A guy named Robby, that Jay has had only a few conversations with, came and ate at Grille 33 @ The Channel. While he was eating he was reading his Bible and praying and Jay was at the register just thanking God for The Channel and Grille 33, for creating a place where people are so free and comfortable, for being a beacon of light on Main Street.
Next thing Jay knew, Robby came and handed him a paper towel and said, "I don't know what this will mean to you, but God said you would." Jay opened the note and it said:
Thanks for being Noah, rain is coming...(It also had 3 other words written on them. We remembered it saying, "Rain is coming" keep reading to see what it actually said.)
You see, even though we were up and running, we hadn't had enough money to build a second staircase that the city was requiring. We hadn't raised enough money to help with cash flow for the first few months. I felt that every week could have been our last. The learning curve on the restaurant almost wiped us out. We started Grille 33 with the intention that it would help support the ministry, so we wouldn't ever have to ask anyone for donations. (I wanted to be able to do it on our own! I didn't want to be a "burden" on anyone.)
We had exhausted every bit of money we could...even most of our retirement. (which is another amazing story, because God told me at the end of 2008 to sell all our mutual funds and buy silver - so I did and then after I quit my job he told me to sell silver and put it into The Channel to help...it had almost DOUBLED!) which basically finished paying off some of the start up costs, but not enough for a staircase we needed and not enough to catch up on the lease.
I even prayed, asking if we should close Grille 33 and just try to make The Channel work. I joined a Kingdom Business class at Crossroads Community Church and the leader - Rick – said that they were going to do a marketing experiment and choose one business to rally around. I prayed and asked God that if he still wanted Grille 33 and it was a part of His vision at The Channel to lay it on Rick's heart to be the business he chose for the group to rally around.
Sure enough, it was.
By the grace of God and wisdom from some other successful restaurant owners we were able to turn the restaurant around and get it to its current state of breaking even.
At the end of December, I prayed and asked God that if we were still moving in the right direction and he still wanted The Channel (which was VERY behind in its lease) that He would be clear, that He would give us some sign by January 1st.
And of course, God answered...we got an email from a couple that wanted to donate almost $10,000 to build the staircase we needed.
