Saturday, December 13, 2014

mid month recap

Thought you would like a more recent picture tour...here goes:
 
The Sunday school rooms in Cantaranas are almost done, at least enough to move into and begin using.  Stucco could come in the future, maybe paint, maybe a second floor...but for now it is what the Church needs...dedicated teaching space outside the sanctuary.
 
This is Jonathan, pastor in Cantaranas, working on his coffee field, doing some harvesting.   We support our pastors, but encourage them to find ways to be self supporting, as well as of course encouraging the Churches long term to help their pastors as well.  His coffee helps him, and in this case also helps the youth of his Church, as he was paying many of them to help in the harvest to make money to be able to attend the CIY conference coming up in January.  Many of the youth in the Churches that want to attend those conferences need to work, scrimp, and save all year for the opportunity.  All of the Churches in the mission participate...including many more around the country, to the tune last year of somewhere between 200 and 300 attending.  They are looking forward to another great year growing together in Christ, forging new friendships, and seeing old friends that sometimes they only get to see in person at these conferences. 
 
We are making progress on finishing the wall around the main mission property in Tegucigalpa.  At the same time...installing an electrical fence to go with the serpentine wire.  After some recent concerns, this will help secure the facilities, and just get us where we should have been a long time ago.  
 
This is pastor Edwin from Danli.  This is a Church plant that came about without much if any initial support from us.  We are just not cash flush enough to help them forward much, but do what we can.  This includes involving Edwin and the Church in the clothing ministry, which helps their evangelistic efforts, as well as providing a bit of income for him.  Now, when we have a broken dental chair, some people would just throw it out...but Oscar and Edwin talked, and they are planning on using it as a barber chair now as well.  We are also helping them with building a lean-to on a small piece of property they are leveling for Church meetings.  God willing in the future they will be able to find property and actually build a secure facility...but for now this will have to do. 
 
I bet you never thought you would see this machine...let alone that it would say "La Macarena."  All that is missing is a gas engine and you have what you need to "depulp" the coffee after harvest.  This takes the red cherry off the "bean" for drying.  One more step in our coffee empire.  Ok, just one more tool to be able to use to help speed the process of the harvest this year.  We have a used model for Las Botijas, but Sampedrana needed one as well.  Otherwise we pay per pound for renting another machine.  This machine should pay for itself in a few years time. 
 
 
Speaking of Las Botijas, although coffee farming is our priority there, there are opportunities to do more.  Including some piggies.  Opportunities not so much for the mission...this is between Oscar and Gustavo, but an opportunity nonetheless. 
 
And while they are at it...looks like we will be producing milk and veal on the property. 

















And this is a sight we love to see...coffee drying.  We are not self sustaining yet, but each year more of the plants are producing, and producing more as the grow higher and fuller.  This is one harvest...each plant harvests several times over these months, as the coffee matures at different times. 

We will likely be able to produce all the Hill Climber coffee we will need for 2015 ourselves, and have extra to sell on the open market (less profit for sure, but still profit)

We might be even tinkering with a special edition coffee for 2015, a darker roast in 1/2 pound packages.  Check back in a few months after we do a few tests and see what we find out.   
Not sure I shared via this forum...but the coffee in Las Botijas was also tested in the US by a roaster and got a score of 88...specialty grade coffee, among the top 8% quality in the world.  Pretty cool stuff. 

 

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