What do you talk about over a cup of coffee? In Ethiopia, they talk about AIDS.

As you know, I was in Africa earlier this month, with a group that included Christian author and preacher Max Lucado and his family, Women of Faith’s Mary Graham, and Thomas Nelson Publishing CEO Mike Hyatt and his wife, Gail (see Mike and Gail’s beautiful pictures at his site). We all emerged exhausted, mosquito-bitten, and incredibly blessed.

One of our first experiences was a traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony. Women dressed in ceremonial white costumes and beaded jewelry roasted coffee beans until they were shiny and black, ground them, stirred them into a black clay coffee pot, and served the aromatic brew with lots of sugar in tiny china cups. Ethiopians don’t rush their coffee. These ceremonies are a place to linger and talk.

That’s why the Hope and Light Association, a World Vision-supported HIV and AIDS advocacy group in Ethiopia, uses coffee ceremonies to bring people together to talk about the disease—to help communities break the stigma of AIDS.

Metages Legesse, the mother of two sponsored children, lost her husband to AIDS and then found that she, too, was infected with the virus. Sadly, her best friend shunned her. Metages says she wanted to die. Instead, she invited her friend to a coffee ceremony at the Hope and Light Association. Sip after sip, the two women reconnected. Metages still lives with HIV, but now she lives with joy. (Read about how a church in Zambia overcame the stigma of AIDS in my book on pages 235-237.)

At the coffee ceremony, we drank coffee, munched popcorn, and broke bread with hundreds of association members, including HIV-positive children. They welcomed us like family in a room that glowed with candlelight.

Now back in Seattle, I’m as busy as ever, starting the morning rush with coffee I gulp quickly so that I can get on with the business of the day. But I admonish myself to stop and smell the coffee—and reflect on the transformation I saw in Ethiopia.

I met so many amazing people I want you to know. I’ll share more stories in the coming weeks, and soon I’ll add a photo slideshow of my trip to the Gallery section of this site.

And, I enjoyed reading last week’s comments from Mike and Anne who both wrote about coming face-to-face with people in poverty and how that affected them. I’d love to hear from more of you. Together, perhaps, we can create an online coffee ceremony where we linger and share our stories. Let’s talk.