Well, that's not totally true... and we actually aren't sad about it :-)We are officially done roasting coffee as a part-time business! It has helped support us on the road, but God has given us peace about laying it down and trusting Him to provide in all things.

We're definitely a little sentimental about roasting coffee and keeping bees, but God's path for our lives is always better than our own. When Jesus said, "I have come that they (we) may have life and have it to the full," He meant it. The fullest life imaginable on this earth is in relationship with our heavenly Father through Jesus. 

P.S. We're keeping our roaster in our bus and will continue to give coffee away to everyone we meet! If you can't stand to not have our coffee, you'll have to come and visit us on the road!

Thank you all for supporting us through purchasing our coffee and honey! For other ways to support us in the future, check out the Support Page.

The culmination of my high school years would end in the ‘96-’97 school year.  I was involved in everything I could be: basketball, track, band, choir, acting, etc. God was working through all of it, even in the area of women.

I had met a girl at Bible camp during the summer that really loved God. It was the first person in my life (my age) that really loved the Lord and I was attracted to that devotion. We only went on two dates, but from then on, I really knew I wanted to marry a woman that was sold out for Jesus.

High school ended, we broke up and I was off to UND, the biggest university in the state. I kind of always assumed I would find my future wife in college.  I heard my parents’ story so many times of how God brought them together. So, I expected my freshman year to be one of finding my soulmate.

I didn’t, in fact, I didn’t even go on one date. It may have had something to do with always wearing a $6 leather jacket from a thrift store (that I still have) and being attached to a guitar. Or, maybe it was that I had long hair and an ever changing beard and sideburn trim. Whatever the case, God kept me from any type of relationship that year.

I got involved running and setting up sound with a church plant that started at a bar. I loved it and felt a part of the band. I also got involved in Campus Crusade for Christ, and for the first time in my life, was living near and getting to know a hundred or more christians my age.

It was an amazing time, but something else was taking off… the internet.

Although the internet has changed the world in many ways for the better, it’s also brought pornography to us with the touch of a button.

The university had huge computer labs (because computers were expensive) where any student could use a computer, but that kind of stuff was pretty well blocked. Unfortunately, one of the four guys I shared a bathroom with in the dorms had a computer.

It was like a gateway into temptation.  We spent countless hours playing games like Quake and Warcraft. We chatted with people all over the world, and we had direct access to pornography.

It was way too easy. Before, it was a temptation, but for the most part you couldn’t act on that temptation. Now, it was a few keystrokes and you were there: Countless sites, countless women, and all being objectified and lusted after by countless men.

When I think about where I was at spiritually, it’s so sad.  I was really pressing into God, but my addiction was separate from that.  It’s like I was saying, “God you can have it all… except this part.” I knew it was wrong, but I was developing a cycle where I’d come back to it like a dog coming back to its vomit (Proverbs 26:11).  

I was a fool. I justified my addiction. I made excuses. I didn’t get help, and really didn’t see the need for it. In many respects, I was lost. I would not bring my sin into the light, and so it grew bigger, worse, closer to death. My heart was stone and yet, God was walking with me all the way.

He was pursuing me. He loved me, and deep down in my soul I knew that. Then came Sophomore year...

​

I know I know... I have missed WAYYYY too many posts. We bought a bus that needs A LOT of work-- we still don't have running water:-)-- however, no more excuses, Holy Spirit told me to write and I'll be catching up on many missed posts over the next week. Without further ado, here we go!
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Then he said to me, "This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel saying, 'Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,' says the LORD of hosts (Zechariah 4:6 NASB).

So many, many times I tried in my own strength, in my own power; only to fail again and again.

Do you ever notice in Christian circles how we quote half of a verse? We also take verses out of context. But, many times the other half of the verse is pretty important!

I think I have heard, “the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak,” over 100 times. Do you think repeating that ½ verse is helpful to your walk with the Lord? I don’t. I think it’s pretty depressing. To me, it means your spirit wants communion with God, but alas, your flesh can’t make it happen.

Jesus is always more encouraging than that. Matthew 26: 41 says, “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

Watch and pray! Watch and pray! Jesus is inferring that if we watch and pray, He gives us the power to OVERCOME weak flesh. It’s only by us aligning ourselves with Him, through the power of the Holy Spirit, that we are able to withstand the temptations of our flesh.

I just met a 19 year old that is sold out for Jesus. He led us and some other families in worship and I couldn’t help but think, “Wow! I wish I was in this place at 19.” We have the saying, “The sky is the limit,” however, with our wondrous heavenly Father, the sky isn’t even the limit. This 19 year doesn’t have a limit! Oh, what God can do with a humble, willing heart!

When I was 19, I had gone down the road of satisfying my own sinful desires that had grown and grown. That’s what sin does. If you make those poor decisions, if you don’t watch and pray, it always leads to death… one step at a time. It’s like you’re slowly digging your own grave!

I’m getting ahead of the story, but next, I’ll be sharing about a glimmer of hope during the later part of high school. We’ll also be looking at a sovereign Father showing me what a Godly woman actually looked like. Stay tuned!

My apologies for missing Tuesday! We have been meeting with four other families and some locals in Staunton, VA to pray and seek God's face for the future. God is doing a new thing!! We will be telling more about this story soon, but please pray with us through Wednesday next week when we'll be traveling to Washington, D.C. Here is part 6!
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Hitting high school in the mid-nineties kept me from easy access to pornography via the internet. However, the TV could be almost as bad. I prided myself as being one of the only kids in my class who didn’t party on the weekends. On Saturday nights, I would go to the school gym and play volleyball with all ages from the community.

But, the devil had gotten a foothold. You see, while others were out drinking and doing other dumb things, I was watching movies that were bringing sexual images into my mind. Sometimes I remember even hitting record on the VCR and going to bed. The late night shows were even worse, or at that time in my life, I thought better!

I would use these late-night recordings later to feed the lust in my eyes. I don't remember having much conviction over doing this. I do remember it being secretive and exciting. I knew I didn't want my parents to find out, but I never thought about how it affected a holy God's heart. 

I also remember many of the shows from the 70s through the 90s -- even the ones that were considered "family" shows -- regularly had seductive women in bikinis, men who had all the women attracted to them (James Bond, Face from the A-Team, etc.), and countless other things that polluted a growing young man's mind.

Thankfully, I wasn’t exposed to continual hardcore pornography, but my steps toward spiritual death were continuing down an ugly path. When a person continues taking these steps in succession, it is a slow, and many times unknowing, process toward destruction. Someone doesn’t just decide one day to commit adultery. They arrive at that awful destination one bad decision at a time.

The bible says, "The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! (Matthew 6:22-23)” Although Jesus said this in the context of money, I believe it applies to other lusts as well. In other words, if your eye is feasting on things that feed lust, how can you stay pure?

I think 1 John 2:16 backs this up, “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.” The lust of the eyes goes all the way back to Eve in the garden. It absolutely applies to both money and sex.

And of course, Paul’s answer to this problem is found in Romans 8:13, “for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.”

Lord, help us to walk by the Spirit! It says, “by the Spirit…” It doesn’t say by your hard work, by your diligence, or by your discipline that you will succeed. You are powerless to change some things in your life without the work of the Holy Spirit. Please go back and read that last sentence again. Seriously. OK, I’m going to type it again: You are powerless to change some things in your life without the work of the Holy Spirit. Think on that for awhile, and we’ll discuss that idea next.

​It's kinda interesting that this morning I was reading in 1 Kings about Elijah the prophet. Elijah was feeling overwhelmed by the call of God on his life. His very life was being threatened and he was beginning to succumb to fear. At that moment of despair, God brought him on a 40-day journey through the mountains and placed him in a cave in the rocks. 

God brought Elijah on a journey to get away from all of the excitement and craziness of life into a place of solitude in the mountains. It was a 40-day journey and we don't see or hear anymore about God speaking to Elijah during that time. It was right after those long 40 days, when Elijah had hunkered himself down in a cave, that God comes to speak with him. ​

I believe that the reason Elijah was able to hear God in such a way was because of how intimate a relationship Elijah had with God at that moment in time. He no longer needed to hear the audible, thunderous voice from Heaven to know the will of God. After all that Elijah had experienced and the long journey He had been on with God, Elijah’s heart was so connected with God that he was able to hear God speak through just a peaceful whisper.

That is exactly what God began showing me these past couple weeks. Even though it would be incredibly AWESOME to hear the audible voice of God or have Jesus come and stand before me and speak(!!), I don’t have to wait for that event to know God is speaking. In fact, if the only way God speaks to me is through a thunderous boom from Heaven, it might mean that I am more of a servant following orders than a daughter doing what she knows her Father is doing. If the only way God can get my attention is by shouting from Heaven, I might not be as close to Him as I think I am. 

The closer we get to Jesus, the more we become like him. We actually are becoming ONE with Him, just as Jesus and the Father are ONE. That just BLOWS MY MIND!! But, that is what this journey of faith is all about. Awakening to the TRUTH that I am not a servant, but a child and that God wants to speak to my heart through whispers and impressions. In fact, I believe that the closer I get to Jesus, the more His thoughts become my thoughts and His heart becomes my heart. ​