I've never made so much foam before!

Sunday afternoon in Ecclesia.
It's like eat, pray, & love on a chai tea latte.

In case you ever wonder what I do on my weekends, because I'm so mysterious and surely must be up to chicanery in the big city, well....at least half of the weekend I spend at Ecclesia...creating as many shenanigans as I can while also trying to make a good latte, making sure people know that that dollop of foam contains just a little bit of the Holy Spirit. (joking joking...kind of...)

Ecclesia is the cafe inside of Jubilee. It's on the 4th floor of our new building. I much prefer the new location, because in the old building, there were no windows in Ecclesia and you could never tell what time of day it was or anything. In our new set-up, we have a whole patio AND sliding doors, so the whole cafe gets infused with fresh air!
Anyways, today was an incredibly busy day. INCREDIBLY! It was crazy. The whole day it was pretty calm and then right about 3:55 BAM! suddenly the whole church is up in Ecclesia and everybody wants a latte! (or americano, or iced americano, or cafe mocha, or caramel macchiato, or chai tea latte, or green tea -- WAIT! WHERE'S THE GREEN TEA? DID YOU FIND IT YET??? IS IT THE SAME AS HERBAL TEA? CAN WE JUST GIVE THEM HERBAL TEA AND HOPE THEY DON'T NOTICE THE DIFFERENCE? That was only one of our drama today!) It stayed really busy until about 4:15. (Note: There is a 4 o'clock Bible Study. So you know those 3:55 people are the "punctual" ones and the 4:15 people are the late-comers. :P ) During this time, we ran out of milk (but thankfully Jodie ran down to a grocery store nearby) and house coffee (hey look guys! You get an americano! surpriiiiiiise!) and had no time to clean anything up (food safety training on the spread of bacteria? whaaaaa?).
So our counter ended up looking like this:

Too much powder! Too much syrup! Makes Jodie a tired gal^^

This is what I think is cool. And I'm not trying to toot my own horn here, because Lord knows, man, even this morning I thought, I still have sooo much to learn. But anyways, I started serving at Ecclesia soon after I joined Jubilee. I was thinking about joining the refreshing team as a way to get more involved (a wonder of God in itself, b/c I don't remember the last time I was "involved" in a church) and ended up coming to a meeting for Ecclesia. (2md Note: in the old building, Ecclesia Cafe and Refreshing Team were 2 different teams. Now we're all one happy Ecclesia Team) I thought, I've worked in coffee before...even making coffee at church (Mercy House, senior year at Ball State...Ok, I guess I do know the last time I was involved in a church), so this could be fun.
But I didn't have a super good attitude about it. I enjoyed making coffee...because I enjoy making coffee in general. I like trying to make the perfect foam and a 25 second shot and doing things in the correct order, because that gives you a better milk:foam ration and such. I appreciate a well-made drink, and I like to challenge myself to also make good drinks.
Going on...anyways, so my prayer in the fall was that God would change me. change me change me change me. My prayer in the winter was that God would change me. My prayer in the spring was that God would change me. My prayer now (ongoing, really, because there's always things to be changed) is that God would change me. And today I noticed, well, He did, in at least one way.
When I first started with Ecclesia, I tried to make good drinks, but I didn't try to be on the team or really take any pride in the ministry. I habitually came late and missed Sundays without notice and got really frustrated if I had to stay longer than I had planned and I didn't really feel very connected to the rest of the team. I was 27 and still the rebellious teenager. (Honestly, I wasn't a very rebellious teenager, you can ask my mom, so maybe all the rebelliousness has just decided to come out in spurts.)
Fast forward to now...since August I've been the "assistant leader" for Ecclesia. (Yeah! me! the rebellious barista!) And how does this happen? I plan on spending ALL day at Ecclesia on Sundays. And usually I LIKE spending all day at Ecclesia. I like the busy parts, I like the quiet moments, I like adding "extras" to people's drinks just to let them know that we care. I like being on a team and being friends with the people on that team and sharing life with them.


I can't handle the foam!



I like the idea that *somehow*someway*hopefully* our team is building up God's people and serving the church and sharing God's love. It's amazing. And it's all God. Because, obviously, left to my own devices, I would be a very petulent rebellious person. But God somehow takes those sharp edges and wheedles them down to something completely new and different. And I am so thankful for that. Thankful that our God does change us and doesn't just let us wallow in our own deficiencies. Thankful that God changes us and we don't even realize it, in areas we didn't think about. And thankful...just so completely thankful for all that I have in my life. ^^