Coffee and the Homeless

Hi Everyone!

We had the spaghetti supper for the homeless on Thursday. It was such a neat, humbling experience!! We made TONS of spaghetti - like a whole cooler full. Yes, we just dumped spaghetti into a cooler and filled it full! We also served them bread with butter and some juice. They were very gracious that we had brought them food. After everyone ate, they had a church service. The place were we went is more like a rehabilitation center where the people can come and hear about Jesus and get away from drugs and alcohol. It was amazing watching people who had nothing worship through song. While some of the men just sat in the back, there were many that stood right up in the front of the church singing with all their heart and clapping very loudly - I think we clapped for about 15 minutes straight! After the singing, Sarah, Jason and I gave our testimonies. Sarah gave hers in Spanish, but Jason and I had Kyle and Heather (the Dundon kids) translate for us. The four of us also did a drama for the men. We played the Hallelujah song by Michael W Smith and did a little skit type thing. It was neat. Afterwards, we shook hands with lots of people and because Sarah can speak spanish, we were able to talk to some of them. It was a very humbling and encouraging experience. We didn't get home until about 8:30 and then we had to wash up the huge pots and pans we had used to make the spaghetti. After that, we sat outside out cabin talking and Sarah played her guitar. It was a good day!



On Wednesday, we had a day off and we went to the Britt Coffee Plantation. Some of the best coffee in the world comes from Britt! We had a very good tour with very fun tour guides and then bought a lot of coffee. We learned all about how they pick and process the coffee. The reason why Britt is so much better than anything else is because they hand pick the coffee so there are only ripe beans picked. The beans are ripe from December-February and they pick from each field every day during that time. The coffee is picked in the morning because it has to be processed the same day. They wash the outside layer of the bean off and then the bean has to dry for 7 days in the sun and it has to raked every 30 minutes. The coffee is then roasted in an oven that is 450 degrees for 15 minutes for light roast, 20 for medium, and 25 for dark roast.

They also have decaf, but, as they explained, there are two different ways to decaf coffee - with water, or with chemicals. They do theirs with water - the safer way. They ship it to Germany to have it done. The coffee beans (before roasted) are put in hot water and steamed until the caffeine is "washed" out of the bean. The bean is then roasted, though it takes a bit longer because the flavor is not as strong anymore. I had always wondered how they made coffee decaf.

Yesterday, we cleaned the camp and then played some soccer in the mud. It was a lot of fun! Last night we went to youth group and did our drama there. Today we made the final preparations and ran through what a normal day of VBS should look like. We have the puppets ready and Jason made a puppet stage while Henny, Tamra's mom who came to visit for a couple of weeks sewed the material we needed. The puppeteers do a great job! We have been practicing the Spanish songs and I think we have them all down so that we can sing with the kids. Pray for us tomorrow as we have our first day! Pray that we can keep everything under control. We have been told that the orphans that will be coming can be quite rowdy.

Well, I hope you have all had a wonderful 4th of July!

Dacia