There are a million things circulating through my brain;
great blog topics, stories to make you cringe, developments from left field...
but I feel I owe you (and myself) a not-too-profound explanation as to where
I’ve been the last 6 months.
After I got back from Zambia, several things happened at
once. Levi started waking up at 6:30, then 6, then 5:30. Today he was cheerful
and ready to play at 4:30. My ADD mind has 1-2 hours in the morning in which
I’m groggy enough to focus on one thing at a time. Once upon a time, it was
reading scripture, journaling, prayer, and blogging. Now it’s diaper changes,
coffee, fruity pebbles, “YOU'REGOINGTOMISSYOURBUS”, and “no buddy, mac ‘n cheese
is for lunch not breakfast”.
Also, I started a coffee-roasting business. I bought a
grill, built an aluminum drum, repurposed a cordless drill. Then I tried, and
failed, and tried, and failed... and failed some more until at last... I got
coffee nirvana roast after roast. I tweaked, I upgraded, I used all 5 senses.
And now I’m pumping out fresh beans to my online social network all over the
country. It’s art to me and I love it. But I’m doing everything and my growth
has been limited by other commitments (like my “real” job). Still, I’ve had a
couple churches interested (if you have a church, restaurant, or office that
may be interested in becoming a wholesale customer, please hit me up at lovenomadscoffee@gmail.com and
I’ll send you a free sampler pack with all the info). In an ironic and
beautiful twist of fate, my uber-barista neighbor who serves coffee at a nearby
vape shop challenged me to develop a good espresso blend, which I did in all
manner of geekyness. He liked the final product so well, he plans to serve it
exclusive at the vape shop
starting next month! Honestly, I love that Love Nomads will have its public
debut there. The other awesome thing is that the profits from the coffee are
ALL going to projects in Africa. It’s designed to be an income engine for our
various projects. So over Christmas, it helped buy a motorcycle for Jonah
Manyan in Northern Ghana. Now we are funneling it toward my next round of
seminars in Ethiopia.
I went to the UK in October after a UK/Ghana trip got canned
due to Ebola concerns. So... I hopped over to Birmingham on a buddy pass and
stayed for a week with my friend Harvey, a Malawian professor and recently
published missiologist. That week, we were deep in conversation about the
African church in Europe, cross-cultural ministry, and discipleship. We visited
his old church in Nottingham (nice town, no sheriff) and saw a really beautiful
example of a small pan-African church worshipping and seeking God for their
place as mulit-cultural community in the heart of the UK. I hit it off with the
pastor and felt let to pursue a relationship with them. So Harvey and I plan to
return there in June to conduct a seminar (my idea: multicultural
disciple-making). Then we’ll head back to Birmingham for Harvey’s think-tank conference on reverse mission
that Saturday. After THAT, we’ll go together to Zambia for another 10 more days
of discipleship training. More on that to come...
On Debra’s 31st birthday, she pulled and
all-nighter and launched an Etsy shop selling hand-painted shirts, onesies, tea
towels and the like. She calls her shop “Plucky Mustard”. I know. Adorable.
She has a keen eye for design and immediately got noticed by a bunch of
heavy-hitters in that community, leading to a slew of sales over Christmas. Now
she’s wading through over 100 orders for her Valentine’s shirts. Needless to
say, she wasn’t expecting her rise to fame and we got nailed by the 2x4 of
reality: we are really... REALLY busy! At this moment, I’m working from home
and juggling kids, Juniper is waking up from her nap, and I need to get her
some lunch. SO, Let’s call this part one of a 2-part series. Be back soon!
