Buying Used Can Give You a Rush!

Our $2 chairs before and after....fabric from Africa, a souvenir from Ryan's trip this summer

Wow!  Have we ever gotten some great deals on used items for the coffeehouse!  Molly and I hit Hall's Flea Market (just a few miles east on 54) and picked up a cool 50's era table and 5 matching chairs, 2 "comfy" chairs, one being a padded rocker, 2 different display pieces of furniture, an airpot, 30 mugs/cups, & 10 saucers for $115!!! We're quite excited (and our house is pretty crammed with furniture!) Oh, well, we can live like this for a couple months.

I also shopped a couple great consignment stores in Pratt today on Main Street and found more mugs and items to use in gift baskets with bagged coffee or other items.  And.....Ryan got our first appliance (a Vitamix Commercial Blender) off ebay last night for nearly half off the retail.  It's coming together as the LORD provides.  He is good and faithful.

Coffee Tasting Party

A week has gone by since our coffee tasting party.....what fun!  We set up the art studio in the front of the house and had 6 coffee pots brew 6 coffees from the Fair Trade coffee provider, Equal Exchange.  We sampled the likes of "Love Buzz", "Ethiopian Full City", "Rabble Rouser", "Black Silk Espresso", "Breakfast Blend Decaf", and "Mind Body and Soul".  We didn't do the proper cupping as small town Haviland doesn't really demand the technical tasting that it brings.  Still we had fun sampling, sniffing, and describing the flavors we experienced. Our tasters were all ages, college on up to retired.  Besides helping us to choose our blends they gave us many ideas for a name.  "7 to 10 Coffee" most likely will not be our final name, but we're getting closer.  Some of the names were hilarious and some pretty good. We'll let you all know soon...what a relief that will be! 


As far as the "winning blend"  it was a toss up between "Love Buzz" and "Mind, Body, and Soul". The web-site describes these as:


Organic Love Buzz

Roast: post-roast blend, Full City and French
Aroma: toffee, molasses, pipe tobacco, cocoa, cinnamon, brown sugar
Flavor: complex, chocolate, brownies, chocolate covered strawberries, vanilla, winey
Mouthfeel: velvety, fudgy, ganache
Acidity: pronounced
Aftertaste: chocolate, bitter 
and


Organic Mind, Body & Soul

Roast: post-roast blend, Medium and Vienna
Aroma: butterscotch, vanilla custard, pecans, milk chocolate
Flavor: balanced, cocoa, caramelized sugar, malt
Mouthfeel: weighty and thick
Acidity: light sparkle
Aftertaste: dark chocolate, walnut, brown sugar

Ryan and I recently went into a "10,000 Villages" (a Fair Trade gift shop) in Hutch and the coffee they carried was from none other that Equal Exchange!  I think we're on the right track! The Lord continues to lead and guide and confirm what it is we're doing. 


In addition to deciding on a coffee and name, we are beginning to collect our furniture.  We had some recent success on Craig's list for 2 barstools and there was a warehouse clearance on pub table sets and we're picking up 2 this week.  We're fine with eclectic but know what we're looking for.


More to come soon!  In the meantime, a very Merry Christmas to all, and may the gift of our Savior Jesus come to your hearts in a new way this year!  All our love!
-Hannah & Ryan

Rich Experiences

My experiences with coffee have been so rich in the past, that I can't help but wonder what God has in store for me this time. The first time I really thought very much about coffee was when I went to college. There was a great little coffee spot just minutes from my University where I would sit for hours with friends studying or catching up.  There was often live music being played, and the coffee and pastries were awesome. That coffee shop became a haven for us away from campus.  It's so exciting to think that we could be offering the college students and people in Haviland that same sort of restful, rejuvenating hideaway.

My experience with coffee deepened during my sophomore year of college when I was fortunate enough to join a study tour that sent me to Central America for four months.  Coffee is an important part of life for many Central Americans, who make their living growing, drying, transporting, or roasting coffee.  During my second month in Central America, I lived with a family in the Mountains of Northern Honduras, the Sagastume family.  The Sagastumes made their living from growing coffee.  I learned about their ventures in becoming an organic coffee farm, a very involved process.  They were among the first farmers in their area to shift to organic farming methods and they often had others come to be educated on their methods.  It was extremely important for their farm  and others to be organic because their farms were situated above a town whose people drank the run-off water from the farmlands above. With no adequate form of filtering the water, keeping it clean was vital.  

The Sagastumes are wonderful people who are very dear to my heart, they live a very humble lifestyle and are yet among the most generous, welcoming individuals I have had the joy of encountering.  It is through this experience and others during those four months, that I have engrained in my heart and mind the importance of purchasing fair trade coffee. Coffee that is purchased at a price and through a company that provides for the essential physical needs of the families who give their lives to growing this beverage that those of us who have in abundance enjoy regularly.  I am excited about offering a place where people here in Haviland have the opportunity to learn about and be part of the fair trade exchange.



My final and most recent experience with coffee was my time working as a barista in a fabulous coffee shop in downtown Rock Springs, Wyoming. Java Peddler is a one of a kind coffee shop located at the front of a Bike n' Trike (mountain biking) store.  The owners are young, ingenuitive and inviting.  They are awesome people and awesome parents, who brought their two little boys to hang out in the store from time to time. Our customers loved seeing them, and they were great company for me.  We had lots of regulars, those who would stay and chat each morning or afternoon and who I had the blessing of getting to know throughout my time there. There were also travelers, those who were on their way through.  It was fun to hear the stories of foreigners here in the states for only a few short weeks and listen to them share about the memories they'd made or the hopes they had for their time.  Being located just south of Yellowstone National Park meant meeting people from all over the world. 


So,  now I am looking forward to seeing what this new endeavor with coffee will bring. I hope that it can be a place of impact, of relationship, of joy and peace for those who come and those who stay.  I hope that it can be a place for families, students, friends, visitors, passer-byes, to feel welcome, at home and loved not only by us, but by the One who has made it all possible.  ~Molly

The Plot Thickens

We are a couple months down the road and the stage is being set.  The LORD has provided a building at a perfect location on Main Street in the business block, within walking distance from the college.  It even has a refinished brick wall, a must for a coffee shop, or so I'm told (we love it, anyway!)  LeAnn, Molly, and I have met several times, with frequent emails to communicate together.  I so appreciate that we're all relying on the LORD to direct and provide for this endeavor.  We were given a bunch of discarded cabinets and cupboards that just need cleaning and repainting to be used.  The go-ahead was given to use some signage on the highway at a super affordable price, and my dad (a sign artisan) is willing to do all of our signs for us (they will be fabulous).  And then we've also met with a Kiowa County SBL advisor, a friend at our bank, an accountant, and another friend who says she'll help me get my books up and running.  I am so thankful for each of these gifts and that other people want to be a part of helping the shop to succeed.


Speaking of other people, we've sent out a survey on campus to discover the wants/needs of our primary clientele.  The feedback has been so encouraging. We also are having our first coffee tasting on Sunday with the Fair Trade coffee offered by Equal Exchange.  There will be 16-20 friends stopping in to try out the options, giving us their opinions and descriptions.  They will also give us some advice as to our shop name.  We need to settle on it soon, for all the formal business reasons as well as signage.


So, things are moving right along.  I am taking comfort in Proverb 16:1, "To man belong the plans for the heart, but from the LORD comes the reply of the tongue."  We can make our plans, but the LORD has the final say.  That is so comforting to me, especially when I begin to get nervous about just what it is we're doing.  Another scripture, Psalm 116:7, "Be at rest once more, O my soul, for the LORD has been good to you," reminds me that the One setting the stage is good and can be fully trusted.  In that I can truly rest.
-Hannah

The Pieces

Despite the fact that I have no prior experience in this area and that I would much rather be at home, I felt a peace to move forward into making this "inspiration" part of my speech.  We began asking people to pray for us.  We shared our idea with parents, asking for advice and hoping for their blessing.  As we took more steps of faith, baring ourselves to the people we most trusted, we realized we were moving.

Indications that we were on the right track included (what I refer to) key pieces to the puzzle appearing, seemingly out of nowhere.  The woman Ryan bought gifts from in Africa as souvenirs for me and the girls ended up at church one Sunday wearing the same African skirt I was wearing, and as we talked I found that Dawn worked with a small group of handicapped seamstresses in Congo (shonacongo.com) and they needed buyers stateside.  The fact that I was speaking to her face to face in our insignificant town in Kansas, was not just a coincidence. 

Another Fair Trade contact came through a good friend here in Haviland, whose brother works against human trafficking in South Africa, giving women a chance at earning a living making jewelry, delivering them out of their poverty and slavery cycle. (afrcianhopecrafts.org)

I got to know two incredible women living just blocks from me who work at Barclay College who have dreamed of opening a coffee shop and eagerly agreed to help us get one going (LeAnn Carlson and Molly Carlson, sister-in-laws, will contribute to this blog as well).  Both of them have prior barista experience and one is a business major. (One has a friend who works with a women's co-operative in Bolivia.)  Both are friendly, enthusiastic and positive. Both see this as a ministry to the college students, as well as the community.  What a blessing to know this isn't something we will have to do alone!

Another encouragement that we were on the right track was the topic at a women's brunch in early November, human trafficking and the modern day abolition movement.  Fair Trade was touched upon.  Many were inspired to action.  This felt to me to be a returning to our heritage, realizing people lived their lives in such a way that it changed the course of humankind forever, therefore changing history.  In our small corner of the world here in Haviland we can do the same.

There were more pieces, more affirmations, more challenges to not just have faith but walk in it.  We hope to continue to share these  as the days and weeks go by, telling you all what an awesome God we serve.  He is not far off, but very near.  He moves, He acts, He listens, He directs, He loves us so.

"But as for me it is good to be near God. I have made the Sovereign LORD my refuge; I will tell of all Your deeds."  Psalm 73:28
-Hannah

Adventures in Naked Faith

Have you ever done something bigger than yourself?  While deciding if you should indeed take that initial step, did you doubt yourself?  Did you wonder if you would fail?  Did you wonder what others might think about you if you did?

If you answered yes to that first question, you practiced faith.  

So what's an adventure in naked faith?  I believe when we step out toward our end-goal we are embarking on an adventure being written in the present.  We also lay ourselves bare to quizzical glances and outright ridicule.

I'm believing the adventure will override the doubts!

The Adventure 

You may be asking, "What adventure is this?" And the answer is a multifaceted ministry via a business venture in our tiny town here in the heartland. Although I might like to think myself adventurous, I'm really too content to be at home, to have my routine, to dot the i's and cross the t's....order brings me peace. An occasional jaunt is fine, but I don't go looking for trouble. So to find myself staring at this could be quite daunting had the Author of the story not been so trustworthy.

The story begins in early August this year, on a drive home from Wichita, dreaming with my husband about the future. That night I couldn't sleep when all the dreaming and ideas merged into a concrete concept. I spent hours that night furiously scribbling down every thought lest I lose them by morning. Never has this happened to me before, and I believe with all my heart that my LORD was impressing this upon me so strongly I would have no rest until I did more than entertain the idea. It was as close to inspiration as I'll ever get.

My inspiration includes the following elements: a coffee shop, specializing in Fair Trade gift items, supporting those we know working with people in poverty; providing a place for the college crowd to gather, a place for community members to meet, a place for live music and cool art. We also desire that this place be an extension of our living room, to offer hospitality and an environment where people can just be, and an atmosphere reflecting the God who lives in us.


There's nothing special really in all of these things; they're being done other places all over the world with all degrees of success. But throw in the fact that, oh, yeah, I'm a stay-at-home mom that home schools (yeah, one of those crazies) and have no prior business experience, and the idea is a little more scary. I feel the urge to look over my shoulder to make sure someone else isn't meant for this. Seeing no one else there, I know this is intended for me.

As I referred to the adventure in naked faith before, the next step was to open my mouth and tell someone....my husband. Fortunately, I know no one else who is more supportive in anything I do, so that was easy. He actually took me seriously enough to begin to pray with me. As we prayed, things began to happen, and these are indisputably, positive road signs urging us to turn the page and begin the story.
-Hannah