Black Gold Stirs Your Conscience

Steven Bailey, who is the director of 963 Missions, put a documentary in the hands of our Threads family last week.

I finally popped “Black Gold” into my DVD player last night. I haven’t stopped thinking about it since. It’s time you watched it, too. You can find out more about it at www.blackgoldmovie.com.

You will remember the coffee farmers in Ethiopia, who make about 8 cents a kilogram on coffee that will sell for about $230 retail (when you use a factor of 80 cups per kilo) all over the world.

You will remember the prayer of one farmer for a decent price for his coffee.

You will remember their children, who can’t afford to eat nutritious food, have shoes or attend school.

You will remember in particular the four-year-old child in the emergency feeding unit who weighs 9.5 pounds.

You will remember the coffee-buying system in our world that condemns these people to a life of poverty.

It will forever alter the way you get your coffee. It needs to alter how every church goes about getting its coffee. Just think about the impact the church could have if all of us would purchase fair trade coffee for Sunday morning and for our small groups.

Steven’s 963Missions group offers fund-raisers for groups going on mission utilizing fair trade coffee.