The New Year
Brian
Over the past month I’ve been able to sit down and reflect some on how much God has blessed Underground Coffee International. If you would have told me a year ago that we would be positioned to send a full-time missionary, I wouldn’t have believed you. Quite literally, just a year ago Underground Coffee International wasn’t much more than an idea. To be able to look back and see how this has come together and the way that we’ve been blessed with things like church partnerships, individuals that have helped carry the banner of sustainable missions, finances, and having the funding to have Luv Luv come over (much less his visa approval and all the other variables that came together for that); there is no way for me to look at all this and not see God’s hand working in it. It is truly a blessing to be a part of. I’m excited to see where God is going to take us this next year. Ever since the idea of starting up Underground Coffee International it has been a journey, and I don’t expect 2013 to be any different. I’ve never been a part of a non-profit start-up before, so this is all new to me (and all of us on our board). There are a lot of times where I think "I wonder if other people started out like this?", which usually means there are a lot more hiccups than I expected. As with a journey, we’ve set out with an idea of where we’re going but over the past year there were lots of twists and turns. God definitely has been showing us step-by-step where to go, but not much further than that. It is amazing to look back and see where he has taken us. Even if I had the journey planned out myself, I wouldn't have expected to be this far along.
The thing that I’m the most excited about is being positioned to send a missionary to unreached peoples in the next few months. We still have a lot of details to work out on this, which I’m sure I’ll post about over the next few months. To think that a few months from now someone will be going out to villages to meet people, talk to them about growing coffee and also being able to share the Gospel is exciting. It is why we do what we’re doing.
Over this next year, please continue to pray for us and God’s guidance. All of us on the Underground Coffee board of directors are volunteers that have jobs, families, and other commitments. We are all passionate about seeing the lost reached and those who have never heard the Gospel before encountering the One True God, and excited to see that happen in 2013.