Café Forever is open from 11am-5pm Monday to Friday, however the staff begin at 9am. First there's the purchase and preparation of the food in the kitchen and the cleaning of the café, ensuring there's stock in the fridges and on the counter, updating the menu while remembering the allergens in each product, deciding on what should be sold for desert and ensuring the facility is clean and presentable and safe. This includes checking the rooms for choking hazards for the little children that visit, locking up cupboards and clearing away rubbish that has blown over our walls (excellence honours God and inspires others is our motto). Then at 10:30 am there's a short devotional quiet time where we align ourselves to the purpose of the day before greeting the customers when we open the doors at 11am (it is after all, Mary who sat at her masters feet, receiving love who was afterwards in the best place to serve). It can be mum's with children from the singing group or builders working on a nearby site, travellers printing an airline ticket or looking for work or somebody who has had a bad night and is looking for some solace.
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| Dot serving up delights |
At around 12:30pm visitors begin arriving, the TA's from the school next door enter and they want their food quickly as it is only a short lunch break, office workers, mum's and infants, Bengali's, East Enders, East Europeans - this can be a stressful time on the kitchen as the dishes mount up and the orders increase. Quite often I will step in to do dishes or prepare a sandwich or serving coffee behind the counter in order that some pressure is relieved from Angela (Dot) in the kitchen. In the midst of all these food orders we or also helping customers with their formatting of their CV, printing documents from their phone or faxing title deeds to Pakistan! Of course all of these things that keep us busy are really just things that we can stop in order that we can share the Gospel. What good is it if a man can gain the whole world but lose his soul? There's no point in all this business except the sharing of the love of Jesus and how much better way to show that than by stopping the mundane in order to share the extraordinary! We are looking for a bridge, sometimes it is a little pocket to put a seed in, other times it opens up a whole discussion involving identity, sin and grace.
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| Sarah baking with Joy |
Thursday's tend to be the busiest day with lots of local groups coming to us when their events finish, and at 12:30pm a group of us meet including local businessmen to read the bible together. From about 2:30pm onwards the day can quieten down a little, someone may even get a lunch break! Quite often it is at this time that the marginalised are in and looking for friendship. In the bible we see how Jesus joins those who are unacceptable to man, outside the walls of the city, and allows them to enter into the City of God. By 4pm the kitchen closes and then until 5pm it is time to tidy it up. There's quite often a group of some sort that takes over in the evening, such as Bible Study on Tuesday, Kids club on Thursday and Scrabble on Friday. The venue is also opened up on weekends to provide a much needed space for people who want to celebrate birthday's and anniversaries.
When I first began working here there where two kitchen staff, a gap year student and a probationer and 3 other missionary staff. We have had several other gap year volunteers since then, all who maintained their relationship with us; Patrick liked us so much he decided to stay on an extra year. When the recession hit in 2008 we had to cut down the staff numbers here to one in the kitchen and one on the counter and Marlene and Carol were released from regular service in the café and moved to a more district role, which left myself and one other. In 2010 we were able to finally re-open the kitchen service and since then we have been serving hot food alongside internet and coffee. We are a team of three, one on the counter(either Sarah or Duncan), one in the kitchen (Dot - who used to attend Harry White's after school club!), and myself being the cover for either absence. This setup is far from ideal; if two are absent we have a problem! Fortunately we have some amazing volunteers who step in to help at the drop of a hat.
My role has always been a split role of Manager/Missionary, so I have the responsibility of overseeing the running of the café and it's customers, and as a missionary, engaging with them. It is a very busy role, one that I have always loved - I really do not do well sitting around with nothing to do, but sometimes the cafe does come to a place of quiet, a slow day. These slow days could be useful for doing some of the things we don't normally do, such as sanding and varnishing a table top, repairing some furniture or stopping a leaking tap. It is important to be able to do these things in order that precious funds are not squandered away on something that is easily solved.
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| Duncan teaching a group how to use a PC |
Café Forever has been running 20 years and it continues to show love and care to the people of the Isle of Dogs. There's an amazing team, that keeps the place going and regularly I meet young adults who I first met here as far back as 2006 who ask, "are you still here?" They talk about the assemblies that we presented in the neighboring school, the after school homework club they attended or maybe an outing we have been on. It is so encouraging to see how some of them have overcome the challenges or resisted the temptations presented in growing up on the Isle of Dogs. The area is developing fast and there are many changes for residents to deal with. Café Forever remains, a beacon, a haven, a place to return to! However, the Grass withers and the flower fades, cafés come and cafés go, but it is the Word of the Lord that stands forever!
