Saturday, June 23, 2007

můj sen (my dream)

one night in the early fall of 05, while still in the process of looking for an apartment, my (future) roommate and I had a conversation on the terrace of a local pizza place. the conversation was short and was basically me looking at this rad building across the street from where we were dining and commenting, "what if we lived up there?"

we dont live there now.

>> two years

since i've decided to stay in czech long term i have started looking into buying an apartment here. my initial idea was to buy the apartment that i currently live in (i hate moving), but i've been scanning reality boards to see if anything else was available. last week while i was scanning an aforementioned board i spotted this place:



intimidated by the size and not really needing a place for 20, my eyes didn't linger long. since i didn't see anything that peeked my interest, i went back to the above pictures wondering where it was. the board said:

location: cesky tesin square

i live near the square and not initially recognizing it, i looked at it more closely.

!!oh, dang, that is the house across from the pizza place. i walk by that every day. i can't believe i didn't recognize it!!

<< one year

my friend romana and i started dreaming of what it would be like to open a kavarna/cajovna (coffee/tea house) in cesky tesin. it would be a place where ministry could be done and a great way to meet people in town. we had tons of ideas, but not really a way to have them realized. she got married and moved to prague.

>> one year

so as i looked at the pictures of this house all these ideas (and more) flooded my mind.

_the basement is currently a grocery store, so it is already zoned commercial, so that could be the coffee/tea house



_the first floor could be split in two. one half would be where romana and michal (her husband) could live and the other half could be the english camp offices
_the second floor could be housing for future english camp missionaries



_the third floor is where i could live...fulfilling my dream from two years ago



>> one days

my mind continued racing about the possibilities of owning this building...how much would it cost (no price had been listed)? what would i need to charge to pay a mortgage? etc.

so, lucka called the reality agency...the realator is on vacation and will be back on the 25th...and the price tag is 12m Kc (approximately $600,000)...dang, that could be too expensive...but i kept dreaming...and started praying

>> two days

so after church last sunday we took a closer look at the property and more ideas came...

_there are three garages, i could keep one for a car/storage and knock the wall down between the other two and make a youth room out of it...the address of the garages is 1971...so everything in the youth room would be vintage 70s...















_there is a chata (little house) located on the property too...sauna, hot tub, ???




>> now

as i sit here i'm two days away from having our first set of six us youth groups fly into prague. i'm also two days away from the realator being back in town. we're going to call her on monday and see what the deal is. we've heard that it has been on the market for six-eight months, so i'm hoping that may give us a shot at getting the price lowered.

what i'm praying for right now is {if God wills} to find someone who would want to make a {financial and spiritual} investment into this house. maybe God would redirect this vision, but for now I don't see the possibility that i'd be able to get the financing for it on my own...at this rate i probably won't make $600,000 total in the 40 years!

so that's můj sen

13 comments:

Graeme said...

If you can't dream big, it's not worth the dreaming! Dude that is such a cool thing.

Now if I had that money it would find it's way to you... alas I may be able to get $6. Only another few thousand to go.

A.PETH said...

"The greatest thing is pursuing your dreams and enjoying the journey along the way because the journey is the most enjoyable part. After all once we reach our dreams what more could we do. We must make sure that are dreams are so God big that the journey never ends."

(ran across that on the comment page of http://flowerdust.net/)

enjoy the process my friend ;)

Laura Troutman said...

Hey Friend! I said a prayer for you about this today... love to hear how the phone call goes!

Anonymous said...

Nate we are praying for the same thing here in Albania. Thanks for the reminder to pray big!

Justin

Joe Kitchens said...

Nate, i think that is a sweet idea! I seriously hope that this dream gets accomplished, because I think that seriously cool things could come of this. Not only would you get the place you've always wanted, but you would be using your own place for ministry. What a great opportunity! I will be praying for you bro.
Joe Kitchens

GasperK said...

Hey Nate!

I do not know if you know this but you have fans all the way in slovenia (we actually meet when you visited). Pray big.
Also i cant give much, but if you are opening an acount for it i would like to chip in. Let me know becouse i could not find your email. God is good!

Take care

allthewayfromSLO Gasper

Tory Jane said...

Nate,

We don't know each other, but I stumbled upon your blog via Josh Longbrake's blog...

I've only started to make my way through some of your posts, and I'm quite intrigued to learn more.

I'm at a crossroads in life right now, and would love to pick your brain about ministry, especially ministry abroad, if you'd so allow me to pick your brain.

let me know if there is a way I can email you or something. my addy is toryjane23@yahoo.com, and my blog is http://rainofwonder.blogspot.com.

Thanks.

Anonymous said...

here is my infinite 19yr old wisdom God has pulled me out of messes that would take me years on my own to pull myself out of. God loves it when his people dream big especially when his people dream of big things that will multiply the kingdom. If you are doing this with the sole intention of glorifying God then I will not be surprised to see the property in your guyses possession within the next year-and-a-half.

Faint-Hearted said...

Hi Nate...we have never met...i am newer to Somanorth...but was inspired by your dream...i will pray for you...i want to encourage you...dont give up hope...keep dreaming...Lauri

Neil The Real Deal said...

Oh my, that sounds amazing!

that place has "come and make me cool" all over it.

Anonymous said...

:) Did I tell you my moje sanje? Ha. Funny story. I'll tell you about it when we're in Croatia.

This is really, really cool, Nate. Go big or go home....and you're not going home, eh? So....

BritBoat said...

Ok, so I know this post is really old, but I just got a chance to read it. Back off! Anyway, I got super excited while reading this! 1) because of the amazing story-telling of the dream. 2) because I too would love to do a coffee-house type ministry. 3) because I can feel your passion. 4) because..well, just because!
How did it all go? Is there another post about the conversation had with the lady? I MUST KNOW! I suppose I could look and see if you did write another post...doh! Well, just in case, let me know how it all goes down. God will totally bless it if it's in His plan! So stinkin exciting!!

Peep, Anna&Emma said...

Thats such a cool opportunity!
My experience over the last 6 years is that money always follows the vision. There is nothing that wont be dont just because of money.
And after having to move 4 times with our church in the last 1.5 years i have seen that God will open and close the doors in real estate according to his master plan (which is most of the time even grander than what we can think of).
Prayers from Estonia will be sent towards God for the opportunity to reach youth in such a cool way.