Tory Farina

Happy Birthday Dinner...

One of the things I love to do is eat at great places. This is my Birthday Dinner with Elizabeth at one of our Favorite places. I don't normally eat like this but I thought I would share my JOY!

Comments please...

My father n' law was at a wedding in Chile and this was the wedding cake... Comments please!

Buckle...

My Wife had a great birthday thanks to olive and I. We got her what she had been asking for.. an Herb Garden. Fresh Basil and Lavender and some other weed that smells a lot like food.

Then we she made the best most satisfying desert of all time. It is called a buckle. Fresh Raspberries in a moist cake and toped with whipped cream. Yep... think I figured out why it is called a buckle as I go back for another piece.

G-night...

The Starbucks EXPERIENCE

(a letter to Howard Schultz)
Thank you Howard,

You are making the Starbucks experience the top priority to your company. I have long had a fascination with you company. You created something that had never existed before. So many books have been written about what it is that you created but then somewhere along the line things drifted. I am not sure if it was when you put in the automated espresso machines? Or When you made drive through more of a character of your stores than comfortable seating. But now you are back with a renewed passion!

I understand the need to let others take the reigns and to allow the company to be lead by others who are talented and competent. I wonder if this will make you sketchy about turning over the reigns to someone else in the near future.

I love that you are opening up the WIFI for a few hours everyday for us who love to enjoy the starbucks experience but are subject to going to other lesser coffee shops because they do not want to spend the money to buy a coffee and the WIFI. I am ready to come back and work. Buy your beverages and enjoy your store again. Can I make two requests? Free drip coffee refills and bring back the old espresso machines. I want an artist to make my latte a Barista who has been trained and understands how to pull a good shot. A machine while being more consistent loses the human touch. I love technology and welcome an automated espresso machine in my home but I want an artist making my $5+ drink not a machine.

Thanks you for bringing back the ideals that made the company great. I hope that it works and that Starbucks goes back to being the model of excellence and passion that is has always been.

Live Your Potential,
Pastor Tory Farina- Long time fan   

Eating for the Glory of God

I am starting my new connection groups this week. We are “Running for a change.” Pun intended. I am doing some research and study on diet and exercise in the bible and am reading a book called Body by God by an Olympic wrestling trainer Dr. Ben Lerner. WOW! This is one that has been sitting on my shelf for a year or two. Great book.

He makes a point that really struck me. Food has been an issue for us as humans for a long time. I was thinking over history we have either had issues with having to little or we have had issues with having too much. Think of all the stories in the bible that involve food and the trials and tribulations that come with its pursuit.

Adam and Eve in the garden were on a strict diet. Don’t eat these two fruits. They were persuaded to eat what was not on there diet plan. Ever since then we have had issues. I have never read that passage and thought about how the negative of Adam and Eve sinning with there mouths has effected us as a human race ever since. I think about the Lambs Supper in heaven and I realize that it will not be about food. Food has so much destructive force in our society. I am just now realizing its hold on me and in my life. Think about when we eat as a society? We eat to celebrate, we eat to sympathize, and we eat to entertain… We eat for the wrong reasons. I am thinking about how our whole lives are to be in submission to the will and plans of our father and that we are to be in obedience to him.

What would our eating look like if we were eating for the Glory of God?