Yesterday I put a post on Facebook (and later took it down) jokingly mourning the fact that my American coffee and Jolly Ranchers in last years Christmas barrel ran out.
They DO Have coffee in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, but its either Folgers and Maxwell House, which for a coffee snob like me doesn’t really count 🙂
The truth is all missionaries have at least one thing that they genuinely miss from the States. It can be something as important as relationships with family or friends, or in my case something as trivial as proper coffee.
It is frustrating that you cannot get what you want on the mission field sometimes, but its also a blessing from God. Because it shows you many of the “necessary” items are things you can actually live without.
To describe it another way, Americans have a very convenient life. If something runs out, all you need to do is take a quick trip the local Wal-Mart. Being able to replace things conveniently is a huge blessing, but it means you don’t have to live without things for very long.
On the mission field however you often cannot replace an item till November when the Christmas Barrel comes in!
Please understand I’m not feeling sorry for myself here. In fact, that is the blessing because doing without something like good coffee for five-months shows it’s a “luxury” and not a “necessity.”ed
That doesn’t mean we deny ourselves every luxury in life, but we are willing to call it a luxury instead of something absolutely necessary
By God’s Grace in November I’ll get a new shipment of American Coffee that will last till the Summer of 2020. Till then I will enjoy my Maxwell Hose, and thank God for meeting my daily needs, even if He doesn’t provide luxuries
Johnhwilburn.org 
2 responses to “Saying Goodbye to American Coffee”
This is confusing. You “saying goodbye to AMERICAN coffee” yet to my knowledge Maxwell House Coffee IS American Coffee. So is Folgers. Our thirty plus years on the mission field was without Christmas barrels, and so with EVERY BMM missionary prior to us. You have a luxury that no previous missionary in St. Vincent that I know had/has or took advandge of. Last I checked, you can send items to SVG, in a barrel, all year round. Like the song books that just came in.
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Thanks so much for your input. I agree 100% that I have more luxuries than missionaries in the past. The lack of convenience does makes it harder to get luxuries, but that is a blessing, since these are things we can live without anyways. Thanks again for your help.
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