The Countdown Is On

Hello friends, here are some news and notes from the past week

*We have only one week until we officially open up the cafe. We are having our grand opening this Saturday the 18th, and there's a bunch of stuff to do still. I'm excited for the week to come, although it will be quite busy. Today (Sunday) I have just been taking it easy because I know the rest of the week is going to be nuts. That is one thing I am excited to be disciplined about: keeping a day off (a Sabbath) for every week.
*Jennifer Thomas was down here from Wednesday until this morning and it was wonderful having her down here. She was very helpful in aiding my understanding of the cash register (which I should probably start programming pretty soon) and also made us some delicious food.
*My good friend Christine came down for a friend's wedding on Friday and it was great to catch up with her. She fine-tuned my coffee drink making skills and now I am absolutely ready for barista-ing.
*We had a great night at Crux this past Wednesday. There was a good amount of time spent playing wiffle ball and "I've never..." and then Sam spoke a passionate word on the gospel. There were a good amount of new kids there and it was great to hang out with everyone and have them hear the word.
*Pastor Matt and Marlene are coming down to visit (and Matt has to do some bishop business) on Wednesday, which I'm really excited about.
*Earlier today I checked out the new church that is renting from us on Sunday mornings, and I had a great time worshipping with them. It was an interesting experience because I was definitely the only white person in a group of about 60 people. I'm not in Spokane anymore :) We have rentors for Sunday mornings and afternoons, but we are still looking for a good partnership for the evenings. In an earlier post I mentioned we were hoping to partner with a group that wanted to do a daycare during the week, but some logistic issues caused that to not work out, which is fine.
*We ordered a stage for the cafe and that is supposed to come in tomorrow. Then we're going to get some sound equipment and get all set up for the small concerts we're hoping on having at the cafe on a regular basis. I'm stoked for those!
*Right now it is just Leo and me living in our house, but the plan is to have our buddy Chris Anderson move in sometime next month or so. Hopefully we'll be able to do some remodeling before that happens and make the house a little nicer (at least paint anyways).
*I will post some more pics of the cafe later this week to show you the progress we're making on it. I'm excited to help facilitate a community where people can belong before they have to believe in Christ, and to promote healthy relationships.
*Yesterday we had a great fundraiser for Mitch. His work, Outback Steakhouse, paid for a huge bbq and some blow up games yesterday, and we charged five bucks for people to come and eat lunch and have fun. It was tremendously successful and Mitch was very appreciative.

Wow that was a lot of stuff. If any of you are still reading, thanks. I'm doing great and adjusting more and more to life down here. Thanks for your prayers and support!

Til next time,
Doug