THE MYSTERIOUS UNION OF PEANUT BUTTER & RASPBERRY JAM
There was a period of time in my life that one of these could not go without the other. I know peanut butter & jelly is by far a more widely accepted culinary duet so if you're more comfortable with that or peanut butter & Nutella then feel free to reframe this story to suit.
We recently had an opportunity to visit Lomas Del Aguila, a community high in the Honduran mountains where superb coffee is grown. This is the place that will produce Burro Bueno Coffee. Brandil is the leader of a group of coffee farming families there and we were anxious to spend some time in his home, get to know him and sample some of his craft. In anticipation of our visit, Brandil hand-turned coffee in a custom-made little steel drum, over hot coals, roasting it for us. When we arrived, we enjoyed a few variations of his wonderful handcrafted beverage. I was so impressed with his ingenuity, the quality of his coffee and his kindness. He was thankful that we enjoyed it and appreciated our complimentary words and quiet mmmmm's. After enjoying his coffee, we all loaded up and drove further up the mountain to visit a couple of the families that were farming the beans. What a great visit! It truly enriched the quality of our time there and you could sense that Brandil was thankful that we spent time with the farmers and ultimately purchased more coffee from them than one family could reasonably drink.
The combination of enjoying time in his home, but also visiting, purchasing coffee and supporting the farmers that he organizes came together for a perfect day.
In a loosely similar way, Hebrews 13: 15-16 reminds us to continually, through Jesus, offer a sacrifice of praise to God. Then it immediately follows up, perhaps tempering our religious tendencies, reminding us to not forget to do good and share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased. Kinda sounds like loving God with all of your heart, soul mind and strength AND loving your neighbor as yourself.
They're both very good things but together they are a match made, quite literally, in heaven. Kind of like peanut butter and raspberry jam.
(This week we anticipate having appraisals completed and we are very close to our goal. We so look forward to the privilege to serve with you in the rural mountains here and are excited to get started with the work at hand. Please feel free to contact us with questions as we approach our goal and and the start of something wonderful.)