I have been getting a lot of questions about the shop but have noticed that most of the questions have been asked with a puzzling and surprised toned...at least from those that have known me for awhile. Usually when someone approaches me and asks, "You're opening a coffee shop?," I usually end up with a smile and a simple nod...yes. Not because I think it's a funny question but because I know I am about to get hammered with several follow ups. The intuitive look on the faces are great...and I love explaining and sharing what I like to call my coffee passion....That's why I think it serves to take a step back and mention just where this passion came from.
I am currently teaching a Sunday school class to a group of 10th grade guys and this past Sunday we spent some time talking about where our desires come from and what are the things that we are passionate about. Boats, hockey, science, engineering, politics, law, and "I don't know" were the responses. Seven different answers, and I am surprised not one of them said girls. I think they were really thinking hard about their answers. I shared with them the different passions I have had growing up, and the strong desire to go into the medical field when I was their age. That desire stuck with me through high school and into my first years of college...I even finished all the pre-med classes at Wake Forest and ended up majoring in Biology, but never did apply to medical school. While the description of a doctor still fascinates me today, I simply do not have the passion to be a practicing physician. I still have a similar desire but just a different direction.
Desire is a key word in my life. Psalm 37:4 tells me that I should "delight [my]self in the Lord and He will give [me] the desires of [my] heart....but wait, I also have desires when I do not delight myself in the Lord. So where do those come from? I think this verse was a critical turning point in my life. I started to differentiate the desires in my life and gain a firmer understanding of how to sort God's will in my life from my own free will. I had just started my senior year at Wake, and I was supposed to know what I was going to do when I graduated...after all, everyone else did. I was clueless...but I knew I was changing course. I became somewhat independent and began to soak in what the psalmist explains in the first part of that verse...delighting myself in the Lord. To someone who is not a christian, this may be strange, maybe almost even taboo, but to me it was real and still is today. A lot of my desires have been desires that I have created out of envy, greed, idolatry, recognition, or fame. While they are still real desires, they are desires that tend to lead me into dead ends because they cause me to stand on my own understanding of what would be best for me. The last five years, while I've stumbled a few times, I have learned the importance of delighting first then waiting on my desires instead of flipping it and seeking my desires first. With that said, two desires have grown and began to brew in my heart...no pun intended. Africa and Coffee. I was introduced to Africa, specifically the eastern, Sub-Saharan countries, by a friend of mine in high school and have been fascinated with the land and people ever since. I've had opportunities to travel to several of the countries in this region and interact with the people. While on my second trip to Kenya, after the culture shock subsided, I began to take a keen interest in the social and community structures of the country. The people lived on what the land gave them and depended on a strong harvest each growing season. This was where my passion for coffee was ignited. Coffee and tea are the two main commodities exported out of the country each fiscal year and play a large part in the lives of the people. The idea for Jubala Village Coffee is to bring these two passions together. To serve and perfect one of the lands richest commodities while socially helping those that produce it. I hope this helps explain a little bit of why I am starting this venture, but I would still encourage you to ask! After all, it is my passion.
I especially like Bo's chapter called, "The Mona Lisa Principle," where he describes how every community has its own character. He describes small giants as businesses that are so "intimately connected to the place where they're located that it's hard to imagine them being anywhere else." He goes on to say, "The companies' owners and employees have a strong sense of who they are, and where they belong, and how they're making a difference to their neighbors, friends, and others they touch."
