A Californian pastor is bringing a new way to teach the word of God to Ellwood City.
On Saturday, January 12, Chris Swales opened the doors of the new coffee shop The Badlands on Fifth Street near the underpass.
Swales is a California native who had been a pastor for The Badlands Ministry in California. The title of ‘The Badlands’ stems from where he grew up; just on the outskirts of the dry terrain desert.
“[The Badlands] is a ministry, the coffee and food are just there to help financially support what we want to do,” Swales said.
Swales and his wife Katie, moved to Pittsburgh after she had gotten a job at Pittsburgh Veterinary Specialty and Emergency Center in the North Hills. They wanted to be somewhere close to where she worked, but not living in the city. That’s when they thought of Ellwood City. Katie had grown up here, going to school at Lincoln High School.
The Badlands owner, Chris Swales
Swales claimed he wanted to find a place where people have seemed to have given up on. He wanted a small community feel. Swales commented on how amazed he was when he would go into a store and have a full on conversation with someone when back in California you’d hardly get a passing ‘how are you’ verbal engagement.
“[I wanted] to plant things where nothing was currently growing,” Swales said, regarding why he decided to create in Ellwood City.
The idea of The Badlands comes from his idea that when you feel like you’ve become “led astray from the path of Christ, it’s like becoming lost in the desert.”
Swales referenced his younger years to the time spent serving in Iraq to this feeling. He had been wounded in 2004 while serving, ironically on the highway outside Nineveh on the outskirts of Mosul in Iraq. He said that while he spent his life running, it was that moment when he knew that God was bringing him back to him.
He created The Badlands to be a place of guidance for those who don’t feel comfortable going to a cookie cutter church. He wants to educate people on the word of God, but in a more relaxed setting.
Since opening two weeks ago, people have come to him to just talk about life and everything else.
He also mentions that people who would usually go to the bar after work, come here. Swales says that this place has become an alternative for those who used places like a bar as an excuse not to go home only to be met with loneliness, or for those who are just plain bored.
Swales is hoping that later in the year, he can start offering free guitar and songwriting lessons to the younger crowd that has started to fill up the cozy location.
“The great thing about music is that it’s therapy, without the need of actually going to therapy,” Swales said.
The Badlands offers free meals on Fridays to anyone that comes in, as well as they hope to start an open mic night on Thursdays. Swales also hopes that he can begin to bring in more bands for live music nights. The shop is currently open from 2:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m., him saying that he wanted to stay open later in hopes of giving families and groups of friends something to do in the later hours of the days.
However, this shop is not a one-man job. Swales has received an immense amount of support from the local churches in Ellwood City as well as support from the people living here. Swales has stated The Badlands is a nonprofit 501c3 organization and any donations are tax deductible.
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