Several years ago, I considered buying a laundromat. Anyone who knows me will tell you I have a real focus in regard to laundry. I like to call it a penchant, most others call it OCD or simply use the term crazy. Semantics . . . At any rate, I thought a coffee bar with a few favorite flavors and additives, some good reading material, and that would be the perfect setting for a singles ministry. Let's face it, you get to know who someone really is by their laundry and the way they do it.
Before my last marriage, I directly asked my intended how he felt about laundry. He looked at me oddly and said he didn't really care. I immediately responded with, "Well, I'm crazy when it comes to laundry, so you don't ever have to help . . ." You'd think most guys would have jumped and clung to that airtight alibi, but not this guy. Three months after the wedding, and I was already drowning in doubt and regret, I came home from working on his real estate venture, not thrilled with that albatros that had been hung on my neck, only to find a load of wrinkled clothes thrown on the bed.
When I realized his shift was over, I went ahead and called him, sort of as a courtesy warning that he'd crossed a line . . . All he claimed to remember was I was in a bad mood for some reason . . . it never changed. He insisted upon being involved in the laundry, but not actually doing it completely or even just agreeing to do his own. No, it HAD to be a shared project. I grimace as I type. Owning a laundromat is clearly not part of the plan for me. But a laundromat would be a great place for outreach, on a busy night.
There is an idea or vision that I know isn't really for me, but won't really go away either. This is a vision of feeding people in town through both a business and ministry. I'm preparing for those who come for refuge and there may be a connection. While I'm working on the country project, here's the town project. I thought sometime back of having a fried chicken dinner restaurant on Sundays only. We'd serve the standard family style meal of fried chicken, mashed potatoes and white gravy, with choice of two vegetables, whatever is in season, biscuits with homemade jelly of course, and fruit cobbler, also according to the season. Water, coffee, and iced tea would be the beverages . . . milk for kids if they wanted it. It gets better, though. In this same building through the week, I'd offer a working man lunch of soup and sandwiches and cookies, not with a lot of choices, but a different choice every day, same beverage offer, and serve the whole works for just a couple of dollars. If someone was a little short, we wouldn't send them away hungry. It would only be open about 3 hours a day, and since it is a restaurant, the left overs could be donated . . . I was thinking the Sunday chicken dinners could support the working man lunch special.
Then . . . it still gets better.
The building would be used for a Sabbath gathering on Friday evening, with dinner or at least an oneg. The business itself would be closed for Shabbat. I realize I have an assignment already, so this is not actually for me to do, but if this was in my area, I could certainly help a couple days a week, and perhaps even some financial provision on the start up. I used to think I was supposed to just sit on this vision and when someone else mentioned it, to offer confirmation, but when I saw the bakery closed next to the laundromat, I felt led to speak up and invite anyone who may be feeling led in something like this to contact me.
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