I love coffee. Have I mentioned that before? With Java, I'm like a senior citizen when it comes to free samples at the grocery...I just can't get enough.



About six months ago a man came to me with a small baggie of contraband. It was wrapped in a brown paper lunch bag with my name written on it. As the words, "What's this?" began to leave my mouth, my hands made contact with the secret substance and my nose clued me in on what was inside. Before he even said anything, I knew it was coffee.

The aroma was so stout and confident...these weren't like other coffee smells I had come in contact with. As I opened up the paper sack, I could see that there was a small plastic sandwich bag filled with beautiful, dark-brown coffee beans. A masking tape label was displayed prominently reading: Roast City #1 - Guatemala

Glancing up from my surprise, he said to me, "I know how much you like coffee...so I figured I would let you try some of mine. I've been roasting my own coffee at home and I brought this for you."

This man is a coffee purist. While he doesn't have a lot of money, he definitely appreciates the finer things in life. He's developed an at-home method of roasting his own raw coffee beans that he orders online. This allows him to take part in a hobby, experience some of the finest coffee known to man at a much lower price, and share something he loves with people. Oh...and his at-home roasting method consists of a popcorn popper, open doors/windows, and lots of experience.

Thanking the man for the coffee I walked away and I didn't see him for a week. When I did see him again. He had another bag of coffee for me. It was also appreciated. When I saw him a week after that, he brought me yet another bag of home-roasted coffee that was out of this world in quality. At this I had to ask him, "Why are you bringing me coffee every week?"

He told me that he really appreciated all the things I did for people and that this was just his way of being able to serve me and say thank you. He told me that while he doesn't have much money, this is a way for him to do something of high value for me. Dollars permitting, he has brought me a small bag of coffee beans each week for the last six months. I've consumed every last bean.

This man is living out of excess rather than absence.

And he has no idea how much that means to me.

Flipping through the phone book turned up a surprisingly small number of church possibilities for us this Easter Sunday. It was between two of them; Eastpoint United Methodist and First Baptist (or something like that). We decided that the United Methodist church probably had lower standards so we opted for that one. Plus, it worked out perfectly for our brunch reservation afterwards.

3 carloads of us pulled up and giggled simultaneously. I'm fairly certain that all of us were thinking the same kinds of thoughts as we looked upon the one-room, maximum occupancy of 40, middle-of-a-trailer-park, traditional-as-all-get-out, Methodist church building.

A younger man, whom we would learn to be Bill, was running back and fourth frantically pulling out metal folding chairs for some sort of an outside event. He raced over to us to hand us a full-color Easter program for the upcoming service...you could tell they had went all out on these programs. They had colored stamps and Easter-egg prints all over them. Everything was laid out like a southern wedding down to the minute in a play-by-play break down. A sense of excitement flooded us as we walked in and tripled their congregation.

The pastor was energetic and uber friendly. He wasn't the normal he as he was a she and she was there to praise Jesus. Her name was Beth.

As we waited for the service to start I read through the colorful program. My favorite part was the bottom line of the last page. It read: Last Weeks Offering $286.29 - to think that this place is staying afloat on less than $300 per week is a miracle in itself.

The sanctuary filled up with close to 30 people for the Easter celebration...it was obviously a huge turnout that they weren't used to. The pastor opened up the service by making us, yes our family, all stand up and introduce ourselves. She said that anyone who traveled all the way from Cincinnati OH just to be with them was worth introducing. The twelve of us all shared our names and told them why we were there. It was excellent and for some reason not at all embarrassing.

We then moved into a prayer of praise where everyone in the church stood up, held hands in a circle, and shared something that they were thankful for. So simple and meaningful.

A couple terrible songs later and we found ourselves listening to a message of little substance...that didn't matter though - the substance was in the surroundings. That little place lived and breathed Jesus. After the message we were all escorted outside where Bill, who had himself set up the outdoor sitting area, would be baptized into the family of God. They didn't have a baptismal, but they did have a bird bath and two bottles of Ice Mountain water.

We all stood around Bill as he was sworn in as the 4th official member of Eastpoint United Methodist and we prayed as he was sprinkled with with blessed, bottled, bird bath water. After he was baptized, we all came up to him and laid hands on him to pray a blessing over his life. That was a beautiful site I won't soon forget.

We ended the service by taking communion together as a family in Christ. Homemade bread dipped into fruit juice never tasted so good. All in all this was the best Easter service I've ever been a part of. It was a vision of the Kingdom of God alive in Apalachicola County.

Family is everywhere...even in the places we least expect it.

This week's Creative Chaos is devoted to a yellow plastic bag.

We started placing empty yellow bags out in the lobby about 2 years ago. Our thought was simple, and that was to put some skin on an Acts 2 principle. The scripture says that everyone shared their stuff and made sure each person had what they needed. The empty yellow bags have a note inside requesting basic foods / items such as canned goods, boxed dinners, cereal, soap, toilet paper, and so on and so fourth. The idea is that you would pick up this empty yellow bag and then you would return it full to the lobby and just set it out there.

For the past two years there has not been one weekend where there are not yellow bags exchanged. It's so smooth and it's so simple. You have extra? Fill up a bag. You don't have enough? Take a bag. Many people who would never ask for help are willing to walk over and pick up a bag or two as they walk out the door. It's a beautiful thing. We call it Common Ground and occasionally we'll do a big push for lots and lots of yellow bags to give where they're needed. Last week we dropped off a truck-load to a local food pantry that is serving our community. That's that.

The side of these bags has a graphic on them that says, "Small things done with great love will change the world."