’s been through more than I am going through.”
That spring, after Carolyn’s passing, Jamie felt ready to serve again. He and Tristen returned to the same street, where they were once again surrounded by hungry people. Knowing Jamie and Carolyn for years, many said they had missed them and asked where Carolyn was. Jamie told them what had happened.
“The most miraculous thing happened. They started mourning for her and mourning with me. The next thing I know, I have homeless people praying for me as I’m feeding them. I’m out there thinking I’m going to go help, and next thing I know, they’re praying for me. It was an eye-opening experience of the calling God has put on my life for them. I made a commitment to God—I’m never going to ever forsake this calling ever again. I’m going to dig in.”
Since then, the ministry has expanded by partnering with churches. It now provides up to 300 homeless people with meals, IDs, Bibles, hygiene, clothing and winter supplies at their bimonthly events. Over 300 rotational volunteers have the opportunity to share the Gospel with them.
“There are people praying with them as they’re waiting for their burrito, picking out their clothes and as they’re giving them their haircuts,” Jamie said. “There’s prayer everywhere, ministry happening all throughout the event.”
The idea for The Drip Café emerged after Jamie became impassioned to disciple homeless people who were committed to getting off the streets. Café staff members now provide godly mentorship, community and prayer to participants as they teach them how to interview for jobs, manage money and build a resume.
After the café’s story of survival amid opposition became known on news platforms, believers across the world started praying for and donating to the ministry. In May 2024, Jamie married his current wife, Alena. Committed to serving the people around them, the couple seeks to approach life as a missionary family to the people of Denver.
Through the protests, Jamie and the staff, whose love for the LGBTQ community only grew, have discovered the meaning of loving their enemies and praying for those who persecute them and curse God, remembering that every believer was once an enemy of God, in bondage to sin.
“We have to pray through it, humble ourselves and remind ourselves that we were once an adversary to Christ at one point in our life as well, and that they need prayer.”
Inscribed on Jamie’s heart is the Bible verse written on the café wall—Ephesians 4:32: “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” ©2025 BGEA
Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version.
Photo: Bear Gutierrez / Genesis Photos /©2025 BGEA