New Coffee Bar in Måløy
We made good use of the long winter months in Måløy, Norway this year and built a new coffee bar! We believe it will be a great blessing for the friends in Måløy.
For some time, we have seen the need for a place to get together before and after church services, and we imagined being able to do this in a relaxed and comfortable atmosphere, while sipping the perfect cup of coffee accompanied by something delicious to eat.
With this vision before us, we set to work in November of last year, looking ahead to our completion date of February 23, 2008. It took a great deal of hard work and organization, but we finished on time!
Tore Gangsøy, our church leader, was chosen to cut the ribbon to open our new coffe bar. He made use of the moment by saying a few works of thanks to everyone who had helped plan and build the "Latté Coffee Bar." The young people especially, put a great deal of effort and energy into the work, without a word of complaint. Tore, who is a true shephered for the church in Måløy, was also found working right alongside them nearly every evening to encourage and bless the workers. So our thanks goes to him as well.
After the ribbon-cutting ceremony came the long-awaited moment—time for the newly-trained baristas to prove their skills! And after the refreshments had been served, we heard some encourging words about the great blessing that comes over us when we are obedient to God's promptings. Mal. 3:10 was read: "...And try me now in this, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour on you such a blessing, that there will not be room enough to receive it."
For many years, the church in Måløy has had a special bond with the church in Molde. As a result, it was fitting that two people from Molde, Arild Olsen and Fredrick Slettedal, were present and spoke about being in the same spirit of sacrifice as Jesus was—to give and live for the others.
We then heard a poem that had been written for the occasion and watched a music video, prepared by the Latté Coffee Bar staff. Plans for future expansion and further developents were outlined in a slide-show presentation, putting the top-of-the-line multimedia equipment to good use. This modern equipment is one of the amenities that will be important when we rent out the facilities for courses and workshops.
We concluded the evening by singing some of our favorite songs from Ways of the Lord, our church songbook. This evening was a great success, partly due to the delicious pastries and other treats available from the Latté Coffee Bar.
Thanks to everyone for a wonderful and edifying evening!
February 26, 2008
