Daniel

For Daniel, a Radius alumnus, the past few months have brought a “quiet heaviness” in his and his team’s work that has been hard to categorize. Daniel has gone through seasons of waiting before, those he can identify. Yet the current season feels almost the opposite, with a twist. He reports it has been learning how to move forward, but without feeling ready to do so.

By God’s grace, his language learning and coffee business are both steadily progressing. He is using new vocabulary and attempting (at times clumsily) to speak more. He and his teammates are building some drying beds needed to process the coffee beans they will eventually harvest. All good and necessary things. However, this is where the tension lies. While his daily responsibilities have increased, his capacity has not. More skills and time are needed in both of these areas, but his current ability to carry them out is not there. This has brought with it fatigue and a difficulty seeing God’s goodness in it all.

If there is one area that is causing the majority of the stress, it is their coffee work. With very little experience, Daniel and his family will be troubleshooting as they go. They are beginning to identify nearby farmers to partner with and are looking to hire a couple of local employees, men who, like them, will be learning as they work. Coffee season is approaching, and the hope is to purchase and process their first ton this year. Much of it, Daniel admits, feels beyond him. Added to that, there is the work of building relationships in a community where he still feels largely unknown.

What has steadied Daniel in his tension has been reflecting on the tension seen in John 11. Jesus loved Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, and yet He stayed where He was. Not in spite of His love, but because of it. It is a kind of love, he writes, that does not always move according to human wisdom and instinct. It does not rush to relieve pressure, as we would think it should, but rather allows something slower and deeper to unfold. Something that, while one is in the middle of it, can feel confusing. Yet in this confusion, he writes, he is increasingly convinced that none of it is wasted. The same God whose love sometimes feels difficult to see is still present in the middle of it all, forming something that will last.

Pray with us for Daniel, his family, their language acquisition, community relationships, and budding coffee business. Pray that they would endure well and the Lord would strengthen them in the tension between what is being asked of them and what they feel equipped for.