[caption id="attachment_155" align="aligncenter" width="584" caption="Fiddling with the fiddly motor"][/caption]

 

Afew years ago my family bought me a coffee roaster for my birthday. I love new things and starting new projects, so with a hint of nerves – mainly a concern not to waste too much green coffee working this thing out, I started my first couple of roasts using small batches. After a few throw outs and some semi-patient testing of each roast profile, it wasn't long before some great tasting coffee was rolling out of the Behmor 1600. Funnily enough I soon worked out the trick (aka annoying safety feature) that many had shared on forums. Namely: you have to lie to the machine and tell it you were putting a higher weight of coffee, otherwise it would come out under-roasted.

It had been roasting green coffee beans, kilogram after kilogram for many months when I noticed the rotating drum starting to oscillate and clunk in an odd fashion. I thought that it was getting a bit old now and that its inevitable demise was upon me just like everything we buy these days. Not having much expertise with electronics also put me off getting the thing apart as I wasn’t sure that I'd be able to get it back together again. Warranty? Nah, it was well gone. Service? We all know repair costs on these electronic gadgets generally out way the original purchase; so I felt I had little option but to press on and enjoy what was left of the life of my coffee roaster.

But its demise came very soon with an abortive roast wasting about half a kilo of green beans and the rotating hub disappearing inside the motor.

[caption id="attachment_156" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Rottiserie motor down the rabbit hole!"][/caption]

But that was kind of good news. The problem was clearly something mechanical and non-electrical that was causing the problem. Something perhaps I could attempt to fix. Not only did I want to keep roasting coffee at home, I had been wanting to include the appliance in my coffee appreciation show, Barista Banter. So I was keen to not give up yet.

Christian ministry is often a challenging place where we have lots of structures to operate like Sunday schools, kid’s clubs and youth groups. More importantly there are many people within a volunteer leadership team who run these structures. Importantly these structures and relationships need to be maintained for the ministry going on in them to be effective. It can often be more exciting to be developing new lines, new structures, investing in new relationships, trying to reach new people with the gospel. It’s easy to lose sight of the important but non urgent maintenance of relationships and structures that make up our ministry. Often we want to be in mission mode 100% of the time, cracking new ground and seeing new people come under the influence of God's Word. But the ‘old’ people and structures that bring people together need refreshing and motivating.

I really admire people who don't really need the new project, the new idea, who can rest in the old and making the most of what exists already. Maintenance. Administration. Ugghh! A couple of my pet hates. But how much more effective might be what I have, if I gave it a little more TLC? Instead of stretching for the next, I might score a goal with the now?! For a while we might choose to ignore the little squeaks and rumbles, the occasional grating of metal against metal, and that can be OK for a short while. Sometimes it’s best to let things work themselves out. But we can expect explosive damage and a complete halt to our ministry should we ignore the need to administer or pretend every relationship ‘issue’ will just go away.

[caption id="attachment_151" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Bracket and rottiserie motor but screws are AWALNow what?! Motor wires severed from fatigue"][/caption]