Ashley Armijo and Taylor Krause were only high schoolers when they began to harness the power of the internet to share their faith.
Today, the two sisters and their mom, Ellen, have more than a quarter-of-a-million subscribers on their YouTube channel, “Coffee & Bible Time.”
In Part 1 of our new series “Creating for the Creator,” meet the family behind the faith-filled videos that have touched millions of lives.
Watch “Coffee & Bible Time” on their YouTube channel or connect with them on Instagram.
You can connect with us through email at gps@billygraham.org or on Billy Graham Radio on Facebook.
Ashley Armijo and Taylor Krause were only high schoolers when they began to harness the power of the internet to share their faith.
Today, the two sisters and their mom, Ellen, have more than a quarter-of-a-million subscribers on their YouTube channel, “Coffee & Bible Time.”
In Part 1 of our new series “Creating for the Creator,” meet the family behind the faith-filled videos that have touched millions of lives.
Watch “Coffee & Bible Time” on their YouTube channel or connect with them on Instagram.
You can connect with us through email at gps@billygraham.org or on Billy Graham Radio on Facebook.
Ashley Armijo:
00:00:00 We were having fun. We were not expecting anything grand to come from it, but I posted a video that was like how I created my prayer journal.
Jim Kirkland: Ashley Armijo [ar-MEE-ho] and her sister Taylor Krause posted videos on YouTube, just them talking about their relationship with Jesus. Taylor says they had no idea how far those videos would reach.
Taylor Krause:
00:00:22 There was a time when Ashley reached out to us on WhatsApp. She's in Colombia and she's saying, “Hey, someone in Colombia just recognized me from Coffee and Bible Time.” And we were like, “Are you kidding me?” I think that was one of the first moments where we looked at each other and we were like, okay, the Lord can really, really reach people all over with the Gospel, on just an online YouTube channel.
Jim: That channel is called Coffee and Bible Time, and it’s reaching millions of people all over the world. You are about to hear the story of the family who created it, as they kick off our new five-part series, “Creating for the Creator.” I’m Jim Kirkland.
Phil Fleischman: And I’m Phil Fleischman. This is GPS: God. People. Stories., an outreach of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. The women of Coffee and Bible Time use their YouTube channel to tell people all around the world about Jesus Christ. Billy Graham spoke about what he saw as the future of telling people about Jesus Christ, something that’s known as evangelism …
Billy Graham:
00:01:23 God has raised up an army of evangelists all over the world [applause] and I didn’t quite realize that because I’ve been asked at press conferences, “When you die, who’s gonna take your place?”
Phil: You’ll hear the answer to Billy Graham’s question in just a few minutes, but first, make sure you don’t miss any of the other episodes in this series. Be sure to subscribe to GPS wherever you listen to podcasts. Search for the full name, which is GPS: God. People. Stories.
Jim: We also want to let you know about a website that’s a great starting point if you have questions about Jesus Christ and what it means to follow Jesus Christ. Or, if you know someone who’s looking for hope—the hope that’s found only in Jesus Christ—have them go to this website, or you go to this website: FindPeaceWithGod.net. We’ll mention it again a little later in the episode, but to make note one more time, the website: FindPeaceWithGod.net.
MUSIC STARTS
Intro: GPS: God. People. Stories.
Ashley Armijo:
00:02:29 I'm Ashley, and I'm the older sister of Coffee and Bible Time.
Taylor Krause:
00:02:33 I'm Taylor, and I'm the younger sister of Coffee and Bible Time.
Ellen Krause:
00:02:37 And I'm Ellen, also known as Mentor Mama.
Jim: Ashley, Taylor, and their mom, Ellen, are the women behind the YouTube channel, Coffee and Bible Time.
Phil: But before hundreds of thousands of people knew their names, they were just a regular American family.
Taylor:
00:02:52 I'm Taylor, I'm the youngest of three siblings, and Ashley is my older sister, and we grew up in a Christian home, and that was a really big blessing.
Phil: The Krause family is from the Chicago area. Taylor and Ashley’s dad, Douglas, and their older brother, Andrew, are usually behind the scenes. The sisters and their mom are in front of the camera.
Taylor:
00:03:13 So, my mom is a really big mentor for me, that's why we call her Mentor Mama [laugh]. But, um, really, life was pretty beautifully ordinary, and we grew up in a local church.
Jim: It was when she was in elementary school that Taylor invited Jesus into her life and made her family’s faith her own. Her older sister, Ashley, also began her faith journey in elementary school, and then got even more serious about it in middle school.
Ashley:
00:03:43 We saw our parents living out their faith. And it wasn't until personally I picked up my own Bible and started reading it for myself. And when I started to have a desire for God’s Word that it changed from just walking in my—“Oh, my parents are Christians,” to, “OK, this is my own faith now and I believe in Jesus personally as my God and my Savior.” And, then as I just started diving into Scripture, it started changing my life.
Jim: Just like their children, Ellen and Douglas Krause had a moment of decision when they personally chose to accept Christ.
Ellen:
00:04:16 It wasn't until our son was going to be starting kindergarten and we were like, you know what? We should be taking him to church. Like, that's what we did growing up. We should take him to church. And there was a family in our neighborhood that we saw at the park and they were like, “Hey, do you need a church?” And long story short, they ended up becoming great friends. We went to the church. My husband and I both accepted Christ, were baptized, and we just both started getting involved in church there.
Phil: A key influence for Ellen was a church group called MOMS. That stands for “Making Our Mothering Significant.”
Ellen:
00:04:56 And it was really there that I got mentored and poured into, and we did two Bible studies every year, and it was incredible. That's how God has then, uh, you know, used me in that role to sort of be it to them.
Phil: Ellen has a master’s degree in marketing and years of experience working in corporate America—that background has been helpful in growing Coffee and Bible Time’s online reach.
Jim: But long before their YouTube videos started racking up the views, the sisters had ventured into online content creation that began with the creation of an app—and a big disappointment.
Taylor:
00:05:34 I would say the first time that I really started seeing the power of social media and just technology in general was probably actually in middle school when my school integrated iPads into our learning system, which was pretty, I would say, unusual at the time. And so that started becoming each of our own individual like computers and learning systems. And everyone was really getting into apps at the time. Like, oh, there's so many fun apps that you can download. And me and my mom and my sister had a very entrepreneurial spirit. And so, we were like, you know what? We can make our own app. Why don't we try?
Jim: So, they reached out to a tech startup that helped them create a social media photo-sharing app from scratch. At that point, says Taylor, they weren’t focusing solely on Christian content.
Taylor:
00:06:24 We didn't have a lot of funding [laugh]. And, um, we were inviting God into this whole process of, “Lord, if this is Your will, would You let this succeed?” And throughout the whole process, it was green light after green light after green light. And eventually we get to the point where our app is on the app store, it's ready to download, and then the trials came.
Phil: One of the biggest trials was their mom getting sick with a rare autoimmune disease.
Taylor:
00:06:53 People didn't really know a lot about it, and she was really sick for a time, and it was scary for our family because obviously Ashley and I—we rely on our parents for everything, and to see her so sick, it was really hard.
Phil: In addition to Ellen’s illness, there were some other hurdles blocking the success of the new app.
Taylor:
00:07:11 Financially, we couldn't do it anymore. And so our app had died, if you will, and it was really hard. We had our community supporting us—Mm-hmm [Ashley: affirmative]—and it was almost like, man—“Lord, You brought us so far. Like, what happened? Why now? Why are You allowing this to happen when it felt like Your hand was so on it?”
Jim: Even though the app didn’t work out, the girls had learned a lot from the experience, especially about social media.
Taylor:
00:07:39 One of the beautiful things that came out of this app was, of course, we had training from this tech startup and they were telling us like, if you want your app to be successful, you really need to be present on all social media platforms, which includes YouTube. So, they really pushed us to create a YouTube channel for our app, which at the time our app wasn't a Christian app per se, and neither was our YouTube channel.
Jim: Ashley and Taylor had always enjoyed creating videos for fun, so a YouTube channel was a natural fit for them. They launched their channel, Ashley and Taylor, when Ashley was a senior and Taylor was a freshman in high school.
Phil: And although it wasn’t solely a Christ-focused channel at the time, as the girls grew in their faith, they couldn’t help but share what they were learning.
Ashley:
00:08:23 We were having fun. We were not expecting anything grand to come from it, but I posted a video that was like how I created my prayer journal.
Phil: Ashley posted that video in October of 2016.
Ashley:
00:08:37 I had just this binder prayer journal, and it was a fun little thing that I did to pray. And I was like, I'm just gonna share with people, see what happens. And I think at this point, we didn't even have 100 subscribers, but I posted this video and I would say for us, it boomed in a way that really surprised us, that people were craving Christian content—and at that time, there were not many Christian YouTubers. There wasn't a very big niche for Christian women on YouTube because we started primarily as for Christian young girls, cuz that's what we were: We were Christian young girls.
Jim: Ashley’s 13-and-a-half minute video about her prayer journal has garnered 67,000 views to date. And there was a lot more to come.
Ashley:
00:09:27 So, after I posted that prayer journal video, I was like, okay, people are really craving learning God’s Word, learning how to pray, all those things. So we just continued on that path and eventually I think we realized, “Lord, You have us here for a reason, let's just continue.” So we pivoted, we changed our name to Coffee and Bible Time instead of Ashley and Taylor, and from there we really focused on Christian content for young girls and women because we saw such a great need.
Jim: Coffee and Bible Time was taking off, but growth didn’t happen overnight.
Ashley:
00:10:06 So we just kept going little by little, and I remember probably six months, maybe a year into it, I kind of just gave it into God's hands cuz I went away on a six-month missions trip and I said, “Lord, I'm putting it in Your hands. I'm deleting all social media.” I kind of told Taylor, “Hey, can you run it for the next six months?”
Phil: Taylor did the bare minimum to keep the YouTube channel up and running while Ashley was away. But somehow, their following grew exponentially.
Taylor:
00:10:36 The growth when Ashley was gone—it was unnatural. [laugh] I think it was. I mean, at least for me, I'm three years younger than Ashley, and although I'm into technology, I'm not that into technology to the point where I know how to grow a YouTube channel—50,000 subscribers. But I mean, I remember there was a time when Ashley reached out to us on WhatsApp, she's in Columbia and she's saying, “Hey, someone in Columbia just recognized me from Coffee and Bible Time.” And we were like, “Are you kidding me?” Like, I think that was one of the first moments where we looked at each other and we were like, okay, the Lord can really, really reach people all over with the Gospel on just an online YouTube channel—and at the time we didn't have any ministry training. I mean, we were just sharing from the heart what the Lord has done in our lives. We didn't go to college for studying the Bible like we have now. But at the time, it was really a testimony for us to see how faithful God is in working with people who are just willing to be obedient.
Phil: When Ashley got back home, she began to rethink what missionary life might look like. Maybe instead of going overseas, she could focus on the thousands of people from all around the world who were finding Coffee and Bible Time on YouTube.
Ashley:
00:11:53 I took a leap of faith and I said, “Lord, maybe this is the missions calling You have had for me and I just didn't know that this is what it was going to be.” And so as a team, we got together and just kept going.
Jim: Eventually, Ellen joined her daughters, and they grew a following on all of the major social media outlets, like Facebook and Instagram.
Phil: Today, Coffee and Bible Time has almost 350,000 subscribers, and their videos have had more than 18 million views. Their most-viewed video is called “How I Study My Bible + In-Depth Bible Study!” It’s had 2 million views since it was posted three years ago.
Jim: But let’s look behind those numbers. Behind them are the stories of individual changed lives. Here’s just a handful of comments from one of the Bible study videos on Coffee and Bible Time’s YouTube channel:
Voice #1: I’m 16, and I grew up in a non-religious home. I’m so happy to start my journey to grow my relationship with God. You helped me understand how I should start, so thank you!
Voice #2: I and my 11-year-old daughter watched till the end. We are so inspired and we want to study the Bible. Pray for us that we remain fervent for the Word of God.
Voice #3: I love your channel. Nice to see that there are still young people like me who are more into God’s Word than the world, pleasures, and material things. Our generation needs this example.
MUSIC FADES
Ellen:
00:13:24 We do have so many people that reach out to us who—we have on our website, people can send us emails there, and people have sent us letters to our P.O. box. I think the ones that encourage us the most are they've accepted Christ. Like, “I never opened my Bible before,” or, “I didn't know that the Bible could be so transforming, God’s Word.” And so those—when we get one of those that's just so encouraging to us.
Jim: That encouragement helps Ellen, Ashley, and Taylor to keep pressing on and sharing Biblical truth—even if they can’t always see the impact of their work.
Ashley:
00:14:08 I think for me the biggest challenge of being a Christian influencer is that it's not the typical ministry. So I think a lot of people when they hear, oh, you're a missionary, or you're in Christian ministry, they think of something like a missionary or a pastor or serving at your church, and for us, we've kind of paved our own path and the Lord has paved a path for us of what ministry online looks like. And it's something that is very new. But as things have come along in history, like radio—Christians have gotten on radio to share God’s Word, or TV—like Billy Graham got on TV and he shared not only with the people that he was with in person, but TV made him spread even all the way to the Queen of England.
Phil: Since they started Coffee and Bible Time, Ashley and Taylor have grown from high school teenagers into young women. Taylor is in college now, and Ashley just got married last fall.
Jim: Along the way, says Taylor, they’ve had to learn how to work together and keep their most important relationships strong.
Taylor:
00:15:20 One of the first struggles I think that we ran into in trying to develop a YouTube channel was actually familial. It was us learning how to work together [laugh]. And I think that God really humbled us in the beginning because it's one thing trying to work together with a co-worker that you're not related to, but it's another thing to live, eat, sleep, do life together with the person that you're trying to work with on mission for the Gospel. And you see early on, even in the Bible in Genesis, that Satan likes to target family. And we saw that that was something that could have easily become a snare for us—was letting Satan have a grip over us. And there were so many times where Ashley and I would be literally sitting down, ready to film a video, and the enemy would come to attack, and we were just frustrated with each other, or we couldn't agree, and we had to sit and look at each other and remind ourselves that we are not fighting against flesh and blood, but this is a spiritual warfare.
Jim: The sisters learned to pray for God’s help together. It’s something Ashley says they continue to do as they carry out their mission to help others know and love the Lord.
Ashley:
00:16:42 And I think He's used Coffee and Bible Time not only to reach a lot of people in the world, but He's used it in our own lives to sharpen us, to humble us, to teach us, to grow us, and I'm just thankful that God uses broken people like us, and He still uses us for His good purposes, for His glory, and to reach people. So I think a lot of people who watch Coffee and Bible Time—we try to be real with people. We try to share: We are not perfect. We are struggling. We are trying to figure this out along with you guys. And so, I just think that we try to be very clear with people that we're just broken sinners just like you guys who are trying to learn to delight in God and His Word and to make it through this life so that at the end of the day God can say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
MUSIC TRANSITION
Phil: Ashley Armijo, Taylor Krause, and their mom Ellen Krause are the women behind Coffee and Bible Time. They try to keep Jesus Christ at the center of everything they do. And, they want others to experience the joy and peace they have found through their relationship with Jesus Christ.
Jim: As you’ve been listening, if this has been pressed upon your heart to learn more about Jesus, we have a place for you to go to do just that. Visit the website, FindPeaceWithGod.net. You can explore the Christian faith, what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ, and there’s trained volunteers ready to talk and pray with you anytime, 24/7. That’s FindPeaceWithGod.net.
Phil: You’re about to hear a quick word from Billy Graham. And then we’re going to get a peek at next week’s episode.
Voice-over: You’re listening to GPS: God. People. Stories. A podcast production of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
Billy Graham:
00:18:35 Brothers and sisters, we have a lot to do and so little time to do it.
Voice-over: Billy Graham …
Billy Graham:
00:18:43 Paul said, “I’m compelled to preach, woe is me if I do not preach the Gospel.” Jeremiah said, “His Word is in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones.” Do you sense this burning within your bones? God has raised up an army of evangelists all over the world [applause] and I didn’t quite realize that because I’ve been asked at press conferences, “When you die, who’s gonna take your place?” You, and you’ll do greater things than I ever thought of doing because you’re going to have new electronic things at your fingertips to reach the world that we never dreamed about. Hallelujah. Let’s be in one accord and go out to proclaim the Gospel [applause].
Phil: If you’re not familiar with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, let me tell you: It was founded by Billy Graham in 1950 to share the hope of Jesus Christ all around the world. And that’s what BGEA has been doing for the last 73 years. One of the newest ministries is a 24-hour prayer line, which began in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic had so many people feeling isolated and alone.
Jim: Since then, more than 1 million people have called the prayer line, at all hours of the day and night. So whenever you have a prayer request, just know one of our volunteers is waiting to hear from you. You can find them at: 855-255-PRAY. That’s 855-255-7729. 855-255-7729.
Phil: On this episode of GPS, you’ve been hearing from the women behind Coffee and Bible Time in the first episode of our new series, “Creating for the Creator.” Next week in episode number two, you’ll hear the story of Kimberli Esther. She’s a former New York City fashion designer who now paints to share the hope of Jesus Christ.
Kimberli Esther:
00:20:41 We're creating art to draw people to the Lord, or draw people to the Scriptures, or draw people to a place where they can explore the Scriptures or can see the Lord more.
Phil: The best way to make sure you don’t miss next week’s episode—or any future episodes for that matter—is by subscribing to GPS wherever you listen to podcasts. Be sure to use the full name when you search for us. It is GPS: God. People. Stories. And, if you’d like to check out more from Ashley, Taylor, and Ellen, just search for Coffee and Bible Time on YouTube and Instagram. We’ll also provide links in the show notes. I’m Phil Fleischman.
Jim: And I’m Jim Kirkland. This is GPS. God. People. Stories. It’s an outreach of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association—Always Good News.
CLOSING MUSIC
# # #