Coffee is good for talent, but genius wants prayer

I had an unusual email exchange recently, someone asking me for some words of wisdom for another person in their church who handles the Hill Climber coffee they get for Sundays and other needs at the church.  

​Words of wisdom are bandied about, but such a request, whether in jest or not, I took seriously.  So I shared a Bible verse:  So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. (I Corinthians 10:31)

Harvest is at its highest point right now, with lower altitudes done, and we might be done at the two farms by the end of the month.  We have invested time, effort, money, and more staff, to make the farms better, more productive, and higher quality.  Every year a little bit more, steps as they were, and as we can afford them.  The third "cut" of coffee this year in Las Botijas even getting an 88 when we had it tested.  We have started employing women as well to more carefully select out the "defects" that affect cup quality.  
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Providing employment, harvesting more fruit to give away, and doing things better has improved for sure, and continues to do so.  We might be close enough to being financial self sustainable with coffee that good, with some legwork to find places to sell it of course.  

So, the pictures and the statistics look good.  

But I was struck by another set of words I stumbled upon: 
"Coffee is good for talent, but genius wants prayer."

Those come from the journal of Ralph Waldo Emerson, who is also rather commonly misquoted as having said "Coffee is God's gift to mankind."  

The second quote is pithy, but the first just hit me different.  

We are using coffee to accomplish goals:  
-help provide employment
-be a bigger part of our community
-help others
-share Christ through all the above
-and finally figure out how to use all that to create something that can be sold and have more funds to do more of all that. 

The quote just reminds me that while part of all this you can write down, work out, and plan.  But ultimately, for it to be a success, requires prayer, and dependence on God. 

So join us in prayer that our primary goals stay primary, all the while also praying God works out connections to make good, God honoring ways to get this coffee out into many hands, and thus help this do all of the above, and so much more through His Eyes.