Kaesyn and Payton Green met at a Christian camp, got married, work together at Three Crowns Coffee, serve their church through music and ministry and share the goal of opening a mission-based coffee shop in Sweden. Photo by Ray Balogh.

By Ray Balogh
InkFreeNews

WARSAW — We all, in varying degrees, step to God’s grand choreography. And if life were a dance contest, Payton and Kaesyn Green could win a medal in the pairs competition.

The Warsaw newlyweds — they married March 8 — are joined at the hip and share a common spirit, working together at Three Crowns Coffee and planning the same career in ministry: opening a mission-centered coffee shop in Sweden.

They met in a kitchen at a Christian camp in Hartford City, each having taken the long way ‘round to get there.
Kaesyn was born in Terre Haute, graduated from high school in Bloomington, and was attending Southwestern University in Texas, earning her associate’s degree in religious studies, when she attended the camp.

Payton, also a Southwestern student with the same major, was born in Layton, Utah, a suburb of Salt Lake City. When Payton was 8 years old, his father got a job as a youth pastor in Indianapolis and in 2016 accepted the position of senior pastor of Abundant Life Assembly of God in Warsaw.

The camp where they met, Lake Placid Christian Conference Center, offered a free week of camp for any youth willing to spend a previous week washing dishes to prepay their way. By no coincidence, Payton and Kaesyn chose the same week in 2014 to work there.

“About one year later we started having feelings for each other,” said Payton and, as the saying goes, “the rest is history.”

For some time, the couple took turns on weekends visiting each other, each driving the 3 1/2 hours each way to and from southern Indiana to Warsaw.

Kaesyn moved to Warsaw in October 2020 to bridge the distance and started working full time at Three Crowns Coffee. “I made the call on a Sunday and got hired on Monday,” she said. Payton started working part time at the coffeehouse a week ago.

They are both finishing their associate degrees through long-distance learning from Southwestern University. She has one more class to complete her degree; he has two.

They arrived at the goal of ministry in Sweden independently, but their divine promptings meshed perfectly.

“Payton has wanted to go to Sweden since he was 8 years old. He has some Swedish in him,” said Kaesyn. “I’m all Irish, but I want to have a career as a barista, and coffee is a big part of Swedish culture. They are second in the world in coffee consumption per capita.”

She said they hope to establish the ministry in Sweden “within 10 years” after “we establish our family” and she is already “working on making business connections. That is the tricky part,” she said. “We have friends who do that in other places.”

The Greens forewent their honeymoon this year, but hope to travel to Seattle, America’s premier coffee mecca, on their one-year anniversary.

In the meantime, they serve his parents’ church as caring connections pastors, greeting visitors and starting prayer chains and delivering meals for church members who are in the hospital or homebound.

Payton also works in the church office, managing databases.

Payton enjoys calligraphy and said, “most of my free time is working.”

Kaesyn likes “thrifting” and runs a virtual thrift store, which, she said, “is a full-time job.” She also likes to paint “realism and surrealism,” take care of plants and bake.

He plays piano and she plays guitar, and it should come as no surprise by now they play together during worship at their church.