Check out the Scribbles coverage!! A front page layout and two page spread of our good and supa dupa friends - The Rawd and Carla and a kind touch of Sophia!!
A great way to support the "restoration of all things" and care for our city and support the small businesses and the true lifeblood of Kent.
The Restoration of all Things... begins with small things [like coffee shops.]
The point in the restoration of our cities and communities is not to eventually dominate them. The point is to provide a flow of individual efforts that support each other and give and to likewise graciously annihilate the competitive agenda that seeks to divide and conquer. Which will hopefully turn the hearts of competitive driven folks to consider their neighbor first.
It is the same scenario found in the Gospels. Bring your "fishes and loaves" to the table no matter how much or little you have of them. The disciples tried to look at statistics when they were told to feed the 5,000 hungry folks that gathered near to Jesus. Really look how they responded to Jesus in the story. And so how did Jesus respond to their stats? Jesus looked to His Father in heaven and gave thanks for what there already was and had nothing to say about what there wasn't. This was a tough lesson for the disciples to learn as it is for us on what true community effort looks like. Community in fullness functions in a complete and healthy state when we share and lend of ourselves with no expectation of a thank you or reward.
My experiences and observations are that the "Mom and Pop" stores have always been the truest identification of that scenario. They are the true blood of both small towns and big cities. You care about the neighbor and the neighborhood because it is right and good to do simply just that.
Listen little flock: It is in Yahweh's character to provide such things as good neighbors that will infect neighborhoods in need with His likeness.
So why bother with a small fair-trade coffee house effort like my friends do? Because as a Christ-follower and image-bearer of Yahweh, you should consider and act upon the concern for the products you buy and sell, as a hope to also care for the producer of the goods rather than target yourself as the only one to make out on the success of a business.
My Dad retired at the age of 45 after successfully running a business of his own in East Cleveland. With 13 children to still care for he was able to retire in his mid forties. There is a lot to be said about that. If you ask him what made the business truly successful he will tell you that if you run a business for the purpose of your own gain it will destroy you and those around you but if you run a business for the purpose of taking care of your employees and their families you will succeed in doing just that.
May we seek to do just that in all that we do.
(my inspiration to write this comes from Tom Sine's: Mustard Seed vs. McWorld, Henry Nouwen's: The Road to Peace, and my sweet and gentle friends, Rodney, Carla and little Sophia because they are brave enough to actually do it.)
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