Coffee Experiment Comes to an End

Well, my 21 days of a cup of coffee have come to an end. Here it is now day 22 since this experiment began and, well, I still am not a big coffee fan. However, I do no longer find it to be completely repulsive. I can drink a cup. I can even enjoy a cup to a certain extent. More importantly, this experiment has given me the opportunity each day to have a moment to remember the over 14o million orphans that are in the world today. With each cup of coffee, as that first sip would hit my tongue, I would have a moment of, "Why am I doing this?" The answer would then hit me hard and I would pause to do the greatest thing that I could do for the orphaned. I would pray. I have tried, in talking about this experiment to others, to stress this time of prayer and reflection that came with each cup. I have tried to stress this aspect because so many would get lost in the details of the experiment with thoughts of, "Can't you just give money?" "Can't you just buy something else?" "Why does it have to be coffee?" To answer these questions I would point you to the discipline of fasting. In fasting one "suffers" the consequences of not eating in order to use this time to pray and to reflect on God. In fasting one learns to use the hunger pains as a call to go to God for the nourishment that the body seeks. In many ways this experiment has been a fast in reverse. Here I actually ingested something that was not particularly pleasant to me and in so doing I would be called into prayer. The practical benefits of drinking fair trade coffee that supported farmers and buying coffee that had proceeds going to orphan care became secondary items to the greater impact of daily spending time with the Heavenly Father to ask for His care of the fatherless.

Now, here I sit, with a cup of coffee. I'm preparing to watch a simulcast with my family for Orphan Sunday. I encourage you to have a cup and to pray for the orphans.

Coffee Experiment - Day 9

It's happening - I'm beginning to actually "need" a cup of coffee. Still don't really like the taste though.


I press on.

Coffee Experiment - Day 6 and 7

Well, the coffee experiment is going quite well (despite my wife's post yesterday). I wanted to say too that if your church regularly serves coffee on Sunday morning that maybe you could buy from one of the organizations that sells fair trade coffee and has the proceeds going to orphanage care. The other day I mentioned one of those: http://gobena.org/.

There are two others that I'd like to mention:

http://www.saintscoffee.com/

and

http://www.landof1000hills.com/

Thank you for continuing to help care for the over 140 million orphans in the world today.

Coffee is Disgusting

This is Dottie and I hate coffee. I loathe coffee. Even after spending months mentally preparing myself to drink the really small cup of coffee at the coffee ceremony, I still couldn't get it down. Totally disgusting!

This whole coffee experiment...I just can't do it.

But this.....

http://www.divinechocolateusa.com/

I can totally get behind!

Coffee Experiment - Day 5

Today I drank my largest cup of coffee yet. Not exactly the big mug from "Friends" but never the less it was a large coffee cup. I also made this cup stronger than my previous cups. Which brings to mind a question: how do you make your coffee? The coffee I have says two tablespoons per cup and I'm not quite there.

Everyone knows by now why I am doing this coffee experiment but I have had an unexpected bonus to this. With each cup I drink I notice that I am very conscious of why I am doing this. Each cup provides for me the opportunity to stop, to consider the orphans of the world, to pray for them and to ask myself in what other ways can I be an advocate for the children.

Coffee Experiment - Day 3 and 4

Well, yesterday I never got in my cup of coffee. I had planned on having it last night but I was out late and did not want to have a cup right before bed. So, today I'm going to drink 2 cups. I just finished my first and honestly it was not that bad. Perhaps, I'm actually getting used to this stuff.

I have been asked, why I don't just give money to an orphanage? Why drink the coffee? You must remember that the coffee that I'm buying is fair trade coffee. This means that when buying fair trade coffee in which the profits go toward an orphanage I am accomplishing two things at once. The orphanage gets the money but the farmers in Ethiopia are earning a living. This is one of those, give a man a fish and he can eat for a day, teach him to fish and he can eat for a lifetime deals. It is great to support the orphanage but if we can also support the economy of an impoverished nation then perhaps the day will come when there are less orphans.

So, drink coffee, support an economy, and provide for the orphans.

By the way, here is a link for some fair trade coffee that helps support orphans: http://gobena.org/

Coffee Experiment - Day 2

Well, here I am sipping another cup of coffee. I'll be honest day 1 did not go very well. I actually did not finish the whole cup. Every sip made me have a bit of a gag reflex and by the time I was half way through I was just nauseous. To make matters even more complicated, I had trouble preaching my Sunday night sermon because of the nasty taste the coffee had left in my mouth. So you can probably understand that I was not exactly thrilled about drinking today's cup. But here I sit drinking this cup and so far it has not been too bad. I did make it a little less strong this time and I did break down and add a little Splenda. I wouldn't say that I'm enjoying it. I'm far from actually desiring a cup of this stuff but I'm still trying. I just keep thinking - this is for the orphans.