Wow! Where to start??
I will take you back to the birth...
Easter Sunday, driving to my parents after church was when the conversation began. We were talking a mile a minute about "how can we use what God has given us for His glory? What can we do with what we have, to make a difference in someone else's life?" Then I started thinking, what do we love to do? What are our hobbies?
About a year ago we started roasting our own coffee beans at home. (Thanks to my awesome Uncle for teaching us and for sharing your passion for coffee with us!!) We mostly just roasted for own coffee-drinking pleasure, and occasionally gave it as gifts. At Christmas time, we got a few orders and people seemed to enjoy it too! Of course, our parents were always our #1 fans and often asked for "Sangrey Coffee". Purely just a hobby, we started to like the coffee much better than the economy-size Folgers that previously graced our counter-top. I even started drinking it black, no cream OR splenda! Whaat? I am definitely your "girly creamer" coffee girl, but honestly started enjoying it so much for the true flavor that it is, as a fresh roast! (still keep my beloved "Italian Sweet Cream" for guests, and I am sorry if you have visited and I didn't have it in stock! Once we had guests and all I had to offer for his coffee was raw milk! Yikes! That's a 'whole' other story...lol)
Back to Easter Sunday drive...
What if we sold our coffee to make money for kids around the world who have soooo much less that we've been blessed with? (Earlier it hit me hard that America has 95% of the world's WEALTH. 95% of the money that exists in the entire world is right here in the US of A!)
"What about something like, 'coffee for kids' ?" I said to my husband. He was driving and looked over at me, dumbfounded.
"Are you serious? That is EXACTLY what was going through my head during the whole church service." It was in that minute that we both knew God was speaking clearly to both of us!
Over the next several weeks, our church challenged us to do several things to heighten our awareness of how others' really live. "Go at least 12 hrs with no source of water" - people really, truly have days like that. "Eat nothing but rice and beans for 3 meals/day for 5 days" - there are many that eat only rice and beans ONCE/day.
We viewed a clip on "dirt cookies". Dirt cookies? A contradiction of sorts, right? Yes. Made of dirt, dirty water, a bit of salt & shortening. Women in Haiti prepare these"cookies"and sell them for their only income. They give them to their kids to eat. ARE YOU SERIOUS? That little movie stirred something in me that just couldn't be settled until I did something about it.
Honestly, I wept and thanked my Savior for the incredible blessing of being born in little Lancaster County, Pa. I did nothing to deserve being born into my family (who I would be nothing without and PTL for daily!) And at the same time, these dear women in Haiti, stirring up bacteria-infested dirt sludge they call 'food' did nothing to deserve being born into those circumstances!
We felt the Lord continue to nudge us to do something bigger than ourselves. But how, Lord? Now, if you know me at all, you know that I sometimes I great ideas and get all excited about them, but then rarely follow through. Yikes, not something I am totally proud of.
Prov 3:28 If you can help your neighbor now, don't say, "come back tomorrow and then I'll help you."
Okay, don't put it off...So-we started telling people that we are going to sell the coffee that we roast and give all the money to kids who need it more than we do. Kids who don't have much and kids that need to hear the good news about Jesus Christ. Maybe even for the 1st time!
We couldn't handle the thought of giving our precious kids a dried-out dirt patty for lunch and calling it "nutrition". So for us, we needed to make a move.
A week ago on the way home from my in-laws we were making all kinds of notes on what we would like to see happen with "Coffee 4 Kids". I remembered that I needed to call my Uncle back and get more information on a larger roaster. Perfect time to brainstorm together-on the road and kids are sleeping... "Okay, great, we will order it when we get home, perfect!" this roaster will roast about 4 pounds of coffee at a time, as opposed to what we were using at the time that roasts about 1/8 pound at a time!
ring
My cell rings, just minutes after hanging up with Uncle. My dearest friend asks me to put the phone on speaker so that dear hubby can hear also.
"We have been so moved by what you guys are doing with Coffee 4 kids and your heart to make a difference. We would like to *buy* you guys a larger roaster to get you started."
Whaat?
They wanted to put into our hands a larger roaster than we have, to get us started so that we wouldn't have to put out all the money for a BIG-capacity roaster. (Which we were willing & prepared to do as our "donation" to Coffee 4 Kids.)
"We hope in 6 months, you will need the bigger roaster, but for now, please let us do this for you to get you rollin."
What do you say to that? How can I express to you the overwhelming feeling of gratitude!? The feeling of knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that God was trying to be very clear to us?! Here is the thing, I was planning on calling Uncle several days ago to get the website info on where to purchase the BIG roaster. Had I done that, we wouldn't have needed this top-of-the-line home roaster (and may I add, very classy and metro-looking!) We may not have felt that extra-affirmation from God (through our friends) that it was TIME. They were encouraged and thrilled to be a part of God's work and we were encouraged too!
Since God laid on our hearts "coffee 4 Kids", we have prayed for Him to be very clear on HOW He wants us to do this project. For His glory-not ours! Thus far, we feel He has been clear! We just continue to pray-and ask you to join us-for His will to be done through our humble attempt
at our hobby-turned-ministry!
I personally was also reminded lately that (and I know you all know it already, but it helped me to be reminded) I have been simply put on this earth to be loved by God, to love Him back and to love others. I am here for His benefit. I was created to make a contribution, not just to consume resources.
SO- We roast and pray!
Thanks so much for your interest in what God is doing in our lives! We are still communicating with a couple of ministries before we decide on a specific one to "sponsor" with the coffee money. Please pray for that to be CLEAR!
* Pray also for the kids' whose lives will be changed by "C4K".
* Pray for our family as we seek to put God first, each other 2nd, E & L next, followed by roasting coffee!
* I am working on a website...yea just pray! I am very new to this cyber stuff!
Feel free to spread the word!
Coffee is $8/lb
We currently are roasting
Regular~Honduras & Colombian Peaberry
Decaffeinated~Guatemalan & Brazil
Sorry, no flavored coffees yet...just grab yourself a delicious flavored creamer :)
We can grind it for you if you don't have a grinder, not a problem at all! Please let us know if you need that. If we aren't told, we will probably fill the order with the whole beans.
You may pick up your coffee at our home, or we can talk about another more convenient place for pick-up. We aren't going to offer free shipping only b/c that would take funds out of the profits we plan to GIVE, not SPEND. We were actually asked by a local business man if he could sell our coffee on his website! We will keep you posted!
Email orders to : coffee4hiskids@gmail.com
or call to order: 717.271.4154
We typically roast after we get the orders to ensure the freshest product possible! Our goal is to roast about 2x/week. This place is smelling grrrreat, we are in our glory! We're praying God is pleased with our love for coffee too!
We need to fill orders for about 20 lb in the next 4 days, so out I go to the garage to roast! It works out so nice, b/c the kids play so nicely outside and I can be right there with them!
Thanks again for your interest and support in this!
~Tara
