Two Story Coffee House is up and running!

As many of you know, Christina's latest venture is officially under way. Christina accepted a job at the beginning of August to be the manager of a new coffeehouse in Athens. The coffeehouse was to be opened by Rob and Deandra Bailey, Rob being Christina's former youth pastor. Rob and Deandra felt a calling to plant a church in Athens about a year ago. After driving around Athens a few times, they thought it would be really cool to start a coffee house before planting the church. They thought it would be a great way to meet some people in Athens while also getting their foot into the culture here.

So, the project started in August and was lots of work for the first few months. Rob, who had recently sold a construction business, did all of the renovations on the house himself. After just a couple of months, they had transformed a 100 year old house into a beautiful coffee house! I wish you could have seen the house before the renovations! It was old, dirty, and falling apart. Rob worked incredibly hard, knocking down walls, building a deck, fixing the floors, fixing the ceilings, painting, hammering, drilling, and the list goes on!

After many long conversations, we came up with the name Two Story Coffee House. First, there are two stories to the house- a first story where people will order coffee, hang out, talk, listen to music, etc. And a second story, designed to be a quiet zone for students to study. However, there are also two stories to the house- the first story is that this is a place that sells coffee, the second story, however, is that this is a place where people can talk and relationships can be built. Get it....Two Story Coffee house! There are two stories AND there are two stories!

Finally, on Halloween night, Two Story Coffee House officially opened for business. The first few weeks have been better than we ever could have imagined! The coffee house has been packed out with customers and everyone seems to love it. It has become a very popular hang out place as well as a great place to study. In a college town, coffee houses are always popular!

Christina has worked A LOT of hours! But she seems to be enjoying the challenge. For someone who didn't even like coffee a few months ago, she has become quite the coffee expert! She has a wonderful staff who have been a huge help to the process, especially her two supervisors, Ellen Matthews and Chris Barr. They have all put in countless hours to make this place a success, and have had a blast doing it!

What has been really exciting is that the true vision for the coffee house has really been happening. Christina and the Baileys never intended for this to simply be a place where coffee was sold. All along, the true vision for this place was to create an environment where relationships and community could be built. While never intended to outwardly be a "Christian" coffeehouse, it was certainly intended to be a light unto the people of Athens. We have seen and been a part of numerous conversations with different people, and watched as it has truly become a place where community is being built.

We praise the Lord for all He has done so far through the coffee house and pray that it will continue to be a light unto the darkness here in Athens!

Where's Waldo event

We had our second "Where's Waldo" event last week. This is an event where we have a staff member dress up as Waldo and walk around the mall in Athens. The freshmen then go to the mall in teams and walk around the mall trying to find Waldo. They get points every time they find him.

Along the way, "Waldo's friends" are also walking around the mall. These are staff members dressed up in random costumes. We had a mummy, an explorer, a lost river rafter, a wizard, and many more!

The night didn't start off so well, as the mall vendors were a little freaked out by the random people walking around in costumes. So, the security guard made us leave before we had even gotten started. It was a pretty rough start as we had just had 60 freshmen arrive at the mall!

However, after some quick decision making, we decided to head to the SLC (Student Learning Center) on campus. We had Waldo and friends walk around the bottom floor of the SLC and outside in the surrounding areas. Thankfully, it all ended up working out really well, and we ended up having a great time and the freshmen had loads of fun!

Candy Casino!

We hosted our annual Candy Casino a few weeks ago and it was a huge success! Every year, we gather together to play lots of card games and eat LOTS of candy! Each of the freshmen received a bag of candy that they could go around and barter with. They played poker, blackjack, spades, and even go fish.

We then had a monster game of No Limit Texas Hold 'Em to finish the night. The entry fee was one king-sized candy bar, and we had 72 people enter the tournament! That's right, the winner would receive 72 king sized candy bars. The tournament ended up being a blast, and our very own Philip Klayman came out victorious. He was, of course, very gracious in sharing his candy with all that made it till the end.

Much thanks to our INCREDIBLE fellowship team who put all of the decorations together and helped the night run as smoothly as it possibly could have. They have been amazing all year and have made our fellowship events incredible!

As always, our vision for nights like tonight is two-fold. First, we love to give our freshmen opportunities outside of Monday nights to hang out, have a good time, get to know people better, and to build community with others. It's amazing what happens when you can just hang out with people while playing cards and eating candy!

Second, we love to give our freshmen opportunities to invite their friends who might not be walking with the Lord to a non-threatening place where their friends can get plugged in to the community here at Freshley. It's often nights like these where people get plugged in and really begin walking with the Lord!

It was an amazing night of fun and fellowship and I praise God for all that He continues to do in the lives of these freshmen!