Saturday, June 23, 2007

a pray, a thought, a letter

I shake when I read these words:

A comment from an email to my father from Bala:

“Our plans were for you to have a different seminar from Scott. Each of you will have a separate seminar with a minimum of 250 IN EACH SEMIINAR. You are expected to provide some counseling of people and interact with our plans.
I WANTED TO BE SURE that Scott wanted to Share on SOMETHIIING ON OPENHAND INITIATIVES and One Village Coffee.”

“I have contacted over 6 coffee farmers and many Christians who are looking forward to your coming.”

(Bala Usman, Director of NIFES, Nigerian International Fellowship of Evangelical Students)

It will be three years in November since we were last at NIFES, the trip which will forever be known as a paradigm shift in my philosophy on purpose. On the plane ride home I looked over to my father who ten years earlier had gone to Nigeria on the trip that broke my family, because of the illness my Dad has, and the estrangement we all experience the months after his “Crash”, this is the name my family coined for the time he had a psychotic break for a month of his life which started on his trip to Nigeria.

I can honestly say, seeing my father return to the village where he lost his mind to the welcoming songs and banners of God’s people broke my heart and put it back together. I am not the same man I was before the crash, I was just a boy trying to be a man.

Now two and a half years after the crash I sit at my desk in the basement of my parents how on what feels like the brink of something supernatural. There is a convergence taking place and it involves, NIFES, Bala, Emenikee, My family, One Village Coffee, Haiti (Dan Ziegler), Kenya (Dr. Elijah Korich), and me. I am overwhelmed with possibilities…

There is an amazing man named Elijah Korich who we met at a farmers market several days ago, he is importing coffee beans from Kenya and selling them as coffee to raise support for his ministry which has provided three wells in the past five years to his people. He is now working with Kenyan runners to raise support as well as building a school in Kenya. This man learned to read and right with his finger under the tree in his village. At this time he came to faith in Jesus. He then came to America at the age of 30 when he met the first Dr. ever in his life. HE would later become a Dr., not of medicine.

On Friday I roasted fifty pounds of his beans and contributed to the cause of his existence. As we move further in this relationship our dream is to import a container of coffee from the villages in his country, (Kenya), and roast them, sell them and support his ministry, his life.

Also, on Friday I met with my Nigerian friends before they left for their country. Emenike and Chedi are the catalyst for the change in my life. The course of my history was altered during my trip to Nigeria almost three years ago. I now work in a basement roasting and selling coffee with a cause.

Today I received an email from Bala…

How can I go?

Can I go?

Should I go?

I sit on the brink of what I call the tipping point. The part of your life when something breaks and you are set free. I am being set free.

My desire is to piggyback the trip to Nigeria, with the trip to Egypt and possibly Kenya. Why?

Because Octover/November is when all of those trips are supposed to happen, and I cannot afford all of them, but it is relatively cheep to fly within Africa.

To go on this trip would forgo my opportunity to go back to school at this time and possibly spend out our savings.

Do I go?

Please pray with me for guidance, direction, courage, and strength

to learn more about what our Kenyan coffee is supporting through Elijah Korich click on the link http://www.ksmministries.com/ in the title.

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