Pictured: These women have been, or are currently, part of the Coffee Break leadership. Pictured are (seated from left) Faith De Kam, Carla Elgersma, Lila De Witt, Ashley Stoel, Thea Nykamp, (standing) Elaine Tinklenberg, Lorelei Schelhaas, and Priscilla Pater.

In 1970, members of a Christian Reformed church in a Chicago suburb were looking for a way to reach out to their community. There were not many preschool options available in that area, so they made a decision to try to fill that gap by starting a weekly program called Story Hour. Using crafts, songs, and Bible stories, they introduced young children to the Bible and the story of Jesus. Soon leaders realized that the parents also had a need, so they invited parents to learn about the same Bible their children were discovering. That was the beginning of Coffee Break, a weekly non-denominational Bible study. 

In Edgerton, Coffee Break begin in 1991, under the direction of Lila De Witt. Lila and her husband Jeff moved to Edgerton from Sioux Falls in 1988. She had been a member of a Sioux Falls Coffee Break for a few years and loved going. She heard that Pipestone had a group, so she drove to Pipestone with her children for Bible study and story hour. After a couple of years, there were three car-loads of women from Edgerton going to Pipestone. “It was time to start our own,” Lila recalls. She talked to her pastor, Rev. Brouwer, and the church approved of the idea. 

“I thought it would be so great to have all the churches together on this,” Lila said. At the first meeting, there were a lot of women she did not know. 

There were about 70 women in the group in its early days.  Women came from Edgerton, Chandler, and Leota.  The groups were made up of all ages. There could be 65-year-old women in the same small group as 23-year-olds.

The first year, the group chose to study the book of Revelation – the last and perhaps most difficult book of the Bible to study because of all the apocalyptic language. Lila laughs when she thinks about it – she is not sure why they chose to study such a difficult book the first year. The group has studied a different book each year, following the study guides put out by the national Coffee Break organization. 

Lila served as the director from 1991 to 1994.  In 1994, Lila was recruited by Minnesota West (formerly Pipestone Vo-tech), to teach in their nursing program. That meant she had to give up being the director of Coffee Break. However, she continued to lead one of the small groups. Her group met in the early morning before work – at 6:30 a.m. at Bethel CRC. She did that for many years.

When Lila stepped down as director, Faith De Kam and Carla Elgersma became co-directors. Carla recalls that in August 1994 she was asked to help direct the program. Faith De Kam asked her. She said no at first. But later Faith came up to her at the grocery store and said, “I was told you changed your mind and want to help with Coffee Break.” Carla, taken aback a little, asked, “Who told you that?” 

Faith replied, “God.” 

Carla said at the time she got a very odd sensation and went home. Every time she thought about it, she had that same feeling. When she asked her husband Dean about it, she had the same feeling. 

She called Faith the next day and told her she would be a director. 

In 1995, Pastor Tim Brown came to First CRC. His wife, Jean, became active in Coffee Break as well. “I had been involved in Coffee Break in our previous churches in Lucas and Dearborn, Mich., so I was asked by Faith De Kam to help in Edgerton,” Jean said. She and Pastor Brown are now retired in Pennsylvania. “My role was to be a resource for the directors and serve as one of the small group leaders,” she added.

Carla and Faith were the directors from 1994 to 2003. In the fall of 2003, Lorelei Schelhaas became the director. She held that position until 2016. 

Each season, leaders volunteer or they are asked to serve. The leaders meet each Wednesday morning for an hour before Coffee Break begins. They go over the lesson so they are prepared to lead the small groups. In the past, each leader also had an assistant leader who would lead the lesson discussion if they could not be there. 

Getting leaders could be difficult sometimes – many women do not feel like they have the skills to lead a Bible Study.  Many leaders testified to the fact that they didn’t feel equipped for the work before they took on that role, but the leadership meetings before Coffee Break were a huge help to them and very edifying in and of themselves. 

This year, they have four women signed up to be group leaders: Ashley Stoel, Lorelei Schelhaas, Nicole Vis, and Thea Nykamp. Thea also serves as the director. She took on that role in 2016 after Lorelei stepped down. This year there are also two women who have agreed to be substitutes if their group leader cannot be at a meeting.