Percolate

My days are filled with coffee....and hot chocolate and cider, and some foamy chai lattes, but mostly pot after pot of hot black coffee. Spring has been a season that I came upon by surprise.

There is a little dry erase board on our refrigerator. A list of importants are documented with a smudgy felt-tipped pen. It was our goal to pray for these things every night. Family, marriage, vision, ministry. And somewhere in the middle of the list, I asked for a spring job.

Spring was rapidly approaching, and honestly, after several nights we had forgotten our little smudgy plaque. But just as suddenly as I had forgotten the request, God had answered it and it wasn't really even about the job.

Hebrews is the camp coffee shop. Small and cozy with it's painted cement floors and brightly hued bar stools. Frequented mostly by a bustling staff coming in for a passing hot chocolate, or guest teachers taking a break from their tribe of 5th graders.

Our candy bar. You can't see it, but there is a killer candy selection in there.

My job isn't hard. Stir in some cider mix, add a dash of caramel syrup, hand it over with a genuine smile. Take wadded up dollar bills from a long line of rag-tag elementary kids holding broken hearts behind fists full of candy. Say a quick prayer for one of the staff heading out to communicate Christ using mountain bikes instead of words. Throw sprinkles on top of whipped cream, because sometimes it just helps.

But my favorite part of this season is watching and gathering. Gathering pieces of lives and personalities over hot drinks. Gathering stories of the Holy Spirit whispering to little lives and shining rays of hope onto broken hearts. Watching staff lives rub together, creating the kind of stretch and tension that enlarges hearts and shines up Christ-likeness. All of this, gathered over pot after pot of coffee.

You know the sound. The sound of coffee as it percolates. The drippy, hissing stream as it trickles into your awaiting pot. That's the sound of my season. Behind the bar, I keep the coffee pot running, sending steaming water through dark coffee grounds, filling up the carafes that draw people in. I looked up the word percolate. I know. Who does that? It means to filter gradually through a porous surface or substance. Its like a strainer. It's a process that purifies and changes a substance.

I am observing this very process through lives. I am watching the Holy Spirit stir hearts, break strongholds, stretch limits. He is taking this season of staff, and kids, and Jesus and pouring His life changing presence into it. It is lovely to watch pieces of people and stories and Truth mixed together with God's sovereignty and grace. It is miraculous to watch the aroma rise, the comfort and restoration come.

So, I sit behind that bar and watch it percolate. I watch the Kingdom rise.

This is our thankful tree. We cut down and aspen and posted it in a cozy corner.  It's branches hold notes and white lights. And to our surprise, after three weeks of being cut down it has survived and is sprouting leaves!