ATTENTION Coffee Lovers

I started drinking coffee when I was in college. At that time, I was a Chemical Engineering student at the University of Tennessee Knoxville and was a co-op at the Champion Paper Company in Canton, North Carolina. In the lab where I worked, there were at least three coffee pots going at all times. In order to drink anything else, I had to walk through the plant - and anyone who has ever had to walk through a paper plant knows all that means - to find a soft drink machine or to get to the cafeteria.

I left the engineering program, but I never abandoned drinking coffee. Coffee was my companion through all the rest of my educational path - every degree - and at every job I have had since. Many people at churches I have served believe that my right hand is curved in a perpetual "cup holding" curve.

I give my bona fides because I want to alert anyone who loves really good coffee and wants to make a positive difference to something extraordinary. Last Summer, through the Sweetwater Coffee House in Sautee, Georgia, I discovered the Thanksgiving Coffee Company. This company was one of the first fair-trade companies operating in the United States. That means the company has pledged to pay a fair price to the farmers who actually grow the coffee.

Through Thanksgiving Coffee, I discovered Mirembe Kawomera coffee. This coffee is grown in Uganda by a co-operative of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim farmers. Thanksgiving Coffee has pledged to buy the entire crop produced. In addition to paying fair-trade prices ($1.61 per pound which is MANY times more than a farmer would get from the grocery store coffee brands), Thanksgiving Coffee gives back $1 to the co-operative for every pound of coffee it sells.

Let me encourage you to look at the web-site, http://www.mirembekawomera.com/, to get the full story. AND, let me encourage you to present information about this coffee to your community of faith, within your neighborhood, and with all of your friends who love coffee. THEN, ORDER COFFEE.

Covenant Congregational Church, which I serve as pastor, ordered coffee from Thanksgiving Coffee last Fall. I cannot say enough good things about the service we got and about the quality of the coffee. It is wonderful to know that we are making a difference in this part of the world just by drinking good coffee.

COFFEE LOVERS ARISE!!