The Door
 
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The Door - A Story of Miracles
 
Spring 2011
On December 31st, 2010 the last tenant in our building (our building: a whole other miraculous story) where the Garage and YFC Wadsworth offices reside, moved out. And on January 1st- the very next day, we began knocking down walls to create this after school space we have dreamed of. We have no budget for the project. Crazy huh? Well, we don't think so. We're not without responsibility or financial accountabliltiy, but if God is leading who are we to tell Him we need to wait for a fat bank account. So we just started with what we had - a handful of kids and a few of our volunteers who were willing to show up and do whatever we could do.

The story from that point on is nothing less than miraculous. From the moment this project began it was evident that we had simply chosen to move forward in faith into a story that God had already written. We share these stories of the cafe construction to encourage you and remind ourselves that God is always up to something and if we are obiedient to his voice when He tells us to move, we get to be part of the story.
 
The Story Begins...
There is a story for each of the headings below. I am working hard to fill in all these stories. I am writing them in first person becuase I am the daily eye witness. (and I'm not clever enough to change all the grammar to anything else.)
Enjoy! - Lou Fister
 
Faith to start the project - This is the personal journey of how God has altered my role at the Garage from being the coordinator of the high school program and trying to juggle the admistrative details to narrowing my focus on developing our leaders. It was a hard road for me that began in the summer of 2010 when after a year of personal tragedy and major health concerns Pastor Scott Brooks of Freshwater Community Church basically lead an intervention to lead me back to health. It's a long story that I will not share here. Let me publically say thanks to all involved (Pastor Scott, Carol Dente, Steve Pausch, Matt Fister & Dan Scarrow) and give great praise to God for the healing and ultimate direction. The reason I even mention this here is that my new focus on leading the leaders makes it impossible for me to manage the cafe project. I have had to learn when to say "no" and how to stay on track. For a busy body like me, it is practically impossible to not get involved. Yet day after day, I sit in my office doing things like preparing curriculum for our team, working on this website, and meeting with new volunteers while ignoring the sounds of saws and hammers just 20 feet away. No one will ever be able to say that I made this cafe happen - God did it! That is proof of his plan and the faith that I want to lead this team with. -Lou Fister
 
The "Door" - You should see the walls come down. Woo Hoo! such fun. Anyway...about four of us are standing looking between the 2 x 4"s of wall that is eventually going be a doorway between the two sides of the building. We want the doorway to be large, but we also want it to have door so it can be closed off for certain events. So the conversation goes a bit about how big and what type of door we could have. Our volunteer and construction guide Joe Barieter suggests a pocket door. It's a great idea but expensive and where would you get one that size? We like the idea of a sliding door so we continue to chat about perhaps a barn door hung on a rail like a pocket door but on the outside of the wall. It would be a cool look...but not economical. We talk about other options and then decided to solve the door issue another day. So you know the rest of the story right? About two hours later while taking down another wall, volunteer Matt Fister yells "stop! wait! there is something in here". Inside the wall we discovered the largest pocket door any of us had ever seen. It is 5' wide and perfect for the doorway. It was carefully hidden in its wall still hanging on its hardware.
Speechless is not a good enough word. “God” is the only word that fits here! We are going to call the cafe "The Door". ("Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you." Matthew 7:7)
 

Computer Lab - Landon O'Brien of a Wooster based non profit computer refurbishing company donated 6 computers for our lab. Computer guru Bruce Bilbrey made a few upgrades and craftsman Dick Sutton built a beautiful work station. Computer Lab for after school? check!

Drywall - demolishing the walls and getting ready for remodeling was a blast and it's all labor. No costs yet. But, that only took 2 weeks and then it was time to put up some walls. I can't send an email out every time we need something - you all would hate me and ban me from your inbox and remember, I am not managing this project. So, in a private conversation with God I told him that when we needed something I would simply make it known to whoever I was casually talking to that day and he would have to handle it from there. So, the day we started talking about drywall I was sending out an internal update to our volunteers on other issues. I mentioned to them that we were ready for drywall. Before the end of the day, Teen Moms ministry coordinator Laurie Beal had contacted American Building Materials here in Wadsworth who agreed to give us all the drywall we needed. The sizes were odd but who's complaining right? The sheets came in 54" tall by 16' wide. Wow! Matt Fister was scratching his head making some mental calculations about how best to cut and hang to make the most of the material. We had just taken down the old ceilings and didn't even know what the new ceiling height would be. Matt measured and just shook his head...the ceiling height is exactly 108". Those 54" sheets would stack right on top of each other for a perfect fit. No coincidence there!

Electrician - In December, I began interviewing a new volunteer named Jason Core. As always, I explained the history of the Garage and what we anticipated for our future. We talked about the remodeling project and he mentioned to me that perhaps his father in law could help with the electrical work. I hadn't ever considered the volume of electrical work that would need to be done but agreed that his father in law's help would be appreciated. The electrical work of course turned out to be a huge project and Jason's father in law, Gene Young, turned out to be a retired master electrician who travels the country with his wife Kay serving God by doing electrical work for ministries and churches at no cost. We now have perfect electrical resources that meets all the code requirements.

Cabinets - There will be a U shaped counter serving area in the cafe. Against one wall we planned for a kitchen area with sink and cabinets. Again, with no budget I simply mentioned to a group of volunteers who were at the office one day that the next thing on the list was cabinets. Volunteers Scott and Mary Spitzer kept looking at each other while I was talking. They had cabinets stored in their garage. Scott delivered them the next week. There is the perfect number of cabinets for the space we have for both bases and wall. Volunteer Bill Choate also donated cabinets he had in storage that will be used in another project. We got everything we needed and more!

Dishwasher - Gene and Kay (the electrician) live in Wooster and were shopping at the Habitat ReStore one day and called me to see if I wanted a dishwasher. It was on my list but I never dreamed we could afford one. Gene went on to explain that he had found one there. It was a commercial grade diswasher with the price tag on it for $1090. The ReStore was selling it for $30. Gene and Kay bought it for us.

Booths - The front of the cafe is to be booth seating. Two years ago when Buehlers was remodeling their restaurant I asked what they would be doing with their old booths? They didn't have a plan so they gave them to us. We've had them in storage just waiting for the time we could build this cafe.

Refrigerator & Freezer - Volunteer Matt Fister works at Ferro Corporation in Cleveland. They recently shut down their cafeteria but all the equipment is still there. Matt decided that it doesn't hurt to ask so he asked for the commercial refrigerator and freezer. Ferro has donated them to the cafe! (You knew that was coming right?)

Mud & Tape - One day while picking up soome supplies at Home Depot I had to make a return. At the return desk I asked if there was anyone in particular I should talk to about the possibility of them making a donation of drywall mud and tape. The lady doing my return, Joyce, said she was the person. I explained our project and that we had our drywall but no tape or mud to finish it with. Joyce had me write a letter and the next day they donated the supplies.

I-Beams - We took down all the walls in the side of the building we are making into a cafe. That meant that some I-Beams had to be put in place of supporting walls. Again, with no money we just start talking about how this is going to happen. Volunteer Scott Spitzer who was working on some clean up while we were talking chimed in and said "I-Beams? I think my dad has some in his back yard." Sure enough his father Tom Spitzer not only donated two 20' I-Beams but delivered them to us as well.

Liquid Nails - Volunteer Matt Fister wanted to put the drywall on the ceiling. He asked me for two cases of liquid nails. I told him I didn't have any money but I would at least call Home Depot and get the price. It was $102 for two cases. I wrote it down and just went back to work. Then someone reminded me that supporter Bill Saathoff had dropped off an envelope for me earlier that day. I opened it, and it was a donation for $100. Later when I thanked Bill and told him the story he said "well I guess I owe you two bucks!"

Cappuccio Machine - Every cafe needs a cappuccino machine right? Well not really but it sure would be nice. I put it on our wish list and share it with a few friends. Supporter John and Tina Zidan emailed me right away and said we were welcome to have their commercial machine which does not get much use in its current location at their business, Retirement First. So...we even got a cappuccino maker - industrial stregnth!
Chairs & A Plumber - Supporter Karen Phillips called one day to ask me if I could use some office chairs. This was something that we really wanted for the classroom area but since we did not consider them a necessity had never bothered to ask for. I said yes of course. Then Karen proceeded to explain that the color of the chairs might be odd and she described them as "purple". What she didn't know is that our carpet is a blend of mauves and purples and are a perfect match! Her husband Scott delivered the chairs. While he was there he noticed a picture of one of our young adults and recognized him. Scott had been an officer in the jail when this young man had served some time. We talked about the difficulties this young man and so many of our others face. I told him about our current cafe project and how this would help to get some of them off the square and out of trouble. Then Scott shared that he had also worked often as a plumber and would help us any way he could. Two days earlier a toilet and vanity had been donated by volunteers Tom and Lilly Shurance, now we had a professional to install them and our kitchen appliances.

Flooring - If you can tell by now, we aren't spending much money. :) and I wasn't about to start. So when Matt Fister came to me and said we should buy flooring I said "I don't think so". I was convinced we could just work with the old floors, afterall - flooring would cost a fortune. Matt did not give up. He got on Craigslist and started hunting for flooring. He found a wood laminate option that he thought would be perfect for the cafe and decided to make the call. The person on the other end of the phone was Nate Stone, one of our supporters - whose wife Rachael had led our Teen Moms program in its early years! Crazy!! They struck up a great deal but it was still money we didn't have. I told Matt if the money came in f as a lump sum big enough for the purchase I would assume the money was intended for the flooring and he could buy it. A week later, the only check to date specifically designated for the remodel came in and...yep you guessed it, enough for the flooring. Guess God wanted our kids to have the best!

Helpers - Since I have vowed not to take charge of managing this project there is no set schedule for laborers. Instead we have been blessed with the constant unscheduled help and organization of volunteers Dick Sutton, Jim Tauber, Horst Melchien, Matt Fister, and Scott Spitzer. They have their own helpers in a group of teen boys and girls who show up almost daily to work...right around dinner time.

What's Today's Story? - just like you are enjoying and encouraged by these stories, the teens that are showing up to help are to. They are living it. Each day when they show up to help we all take a break and we eat together, adults and teens. We sit around a table, say blessing, and then tell "the story of the day". This venue has become an incredible place for the kids to expect to hear about how God is supernaturally involved in this project. We could not have planned ministry this good. God loves our kids and He is making himself known to them.

Food - Feeding these work crews is a variable that is still a bit wild. Since there is no real work schedule, it's hard to know when to prepare and how much to prepare. But somehow...it always happens. Special thanks to Lilly Shurance, Lisa Millisor, and Shelly Mountjoy who have all taken a turn preparing food. And thanks to Ann's Pastry who donates their day old donuts to the Garage so we always have dessert!

Crew from Chapel - One day volunteer, Dick Sutton told me that some of his friends would be coming on Saturday to help. "Some of his friends" turned out to be an entire team of folks from the Akron Chapel who eventually came three consecutive Saturdays. Wow!

Drywall Finishing - (coming)

ProShop - Along with the cafe is the addition of a proshop. This will be run by volunteers and entrepreneurs Dave and Mandy Robinson. On Sunday February 6th, while waiting for the Sunday morning servcie to start, I was personally prompted to pray for $500 specifically for this project. I was so impressed by the need to pray that I wrote out the prayer in the journal I carry. When I got home from church there was a voice mail for me from a supporter telling me that he had been led to give very specifically to a special project at the Garage and I could expect the check to be $400 - $500. It is important to tell you that this supporter gave in obedience to God not out of personal abundance. I can not give details, other than to say the giver could have really used the money themselves. When the gift was received it was $600! The supporter also has a story of how a new door for his own livelihood opened on the heels of this obedience. You just can't out give God! (Eph. 3:20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us...)

Monster Jam - We wanted to thank the teens and volunteers who have been working everyday on the cafe remodel, but again without a budget...what to do? So we contacted "Tickets for Kids", a non profit that donates tickets to other non profit organizations that work with teens and asked for 20 tickets to the Cleveland Monster Truck Jam. The tickets were donated and we took 3 packed car loads of kids and volunteers to the event on February 20th. It was a fun day and even the car rides were opportunities to talk and minister.