By Maria Ignas (BA 2025)
For Grace alumni Michael Beard and Julie Schumacher, to express God’s image is to honor the vocation He’s placed on their lives, and they’d tell you it’s even sweeter when you can empower others to do the same.
Michael and Julie own and run Simple Coffee in Hanoi, Vietnam, a coffee shop that’s become a community hub. Connected with their coffee shop is Imago Work, their vocational program for neurodiverse young adults, of which Michael’s wife, Michelle, is the director. The organization provides training in social skills, life skills, and vocational skills, then assists with job placement through a network of Vietnamese businesses.
Before they dreamed of venturing to Vietnam, Michael and Julie were prepared by Grace to conduct international business biblically.
For example, Julie’s communication and psychology degree at Grace taught her to work in graphic design and communications, as well as to cultivate relationships with people. Michael, who earned Grace’s master’s in intercultural studies, learned what it means to practice faith outside of a classroom or church service.
“In intercultural studies, you have to take your theology and put it into practice and contextualize it,” said Michael. “As soon as you step outside of your own context, things are not as nice and neatly packaged as they are in seminary.”
Setting Up Operations
The seedling of Michael and Julie’s operations began in 2013, when Michael visited Jason Weimer, a longtime friend and fellow Grace grad, in Bangkok, Thailand. Jason ran a coffee shop called Simple Coffee, which brings locally sourced specialty coffee to the Bangkok community.
“Simple Coffee Thailand was started out of the need to bring locally-sourced specialty coffee to the broader community,” said Jason. “Our business model focused on the four bottom lines of social, environmental, spiritual, and financial.”
Michael and his wife, Michelle, have lived in Asia for the last 25 years, previously working on business projects and development. When the couple felt led by God to move elsewhere in Asia, they decided Vietnam was the best fit. Michael asked Jason if he was interested in setting up operations in Vietnam. He was.
“I was very encouraged and thrilled to expand,” said Jason. “Especially to Vietnam, which is the world’s second leading coffee supplier. Instead of investing in a physical retail location, we started with a wholesale model. Then, when we had the capital, we opened a Hanoi branch.”
Michael and Michelle moved to Vietnam and taught for a few years to become acclimated to the culture. In 2016, Michael reached out to Julie, who attended his home church of Grace Long Beach in Long Beach, California, and had experience in international retail, and asked her to help with the business.
She moved to Vietnam the following year, and Simple Coffee opened its doors in Hanoi, Vietnam, in August 2018. In the beginning, the coffee shop posed the same challenges as any new business.
“The first year of anything is just tumultuous because you don’t have any rhythms, you don’t know any patterns, you don’t have any idea how it’s going to go,” said Julie. “By God’s grace, we managed to stay open.”
Yet, while Michael and Julie were busy roasting beans and mixing drinks, an entirely different idea was beginning to germinate.
The catalyst was Michael’s son, Evan, who has Down Syndrome. He had a wonderful experience at an American vocational college for those with intellectual disabilities, and it inspired Michael and Julie to provide the same kind of support to those on the margins.
They began by hiring workers with disabilities, but they could only take one or two new hires at a time. So they brainstormed beyond the coffee shop.
Michelle proposed they create a vocational program in connection to the coffee shop. They could use the shop to train young adults in life, social, and vocational skills then connect with other businesses in Hanoi to find them work.
An idea worth exploring. The families developed an initial version of what would become Imago Work, and they released a pilot program in the summer of 2020. They officially launched the center in September 2020, with Michelle leading as director.
Yet when COVID hit, everything began shutting down. The virus threw a wrench into the companies’ operations, but Michael sees a practical advantage in opening during the pandemic.
“It was helpful for us because we didn’t have the ability to grow big quickly,” said Michael. “It gave us an opportunity to really focus on the quality of the program. We could work on developing curriculum, putting our policies in place, and making sure our job coaches were well-trained.”
Steady Success and Lifelong Lessons
Eventually, the city opened up again, and the shop and vocational center began to enjoy steady success. Sales were climbing at the coffee shop, and Imago Work’s team was serving a cohort of students.
By 2023, the organizations threatened to outgrow their facilities. So last year, Michael and Julie signed a lease on a bigger building in a different location. The expansion offered more space, more foot traffic, and longer operation hours.
The new building is also located in the heart of the city, which has allowed Michael and Julie to connect with the Vietnamese community in ways they couldn’t before. By now, Michael and Julie are seeing the fruit of their team’s investment in Imago Work.
“Some of our early students are working in jobs now and getting paid,” said Michael. “We have about seven students who are actually on work contracts with other companies.”
Imago Work has taught Michael and Julie as much as it’s taught these students. One young adult in particular, Huang, offered the two a permanent perspective shift in the center’s early days.
Huang, who is deaf, nonspeaking, and intellectually disabled, posed a challenge at first in finding a viable career path. Not wanting to overwhelm him, Michael and Julie initially assigned him basic tasks, but through his curiosity and enthusiasm, he showed both he was much more capable than what they had first assumed.
“It was a really good launching point for me to recognize my own prejudices and shortsightedness on what somebody who’s neurodivergent can contribute,” said Julie. “As we bring in people from Imago to work in the coffee shop, we’re seeing the same kinds of things happening, watching them grow and progress and show us what they’re capable of.”
Faithful Provision
Several factors, such as Michael and Julie’s inexperience as foreigners, have worked against them. Yet these are the areas in which God has most vividly displayed his providential power.
“The story is God showing up in the good things, hard things, and sucky things and providing what we need to do the thing He’s asked us to do,” said Michael.
Several times, their funds grew low, and they didn’t know how they’d pay their expenses. God came through every single time, often at the last minute.
Though they are not missionaries, Michael and Julie understand they have just as much ability to reflect God in a coffee shop as from behind a pulpit.
“I feel strongly that business is a viable way to be present and build God’s kingdom,” said Julie. “We’re modeling what it looks like to have a relationship with Christ through the way we treat each other, resolve conflicts, and do honest and upright business.”
And Imago’s Work was born out of the biblical charge to serve the overlooked and underserved, as well as the universal call for men and women to labor in their vocations.
“God created man in His image, then put him in the garden and said, ‘Go to work,’” said Michael. “The way we express our connection to God is by getting our hands dirty. That’s how we came up with the name Imago Work: We are God’s image, and He’s put us in these workplaces to show His image.”
Ultimately, as the two reflect on their experiences in Vietnam, the word that crops up the most often is “faithfulness.” For Michael and Julie, the shop and vocational center testify to a Father who calls, guides, and provides for His children.
“You have to be naive and a little bit crazy to go to a foreign country and start a business or social enterprise,” said Julie. “I think God, in His grace, works with your idealism and accomplishes what He wants to accomplish through you. Seeing the people He’s brought, our stellar staff, and everything we’ve done, it’s just God’s grace and faithfulness to His work.”
You were created for a vocation. At Grace, we exist to help you fulfill it. Whether you’re interested in ministry, communications, or behavioral science, we’re here to help you dive into whatever and wherever God’s called you to.
