A New Year and New Beginnings...

2012 has begun and already I feel extremely optimistic about the year. Partly because I have realized that resolutions can be a great enforcer of change in my life when I "decide them early on and manage them daily", thanks Pastor Scott! So with more sleep than I've had in years my energy levels have returned to remind me of my hyper high school days when people constantly questioned me about what drugs I was on, to which I can still happily reply- NONE! So with sleep has come a feeling that I can tackle things that just seemed too difficult in the past and that includes keeping up on the organizing of The Press. It's an amazing privilege to have the jobs that I have and be able to learn, change, challenge myself on a weekly basis but sometimes I just don't accomplish all that I aim to. So this year I would like to aim to give this side of The Press a bit more time than in the past and see what happens. I have some ideas up my short-sleeve Press t-shirt (thanks Mom for getting those and the aprons made!).

I guess more than anything I want to take this space to say thank you to God (Funny how that phrase conjures up images of every music/acting awards ceremony where celebrities toss that saying out like it means nothing). To me it means thank you for letting me have the chance to follow a dream and placing people like my husband, Jas and Chelle to encourage me along the way and so many others (you know who you all are!). Thank you for each person that comes into The Press and drinks the coffee, has a chat and shows me that we are a vital part of their week. Thank you for the mums who come in straight after Jolly Tots and rave about our homemade wheaten. Thank you for Ciaran from Menary's who gave me so much help at the beginning in getting the place set up. There is so much to be thankful for and as I see a new year begin I want to thank God for the years that have gone by and for the promises yet to come. You see me, you know me better than I know myself. By getting to know you more each day, you are showing me who I am in you. I pray I can do the same for others! I hope you all have a year of living out your dreams or even "a" dream! So what are you dreaming of???

A few pics to share with you...

The Star of Christmas Craft Fair was last Saturday and I think I'm just now recovered but it was completely worth it for the day was a huge success!!! Thank you to each and every person who did a little or a whole lot to make the day happen! The day was packed from start to finish with a never ending stream of people coming through the doors; I don't think our coffee machine has ever made so many lattes. We had Windmill Primary School Choir sing, Santa made an appearance, there were numerous kids activities on the go and overall a lovely event. I'm going to attach a few photos here for you all to enjoy! Hope to see you soon! What's even better is that we are going to be able to give a nice chunk of cash to Southern Area Hospice Services from the day, special thanks to the baked goods and used books tables for donating all their proceeds to this cause. Hopefully we'll be able to do this again next year and offer another great family fun day for one and all!!!!!

The Star of Christmas Craft Fair Prep...

Yesterday a lovely group of my friends who happen to be volunteers turned up to The Storehouse and The Press to get the place decorated for our upcoming Christmas Craft Fair. We had a variety of ages represented and I think each person enjoyed it equally. It was a great team effort by all so thank you to each of you for coming out on your Saturday afternoon to help!!!! It is greatly appreciated and it will help in making the Craft Fair a real success. I've included a few pics of our process so you can enjoy it too!

Now it's Sunday night and I'm starting to run through my checklist of what needs to be done this week for the fair and it's a bit daunting. But what I love is the pleasant surprises I keep getting from different people saying they are coming to help out at the craft fair. Sometimes when I begin planning these types of events I think maybe I've bitten off more than I can chew. Then the true community essence of our church, Vineyard Church Dungannon, seems to be released. Suddenly there are loads of people partnering with me in achieving the vision of the event and I am humbled by God's networking abilities. I am so often overwhelmed by the practical help and constant support I receive in our church. I know our church is not perfect but it is honest, genuine and sincere. People love you where you are and at many stages of my life, that has been what I needed most.

So thank you VCD, for being a blessing! You bless me, our church and more importantly our community and I think Dungannon will experience that by coming to the craft fair.

The Star of Christmas Craft Fair!!!

The Press is proud to present:

The Star of Christmas Craft Fair

This year we have ventured to make a talked about dream come true and that dream was for The Press to host its very own Christmas Craft Fair. We have different ones around town but we felt there was still a market for something a little special and we hope that's what we will bring to Dungannon with this event.

The Star of Christmas Craft Fair will be held on Saturday 26th November, 2011 from 10am-4:30pm at The Storehouse. We will have different stalls with homemade crafts as well as other types of crafty items. There will be activities for children as well as a Gladrags and Handbags sell for those of you who are really watching the budget this year for gifts (which I think is probably most of us!) We're aiming to make this fun for adults and children alike.

The Press will be open and serving hot soup, scones, traybakes, hot chocolate and we will be giving parents and children an opportunity to create a new Christmas memory with our Sugar Cookie Decorating Fun Pack! If you want to see this you'll just have to come and find out what it's all about.

We look forward to seeing you all there!!

So it's been awhile...

So it's been awhile...and so much has been happening at The Press.

First off is to share with you all the success of Creative Expressions 2 Art Showcase. This year we had the amazing privilege of partnering with our community Council to be one of the venues on their Arts Festival weekend. It was such an opportunity that I feel God opened up for us and the success of the weekend proved that to me. We had so many new faces in, saw incredible artwork that once again displayed the creative abilities God has given each of us, as well as made many new connections with our town, Dungannon.

The weekend consisted of being open both the Friday and Saturday during the day and in the evening. The evening was slightly different as we offered lovely cakes as well as some live musical variety to the event. There was such a buzz about the place and I sensed God walking in our midst on many occasions. He was everywhere and I was very aware of that. Isn't that really what it is, an awareness on our parts to acknowledge His constant presence in every area of our lives?

But overall the weekend was as I had dreamed it would be and then more. I'm continuing to participate in the Arts Forum in Dungannon and love it! Even though I'm not a huge meeting person I find myself energized after an evening of talking about all that's coming up here concerning the arts. I am so passionate about people being able to create and express themselves because I feel it's a direct pathway to understanding God Himself, as He is the Master Creator! I look forward to taking part in the development of Arts in this incredible place.

So I hope you enjoy some of the pics I'm posting of the event! I think you'll get a great idea of just how much talent was on display. Soak up the creativity of these pictures and go create something yourself!!

Creative Expressions 2: Art Exhibiton

The summer has come and nearly gone, we're entering the last few weeks of August and here in Northern Ireland the weather is already giving us a preview of winter. Yet we keep our spirits up by drinking warm, fresh, tantalizing coffee in The Press; it's a pretty good consolation prize.

We reopened last weekend and it was a brilliant day! It was also the last Friday for our very special, most treasured intern Meredith. She will be sorely missed, even today we've been sharing our Meredith stories. So Mer, when you read this know your memory lives on in The Press, you will not be forgotten my dear friend!!

Moving onto the upcoming future of The Press Coffee Shop. About April this year I received a tip from a woman in the church that the Arts Forum in Dungannon was going to host another Arts Festival weekend and we're looking for potential venues. I contacted the necessary people and was able to get our coffee shop listed as one of the main venues. What an awesome God moment that was, I truly felt that God opened the door and was nudging me to walk through it. Now I'm excited to see how this helps our relationship with the community and see if we can stretch out our tent pegs and include even more people in our mission here to serve all of God's people equally and love on them.

The Press Coffee Shop will be hosting the second Arts Exhibition: Creative Expressions 2. This year we have three schools putting work in: The Integrated College, Drumglass High School and Sperrinview Special School. We have other work coming from people in the Peace Factory project as well as 7 other individual artists and maybe even a potter. I'm thrilled with the new variety of work we will have on display as well as the live music that we will have going during the evening sessions!! Overall it just feels like another chance to highlight the talent that God has given people to express this journey of life we all are walking together. It's also exciting knowing that the Council has given us free advertising through this event with 10,000 brochures being posted out to every home in Dungannon!!

So if you want to come and enjoy the arts and culture in Dungannon the details are below:

Creative Expressions 2 Art Exhibition

26th and 27th August at The Storehouse, Dungannon

10am-3pm and 7pm-10pm both days

Call 028 8775 2133 for more details and find us on Facebook.

The Cafe will be serving it's normal menu during the day but only cakes and coffee in the evening.

http://dungannonartsfestival.com/

day to day...

Today is Friday 18th February, 2011. I'm sitting at one of our cozy, orange couches in The Press. Jon Foreman plays in the background while the quiet chatter of customers resonates through The Press. My heart feels full and content. I wake up each Friday looking forward to the surprises of the day. I have steadfast volunteers who invest as much as I do into The Press and that moves me. What grabs the heart of someone and causes them to move forward in the role of a volunteer? My hope and desire is that it would be a vision. A vision of what The Press can look like, maybe not tomorrow or next week; but next year or five years from now. A vision that sees each customer as one of God's children who needs to be loved today which may turn into the action of making them the best latte we possibly can, or the best bowl of soup we can just to show them a bit of God's love. It's loving people consistently in the small things of life, day to day. Sometimes I have ugly days, where my heart is black and its those days when someone thrusts the love of God on me that it causes me to stop and ponder. It leads me to the Cross where I, the unloveable and unworthy, received the gift of life through the most major act of love ever known to mankind.

Last week I had the opportunity to meet with two people from our town who help organize an Arts week every year. I'm thrilled to say that The Press will most likely be one of the venues where art and music will be displayed for our small but great community. This makes my heart leap inside my chest!!! I love the arts and to have the opportunity to partner with our community to push this forward means that we're moving in one of the directions I've hoped we would. It's also a chance to express God's love to many more people and that's the purpose. We are a ministry, a coffee shop yes, but a ministry. So from day to day we come and bring ourselves as the resource to be used by God to love on people. What an exciting privilege that truly is. Thank you Abba.