Revolutionary Servant

Rev. Christie Melby-Gibbons ’09

Tricklebee Café

Everyone knows that the kitchen is the heart of the home and that meals are what bring us all together. “When neighbors gather around a table, we feel more connected,” says Rev. Christie Melby-Gibbons ’09. So, after graduating from Moravian Seminary, Christie developed a vision for joining “continual feasting and sacred encounters with the divine and neighbors.”

That vision developed into the Tricklebee Café—a play on the language of all revolutionary ventures: “The trick’ll be if you can get funding.” Christie, goes further: “the real trick’ll be freeing ourselves up to follow where God’s Spirit is already at work: in people’s hearts, around the table, and where love is genuine.”

The Tricklebee Café is located where fresh food is hard to get in a neighborhood often overlooked. It is a pay-what-you-can café, which allows neighbors who don’t have much money to pay only a little or to volunteer in exchange for their meal. Those who can pay more for a meal do pay more. It’s a pretty revolutionary idea, particularly in a neighborhood where the only affordable and accessible food is found wrapped in plastic at a corner store.

But don’t think Tricklebee Café is just a restaurant. It is so much more. It’s a place to gather as a community—to learn about oils of the Bible and how they were used in worship and healing, to work on creative projects, to gather for Agape meals that focus on forgiveness and belonging. Tricklebee is where you want to be.