At 24, Rob was living the good life, far from God. However, the God of the Universe had a plan to draw him to Nicaragua and then nearer to Himself.

Rob was at his parents’ home one weekend to support his Dad during cancer treatments. On Sunday, while at his boyhood church, a presentation of a previous workteam’s journey to Nicaragua was shown. As it ended he and his mom looked to each other and asked the “Do you want to go?”. Rob saw this trip as merely an adventure to see another part of the world.

However, this ‘adventure’ to Nicaragua captured his heart and left him yearning for more. He discovered not merely the beauty Nicaragua’s landscape, but even more so, the beauty of the souls of its people. There he recognized his own poverty of soul while surrounded by poor people who had an abundance of contentment. The people of Nicaragua shared what they seemingly ‘couldn’t’ while his own generosity could best be described with ‘wouldn’t’. The Spirit in these people showed him the Jesus that he had never seen in typical American churches. This Jesus was colorful, vibrant, alive, and accepted him without reservation.

This first trip to Nicaragua was the first step towards turning his life to God.

Upon returning home, Rob began to volunteer with Young Life to share the love of Jesus that he had felt so deeply from his brothers in Nicaragua. As a Christ-follower, Rob left his engineering career to further enter the lives of kids as a high school math and science teacher. He continues to visit Nicaragua yearly to reconnect with friends he has met along the way, encouraging them as much as he is encouraged by the love that resides in them.

Francisco, or Chico to his friends, is genuinely called by Jesus.  But this call did not come instantaneously.  Chico spent most of his life chasing after a lot of the same things we all chase after – well-being, security, relationships, and pleasure.  He tells the story of the dark road he was led down, deceived by what these desires really looked like until one crisp, mountain day when Chico was introduced to Jesus at Vida Joven Camp.  This day didn’t change his inherent desires, but it did change the way they would be fulfilled for the rest of his life.  Chico is now not only a leader with Vida Joven, but a leader of leaders.  You can often find him leading the program or music teams at camp, or leading a group of students like you see in this picture.  In his words, “I was made to do Vida Joven.  There is no doubt in my mind.”  And he is right.  But Vida Joven isn’t the only thing that interests him.  Chico, an engineer and farmer by trade, is now studying theology full-time under a local Catholic parish in Esteli, Nicaragua.  And all this without ever receiving one penny from Vida Joven.  Chico’s passions are many, but they are all Jesus.

Here we see Chico where you will often find him-leading kids at our Young Life camp, situated in the mountains of Nicaragua. This past summer, Chico was one of our program leaders at all three of our new kids camps. He does a comedy routine that would rival David Letterman. Wherever Chico is, you will find kids having a good time. You will also see him off to the side, engaging a young person in serious conversation. Chico loves kids and loves bringing them to camp.

Coffee is Nicaragua’s #1 export.  So it is natural to use coffee to achieve ministry self-sustainability.  We grow this coffee right on our Young Life Camp property, inviting mission teams and Nicaraguan Young Life leaders to lend a helping hand.  We pay our workers 30% more than the going wage, and we seek to treat them as ministry partners, not simply workers.

We work diligently to keep the production costs of our coffee to a minimum. Why? Because every penny we save is used to help Nicaraguan young people attend our Young Life camp and experience the best week of their life. That is why we grow coffee on our Young Life camp. We want to tie our coffee intrinsically to our ministry. So we invite you to look at our “numbers”. We want to be transparent and to insure confidence in our customer that they are doing more than just buying a great cup of coffee. They are changing the life of a Nicaraguan young person.

Elsa Collado is a Developing Global Leader. Part of this means that she is studying French and English in a local university through a scholarship provided by Vida Joven. The other part of this means that she is a leader in her local neighborhood, impacting youth for Jesus. Over the past two years Elsa has been discipling a group of girls – two of whom (Lesbia and Rebeka) – are pictured with her. She is pouring into other students, helping them become leaders, as they together introduce students to Jesus! Elsa has recently accepted a call and is working towards opening a new Vida Joven ministry in her university – UNAN Managua – the largest public university in Nicaragua. She is a pioneer in every sense of the word – female, leader, sold-out.

Currently, we have 40 full time leaders giving their all to love kids in Nicaragua. Additionally there are over 200 volunteer leaders. This is the most important aspect of our ministry–an adult coming along-side of a young person, and sharing the truth of the Christian message. In Young Life, we talk about “earning the right to be heard” or “sweating the shirt.” We want our leaders to be where kids are, entering their world, and offering hope. We want our leaders to be growing and modeling the good news of Jesus Christ to every kid with whom they come in contact.

Thanks to some generous donors, we are currently able to provide 33 students with full time college scholarship in universities all over Nicaragua. To qualify, each of these students has a track record of academic success, faithfulness to youth ministry and are economically disenfranchised to the extent that they could attend college no other way. We are proud of these “Develop Global Leader” students. Indeed they are becoming Global Leaders.

An Editorial

Unquestionably, coffee has a checkered history, replete with graft, corruption, and outrageous marketing claims. Even today, Fair Trade coffee has often been employed as a social-conscious marketing tool, rather than as an honest description of a just wage paid to coffee producers. Some have cut their coffee with chicory, others with an inferior grade of Robusta. Some have shaved costs by selling a 12 oz bag instead of the full pound.

At our farm in the mountains of Matagalpa, Nicaragua, we are sticking to the basics. We produce a quality bean and sell only the beans we produce (we don’t buy from neighboring farms and sell them as our own). We send you a full 16 oz bag in a foil-lined bag to maintain its quality. We seek to pay our coffee workers better than a market wage, and in addition, we provide them a house (that they own), access to education, and a medical clinic nearby. We have provided scholarships to the children of our workers to send them to the university. In fact one of our lead coffee technicians went to the university in just this way.

We keep our product simple because we have a clear vision. We want to help our ministry to at-risk Nicaraguan youth become as self-sufficient as possible, not always dependent on the largess of North American donors. And so we grow a great bean, toast it to perfection, and deliver it fresh to our customers knowing that when they drink our coffee, they are directly supporting the ministry of Young Life Nicaragua.

We seek to be transparent in all we do; if you are interested, take a look at our page, The Numbers, and see for yourself the cost breakdown of a pound of coffee.

How can we say thank you to our donor? a colleague at work? A friend?

C.S. Lewis writes in Yours, Jack:
“We are all members of one another and must all learn to receive as well as give. Isn’t the spiritual value of having to accept money just this, that it makes palpable the total dependence in which we live anyway? For if you were what is called ‘independent’ (i.e. living on inherited wealth), every bit you put into your mouth and every stitch on your back would still be coming from the sweat and skill of others…. ….with the Cross before our eyes we have little excuse to forget our insolvency.”

Being on a tight budget, ever year Young Life staff struggle to find a great gift to give donors. We have a 4 oz bag of Nicaragua’s finest coffee, beautifully presented with a card that tells the Young Life story from a Nicaraguan perspective. If you’d like to see the contents of the card, click here.

We offer a gift set of either 12 or 24 bags. Our 12 bag set sells for $47.00 (shipping included). This brings the gift cost to under $4.00 and is a gift that has a double significance. It gives a great cup of coffee to someone who is giving to you, and it also helps to send Nicaraguan young people to their Young Life camp in the mountains of Matagalpa, Nicaragua. Or if you prefer, our 24 bag set costs $85 is an even better price.

Talking about a win/win proposition!

Win #1—A 4 oz bag of our dark roasted ground coffee makes a great gift!
Win #2—Your purchase makes a difference in the life of Nicaraguan young person (it sends them to a Young Life Camp for a day. We will be having three camps during the Christmas break).
Win #3—You have introduced someone to a really great coffee, and also to a really important ministry in Nicaragua.

Give a bag of coffee….
Send a kid to camp!