faithrunner

Legacy Cyclists , Amy Nash, Nicole Henson, and Gene Wilkes, recently took a trip to Laos to work on a coffee farm Legacy Church supports. On their first morning in country, they met a group of cyclists riding across Vietnam, Lao, and Thailand as a gesture of unity . With the help of a translator, they greeted one another. Gene exchanged his LiveStrong wrist band with a Thai rider’s “Long Live the King” band. (Thailand is a kingdom with a real king, thus the message that is also in Thai on the band.) Yes, it was Boston Marathon Monday in the USA, and I wore my 2004 participants shirt that morning. The group presented Nicole with one of their jerseys, which you will see worn among the Legacy Cyclists from time to time. (34 Legacy Cyclists ride in the Frisco to Forth Worth MS150 ride, Saturday, May 1, with Team Bike Mart .) One of the riders, who we were told was a national cycling champion in his country (actually, we were told one of the riders was a champion, but this one look...

This morning, as on most mornings, I brewed a 4-cup pot of coffee to begin my day. I never knew what it took to produce something that I have taken for granted most of my life . Last week, five of us from Legacy Church , traveled to the Bolaven Farms in Laos. There we saw the work we have supported for over a year to bring sustainable living to the farmers who worked the coffee fields. I have more appreciation than ever for what Sam Say and his team are accomplishing for those who work on the farm. Their motto is "beyond fair trade and organic." I learned that you can be labeled a " fair trade " company with only a percentage of your product designated that way. Sam wants to move beyond getting the sticker on the coffee bags for fair wages to providing a life of hope in which one day each family trained on the farm will have their own farm . And, you can be labeled organic and still use certain pesticides. Not on the land we saw. The farmers use everything fro...