I am warning you this is the longest blog I've written and probably my most passionate one. This is also one I have debated writing. I've debated writing it for a few reasons. My first reasoning is I don't have enough information to complete it. The story isn't finished yet, because it hasn't begun yet. I know it makes no sense whatsoever, but God doesn't always make sense right away. I'm gonna go back to when I was a kid with this one, and you'll see why.
One morning I was at my grandmothers house. We had slept over, it was a family affair, my cousins were there, my aunts and uncles, my brothers and sisters and parents. I remember we were all preparing breakfast. I remember I LOVED helping cook. It was so much fun, even more so I loved preparing the plates. Making them look pretty, setting them up beautifully. I felt like an artist. I was telling my aunt how much I loved doing this, as I made a plate of sliced peaches look pretty, and she said, "why don't you be a chef. Go into Culinary Arts." WOW....What a great idea. From then on, I knew what I was gonna be when I grew up.
My
sophomore year of high school, we got a notice in the mail for Vocational School. A fairly new program was developed called the 2+2 program. It was only available for a few types of programs, one of them being Culinary Arts. The program is where you go to Culinary School through the vocational district for 2 years, your junior and senior year of high school, and your credits role over to
Brookdale Community College. The credits you earn in high school are also college credits so you finish college in 2 years. It was a GREAT
opportunity so I signed up. At the time I was 14, and I worked at a local bakery as a counter girl. I began Culinary School the following fall. I loved my teachers I love the students, I loved the fact that 1/2 the school year was spent in a kitchen at the Sheraton and the other half was at the school. I also quit my job at the bakery and began working as a waitress at Pizza Hut.
When I graduated high school, I continued my schooling at
Brookdale to complete the program, I also got a promotion to shift manager at Pizza Hut. In this time frame I also was becoming a Christian. After I graduated college I decided that I
preferred the business end of the restaurant business. I was grateful to have gotten the experience I did as a cook, and learn everything I learned, but I
preferred the pressures of being a Manager. So I went into restaurant Management. I was also falling in love with God and coffee. My good friend, Sam and I were into bible studies and we often ( I mean every night) went out to eat. I always felt strange going to
Applebee's to do a bible study and
realizing there's no place to go other than church, where people won't look at you
weird. I remember telling her one day, I wanna open a coffeehouse. I remember being 19, and saying I would love to have a Christian Coffeehouse, where the food is
sooo good and cheap, where there's a place to hold bible studies, where each night could be themed differently and bands could come in a play, and oh how good it would be.
I worked my butt off in Pizza Hut, and by the time I was 22 I was a general manager. That's right, I ran my own restaurant. I was learning EVERYTHING from laws to board of health, to taxes, to dealing with people, to budgeting and making numbers. Every possible
aspect of running your own business I was learning. I was taking it all in and loving EVERY SECOND OF IT. Here I am, 22 years old and really I can't go much higher, I am 3 levels below being an owner, at 22 years old. Phil and I had begun dating. In the midst of our dating I was still an on again off again Christian. I still believed, and still dreamt but I wasn't 100% ready to give up my old life. Phil was saying to me one day, how he didn't think I really had any friends. I agreed, and he said "why don't you be friends with Amy. Amy's so awesome." Amy is the assistant Pastor at our church. YEAH RIGHT PHIL,
I'm thinking I WILL NEVER BE FRIENDS WITH A PASTOR. you see my view on Pastor's is this: They live and work and breathe church, and pray all day, and blah blah blah, (SO WRONG I MIGHT ADD PASTORS ARE PEOPLE TOO :))But instead I say " Yeah that sounds nice." Now at our church there is also a group forming, they are called The Door. I still don't even really know what it is cause I never went, I never had any desire to go.
I was telling him one day about the coffeehouse idea. He said "Cool, but that's
kind of like what The Door is." Of course, keep in mind, I NEVER REALLY THOUGHT IT WOULD EVER HAPPEN. This
coffeehouse thing was just a silly little hope, not a career path.
Well, Phil and I got engaged and were scheduled to be married September 29, 2007. In July I am
relizing my job is getting HARDER AND HARDER AND HARDER. I was losing people left and right, my boss was really coming down on me, my wedding dress wasn't in yet, my car was getting towed to the tune of $400, I was having trouble getting days off, I mean I almost couldn't get off for my bridal shower. But, after all, this is the restaurant business. This is the career I chose. But I decided that I think it was time to start looking for another career path. I prayed and prayed and prayed to God what should I do. What should I do.
August rolls around, our friend Billy gets promoted at Ruby Tuesday's, and tells me he could get me a serving job if I was interested, my assistant manager just quit on me and I went to church and I prayed. I felt like if I stayed there, I was never gonna be able to build a family. I felt like I would never have the time to and to be honest, all signs point to quit. God tells me to quit. So I quit. I quit without a job lined up, I hadn't officially applied anywhere, we were getting married in one week and we were living off of the hope that we get a lot of money from our wedding. But I truly felt like God was calling me to apply at Ruby Tuesdays, and be a mother. I wanted kids so badly, and
waitressing was the EASIEST job for a mother to have.
Phil and I got married and decided to try for a baby. We tried for a couple of months and I felt like I needed to be a manager for this Company. I thought we need benefits, more
money, blah blah blah. I applied, went through the interview process, and made it to the second interview, but I will tell you, this process took close to a month. I applied in the beginning of December. It is now beginning of January, and I'm not making any progress here, things aren't falling into place, the interviewing manager is away on vacation, and we are having scheduling difficulties. I am talking obstacle after obstacle. On January 5, 2008, I find out I'm pregnant. I'm not having such a great feeling about being a manager either. I was ready to bail and tell them I was no longer interested, but they tell me I didn't get the job instead.
WEIRD!!! But I am
sooo relieved.
Anyway, So I am pregnant and I start going to hang out at Amy's house, on Thursday nights. It's a group of people from the church that get together for dinner,
fun and games. I FALL IN LOVE WITH IT!!!!! I fall in love with the people, I fall in love with the time, I fall in love with the fellowship, I fall in love with Amy. (Yes Amy, the Pastor that I was so
weird about before
hahaha!!!) And Can I thank Phil for begging me to go every week, because my CLOSEST AND
BESTEST FRIENDS are these people that meet at Amy's every week :)
After I have my son,
PJ, I feel the need to find another job...AGAIN. I start looking. I mean I am making NO MONEY, benefits aren't good, times are tough. I search and get about three jobs, all of which didn't work out. After my last job at a very well known restaurant, I call Phil telling him how much I hate it. I remember
saying these words exactly " I WISH I COULD JUST GO AND WORK FOR JESUS!!!!" In my naive mind, the only 'work for Jesus' jobs out there are Pastors and I don't wanna go back to school. Sorry God, but No.
haahaa. About a month later, I went to a convention with my Greatest friend, Wendy.
I'm not gonna lie. I DID NOT wanna go. I was debating calling her up top cancel, but I felt guilty. I went. Wendy and I walked in and there is a bunch of tables set up of....Missionaries. My first thought is OH NO, I DO NOT WANT TO LISTEN TO MISSIONARIES. God, I am not gonna be a missionary, I have no interest in missionary work, Why am I here?
We walk in, the worship team plays, now mind you, Worship is my favorite part of God. I love praising and worshipping. I hated this worship team. I am thinking "God, I am not getting anything from this worship team." (Notice how negative I am being from the start?) OK So there are about 10 missionary couples on the stage. All giving there stories. The last couple, about my age gets up. They are missionaries on there way to Uruguay. They are the youngest missionaries in the world. They tell there story, about how she never thought she would marry a pastors kid and She never thought she would be a missionary. There story was opening my eyes. "Cool,"
I'm thinking, " I'll be a missionary" So here I am ready to sign up for missions work. Than this lady gets up on stage. She gets up there with her Head bobbing back and Forth, and pointing her finger at the audience. "LISTEN," she says. " These men and women are up here giving their LIVES to the works of God, they live in grass Huts with dirt floors, they leave their friends and their families behind them to go bring other people closer to God, and all you do is complain. You complain about your jobs, you complain about not being able to buy the things you want. There are people in this world losing there jobs every day...." And she goes on and on and on. Another lady is speaking, and her
speech thingy is discussing finding you spot in your church.
Wether it be in nursery or in ministry or whatever, but she is discussing finding your place in your church.
WOWOWOWOW!!!!!!! I truly felt like God smacked me in the face, because He has to do that to me every once in a while. I hear God speak to me and He tells me I am gonna be fine, I got the most calming message that day. He told me to stop looking for another job and to stay where
I'm at at Ruby Tuesday doing what I do, and that He will take care of me and my family.
Even
weirder, is the same weekend, Phil is away at a youth convention. He tells me when he gets home how some guy from the band (or something), sits down to talk to him about ME and OUR FAMILY and basically is telling him things are gonna be FINE.
WEIRD and here goes even more
WEIRDER Than that! Amy prays with PHIL for ME!!!! She said she didn't
know why, but God was putting me on her heart to pray for (Of course
I'm paraphrasing cause
I wasn't there :) )!
A few months later we are at Amy's house all sitting around the table. And I forget how it started, but I begin telling everyone about my coffeehouse I wanna open. I tell them, my whole idea, and Amy looks at me and says " you know Heather, I have a dream. Ask Stephen, I have a dream" I tell her I have a dream too, and we end with, we'll have to talk about it. Over the next few weeks, Amy tells me about her idea for a cafe! SAME
STINKIN IDEA!!! Same thing, God placed this amazing idea in both of our heads. But, she hits me with a whammy. "Heather, I want you to run my kitchen." My thought is
NOOOOOOO I don't want to run a kitchen, I want to OWN a coffeehouse. I've already ran a kitchen. So I pray about it, and pray about it, and pray about it. You know what, I want to work for God. I want to run a cafe or coffeehouse or whatever FOR GOD!!!! Not for myself or Amy or anyone else, I told Phil I wanted to work FOR JESUS! If I don't agree to this, I am walking away from my chance to work for God. So, I decided I want to be a part of this. So now, weeks have gone by and we are still in the works of this whole cafe thing, but we are in the most important stage of it. The PRAYER stage. We are still praying about it. So I do really believe that this is what I am supposed to do with my life, I feel the same way Amy does. I feel that this is part of God's master plan.
I name this blog Unknown so far, because I don't really yet know how it's gonna end, because it hasn't really started so after giving out my part of what could be or is about to be a life and God changing situation I ask for everyone who reads this to pray about it!
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