Roller Coasters

Ever feel like you're on the beginning part of the roller coaster when you're barely moving at all as you climb the massive hill one nerve-racking click at a time, but you know what's coming - you know you're about to move at an incredible rate of speed? That's how I feel today. I feel like we are on the God coaster and it's about to crest the hill, take off and there's no promise of ever stopping.

I feel so unprepared. I feel like there's no way I could ever be ready for this.

We've been praying for this unknown place and this church plant and faceless people for 5 years. All we knew was that we were supposed to start a church ...someday. For the past year we've known we were to come to Burlington to open a coffee shop, so we've been praying for UVM, for the spiritual heritage here, for our home, for Pearl Street or Main Street (those were our location choices). We've put all we are into this for a long time, but it as always something yet to come.

Then all of a sudden we started living this "yet to come." It's gone from someday to today in 2 seconds. It's too fast. I'm not ready.

I know what the correct response is. It doesn't change the gut tingling feeling that comes just before you plunge.

At church planters' boot camp we met two pastors who said (and this is pretty close to the direct quotes), "It's great to finally meet you. I've been praying for years for the people who would go to Vermont." One of those pastors is now our coach through this process.

At that same boot camp in Texas we met the pastor of Church of the Rock here in St. Albans. We chatted with him, shared our vision and now live in their church's house for free and they are paying the utilities and loving us and the girls and the entire church is making us part of the family.

We've been given free IT services, made connections with a sign company, were given a FREE espresso machine, we continue to meet people who "randomly" have connections to coffee roasters, who owned espresso bars, who run coffee church like we will... it's unreal. Every time we turn around, someone else is right there with a skill, a prayer, a connection or a resource we need (some we didn't even know we needed!) It's like God had this all planned out from the beginning.

Today we went to the block party for Care Net (a pregnancy clinic that counsels young girls and helps equip them to care for their baby) and met a pastor who runs an incredibly successful children's program every Saturday. I have such a burden for the single moms and dads in Burlington. I wanted to have a kids program at Apostrophe so the parents could come have free coffee while their kids are there. I want the parents. He's already doing the kids stuff.

We met a lady who owned a coffee bar who offered her services. We got the name and number of the person who is in charge of lambda iota AND we saw another house across the street that seems to be an even better fit. Then we went to a BBQ and heard how a family prayed over a house that wasn't on the market and out of their price range anyway. The next day, it was theirs. So we prayed for 371 PEARL St. Did I mention we've been praying for Pearl Street?

This is when I found myself on the coaster.

Maybe all this sounds inconsequential. To me it's like nearing the top of the hill. I can hear the clicks of the car digging into the track. I can only see the sky and nothing that even hints of the ride about to come. There's no way off now. Who'd ever get off and miss this!?