One journey ends and another begins...

The Press has been open for 2 1/2 years and during those years we have accumulated our faithful customers. I would like to take a few minutes and share with you about a few of those regulars who have just left to begin their own new adventure. 
Will, Leanne, Eden and Malia MacLaughlin. The MacLaughlin family have been a part of my life since I started my time here in Northern Ireland. It started out even before Will and Leanne were married and over the years it has grown into the kind of friendship that is what I call your 'Chosen Family'. My husband and I moved over from America and Leanne was also an import from Canada so we all had to start from scratch here. With no family surrounding us we had to make our own version of family here. And family is what we became. We shared meals together, laughter, tears, births, deaths, all of the facets of life. As one of my favourite authors puts it they are a part of my 'Home Team'. 
As Will and Leanne invested in our town and community they also invested in our wee coffee shop, The Press. Each Friday Will would come to his 'office' at one of our tables and invite his clients to our coffee shop for meetings, or simply do his work in The Press. Leanne volunteered faithfully with our Jolly Tots ministry that provides a Friday morning session for parents and toddlers. 
So each Friday they became a part of my routine in The Press. I generally arrive at work on a Friday about 8:45am and start getting things prepped for the day with my amazing volunteers. Each Friday between 9-9:30am I would wait to hear the front door open and hear the voice of either Eden (before she started nursery) or Malia fill up the space where Jolly Tots is set up. I would then wait for my dear, precious friend Leanne (whom I call the Raven-haired goddess) walk through the double doors to place an order for her carmel latte and order Will whatever coffee he was in the mood for that day. 
After Jolly Tots finished Leanne would make her way in, these days usually with Malia in tow as Eden is in nursery, to place her lunch order and sometimes order for Will. Leanne has a special order that consists of a toasted bagel with chicken, cheese, peppers, sweet chili sauce that has all been melted in a bowl ahead of time and served with either crisps or side salad. Will usually orders a bacon and cream cheese bagel. Malia is like her big sister and always gravitates to our crisp display and tries to get away with stealing the crisps close to the bottom and running as fast she can before her Mom or Dad catch her and put them back. 
This little routine that a young family had made part of their weekly diary quickly became part of my routine. Part of what I would look forward to each week as I came into The Press. There were always moments of chat and sweet times with the girls. I came to expect it each week and almost anticipate them arriving. Well, that part of my routine has just changed drastically this week. My good friends the MacLaughlins have just began their plane journey that will move them to Hamilton, Canada. They are pioneering Christians Against Poverty in Canada, if you can look it up! It's one heck of an amazing organisation bringing people financial freedom and sharing Jesus with them too. This move is not a surprise in some ways. Will is so creative and is a visionary, gatherer, motivational speaker, etc. Leanne is a strong, confident, capable, no-nonsense kind of woman who also possesses the biggest heart of compassion. It has been a privilege to have had the opportunity to do so much life with them over the last 8 1/2 years. 
So this is my way of saying goodbye to 4 of our favourite customers. Every time I make a carmel latte I will think of you Leanne, every time someone orders a bacon and cream cheese bagel I will think of you Will, and girls, every time a child reaches for that bottom shelf on the crisp rack I will think of you too! You are loved, you will be missed but you will not be replaced. Other customers will come I know that, but you will always be some of my favourites. 

Thank you for supporting my dream by your faithful routine and visits to The Press!! I love you guys! The Press loves you guys! Shoot, Dungannon loves you guys!! All the best for your future routines, the future places who get to call you their regulars. I will still wish it was here with us, but we release you and know you will multiply God's Kingdom in Hamilton and beyond! 

Arts and Crafts...

We recently held our 3rd Creative Expressions Art Exhibition and once again it was a great success!!! We had more artwork submitted than ever before with a wider base of expressions than in the past which proved to be an artists heaven. So a huge thank you to each and every person who helped to make the event such a success. There were numerous local schools displaying work as well as individual artists, so thank you for being willing to share some of your personal work in such an open arena as our Art Exhibition. We also want to send a shout out to the Dungannon Arts Forum for their support of our event this year and if you haven't heard already, we now have a legit Arts and Heritage Centre at the top of our town centre which I believe will release more creativity and encourage the arts to once again flourish in our quaint town. 

Here are a few pics so you can get an idea and feel for the event. Enjoy!!

Autumn is in the air!!!

You can almost smell the change of seasons in the air. It's the 7th of September, schools are back in session, summer never really arrived in Dungannon or most parts of Northern Ireland and I can feel the routine of the year starting to poke its head up from the covers it had hid under through the summer months. During this summer I was in a season of running which was good for my body, mind and spirit. To see this intensive training come to a close I went to Dingle, Ireland last week to run my first marathon and I was privileged to be accompanied by my wonderful Husband, mother-in-law and many good friends. It was an experience that I will never forget and may repeat someday. But it was the last weekend of the summer so here we are, moving towards our annual events of this time of year and connecting people once again to our lovely wee coffee shop.

The first event will be Creative Expressions 3 Art Exhibition. The last two years we have organized an Art Exhibition for local artists and local schools to display their work in. This year is no different, we still love the arts, believe in the arts and want them to be free to experience to everyone in our small community here. So we are hosting again and I have a really good feeling about this year. I think it may end up being quite a bit bigger than the previous two. I think we may have a broader spectrum of art exhibited. I also think that it will be a blessing to our community to provide an event of inspiration for all ages, genders, nationalities and backgrounds. We hope that these kind of events will make our town a good place to grow up in and grow old in. 

A side note, art is not a luxury in my opinion, it is a vital necessity to growth, coping, change and learning to love the one life we have been given. Hopefully through this event someone who is struggling in life may see a painting that expresses that for them, someone who is in a great place and loving what life is offering to them will see a picture that captures their satisfaction with where they are. Art is a way of either escaping to a place of peace or of helping us navigate the dark, murky waters of life that most of us experience at some stage. Whatever art means to you, please come out and support our event. I don't think you will be sorry and that is a guarantee!

Ah...the Northern Irish Summer

This summer has been a very different one for The Press Coffee Shop because of one very good reason...business! This year has seen The Press get busier than the previous ones meaning that there is more demand for our supply which then in turn means more opening hours and days. I feel like this is a great success story of a small venture that has proved to be a necessary part of our community. 
When The Press opened up it's doors a few years ago, it was slow going. Very few people knew about us, our coffee was not too bad and we were learning a lot. Well, we are still learning a lot, our coffee has become an impressive work of art and loads of people know about us now. We are a quietly, growing, underground experiment in the social realm. If we create a place for people to feel welcome, safe and cared for will they keep coming back? Will they tell their friends and family? We can answer these questions with a resounding 'Yes'! People are coming back to us, raving about the coffee, tasty food and lovely service they receive. All of these things are positive and we are thankful for the chance to serve Dungannon this way.
So how do we take The Press to the next level? That is a great question that I continually have  rolling around in my head. At this point, only God knows the answer but I'm confident that He will let us in on what He's doing so we can once again partner with Him to serve Dungannon through The Press.
We will continue to be open most Friday's with a  few exceptions and the last Saturday of every month for live music. We will also be encouraging some good old fashion community outings by way of the third Creative Expressions Art Exhibitions (see previous shows:http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150271826416245.327557.618891244&type=3&l=0533df7d5a) 
As well as the Art Exhibitions we will be hosting another Art and Craft Fair. All of these events are in the hopes of creating the culture that we want to see in Dungannon, a culture that embraces the arts as an expression of our unique design by our creator God. Embraces people as our number one interest, resource and priority. And finally embraces life as a celebration of all things good! 
So hopefully we will see you some Friday for lunch, some Saturday evening for a coffee and bun and at our events coming up to encourage people to express themselves creatively! 

So today is another Friday in The Press. A few weeks ago my Mom and Dad were over visiting. I was so delighted when I went back to our guest room to get my Mom for the morning and she opened the bedroom door wearing her very own Press  t-shirt. My Dad volunteered as well but his support consisted a bit more of enjoying our great coffee! 
There is something so special about having those you love experience your life and see what it looks like on a daily basis. For the past 2 1/2 years I have been telling my parents about The Press, the Art Exhibitions we have done, how more and more people in the community are coming out in support of our little coffee endeavor. But for them to actually see with their own eyes and smell the coffee, taste the toasties and eat the homemade soup and wheaten...now that was something to experience. They loved their time here and my Mom said she even has been dreaming about The Press since being back in Idaho. 

One of the reasons it's great to have visitors over, especially those who love you, is being able to see your life through their eyes. My parents raved about our church, our friends, and all that we are doing in the community. They loved The Press and will remember their trip so fondly. I will too. It was a dream come true having my Mom working by my side, looking over at a corner booth and seeing my Dad reading on his iPad, drinking coffee. There was something so sweet and true about those brief moments. I will treasure them forever! 
We are constantly seeing new faces come through the doors of The Press and I love it! In ways it feels like we may just be becoming that 'underground' coffee shop that people whisper about and word of mouth spreads through the town. I hope that this continues and that it becomes a consistent trend for our amazing, hidden treasure! So if you want to know what all the fuss is about, come out and see for yourself. We are open every Friday from 10am-4pm and the last Saturday of the month for live music from 6pm-10pm with the music on from 7:30pm-9:30pm. I look forward to meeting you and watching you experience our unique atmosphere and experience all that The Press has to offer you too!

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!!!!!