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Welcome to Stuff I Learned Yesterday. My name is Darrell Darnell, my favorite type of chocolate is dark chocolate, and I believe that if you aren’t learning, you aren’t living.
British author Roald Dahl’s book, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was first published in 1964. Nearly 20 years later I became familiar with the book while in fourth grade. Our teacher, Mrs. Humphery, read the book to our class. Once she finished the book, we watched the 1971 film adaptation, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory starring Gene Wilder.
I genuinely loved both the book and movie, mesmerized by the idea of the fantastical wonder found inside the walls of the chocolate factory and dreamed of what it would be like to be able to tour a chocolate factory and eat all of the treats found within it. I was also completely oblivious to its attempted lessons on watching too much TV, disrespecting authority, being ungrateful, or anything else. I’m sure there are worthy lessons to be found within its pages, but today we’ll be looking at a different book for lessons.
In May of 1999 the wonderful Kari and I tied the knot, which means earlier this year we celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary. Kari doesn’t really like to travel, but she does like to visit places. We’ve discovered that taking cruises is something she really enjoys. Sure, we still have to travel to get there, but after that, it’s essentially a floating hotel/restaurant/entertainment venue/chauffeur for all of the things you want to do while on vacation.
We booked a four night cruise on the Disney Wish sailing out of Port Canaveral with stops at Disney’s private island, Castaway Cay, and Nassau, Bahamas. The first morning of our cruise I awoke just as our ship was entering the port. I stepped out onto our private veranda and breathed in the cool, refreshing morning air. Looking straight off our balcony I could see the Nassau Harbour Lighthouse and Paradise Island.
A moment later our boat began to turn sharply. Much to my amazement, I witnessed the port pilot steer the massive cruise ship into a complete 180 degree turn, perfectly backing the 1100 foot long cruise ship into dock. With our side of the ship now facing south, we had a beautiful view of Junkanoo Beach, the straw market, downtown Nassau, and the nearby Margaritaville Hotel.
We were excited for our day ahead. We’d enjoy a bit of a lazy morning before catching breakfast around 8:30 and then meeting up with our excursion guide. After the excursion, we’d planned to do some shopping around the straw market, and then relax on our veranda while taking in the beauty of the island view.
What excursion had we planned? We had each channeled our inner Grandpa Joe and allowed the alluring wonders of a chocolate factory to serve as our motivation for getting out of bed that day. After a quick stroll down the pier to meet up with our driver, we soon found ourselves standing at the curb of Graycliff Chocolatier.
Once inside we were given protective gowns and hair nets. I first assumed these were to protect the chocolate from getting contaminated by those of us on the tour. I eventually discovered it was also to protect our clothing from all of the chocolatey goodness we’d enjoy that day!
Once we were suited up, our tour guide began by telling us about the process for making chocolate. We learned that once the cacao fruit is ready to be harvested, the beans inside the fruit are separated from the rind and then fermented. Once that’s complete, the beans are dried, roasted, winnowed, and then ground up to create a liquor. Once that’s complete, sugar and other ingredients are stirred in while the liquor is heated to just the right temperature, which tempers the chocolate and makes it perfect for pouring into molds.
We not only learned about how the process is done today with modern machines, but we learned how ancient people performed all these tasks. We then toured the factory, which looked absolutely nothing like the movie or the book depicted, and never once did I spot an oompa loompa! But we got to see all the machines in action that process the beans from dried status all the way to being ready for molds. We even got to taste dark, milk, and white chocolate straight out of the mixing machines!
Once the tasting was complete, we each chose our favorite type of chocolate and made our own chocolate bars with other ingredients like dried cranberries, coconut, and marshmallows. Once those had cooled, they were boxed up and our tour ended in the gift shop which was full of dozens of chocolatey goodies for us to buy.
Here’s what I learned.
Cacao trees are grown all over the world in places like Malasia, Indonesia, Ghana, Cameroon, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic. Our tour of the chocolate factory included a map showing us where most of the world’s cacao is grown, and over 25 countries were included on that map. However, one place they are not grown is The Bahamas. For many years, efforts have been made to grow cacao in The Bahamas, but their soil and climate is just not quite right.
As we looked at the map and learned about this part of their process, a specific New Testament passage came to mind from the book of John when Jesus said, “For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”
That may bring to mind a similar passage in 1st Corinthians where Paul said, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor.”
No one at the chocolate factory labored to plant, nurture, or harvest the cacao. But those are not the only steps necessary in turning cacao into chocolate. The planting, nurturing, and harvesting were critical steps in the process, but after that, others came along who took the baton and carried on with the refinement process that eventually brings about the delicious confection we call chocolate.
A few weeks ago I shared an episode called Professing Your Faith that talked about living out your faith in everyday situations. In doing so, hopefully you’ll build genuine relationships with people that will plant seeds, those seeds will grow into conversations that will water those seeds, and God will use that work to grow it into something wonderful.
I very much want these episodes to be a type of seed planting and watering in the hearts of all who listen. Sometimes I may be planting the first seed, other times I may be watering the seed that someone else has already sown. All of us who are already believers should live by faith, be a voice of hope, and be known by love. In this way we let our light shine before others, that they may see our good deeds and glorify our Father in heaven.
Chocolate treats are wonderful, but there’s something much better. Thousands of years ago King David said it best when he said, “Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.”
I’m Darrell Darnell, and this has been Stuff I Learned Yesterday.
I want you to be a part of the next Monday Mailbag on December 30th! Monday Mailbag is your opportunity to Share what YOU’VE learned, so that other listeners and I can learn from YOU. It can be a message as short as 30 seconds or several minutes long. It really doesn’t matter just as long as it’s something that will benefit others. You can send in questions or responses to my SILY episodes, and I’ll respond to them via Monday Mailbag episodes. You can participate in Monday Mailbags by visiting the Golden Spiral Media listener feedback page.