New Around the Mission
July 19, 2010
Soccer Balls, Beans and Sustainable Relationships
The African boy trotted onto the soccer field holding his precious bundle of plastic grocery bags bound with a fistful of rubber bands. His pace quickened when he spotted the American visitor holding up an authentic USA soccer ball. Robert Crow, Relationship Director for Land of a Thousand Hills Coffee Company (LOTH) offered a trade. Within minutes of the exchange, a mass of shoeless, dusty children encircled him. They all wanted to broker the same deal… Robert didn’t bring enough balls for everyone.
Land of a Thousand Hills Coffee Company has a rich relationship with the community of Bukonya that goes far beyond a cup of dark roast coffee. “We are building a bridge from our partner churches in the US to villages like Bukonya based on blessing their work and not charity,” explains Robert.
Last month, LOTH hosted their first official mission trip to the region. Employees and coffee ambassadors captured firsthand the spiritual and economic changes that growing coffee makes in the local people. The team picked “cherries” alongside coffee growers in the fields, helped to sort beans at the wash station and kicked the traditional first ball out onto the newly completed soccer field.
When people buy Rwandan coffee, whether a cup of joe served at their store in Roswell, Georgia, or in a church hallway, it is not just about profitability. Proceeds help provide a fair, sustainable wage for the African coffee growers and an opportunity for reconciliation and forgiveness.
Local banana farmers profit a few cents per pound, but coffee growers earn more for their specialty-grade Rwandan cherries. When farmers choose to grow coffee, life vastly improves, their children can attend school, families can afford insurance. Practical needs like clothing and food are no longer a struggle.
In the fields, lives are also radically changed. “Growing coffee is an incredible catalyst for this transformation,” explains Robert. “Communities in Rwanda are reconciling [as] genocide perpetrators work alongside family members of those they killed…forgiveness is taking place.” He also reports that the farmers are uplifted to know their own stories of reconciliation are making a difference as they are shared in America.
“It is simple to just write a check, but when you brew LOTH coffee, you are actually funding sustainability.”
Watch a video from the LOTH ambassador trip to Rwanda.
For more about Land of a Thousand Hills’ mission, future ambassador trips or your church partnering to brew Rwandan coffee contact Robert.
Posted By: Cynthia P. Brust
Categories: Recent News
