Encounters with God: Part 3

Encounters With God: Part 3: The Oil Flows Until the Jars Are Full

(Written in 2011)

Later this year, Caffe Lusso Coffee Roasters?will wrap up it's 11th year of providing incredible coffee, equipment, training and other services to the greater Seattle area (our biggest focus is the Eastside), plus a few other states.? As I take a moment to reflect back, my favorite stories are the ones where I did something that?I probably should have been fired for, because I leaped before I looked in a bit of a ridiculous way.? People who know me well, know that I am an idealist more than a realist, especially when it comes to improving the quality of our coffee and the quality of the lives of those who grow it.? Somehow God looks past?my business ineptitude and makes amazing things happen.? Let me give you an example.

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Back in 2002, we started investing heavily in direct trade coffee - coffee purchasing channels where we could actually get to know the very farms and pickers of our beans.? I don't want to take credit for that - it was not in the original business plan I wrote in 1999, but?God started bringing them to us, and has every year since then.? One of our first?direct trade coffees was from Cusco?in Peru.? At the time, local pickers would get around $.30 per pound,?but in our program they would get between $.95 and $1.35 per pound - 3 to 4?times as much.? The coffee was incredible?from the beginning, so it wasn't a program that we pursued?born out of guilt, or a marketable?tag opportunity, or anything else like that.? We simply loved the coffee and having only one layer of trade between us?and the growers allowed a lot higher return to the farmers.? The supply line would theoretically become more stable each year, so it made sense.? Our first year we used around 1,100 pounds, and the second year about 2,200 pounds, and the 3rd year about 4,400 pounds.? In?May of?2005, the gentleman who was procuring these coffees walked into the roastery to discuss our needs for the upcoming season.? You see, in this program, we had to commit to how much coffee we would buy for the following 12 months, and that would be the basis for the exporter to?make his commitments to the farmers.? As I made him a cappuccino and handed it over the bar, he asked "So how much would you like to commit to this year?"

Now let me be really honest here.? We did not have any planned growth projections for the next 12 months.? And, we still?had some leftover coffee of his?from 2004 as well.? At the very most I should have probably stuck to around 4,000 pounds.? But I knew we had been doubling our usuage with him each year, and wouldn't it be?neat if we kept doubling it?? And there you?go, folks.? My?application of my degree in business administration, managing optimum risk ratios, asset allocation and protecting?company liquidity, all?came down to "wouldn't it be neat if we kept doubling it?"? Anyway,?I was aware of how real and wonderful the impact was at the farm level, and how it was going to continue - I had even sent a company representative to the farms?2 years?earlier to check it out.? So before I really weighed the reality of what I was committing to financially, I blurted out:

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"We'll take 10,000 pounds.

He laughed through a?sip of coffee, looking up at me from his drink, expecting me to then give a realistic quote.? But I was serious and committed to 10,000 pounds of just the one coffee.? When he saw that I wasn't pulling his leg, he put his cup down and gave me a sincere look that I'll never forget?- he smiled from ear to ear and said "Philip you just made my day, my week!? You have no idea what this will mean to some of our smallest farmers!!"

After he left, I started pondering how deep of a hole I had just dug for myself - where was I going to get a customer or several customers who would need 10,000 pounds of this stuff?? The coffee was going to come available to us in October and I was now responsible for paying for it.? As the months began to pass, I started to get a little bit frantic because we really didn’t have a lot of opportunities materializing?as a home for all that coffee.? Finally we took our first delivery of the new crop, and there it sat in my roastery, staring back at me.? I then did the only thing I knew how to do -?I got on my knees and cried?out to the LORD for provision.? It then came into my head to call our largest customer, who was moving a lot of coffee and although they weren't asking for a new product line, I made my pitch.? I am really not?much of a?salesman?so I?already knew that if something?miraculous happened here it was going to be ALL of?God and NONE of?Philip.? I was surprised but they seemed open to the idea, asked for samples, and even called me on the morning where their tasting panel would be evaluating it against other entries from other more entrenched?suppliers.? She said she would check back in after the tasting concluded.? Talk about hours passing that felt?like years!!!?

The phone rang around 3pm.? "The tasting is over and the panel is curious how many cases are available?"?

"?Well," I said, "we had planned to pack 24 12-ounce bags to a case, and between our current?inventory and what is coming in here in a month, plus the extra?our importer holds in reserves, we could make exactly 882 cases.? But if you only want half of that or a third or something, we'd be really happy to produce it for you."

She didn't waste any time expressing an interest.? "We’ll take all 882 cases.? I'll send you the new SKU paperwork tomorrow."? And, 882 cases they did take.?

There is a story in the Bible that I want to share.? It is taken from the Old Testament, in the book of 2 Kings, chapter 4, verses 1-7:

Now the wife of one of the sons of the prophets cried to Elisha, "Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the LORD, but the creditor has come to take my two children to be his slaves." And Elisha said to her, "What shall I do for you? Tell me; what have you in the house?" And she said, "Your servant has nothing in the house except a jar of oil." Then he said, "Go outside, borrow vessels from all your neighbors, empty vessels and not too few. Then go in and shut the door behind yourself and your sons and pour into all these vessels. And when one is full, set it aside." So she went from him and shut the door behind herself and her sons. And as she poured they brought the vessels to her. When the vessels were full, she said to her son, "Bring me another vessel." And he said to her, "There is not another." Then the oil stopped flowing. She came and told the man of God, and he said, "Go, sell the oil and pay your debts, and you and your sons can live on the rest."

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There are many amazing truths to observe in this passage, but the one that sticks with me the most is how God used every jar that was brought by faith by the widow.? She went and got vessels, from all her neighbors, empty, and not too few.? And God had the oil stop flowing when every last available bit of storage was used.? God is omnipotent - He has absolutely?no limits to His power.? When my back was against the wall at Caffe Lusso, with a LOT of coffee that I had committed to and didn’t have a way to pay for, He showed up with the solution that I had not foreseen 5 months earlier.? And, He worked it out in such a way that every last bean was called for.? Not half, not a third.? The full amount.? And we lived on the proceeds of those 882 cases for the following year.? Praise God!

2011 might continue to be a very difficult year for economies around the world, and certainly in the United States.? Take some time with God and ask Him to show you what jars are in your life that He could use.? Seek after them in faith, for the very same?God who miraculously?provided in the story from 2 Kings is alive and reigning now.

"Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time He may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you."?? -- 1 Peter 5:6-7

God cares for you!?