Banana Bread - Dec 2005
My wife speaks of times when she lived in the Amazon where food was scarcely affordable and seldom available and banana bread was a ubiquitous staple at the table. Visitors came and visitors went, all awash in amazement at the generosity from an "abundant table" rich with one delicacy (not many delicacies)… the banana bread. Bananas were abundant, did not require capital investment to produce and grew like weeds. Flour was cheap. Five pounds of flour and some creativity could feed a small family for a month. Best of all, even rotten bananas make great banana bread. The sparsity of one's table can be the abundance of another's feast, if the hearts are right.
Lynn and I have never written a newsletter. Stricken by some illumination mainly attributable to having time off after Thanksgiving, we decided to give it a shot this year. Incidentally the story above fits well with what life brings. Willing hearts may see the abundance of God's grace even in apparently sparse crumbs. Yet, He dispenses His grace not thinly but lavishly.
Atlanta is a far cry from the backyard banana trees, yet I often feast on Lynn's banana bread. The bananas are from Publix and generally not rotten. We buy flour in twenty five pound increments from Sam's Club (it lasts 6 months) not in five pound paper bags from the corner "venda". Yet, the banana bread, I bet, is every bit as good. It is not just the banana bread that is good. Wrapping up now, almost 25 years of marriage and happily enjoying life "just the two of us", much has been good.
Hard to sum up in half a page, highlights of these last few years that would be of particular interest to anyone. Hoping though, to share with you a glimpse of many things we are thankful for, we will mention some. Many of you have been gracious enough to share with us a bit of what goes on in your life, thus keeping us connected with you in fellowship.
It dawned on me the other day that Lynn and I have 19 grandchildren and counting. Lynn does a good job of keeping up with all of their names. I am reluctant to admit that I am thankful they don't visit us all at the same time. Some of these kids, in their free time, mingle with pets, chickens, horses, ducks and cows (… and sheep soon to be added to the list). Interestingly, some of them also mingle with "other kids", who are part of their household. Their parents are heading up ministries for foster and street children in South Carolina and in Goiás, Brazil. In the last four years at least 16 formerly displaced teenage boys have been positively influenced by the direct attention of Michael and Rebecca Davis and Andre and Kristy Jennings.
This year was the year of the triple-crown, or multi whammy, whichever way you prefer to look at it. Our son Edward got married… and my two sisters did too, all within 60 days. To highlight the drama of the moment, Lynn and I had accepted, a graciously paid for family vacation on dates committed within those 60 days, well before any of these couples were even engaged. July '05, for Lynn and I, was somewhat like jumping into a merry-go-round, one weekend in Sitka, Alaska, another in Seattle, WA, another in Washington, DC and, whew, the next one in Athens, GA. My boss did not have a problem with me missing one week of work after Edward and Katie's wedding in Athens. I could barely talk and laid prostrate in bed with a severe case of emotionally motivated flu, contracted from none other than a eight month old grandchild, who has not learned that young multi-children grandfathers still need to go to work to pay for wedding bills.
We are enjoying Atlanta. I roast about 6000 lbs for coffee every day, cup about 20-30 samples a week and employ 15 of the most hard working Hispanics I have ever come across. Last week I asked my production supervisor's boyfriend to be sure to take her home early Thanksgiving eve to get some rest and start enjoying the holidays. Lynn is not a big city girl by her own admittance. She has done better though, than I could possibly have imagined. The heavy traffic is but an annoyance, as she drives to Athens every Monday to look after GranCoffee Roasting Co., while our son David, GranCoffee's "CEO", basks in the sun on beaches of Fortaleza, Brazil. To his credit, he is "teaching" computer skills to kids in public schools.
Edward and Robert Bruce, both engineers, work together. If there has ever been a better combination of functional meticulousness and creative throughput, I have not been told about. Should they employ such talents synergistically and with discipline, they will do quite well in land development engineering in Athens, GA. Robert Bruce's wife Jennifer and their five children keep the mini-farm running.
Jenni Lynn and Billy in Castro, Brazil decided that four children did not present enough of a challenge for a pastor and his stone crunching, bush whacking, bulldozing, determined and driven size four wife. She is expecting…and gleeful.
Julie. Well, Julie used to love to hug trees, but that was when she was a teenager. Now she is Julie Ane VandeBrake, with three children living in Rochester, NY. A sweep of practical, frugal and disciplined Calvinism has taken her by surprise ever since she and Tim got married. Settled in the Christian Reformed Church, the denomination Tim grew up in, espousing a rational Reformed worldview and applying its precepts to actual every day life, the tree hugging days are gone but disciplined Earth stewardship is not.
Merry Christmas,
Edward & Lynn
