We are open!

Ok, we have been open for 2 whole weeks. I know I should have posted this 2 weeks ago but its been non-stop for us. Business is growing each day but will need to grow a bit more for us to actually live on our sales. For today the rent is paid and we are eating at least three times a day so Praise the Lord!


We are learning the ropes of running a business which is very different than running a church :) Fortunatly we have lots of people who love to give advice on what we should be doing. I think that if you offer advice you should fund it, but I keep that to myself most of the time. I loved the customer that told me we should have flat screen tv's (I think she meant more than one) to watch while customers wait in line. I am trying to decide whether that was a comment critical of the wait or a loving bit of advice from her lengthy travels and experience with the coffee shop trade. I will assume the latter and add it to the list of improvements.


Seriously, we have really enjoyed the times that people wanted to hang out, drink their coffee and chat. The one aspect of having the shop that I was looking forward to is building relationships. We do have a growing list of regulars that we get to chat with each day. I pray that grows into neat opportunities to share God's love and His Word with them.

Who wouldn't love coming to work with this beauty every day?

Bek's favorite job is cashier, which she excels at.

Pray for our Inspections tomorrow

In God's perfect timing we are ready for inspections, we have the health department, City Engineer (building inspection) and the Fire Marshall coming tomorrow. Please pray for grace and favor as we go thru these inspections. After we pass we can then apply for a City of Enterprise Business permit and then we are in business. We are so excited :) Here are some pics of the finished place.

Welcome to Boldly Going, can I help you?

The study table, brewed coffee and snack prep area

A view from the back corner

Top secret coffee prep area with classified equipment and ingredients-shhhh!

Call me if you need a description of this room

The office and storage room beyond.

Things are happening FAST now...

I am sorry for the lack of posts this month, we are in the final phases of getting this shop up and running and we have been putting in some long hours. Here are some updated pics of what we have been up to.

The flooring guys started two weeks ago. We decided to go with a stained concrete floor. they had this huge grinder that ground the floors down to a base level

After that they cut "tile marks" into the floor, you can see Tropical Storm Fay moving in outside...

and then it was back to polishing, at this point that old concrete slab felt as smooth as marble

Finally the stain was applied and there was more polishing, the final steps involved 3000 grit diamond "blades." Don't mind all that drywall and concrete dust, we were told we couldn't get the floor wet for a week.

With the floors done it was time for the wall guys to finish up the walls and install the counter tops so we could start painting.

The plumbers also returned and got our sinks, mop sink and bathroom hooked up.

Mike Birkey from Cactus Creek Coffee spent two days down here getting all our equipment installed, he is a truley gracious man. We had to immeadiatly cover all our new toys while the wall work and DUST continued to fly.

Meet Tommy our contractor

Our Signs were installed on Wednesday evening while we were at Bible study, it was a neat surprise.

Is that not the bluest sky you have ever seen?

After 3 very long days we got the painting done and Tommy's guys started getting the trim up, we are very pleased at how nicely all the colors came out.

We still have alot to do with all the finish work, clean up, furnishing and inspections but there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Lord, you have a very nice coffee shop, and we appreciate all the grace and provision you are pouring out on us thru this process. We are learning to trust you, wait on you and most importantly give our expectations over to you. Your will be done...

Nate turns 18

Last Saturday was Nate's 18th - Happy Birthday buddy.

To celebrate the occasion Denise and Rebekah travelled up to North Carolina to spend the weekend with him. They took all the fixings for a celebration dinner. Here are a few Pics from that dinner:

Nate blows out the candles in his coconut creme birthday pie.

Nate singing lead for the "Rock Band"

Nate and his adopted little sister Gabby opening presents

Nate and Bek enjoying the evening

It seems a good time was had by all, sadly Mom and Bek had to leave the next morning. They will return in two weeks for the Fayetteville Academy game. See you then...

Sunday morning study starting August 10th

Before we arrived in Alabama, we decided we would attend the Calvary Chapel in Ft. Walton Beach, Florida on Sunday Mornings until we felt like the Lord wanted us to start our Sunday morning fellowship. I knew with gas prices near $4 per gallon we wouldn't drive the 90 miles each week so the plan was to watch their live internet video stream on the off weeks. In a litte over two months we have actually only gone twice. Never the less, we (the Lanes and Blakleys) were enjoying our Sunday's in their living room worshipping together and breaking bread afterwards. A few weeks later the Edlers joined us and the first church problem offically reared its head. Each week we had six adults, one Rebekah and SIX kids under nine. After two weeks we decided to start a rotation to teach the kids (was it our desire to minister to them or just keep them quiet? The world may never know.) Thus the Calvary Chapel Enterprise Sunday school program was born. We may not be a church, but we have Sunday school - lol!

I knew I didn't want to offically start "church" until we had enough people to minister to all who would be coming. I figured we would at least need some basic nursery care and an elementary age Sunday school class (got that one) not to mention a PLACE to meet. As usual my expectations and God's will collided. After we had to improvise last week when the Sunday morning live feed just vaporized I decided to pray about starting this week.

My other main issue with starting "church" was a time issue. Preparing to teach 2 times a week has a rather hefty time committment. We will also be opening up the coffee shop soon and to be honest I have no idea what that is going to take out of me. As I tried to calculate six 14 hour work days, study time (12-20 hrs) and then the actual time spent teaching (2 hrs) I came up with about 106 hours per week. So as I started whining to the Lord about this He reminded me that I can do all things thru Him and that His provision is not limited to financial matters.

So with that in mind I see a green light and the door is open... I didn't come all this way to turn back. Keep us in your prayers.

P.S. For Jodi and Laura, I got this cool thing today.

It's a digital voice recorder and I will be able to post up the Genesis study and after the first 18 chapters you will be able to pick up where we left off in Bible 101 - Promise kept :) You can go here for my audio archive, there is not much there yet but it will be coming soon.

More progress...

There is more progress to report this week, despite a slight delay due to flooring issues we are on track again. Tommy and his crew are knocking out the serving area dividing wall and finishing up the back office, bathroom and storage area. We will be priming the walls today and meeting with a second flooring guy to get the concrete floors stained and sealed up. Hopefully by the end of next week the walls will be painted, floors done, trim nailed up and plumbing connected so we can get the coffee making equipment installed. God is so good! We are hoping to be open by the last week in August.

Keep praying please!

After going back and forth about installing cabinets, we finally decided to put up a "serving wall" and use the stainless steel prep tables you see in restaurants. They are much cheaper than cabinets and the health department loves em.

The cash register and ordering area

The serving and prep area

Finishing up the back office, bathroom and storage area

Bathroom floors patched up and ready for fixtures

The plumbers are plumbing HOORAY, hooray!

A quick update, I am guessing you know what is happening here right? Yes at long last the guys with the droopy drawers have shown up to get some pipes installed.

This is the mandatory employee bathroom I had to install for the employees I don't have, but its ok because I love the health department and I love making sure plumbers don't go hungry.

Someone was having fun with their shiny new jackhammer, I bet the lawyer next door decided today was a golf day.

I swear they had to cart this dirt in here... I mean seriously, where did it all come from?

another pic to take up valuable Internet bandwidth

I was actually impressed with what they got done today. When Ray the plumber told me it would only take two days I thought "yeah right" but tomorrow I may have to think "gee mister plumber guy, I'm sorry I doubted you." There is still work to do outside to hook up the drain lines to the sewer and there are water lines to run and a water heater to install but things are moving right along and I am stoked about that.

Go Plumbers!