Back in Kosovo

It has been about 10 days since we arrived back in Kosovo. Though we miss our friends and family in the States, we are very happy to be back to work in Peja.

The smell of ajvar floats through the air, a crisp wetness settles in, the sound of children walking to school surrounds us each morning, and the leaves begin their colorful retreat to hibernation. The Kosovan Fall is a spectacular sensory experience.

Since our return, we have met with most of our Sweet Bean employees to reconnect after our furlough. We are very proud of how our entire staff solved business challenges while we were away this summer. A few quiet afternoons last week gave us the opportunity to debrief the summer with our three managers and discuss the important role that a manager plays in guiding the entire staff toward our “golden moment,” the moment in time when a customer is standing at the display case to see if any of the baked goods strikes his or her fancy. This moment is the moment on which Sweet Bean’s survival depends—and the manager’s job is to bring all the multi-sensory components of the bakery together to make that moment a success (for us, to make a sale; for the customer, to satisfy). Our managers have grown in their effectiveness even since we’ve returned, and we are looking forward to a fruitful semester with them as our drivers.

Lacey has been back to experimenting with new products, streamlining operations, and pioneering new revenue streams. Since we’ve been back, she has tried out a few recipes from the Tartine bakery cookbook (croissants, lemon bars, apple squares, chocolate squares, gingerbread); Beautiful Breads, Fabulous Fillings by Margaux Sky (goat cheese and ajvar wrapped bread); and her favorite blogs (cinnamon raisin bagels, spiced cider, coconut cake balls). The croissants, apple squares, gingerbread, and wrap bread will likely make it onto our regular menu.

Our work at Qendra Qiriazi is also evolving this month. Our colleague, Joanna, will soon return permanently to the States after 3+ years in Kosovo. We will miss her joyful, enthusiastic spirit and natural ability to connect with high school students in Peja. In her absence, we will continue Qiriazi’s weekly leadership club, which plans and executes a bi-annual community service project. We are also collaborating with another colleague to expand Qiriazi’s work with university students in Prishtina, the capital city. Landon will continue as the Acting Director of Qiriazi. In all, we sense that our work with Qiriazi will be more focused on leadership training in the next season. We look forward to developing original, simulation-based leadership curriculum in the Albanian language and training high school and university students with that curriculum.

On a personal front, we are both exploring potential Master’s programs in the States and in Europe. We would begin a program as early as Fall 2011 and are discerning how that would play into our work in Kosovo.

We wish you all a bountiful and peaceful Fall, wherever you may spend it.

Servant Leadership Camps, July 2010

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Servant Leadership Camp If you've been reading our blog long enough, this entry will look familiar: we have completed another pair of leadership camps. Although the format and location were the same as past years', the combination of staff and students makes each camp unique and dynamic. These camps were our last projects before returning to the US for a wedding and some R&R. Landon's Dad, Mom and youngest brother came to visit and to staff the second camp. All three of them contributed majorly to that camp's success, and hit it off great with the students.
A bonus sessions with Darko, HS camp speaker. The students were hungry to learn and attended 4 bonus lectures in their free time.	Darko fields a question. It's a good sign when teenagers are awake - not to mention asking questions - at the end of a lecture!	We use lots of games (some physical!) to make the leadership and life lessons experiential and memorable!
Landon's dad, Tom, was speaker at the second camp, which was for for University students.	In both camps, students belonged to "teams" to discuss lecture themes, applying them personally.	University students are in red and camp staff are in blue, including 4 student-translators.
The Qiriazi Center has held camps at the same mountain-lodge for over 5 years in a row, and their staff really enjoy serving us.	This game of rugby/football on the mountaintop was short but fun because nobody knew the rules.	Tom takes in the view up high, while teams meet below.

Photo Diary - Spring 2010

Please scroll down to view photos. For some reason, Blogger is putting a large space in the intro.

We hope you enjoy this selection pictures from March-May! Lacey's folks came and visited us in early April. They listened to us a lot, worked a lot, and brought a lot of encouragement. SweetBean is stabilizing and maturing in many small ways as a business. Friendships on the team are also deepening. High School students remain actively involved in the Qiriazi Center for servant leadership development. The pictures below give a glimpse into these three main areas of our life.
Touring the Serbian Orthodox monastery in Peja for the first time, obligatory NATO security pass in-hand	Reviewing a new cake order form during the weekly staff meeting.	Sweet Bean staff picture: employees pose as servers, cooks, and accountants, some of the duties they all perform.
Homemade Strawberry Lemonade	Saturday morning Cinnamon Rolls	Banana Chocolate-Chunk Muffin
Wall around the Serbian Orthodox Monastery: ethnic Albanians on the outside, Serbian nuns on the inside, and Italian troops (notice watch tower) to keep them apart.	Strolling into the famous Rugova Gorge, discussing life.	John and Cee Jaye during a power outage. They got to see a lot of them in one week, and almost stopped noticing them.
Below: This spring the Qiriazi Center servant leadership club organized a basketball tournament as a service project.
Students and a ref prepare the court one morning before game time.	Full of students, especially for the final. Sports are played a lot here, but not formally, so this was a shot at big-time bragging rights.	Qiriazi Center students registered teams, arranged logistics, recruited sponsors, and kept score.

March Update

Hi again, we're back! Several incredible months have passed since our last entry! You probably know bits about what has been happening (Facebook, Skype, emails, etc.) so this will be a general update.

Sweet Bean | American Coffeehouse is bringing elegance, education and inspiration to Peja


Since Day 2 of business (Jan 5), SB has been financially profitable. Sometime later this year it will probably make-up the start-up investment and be able to expand or fund other projects. Its impact on people has also been great. Employees have opportunities and responsibilities that none of their peers have; members of the community are delighted with the smoke-free alternative to the regular Peja coffee shops! (It's the only one in Kosovo to our knowledge.) People (us too!) are challenged every day to rethink matters of business, integrity, faith, and conformity to society.

Business burst to a start, so we have grown the staff from 6 to 8 half-time workers (with one resignation and one firing in the meantime). In Jan-Mar, we been working 75 hours a week (Mon-Sat) to stay on top of the wave. (We did take one extended weekend in February to relax and get supplies in Thessaloniki, Greece.)

We look forward to closely managing the business for several more months. Once it is stable, we may open the position of "store manager" to someone here who would be ready for it.

We're embedded deeper here than most people expect foreigners to be. Customers, suppliers, the landlord, municipal officials - perhaps most of all, employees and their families - are surprised and curious at the way we've taken a stake in their community. (They reckon Peja is pretty enough to eventually be a tourist destination, it doesn't make sense that we've live here now.) Selling school kids hot chocolate to-go is quite a spectacle, but people like it. And we've made a lot of friends and customers who want something outside the distinct Peja "box".

Meeting practical needs and sharing the work week with locals is an approach we're really enjoying. They've been alongside us during good and bad surprises with the business. They've shared the triumphs of creating something that the market loves. They've seen us discipline and discharge staff members. And they've seen us at the end of our rope when we're off-script and on the verge of tears. In all of this they can no doubt see evidence of a loving God in our lives, and we haven't hesitated introduce them to Him.

In January a local cable TV crew broadcast a 20 min. show about Sweet Bean. Half of the show was an interview with Landon, which allowed us to explain the business/training combination and clarify that the Yoders are not profiting from the business.

Lacey has invented and/or borrowed recipes to make everything from scratch from locally available ingredients. On average per week SB sells about: 180 muffins, 170 cookies, 260 peanut butter fingers (in-house creation), 120 hot chocolates, 80 espresso/macchiatos/cappuccino drinks, among other products.


1. A (foreign) customer enjoys WiFi and apple pie


2-3. The TeleNet crew getting footage for the SweetBean promotional broadcast.





(Thanks Emily Harrison for the last three pictures!)
4-9. Assorted scenes from the cafe. It's less awkward to photograph the kids than adult customers!

Qendra Qiriazi

We have continued to serve with the Qiriazi Center, mostly in the evenings and on two Saturdays a month. Lacey and an American colleague teach a small English class on Tuesdays and they host a girls' night on Wednesdays. Landon and the American colleagues are leading a spring run of the "Leadership Club" which is about helping the students plan and stage a community service project. (They did an anti-smoking campaign for their high school last fall, and this spring This spring they're planning community basketball tournament.)

We are beginning to arrange for the two summer camps (high school and university) that are the high point of the Qiriazi calendar. The location and most of the format will be the same as last year. However, we are inviting new speakers and plan to accept a number of first-time applicants.

Would you be interested in visiting us in June or July to help serve these students? We are looking for several more camp trainers who would befriend and help train the participants. Please let us know if you are interested in this opportunity. We would love to share more detail with you.

Everyday Life

We finally took down our Christmas tree and decorations last week. Somehow we went blind to them until mid-February, and then continued tolerating them for another month. Work has certainly made the time fly.

Electricity was great most of the winter but took a downturn in the last month. Most recently it's been off twice a day for 2 hours. The hard part both for business and personal is the suspense of now knowing when those two two-hour blocks will come. Our emotional state can definitely rise and fall with the light! It does make us better at problem-solving though, because we always need a back-up plan.

Lacey has been mostly able to maintain her jogging throughout the winter, some indoors and some outdoors. Lately, the girls who work at Sweet Bean have met her early on Sunday morning for jog into the mountain pass. They have good heart-to-heart conversations (sometimes in Albanian!), and then talk about their sore muscles the next couple of days at work.

Thank you to all of you who are giving and praying in support of our work here! We miss our friends and family! We do enjoy staying touch with you through some form of social media or another no matter how short the messages may be!