The Grand Opening

  

  Thanks for all your prayers! 

Good morning! Considering all of the encouraging notes and prayers that we have received over the last week, I thought I should give you the details of last nights Grand Opening for Cafe Y Algo Mas. The preparations list is always longer than you really think is, so there wasn't much of a calm before the 4:00 storm - in fact, we were finishing up just in time to open the doors at 4:00 when we realized we hadn't yet turned the coffee pot on! Oops! But the first few hours were pretty slow and the storm didn't hit until 6:30 or 7 (we are quickly learning that we are going to have to "revisit" our hours of operation....Mexicans eat late and get home from work late so we think we'll have much better interaction with people if we stay open till 9:30 or 10. We had intended to close at 8 last night, but we were too full to even think about that!! Ya, it was an interesting and successful evening! At first we were tracking our sales per hour - and that went out the window once business picked up because it was a bit too chaotic to worry about it by then. We were handing out free samples to people on the street and a few came in to purchase something - but only "to go". Around 6 or 6:15 we had a large family sit down, then a few sat at the bar...some bought and said they were going home to get their family and return, one lady came back 2 or 3 times throughout the evening. It was a whole lot of fun! We had a selection of 5 desserts - banana bread, brownies, carrot cake, cinnamon rolls, and pound cake with strawberries and cream. I thought we would have plenty to last through last night and tonight as well - but it is back to the kitchen! We ran out of carrot cake, pound cake, almost out of brownies and banana bread, but have enough cinnamon rolls, I think. Another suprise - I didn't think the carrot cake was going to sell and it was the hot item. Another great thing is the shop right next door to us just opened up too - and it is an ice cream store - good stuff. The ladies there are sooo nice - this whole past week they've been giving us free ice cream and my kids are in heaven. Yesterday afternoon I told her Reece didn't need any and she just marched on behind the counter, scooped him up some bubble gum ice cream and gave it to him. Guess what has become my son's favorite thing in the world?! We told her that they can buy ice cream at her shop and come and sit in ours! It only supports our purpose in getting to know people! And that is what happened last night. The adults drank coffee and ate dessert at our tables with their kids eating ice cream from next door - perfect! We enjoyed some good laughs as we tried to work in our little area of space also. One evening of operation teaches you a lot more about how things should be set up behind the bar than all the pre-planning could do. But we have stuck to our idea of simplicity - even using my kids' large, empty Crayola Marker box as a cash box (since it already had compartments to separate out our change).

We have a lot of thanks to give to our friends from Westport Road! There is absolutely no way we would have been ready to open without their help...and the shop wouldn't look as good as it does either. We were blessed with Danny, Arnis, and Randy - all very gifted in carpentry skills. Thank you men for your hours and hours of work and service. We hope that you feel our gratitude and appreciation. The teens - Bryce, Amber, Ann, Mary, and Heather painted, cleaned, passed out flyers, and put on a VBS for all the missionary kids during our grand opening (as well as other great things throughout the week such as passing out food boxes to the poor, painting and cleaning a park, visiting children in a cancer hospital). Thank you teens for using your spring break to serve God here in Mexico City. And of course, thank you again to all of you who donated coffee cups - they are not only practical but as the pictures will show, they serve as decoration as well.

We really feel as though everything has come together nicely. We want to hang a few pictures and maybe another shelf, but it looks great, we like our location and have faith that great relationships will be formed from our time spent there. Thank you for all of your prayers - we have felt them and ask that you continue to ask God to give us eyes to see where He has gone before us and is preparing moments for us to be Jesus to our community.

I am posting a few random pictures of us getting the shop ready to go...and from our opening night.

 Getting ready to add some color!
 
 
  

 Building the bar.

  

 Reece washing the plates - quite a lot of fun to have his hands in water!
 Getting set up!

 
 Tonight's staff! Benjy, Carolyn, Stephen and Bryan.

 "Para llevar - to go."

  Handing out samples to people passing by.

 People sitting down - an answer to many prayers. Thank you! 


And after that we got to busy to snap any more photos!