RUNwithGOD

C28 Prayer: vol 4

(to catch up people new to the list, I am starting a new Christian biz by buying a franchise: check out C28.COM to see what it's about)...

"Pray like it depends on God. Work like it depends on you." Mark Batterson, TheaterChurch.com

79 Days ago I started talking to C28, a Christian Retail Company about opening a store in Miami, FL. 79 Days later, we are running full steam ahead. Our present goal is to open on Friday, November 17th in the Mall at Wellington Green in West Palm Beach. Ironically, there are 128 days from the first day we started talking to C28 to the day we will open. In case you didn't catch the irony. 100 is "C" in Roman Numerals, therefore, the irony of C28=128.... eh, maybe it's not that funny.

Okay, the God stuff:

1) Our business terms with the mall were approved. They threw in an extra little gift at the last minute (that I didn't even ask for). On the document they sent me to approve it said "Security Deposit: None Specified". I called the agent asking what that meant, and I was told "oh, you don't need to pay a deposit." Now, usually security deposit is 2 months worth of rent, and in a mall you can imagine how high that number is... don't know why we got it but Thank you God!

2) We have found a manager for the West Palm Beach location. Ryan and Kim Eloe are friends of ours from the TCU era. Some would say I am responsible for their hooking up and getting married. (OK, I'm the only one who would say that.) We flew out to LA with the Eloes to look at the ministry, and they fell in love with it! Another Godsend is when I told them they would have to move everything from Fort Worth, TX to West Palm Beach in 3 weeks, they didn't laugh at me! God's great that way, preparing those that will be called... Ryan will be the full-time manager, and Kim is looking for a marketing/promotion position in West Palm Beach. If you want to e-mail them a congratulations (or a warning b/c you know what it's like to work with me) you can do that to ryaneloe@c28.com or kimeloe@c28.com

Now the prayer stuff:

1) LAWYERS: The only major snag left is that the mall's lawyers and our lawyers need to negotiate the lease. When I asked our lawyer if he could negotiate the legal terms in 2-3 weeks (the amount of time I have allotted) he laughed at me. I'm not sure that's a good sign. God has gotten us this far, but please pray that we can get past this.

2) TIMING: The schedule is ultra tight right now. There are several items (fixtures, electronics, etc.) that will take a while to come in, and I'm rather nervous about delays in the schedule. We literally have no time for delays.

3) EMPLOYEES: We found our manager, but we still need to find the rest of our employees. Pray that God will bring us students and young adults who are evangelistic, prayerful, basically on fire for God. This is not your typical "mall job". We are opening a church in a mall in West Palm Beach, and these youngsters will be the ones spreading the message.

4) TRAVEL: It seems like at least once a week from today to launch we will have people flying back and forth to LA.

5) AMY AND I: At this stage I can safely say I have three (3) jobs. That takes a lot out of me. On top of that, Amy is having a difficult year teaching as she has a very rough schedule. Pray for both of us that we don't let my (work-o-holic) and her (perfectionist) attitudes get in the way of "us".

Thank you all for your time and prayers. You're all invited to the Grand Opening. Thank you for who you are.

Steadfast in Christ,

Jeff Reed

C28 Prayer: vol 3

(to catch up people new to the list, I am starting a new Christian biz by buying a franchise: check out C28.com to see what it's about)......

Wow, what an incredible week. A month ago I told many of you that it would take an Act of God to open this store by Thanksgiving. Within the past month, I could have sold tickets to the "God show", because He has been doing some awesome things in West Palm Beach. Allow me to elaborate:

* A month ago the leasing agent for the mall told me point blank that there is no way that C28 would be open before March 2007. This week he told me that he would not rest until we were open before Thanksgiving. The agent is not a Christian, and when we went into detail on the ministry/impact this store would have on teens, his response was: "I don't really understand what you do or how you do it, but if you can have a better impact on these kids than Hot Topic does, I want you in my mall." God is working on him through the store, and when you pray, pray for "Al".

* The architect looked at the location this week, and we have presented plans to the Mall for our redesign. We stressed in these plans that we thought we did not need permits. If you know anything about construction in SoFL, you know that permits take 2-4 months on any project (even something as simple as building a wall). Long story short, NO PERMITS NECESSARY for us to build in. You really cannot understand how huge this is. The architect is not a Christian as well, and when you pray, pray for "Deepak".

* We have been praying for a manager, and next week Amy and I will be flying to LA to have a potential manager and his wife meet with C28 management. God has been leading them recently to start looking at ministry opportunities, and what I believe is divine timing we are reuniting an old friendship through ministry. Please pray for both "Ryan" and "Kim" as they seek God's wisdom on this ministry opportunity.

These are only three of them. I could go on, but maybe I'll start my blog again and post it there. I appreciate your continued prayer on these and all other issues. Major hurdles still left:

1) final lease has to be approved
2) their lawyers and my lawyers have to approve (if you ever worked with a lawyer, you know why this needs prayer)
3) we need to employ the store!
4) the general contractor can find sub-contractors capable of the job (Hard to find in SoFL right now)

I'll update you as more prayer requests come in. Thank you for your
prayers and thoughts.

Steadfast in Christ,

Jeff Reed

C28 Prayer: vol 2

I wanted to touch base again with everyone in regards to where we are with C28 deal. As most of you know Amy and I started discussion with C28 (http://www.c28.com) about opening a location in Miami, FL in July, and those conversations escalated quickly. Through a chain of events we've seen God open doors and close others, and in typical God-form, where we ended up is nowhere near where we thought.

we are currently negotiating a lease in West Palm Beach at the Mall @ Wellington Green. The mall likes us, and has conceded on most of the major business points we wanted changed... so those concerns have gone by the wayside, and at this point I believe we will be in there at some point.

However, there's two major points of prayer: 1) there is an outside chance (maybe 25%) that we could be open by November 10th. This would be INCREDIBLE! Obviously, the financial situation would help getting a Christmas right off the bat, but more than that, the exposure of the store to everyone walking around the mall would be a great jumpstart for us. There are some MAJOR hurdles to overcome; pray that we can work through these.

2) we are in need of a manager for the West Palm Beach location. The manager is a crucial person for the store. He/She is part businessman/part pastor, and having the right person at the location will greatly impact the ministry of the store. Pray for us as we seek God's direction, and pray for those that are considering this unusual ministry.

The attached photo is Seventh Day Slumber's lead singer, Joseph Rojas, wearing a shirt from C28. Enjoy it.

Thanks for your prayers. It's comforting to know that while we are doing this, there are friends and family praying alongside for God to move through this. I'll update you all as we go.

Steadfast in Christ,

Jeff Reed