One year on...

It's been just over a year now since the building work began. Phase one is complete and our doors have been open to the public since May. It's been great to see the place being used well, not just by us but by other groups in the community like the new mother and toddler group. Cafe Izaya is going well so far. We have a great team of volunteers and a good bunch of regulars who come down and hang out at the cafe. I love the atmosphere there - like hanging out with family. It's been a bit of a rollercoaster getting to where we are now and the journey's not over yet. We've learned a lot and only just feel like we've totally got our heads round running the place. But now we've got the hang of the basics it gives us freedom to start to grow this thing and really see where we can take it. Jeff and I are both gonna be stepping back from the cafe and moving into new things but we've already started training up people to take over. Mel is great with the youth and has lots of ideas - I'm looking forward to seeing where she's gonna take things in the future. And Tom is great at all the stock control, accounts, health and safety and all that jazz. He's already really helped things to run a lot more smoothly!!!

progress report

Sorry for not updating much recently. Here's all the latest news...
Most of the major building work has been completed. The electrics have fallen behind due to the recent bout of flu but hopefully it'll be finished by the end of next week.
We now have carpet and sofas and are in the process of arranging for flooring to be fitted. We can't wait til it's done!!! It's been a long process and not quite as smooth as we'd hoped but we've learnt a lot ready for next time we undertake any building projects!!
It's been great to see people getting behind the project and helping out. We had quite a few people sign up last weekend to help. I'm really looking forward to working with all the volunteers and building a really good team. If anyone else wants to sign up it's not too late - come and talk to me or Jeff, we still need plenty more people!!!
Thank you so much for all the prayers, support, free stuff and words of encouragement. Please continue to pray...
-for the churches to work together
-for protection over the building and the work going on
-for wisdom, courage and strength for me and Jeff as we lead the project

We shall name it....Rodney?!

We finally have a name for the cafe.....

Cafe izaya

Why? We wanted a name that encompassed some of our vision and the things God's been speaking to us about. After much experiementing with water related names we srapped them all and started again. God's been speaking to us loads through the book of Isaiah - so much that it'd be impossible to pick out one key verse, we'd have to share half the book. So we decided to name the cafe after it. but we all know how hard it is to spell so we invented our own spelling and took the north American pronunciation in honour of Jeff's Canandianess.
Hope you like it. Please feel free to leave comments. Thanks

more photos (there must be an easier way)

more photos

Photo's!!!!

Busy, busy!!

After a few weeks of relative calm now things are crazy busy!!! It's that last minute rush trying to order all the stuff we need and hoping we haven't missed anything vital!!! As I write Jeff is busy number crunching to make sure we don't go over budget.
This Saturday (9th Dec) is the official first day of building!!! It's all hands on deck as we take out old furniture, move stuff into storage, rip out electrics, clean, paint, knock down walls and 101 other things. If you're not busy then come down and join us any time from 9am. A BIG thank you to all who have already volunteered.

Here's the cafe...

This is what the building looks like from the outside. The cafe will be in the shed-like section at the back.

A rose by any other name...

It looks like we are going to have to scrap the name Zion and choose something different. What does anyone think about the name 'motsa mayim'?

Exciting news!!!

It's official - phase 1 of building work on the cafe starts on Dec 8th!!! We have a lot to do in a short space of time (has to be complete by Dec 31st!) but we believe that God can do miracles so I'm sure it will be fine. Phase 1 will include flooring, lighting, rewiring, putting a second skin on the building and insulation. We've had a few donations of furniture to see us through until our next lot of funding comes in and we can go shopping in Ikea! It's all very exciting. We hope to begin running activities in the cafe from early January. Feel free to come down and visit - we'd love to see you!