2019 Recap

So these blogs are starting to become more of a yearly event as opposed to every few months. In my defense, the work here in South East Asia has ramped up quite a bit this year and it is keeping all of us busy. 2019 was a great year for Underground Coffee and here are a few things to celebrate:

1. Warehouse and Office Construction

At the end of last year we received a grant that allowed us to build a warehouse that will hole enough coffee for us to grow and become sustainable. It is a little strange to go inside of a huge empty building, however it is a reminder of the hope that we have with the work here. It will be exciting to be inside in the years to come and see it full of coffee.

In 2019 we were also able to finish construction on our office/training center in the village. Having electric, water and internet make it much easier to be in the village (I’m actually writing this blog from the village as we wait on coffee to be delivered). We spent the rainy summer months doing things like building bunk beds, tables and shelves, which allow our team to come and stay in the village for long weekends or when things are busy on the farm. There’s still quite a bit of decorating to do, but it has become a great space to work and have meetings.

2. Seedling Share Program

This year we continued and expanded our seedling sharing program. In the spring we distributed 20,000 seedlings to over 15 families in our village. In the coming years, when the coffee starts to produce, it will produce a high quality coffee that will significantly increase the farmer’s income. These families have also become great connections in the village that we followup with monthly.

3. Coffee Harvest

Last fall we harvested coffee for the first time. This is actually about a 4 month process. Coffee harvest takes a couple months, then letting the coffee moistures level out (approx. 6 weeks) and then dry-milling and hand-sorting. All of the milling and processing was our biggest project this spring as we tried to figure that out for the first time. Turns out it a A LOT of work... Currently we’re at the tail end of our 2nd coffee harvest. This year has been mainly focused on farmers in our village as we’ve bought about 5x as much coffee as last year. And we think we’ll finally get some coffee exported to the US in the first half of 2020! Prayers as we continue to work with farmers and try to ramp up operations in the coming years.

4. Multiplication of believers and trainings

Finally, 2019 has seen quite a bit of spiritual growth in our area. Our church here in the village has grown and we have more leaders to help share in the work. There has also been a small children’s program started here that teaches kids Bible stories and songs.

Last winter, our farm manager shared with some of his family from a neighboring province when they came to harvest coffee. A few of these family members became believers and started meeting for worship in their village. Their province has quite a bit more persecution of Christians than where we are, and the gathering was told they needed to stop meeting or the Christians leave the village. Our farm manager travelled there and sorted things out, however he decided it was probably better to bring them to our village once a month, train them and then they can safely go back to their village. This was all something that was born out of his own desire to see people there know about Jesus. Over the past few months, over a dozen people have become Christians and several were baptized during these trainings.

2019 was a great year here at Underground Coffee and we’re looking forward to an even greater year in 2020. Thanks again for everyone who continues to support the work here (despite the lack of regular blog updates).