Waiting

So I said "OK" and we waited and waited. It would be a couple months before God would move us forward towards the bookstore and in the meantime I visited quite a few coffee shops to see what ideas we could gather. I put my "business owner" hat on to start putting a business plan to gether. I'd spent my entire adult life in business and studying business and it seemed like God kept saying we didn't need all that.

At the same time, my husband and I were without a church home and in fact went through a period where we didn't go to church at all. To me those were difficult days. I knew we belonged in a church. God had specifically guided us out of our previous church home because we weren't growing and it was time for us to get into relationships with other Christians. So we struggled and "wandered the desert" as I like to refer to it. When I got God's invitation to open the bookstore, I had decided I was going to try churches, even if I had to go alone. And on one occassion I visited this fantastic church in Maple Grove Minnesota called The Edge. The church was in a shopping mall and had all types of people from all races and all classes and they served coffee and treats in church for free. This would be a life changing visit because after I left there, God revealed to me that the bookstore and coffee shop would be a church. On the surface that might not seem like an earth shattering revelation and for most people that may bring up questions like "how does a bookstore and coffee shop become a church?" To me it was undoing. I simply wept and I can't explain how I felt inside. I had once hoped to work in full-time ministry and at that time I received lots of messages about being where you're at and came to the conclusion that at least then, I wasn't meant for full-time ministry. I didn't believe I ever would be actually, so when God said the thing He invited me to start would be a church I was completely overwhelmed with joy. I guess that's the best way to explain it.