Whatever you want to call it, we have are getting ready to open a cafe here in Ohrid. We have a long way to go, since we have not even found a place yet, but we believe that the Lord is leading us to do this and we believe it will be. We have asked you to pray about this, but we haven't given you much explanation. Well, that is about to change.
Explanation 1: Macedonians love to drink coffee and sit for hours chatting with their friends. When you sit down to have coffee with someone, you'd better be prepared to sit for a while. We love this part of our new culture, and we find that sitting for hours talking to one person always leaves room for sharing the love of Christ.
Explanation 2: Just about around every corner in our beautiful city there is a kafich (the Macedonian word for cafe bar). They are always full to the brim throughout the summer and maintain a good flow of people during the winter months. This is the hangout for teenagers, parents of young children, middle-aged people and old people. There is no age limit for hanging out at the cafe bars. It is a wonderful place to get to know people of all ages and walks of life.
Explanation 3: There is no place of evangelistic outreach in this city other than our home. We love to open our home and do so daily. But as we begin to share more, start more ministires (such as teaching ESL) or have larger Bible studies groups, we need a place to gather them.
Explanation 4: Not only did we feel impressed by the Lord to look into opening a cafe bar here, our SC who lives in Skopje also felt impressed to do so. So much so that he budgeted the money for it this year.
So, as you can see by these four points, this town needs a Christian cafe bar. It needs a place where people can come and hang out and hear the love of Christ. It needs a place where they can have access to Bibles and Christian literature while at the same time getting their daily shot of Turkish coffee.
We have a goal, lofty though it may seem, to have a cafe bar up and running by spring. We have a tremendous amount of work to do, and we need your prayers. We not only have to paint and furnish a place, but we also have to get through the legal side of opening a cafe-bar in our less than second tongue.
So, what can you do to help???
PRAY!!! PRAY!!! PRAY!!!!
Pray for an available, affordable spot. We have limited funds that are to last us all year. But we are so grateful for what the Lord has provoded through you and your gifts to the Lottie Moon Christmas offering. You are helping to make this happen! But please pray for an affordable spot, we are having trouble finding that it, and we know it is out there somewhere. Pray that we will find it.
Pray that all will go smooth with the City Hall side of things. Things could get crazy for us just because we are foreigners.
Pray that the Lord will begin to prepare the hearts of the people who will walk through those doors (whoever they may be) to hear the Truth and that many will come to know Him as Lord through this.
The requests could really go on and on, but this is enough for now. Thank you again for praying. We are excited to see what the Lord is going to do through our prayers.
