You undoubtably ask how on earth can a person do all of these things before breakfast?  The secret lies below the frothy surface of my morning’s Double Bohoro Bohoro Latte (with a touch of vanilla.)  “Bohoro Bohoro” – Translated it means “Slowly, Slowly.”  It is the phrase that a priest will use to describe how reconciliation between a Hutu and their Tutsi countrymen will happen, and it is the name on the bag of these roasted seeds of redemption from Land of a Thousand Hills Coffee that I hold in my hand.  I’ll let them tell their story.

The coffee beans in this bag traveled more than 8,000 miles just to make it into your cup. Each one was hand picked on a Rwandan farm, tenderly cared for along a journey down a bumpy dirt road on a coffee bicycle, and eventually traveled across the whitecaps of the Atlantic Ocean to make it to Roswell, Georgia, where they are roasted in small batches by an Artisan roaster for what will undoubtedly be one of the best cups of coffee you ever taste. But the geographic distance is not what makes this coffee amazing. The longitude and latitude, although exotic, are not where the miracle lies.

The true distance of these beans, the real journey, is that they traveled a road of forgiveness. These beans represent reconciliation. These beans represent grace and hope for a people torn apart by violence. In the same way you come together with friends over a cup of coffee, farmers torn apart by genocide in Rwanda are coming together in their coffee-growing community. Great healing is taking place. For Hutus and Tutsis, orphans and mothers, reconciliation is becoming 3D. Grace is alive.

And with these beans, with each bag, up to $3 travels back into the Rwandan economy providing a just, Living Wage for each farmer. That is the distance these beans traveled to make it here. From hurt to hope. From loss to life. From Rwanda to you.  (- from the bag label on my Bohoro Bohoro Espresso, Land of a Thousand Hills Coffee Company.  Written by John Acuff)

So… can your coffee do that?

Find out more and start your next morning differently at DrinkCoffeeDoGood.com

The highlight of our involvement with Land of a Thousand Hills in the last year, however, happened in late February when the first Sustainable Cycle Coffee Bikes were delivered to the eagerly awaiting Bukonya Coffee Growers in Rwanda!  These grower families were able to purchase their new custom-designed cargo bikes as the result of two-year microfinance loans provided both from LOTH coffee sales and direct donors to the project.    – A handful of these loans were directly funded by Share5 donors!  -  The great thing about these loans (and microfinance in general) is that in 2 years, we can use the same money to fund another loan to another grower!  Your gifts keep on giving!

Before custom-designed cargo bikes were made accessible to coffee farmers, Rwandans either walked 4 or 5 miles to collection points or used dangerous homemade wooden bikes (see photo) to deliver their cherries. Not only were the wooden bikes unsafe, they were not efficient and often completely unsuitable for carrying the heavy bags of cherries.

In 2005 Tom Ritchey, a pioneer in the world of mountain biking and owner of Ritchey Design, created a cargo bike that enables coffee farmers to travel safer, faster, and deliver a higher quality bean as a result.  This higher quality means a premium price for the growers, resulting in an increase in both income and quality of life.

By your support of Share5 and our microfinance projects like the sustainable cycle loans, you are making these amazing moments possible.  I remember sitting with tears in my eyes as I first saw the photo above of these first 8 bikes in the hands of the families who will put them to use during the 2009 harvest season.  Enjoy the fruits of their labors, and yours, with a cup of Land of a Thousand Hills Coffee today, and thank you to those who have participated in this amazing ministry.

Be a part of changing lives around the world! 
Fund a Sustainable Cycle Loan through Share5 ($250) (Remember, it gets REUSED once REPAID!)

     or…
Contribute $5 or more monthly to the Share5 Network Fund

We just finished the design for the new shirts we will be printing for Catalyst last night. (see image)  These will be printed in small quantities this week for a test run to see how people respond to them before we print a larger quantity for the tour with Wavorly in November. (see my post on The Difference a Year Makes)

So… the flights are booked, rental car reserved, and its off to see what God has in store for us this year.  We appreciate your prayers this next week as we continue discussions with those we will be meeting there.  Please also be praying for either a renter or buyer for our house, as we’d love to get the house situation put to bed by early October.  We have been packing and moving things into storage at my mom’s, as we will only have basically 3 weeks after returning from Catalyst before heading to Arizona to kick off the Wavorly tour.  That makes for a lot of loose ends to still tie up in a relatively short time!