metro boulot dodo

I wish I could say I will keep up with all this blogging! 

New year, and lots of new things and new opportunities.  The title for today's blog is French...a little idiom saying you are living to work (subway, work, sleep)

A common sentiment, albeit depressing.  Unless you love you work.  

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Marvin has been on the move starting the year.  Moving more into his role of taking over spiritual supervisor (I like the alliteration more than saying Church development director) and that means spending time with the pastors, and even doing some evening services and spending the night.  Here he is in Los Trozos, but just last night he was in Talanga and today in Cantarranas.     

He will also be overseeing how we integrate the Milk Projects and churches better...and just yesterday we hired a new position...clinic greeter/evangelist.  We have struggled and tried different approaches over the years to more purposefully reach those coming to the clinic spiritually.  Thankfully, even though that effort has had limited success and stumbled through different volunteers and church visitors, etc., we have not lost the fervor to see that be done better.  So, there will be a bit of a Venn diagram for this new position...a greeter that helps patients get to where they need to go and just helps organizationally, and then getting to know, praying for, and even seeing for those close enough to see about Bible studies in the future.  This time though, being a full time position, it will help us be able to supervise, encourage, and see where this goes.  22,000 patients last year in the clinic, not counting family members, people stopping by just to get a shot or pick something up...that is something we just can't continue to do the way we have been doing.

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Our latest church plant in Guayavillas has over a dozen regular attenders.  Javier (seen here visiting someone in the area working on an adobe house) is entering his second year with a stipend from the mission/churches to continue, commuting from his home in Cantarranas by motorcycle.  

Evaluating how to proceed there and how to grow will be a challenge for 2024.  This is one of the churches that our pastors planted, not part of a "strategic plan" of the mission.  A great area, albeit small...we definitely how to pray when it comes to how to divide resources, and help best.  

They are currently meeting in a house that is on loan, but that will probably end this year.  

​Praying...what is God doing there, and what do we need to do to be in line with that?  

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2024 harvest is in full swing in both coffee farms.  We had some turnover at the end of the year, and seeing the results of that...well, sometimes people leaving is a good thing on balance.  We are trying to recover, and push forward with new staff.

Seen here is honey processed coffee drying in Sampedrana.  It has several days yet to dry before being ready. 

All our coffee this year will be honey processed.  The taste for some is better than full wash, and others report liking it even more.  

Honey processing means we pulp the coffee and dry it.  Rather than the normal process of pulping, fully washing the coffee over a day or more, and then drying.  Using all that water may be normal, but the process mucks the water up quite a bit going back into the ecosystem, not to mention just using all that water.  So we get a better tasting process, and do a better job of just looking after things as well.  We still have roughly 200 pounds from 2023 harvest to roast and get out there, but after that...everything will be this new process everyone will be drinking soon enough!

I'll leave you with a cool picture taken from the drone of the farm in Sampedrana.  Lots of work will be coming there in the next months to do road improvements, and we are also doing some investigation and praying about other options for the future bringing things from the US possibly to help speed that process as well!