Profile: The Guy Who Now Sells Rocks

While living in East Asia a couple of years ago, we worked with several villagers that allowed us to grow coffee test-plots on their land.  When trying to find village partners, we looked for farmers that were believers (if possible), trustworthy, and willing to take the risk on trying a new crop in their area.  Because we were trying something new, we would provide the coffee seedlings and training on how to grow the coffee, but the farmers would be responsible for the land and taking care of the coffee.  Once the coffee produced beans, we would be able to collect data but the farmer was able to keep the crop.  This was our strategy on most test-plots.  Once we discovered if the crop would work in that area, we could then go on to sell seedlings to farmers at a discounted rate, but we didn't want to charge for something that could potentially fail (after all, it hadn't been tried before).  The strategy typically worked out well in a culture where people had some unusable land and lots of free time. One of the people that we partnered with was Uncle SG.  Uncle SG lives down by a large river, which has a lot of fertile land and is an economically better-off area than most villages.  Uncle SG is a believer, but his family is not, and his village is one that we hadn't been able to do much sharing in.  Uncle SG is one of the most outgoing local guys I know.  Every time we would visit his house he would be joking about something.  He's also had a hard life.  His teenage son had an accident to his head which has changed his behavior and ability to speak.  His wife is also a different minority group and has a speech issue, which has caused her to be an outsider to most of the village.  Uncle SG is a great village partner to have, however we could never leave his house without having to stay and talk with him for HOURS.

When we first went to plant our test plot at his house, he showed us this beautiful field surrounded by mountains and with a clear view of the river.  He said we could use as much of the field as we needed.  Every time we planted coffee, we needed to dig a 1 1/2 foot deep by 1 1/2 foot wide hole before filling it with fertilizer, dirt and the coffee seedling.  We planted 100 plants for each test-plot; which, using just shovels and pickaxes, makes for a very long day.  Our plan was to dig the holes one day and then return the next with the seedlings.

When we returned the next day, several people from the village showed up to watch what we were doing.  We had several people ask us if they could have coffee seedlings to plant in their own fields.  When we told them that we were doing a test and they could have seedlings later if it worked.  I could hear them telling each other in the local language that they'd pull the seedlings out of the field at night and plant them in their own.  Apparently, the other villagers had told uncle SG this as well, because he was worried about the field.  So we decided not to plant seedlings in his nice field, and instead Luv-Luv and I came back later that week and dug another 100 holes on a hill in his back yard.  I don't think I've ever been so sore in my life.

We came back to visit uncle SG this past summer.  Most of the people who would partner with us are generally forward thinking and early adapters compared to most villagers (which is why they would let us try something new), and Uncle SG was no exception.  When we came back to visit him, he had added two new rooms to his house, including one with nice furniture and a TV.  We started talking to him about where he came into all of his money, and he said that he'd started a new business of selling rocks to rich people in the capital.  Because his village is close to the river, there are lots of smooth stones.  Uncle SG goes down to the river and finds areas with lots of the rocks, hires a truck to take it to the city and makes a few dollars off each ton that he ships.  He started having so much business that he ships rocks a few times a week.  It may not seem like a lot of money to us, but in a village where the cost of living is almost nothing, it is a lot of money.

Like every time we visit Uncle SG, we spent HOURS with him this summer.  When he heard we were coming, he killed a chicken (which is the not so subtle way of saying you have to stay for dinner, because well... there's no refrigerator and the chicken ain't coming back to life again).  He also rode with us and showed us another village a few hours away that had a different people group we had been trying to find.  Please pray for Uncle SG and his family.  Pray that his family would come to know Christ and that doors would open in his village so that others may hear.

Profile: Uncle LS

On our recent visit we had an opportunity to reconnect with Uncle LS.  I thought it might be good to share his story with you. My old supervisor introduced me to Uncle LS.  He lives in a village that is tucked back in a valley off a highway and then a dirt road that is about forty-five minutes out of town.  My supervisor tells of the time when he discovered the valley and was struck with the thought of “How will these people way out here ever have a chance to hear the gospel?”.  Later, when they hiked into the village, it turns out that they had heard the gospel from a group of Burmese missionaries almost a year before.  Uncle LS was not a believer but his wife and daughter were strong Christians who would routinely go out and share with others.

A couple years ago, Uncle LS and his wife were working out in the fields when there was an earthquake.  Because they lived in a valley, there was also a rockslide and his wife was injured and died.

Uncle LS’s daughter would still go out and share with others, despite her husband not being a believer.  Her husband would often drink and get angry with her going out to share the gospel.  When he would get angry he would often beat her.  She would still go out and share, until one day he beat her and broke her leg.  After that, she quit going out and sharing with others.

When we went out to meet Uncle LS for the first time we were amazed by the beauty in his valley.  It was a very narrow and secluded place with steep ridges.  When we were there, it felt like we were completely alone.  In fact, when Luv-Luv and I would go out there without the truck we would have to hike back to the road and then hitchhike all the way back to town.  Uncle LS struggled with loneliness.  After his wife died, his daughter and her family moved to town and he was left alone in a shrinking village.

Uncle LS allowed us to set up a corn test plot in his village (actually, he was VERY excited about it).  He was always willing to have us come to his house, do any projects we like, and usually wouldn’t let us leave without us giving lots of excuses on why we needed to get back to town.  We would always promise him that the next time we visited we would stay the weekend with him.  (Which we later did.  It was miserable.  Our straw beds were infested with fleas and the dogs barked all night.)

We would often share with him about the Gospel and the God that his wife had believed in.  He would always say that he was open, but he never made Jesus his Lord.  One time we gave him a parallel bible (where all four gospels are lined out next to one another).  Because I couldn’t read the language, I didn’t realize that is what I gave him until the next time he told us of how he read it all, but he couldn’t understand why the book repeated itself so much.

When we went back to visit him this summer, we arrived at his house and it looked deserted.  We assumed that he might have died over the past two years, so we went and asked some of the other villagers.  After about an hour of hunting for him, we found him working at a rest stop on the highway.  He worked with some of his friends and went from being lonely to surrounded by people all the time.  We spent a long time telling him about the gospel again.

Today, he is doing much better than he was when we first met him three years ago.  He no longer struggles with loneliness.  Please pray for Uncle LS.  He is still not a believer and continues to seek the truth.

Profile: Luv-Luv

Luv-Luv, (which isn’t his real name, but it is what his grandma calls him, so we will too) is from the Philippines.  He isn’t one of the guys that we try to reach in a village, but instead he is one of our partners.  Luv-Luv grew up in a small village with his grandparents and his faith is a product of missionaries sharing the gospel with him several years ago.  Because he is so integral to what Underground Coffee International does, I thought it appropriate to share some of his story first. Luv-Luv and I go way back and we were roommates for a year when we both lived in East Asia.  Through a series of divine appointments and circumstances, we ended up meeting, and later becoming teammates.  Luv-Luv has a background in agriculture and specifically coffee growing.  We believe that God has placed him in our path so that we can go out and use coffee to reach those who have never heard.  In many ways, Underground Coffee grew out of his experience of seeing coffee being used to reach local villagers, and our plan is to have him as Underground Coffee’s first sponsored missionary.

My wife and I had the pleasure of having Luv-Luv go with us on the trip to East Asia this summer.  It was a little more expensive to have him fly out and meet us than it would have been if we’d have gone on our own, but the benefit of having him there with us was immeasurable.  As an Asian villager, provides insights into things that go on in villages that none of us would have picked up on.  He also helped us understand a lot of the coffee growing end of things when we talked to people about strategy.

Please pray for Luv-Luv.  He is currently working small jobs in the Philippines waiting on enough support to be raised so he can go and become a missionary in East Asia.