About Us

MATTHEW ENGELHART started training in the being of abundance in 1984 and today he is skillful at being able to keep his attention on all there is to be grateful for. His presence inspires us to be present to the endless beauty and bounty of life. What he shares isn't positive thinking, it is about developing the ability to go beyond our own petty wants and desires to connect with the grandeur of all of life.

Although there is no solid evidence that his wealth is a result of his practice, he is willing to invest his assets into sharing this abundance practice with others around the world. He is a successful business man, loving husband, father of two and most importantly a man who celebrates and loves seeing others open up to receiving more than they could ever imagine.

TERCES ENGELHART'S presence is the gift of being present and listening for our most genuine Self to emerge. She grants acceptance and love to whomever she encounters as her commitment to living in Oneness. Her life lessons come from recovering from twenty years of an eating disorder and being a single parent of three children. She has been a dental hygienist, flight attendant, Mary Kay cosmetics executive, business owner, and eating disorder counselor. She is the "great woman" behind Matthew and the inspiration of Café Gratitude's menu and service. She has surrendered her life to the service of others intending to bring forth a world where, as she puts it, every baby is born into there is plenty for everyone.

TERCES WRITES: When I first met Matthew I noticed there was something different about him, especially when he was giving money to the homeless or treats and gifts to others. When I asked him what it was he responded, "I am being abundance."

I was clear whatever it was I wanted to learn more about it, for as a single parent I was always looking for tools I could pass on to my children so they would be better equipped for life than I was, I didn't want them to struggle in areas I had.

One day as Matthew was teaching me more about it, we had an insight to take on sharing this practice with others and thus began the Abounding River journey.

We were led to create the training as a board game so that it would be most appealing to others and could easily be incorporated into modern day lifestyles. We literally sat down with a blank canvas in front of us, a couple of pebbles and some small pieces of paper and took turns making up how we would move around the board and what we would do or what would happen when we landed somewhere.

Our friend and art director for The Abounding River, Julia Stege helped us to start planning the project and introduced us to Frank Riccio, an illustrator and painter from the East Coast. Once we had the basics of the game down, the four of us started working to develop all the illustrations from concept through completion. Frank drew and painted full time for a year and a half, brilliantly creating the enchanting images that today make up the Abounding River Game and adorn the walls at Café Gratitude.

The Abounding River Logbook and Workshops are the result of some business consulting we received early on to broaden the project. Once Matthew and I completely surrendered to following what we call "Spirit" we were more led through this process than directing it. The miracles seemed to occur daily and always the most brilliant of people entered our lives at just the right time.

In the midst of bringing the game forth we were visiting our organic farm in Maui when we read a book about raw foods and chose to try eating that way for a month. Although it was an adjustment to our diet, we loved the creativity in food preparation and near the end of our thirty-day commitment; we realized we felt so good we wanted to continue to eat living foods. The idea of Café Gratitude had been a part of our journey for a while but now we came to realize that the café would be serving live foods.

Thus began our exploration into the development and preparation of recipes that would offer people incredible and nutritious foods as well as a café environment in which they could gather, live and play The Abounding River Game. Today the game, logbook and our recipe book are available online on our website as well as in our cafés. Café Gratitude serves over 1500 people per day. We are completely blessed with the most wonderful and inspiring customers who thank us daily for what we are bringing forth in the world, and we are grateful for them!