The New Year is nearly upon us. As we look back at 2013, we also look forward to 2014, and the combined thoughts of past and future gives us a sense of accomplishment, excitement, fear, and expectation.

We feel accomplishment about the many things we have done this past year and the milestones we have reached.

Last August, With Love Community Market and Cafe was still just a mere idea that we were working out in our heads. Since then, we have written and revised several drafts of a business plan. We have surveyed over 200 local residents to understand their grocery-buying habits and needs. We have built relationships with a dozen non-profits and businesses, who have in turn connected us with many more groups. Since August, our team has doubled in size from two employees to four, and many more people have volunteered their time to us in some capacity. We have held a total of four partner-raising events, including one in San Diego and one in Pasadena. We have applied for a grant through Chase Bank that could potentially get us $250,000 in funds. In a year, With Love has gone far from being just that idea in our heads.

We feel excitement over the buzz that With Love has generated in the immediate community and the greater LA region as a whole.

Momentum has been gathering with the With Love project all year. Through networking and an online presence, we have gathered a large group of partners, laborers, funders, and prayer partners. Inside and outside of the community, the story we are telling is resonating with people on a deep level. God has stirred many folks to ask how they can be of help to us. This is a big part of the hope that we have for the business. With Love is not only meant to be part of the solution to the food and job needs of our community, it’s meant to help people realize that God’s work is not confined to within church walls. God can use any skill, be it business, art, education and more to love a community/city/country. We asked big from God and He delivered, and we anxiously anticipate what He has yet to do.

We feel fearful when we see how big this project has become.

With Love is not just a small business; it’s a movement to transform Southwest LA. Depending on who you ask, the goals of With Love are great, benevolent, gutsy, risky, foolhardy or more; regardless they are BIG! That is exciting, but exciting things are also scary. There are so many aspects to starting a business that we do not have experience with and challenges that seem potentially insurmountable. Plus, we face an unjust food and economic system that has shown repeatedly in the past that it does not care for the people we wish to serve and love. We are like the new kid at school, and that can be scary, especially when we look so much different from every other business in our area.

We have great expectations about what 2014 will hold.

This new year will bring in more employees, more events, more partners, and more challenges. We hope to finally open shop in mid-2014, at last bringing to life the vision of With Love Community Market and Cafe in Southwest LA. Seeing the business open for the first time will be something that’s truly spectacular.

Remembering the past and looking forward to the future, joys and fears abound. But for me, the joys easily outweigh the fears, leaving me with a great feeling about how we’re leaving 2013 and what will come in 2014. God has been so good and so faithful! Bring on 2014!