Haitian Coffee

By Pastor R

Here are some of my thoughts on Haiti and specifically how God prepared the team and I for our trip. It was (and still is) an incredible journey of seeing God move and work. I hope that you'll come back throughout the next few weeks to read my blogs on Haiti as we will continue to post them every few days. You'll also be hearing from some of the members of the team and what God did in and through them as well.

John 19:30 “When he had received the drink, Jesus said ‘It is finished’.  With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.”

By now it was Good Friday and we were in Haiti.  The day before I had met with the mango growers.  What I did not know was that we were staying right beside the Belladere office for Economic Development.  The President, Emond Jean Resis, had heard that I was looking to find the subsistence coffee growers.

Somehow, Emond arranged a meeting with a coffee grower, Reliva Jolibrun.  He and his wife travelled 19 kilometers to see me carrying a 30 pound container of fresh ground coffee from the mountains.  His town is called the Baptist Block.

Before that meeting the mayor and his two assistants had come to the Guest House and we sat together for 2 hours while he listened to me share my heart.  The mayor gave the proposal his full endorsement and support.  I was feeling that God was orchestrating and superintending the process.  I learned that this was not ordinary coffee.  It grows in the chalky limestone of the Haitian mountains and has a deep rich flavor.  The Japanese and French fly in and buy their coffee and take it back to their countries.

I told them about JustHaiti.org and their desire to pay coffee farmers a fair trade price giving them the best hope for the future.  In that future farm families can break the stronghold of poverty that has choked the development of rural Haiti for hundreds of years.  In that future farmers would build economic independence and social justice.

We bought their coffee for $3 a pound, that is ninety cents higher than the international fair trade price promised.  I would arrange a meeting with JustHaiti.org to see if they would be adopted.