"Coffee....the 8th Sacrament!"

Last year I was deployed to SW Asia, the middle of the Arabian desert.  The heat was overwhelming, 130 degrees.  The compound where we lived was not a pretty place, heavily fortified with high walls and barbed wire.  I have never seen so much sand, beige and hazy white sky in my life, nor have I ever felt the heat as hot as it was there!!

  

Needless to say, it was a harsh environment.  The work load was intense, 12 to 18 hour days 6 to 7 days a week.  Live combat missions flying every day, so the tiniest of creature comforts could lift spirits and help one through the day. 



It was one the places that seemed, on the edge of the earth!!
 


One of the the toughest things I experienced when I first got there, (well, aside from being whisked to the other side the globe, having no sleep for 3 days, flying in the cargo bay of a C-130 that did a barrel rolling “combat landing” into Baghdad, and time changing 11 hours), was having no decent coffee to drink in the morning!  The DFAC (dining facility) had coffee, but it was not very good. 

I found out very quickly I was not alone in missing a decent cup of coffee.  There were many others “like me”.  Much to my delight, the other chaplain I worked with shared a love for good, quality strong coffee and he had a “stash”.  It was sent to him from his home church and he shared his coffee with me and the others there. 

Every morning would begin with the ritual of grinding coffee, him kneeling down by the electrical outlet, grinding the coffee beans in his tiny little coffee grinder.  (It had a very short electrical cord.)  Hey, this was “serious business”!  (You have to keep a sense of humor over there!)



We started calling coffee “the 8th sacrament”!  Caffeine and prayer, a great way to start the day!  

I began to have a vision of having a “Coffee House” type ministry at the chapel, as our base had no place for people to relax and enjoy a good cup of coffee, hang out, play music, jam, or whatever.  Oh there was a place outside for people to hang out, have a drink, but it also was nearly 500 degrees out there!
  But we were in need of more good coffee....much more.



So, I began writing to my home church, organizations, friends and family at home, requesting they send good coffee.  And answer the call they did!!

 

Soon box loads of high grade coffee started arriving in the mail.  It was always a joyous occasion.  The boxes smelled really good with the aroma of coffee, vanilla beans, mocha, etc.  Heavenly sacred coffee in the Arabian desert!!



And so we tried to start an official "Coffee House" at the Chapel.  Although we served the coffee everyday at the Chapel, I wanted to have a big Coffee House event with live music, poetry readings, food, and lots of people, like on Friday nights as place to socialize, relax, have fun, etc.   



We built up the "hype" about having a Coffee House for weeks before it happened.   The young people were all excited about it!  Us older ones too!



One major obstacle we had to overcome was the bureaucracy of the USAF.  They tried to stop us from having a Coffee House as the chapel was not a "restaurant" and did not have food handler qualification. (We were in a combat zone!  Hello!) This took about 2 plus months to un-snag, and it was not easy.  But is anything easy and simple ever easy and simple in the military?

 

I built support for this vision by gaining the support of the base commander and other commanders.  How did I do this?  I gave the commanders each a bag of Starbucks or “Mystic Monk Coffee”  (to which they were delighted) and told them my vision of having a Coffee House.   The General liked the idea and asked what was the problem in getting it going. I told him and he said, “I hate the bureaucracy!”   (I really liked this General!)   Soon we had the support of the Commanders…and could bring this vision into reality!!

 

We began publicizing the event and many people got involved in helping make this a reality.   A young talented and artistic captain created us a really cool flyer for advertising the “first ever Coffee House” event.   USAF Public Affairs helped publicize it around the base.  I asked the musicians who played for the various worship services if they would provide music for the Coffee House, to which they obliged.  The Women's Bible Study group “hosted” the event by providing the labor of making the coffee and spreading the word (by word of mouth).  A captain was so excited about having a coffee house he purchased a professional quality espresso machine for the new coffee house!  



The Dining Facility was in on the action too, they provided fresh cakes, cookies and goodies.  The Jewish group made fresh challah bread, which we put on all the tables.  The Communications Squadron provided the PA, and the Recreation Center provided us the round tables so we could set things up like a coffee house restaurant.  



Finally, we held the first big Coffee House event on a Friday night.    The place was packed!  There was live music, jazz, blues, poetry readings, people talking, laughing, food, good coffee, lattes, mocha's, it was great.  The Roman Catholic priest chaplain played bass all night long with the band!  The people really enjoyed it.     



Many asked  me, ‘why didn’t you do this before, chaplain?’  If only they knew the bureaucratic snags we had to overcome!!

 



Well, it was months in the making, but it finally came to reality!    It was all just so much fun!!  It brought a lot of good times to the people serving over there.    For me too!



What was so interesting about all this was that it was no one person who made this happen.  It was the people back home who sent the coffee, it was all the people who participated in various ways just to make life a little more livable, and have some fun in a place far, far away from home.