{"id":14782,"date":"2015-02-26T20:55:14","date_gmt":"2015-02-26T20:55:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.the-dock.org\/blog\/?p=14782"},"modified":"2015-02-28T15:51:23","modified_gmt":"2015-02-28T15:51:23","slug":"six-days-creation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.the-dock.org\/blog\/2015\/six-days-creation\/","title":{"rendered":"The Six Days of Creation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Screenshot<\/a>Any time you doubt the power of a deadline… if you ever wonder if miracles still happen… if you question whether the impossible can occasionally become possible… remember the story of Eamonn Day, exactly three years ago today.<\/p>\n

On Monday 20th February 2012, we were handed the key to an empty shell at the base of the ARC \"Screenshot<\/a>apartments – and asked to be ready for Sunday 26th February, when Eamonn Holmes and a Songs Of Praise film crew would arrive to film in our busy community cafe.<\/p>\n

And so, with apologies to the book of Genesis, began the Six Days of Creation:<\/p>\n

In the beginning, The Dock created a little piece of Heaven on Earth. The cafe was formless and empty, and darkness was over the face of the deep puddles.<\/p>\n

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And the team said, We’d better paint the floor. \u00a0And so they hoovered, and they swept, and they painted. \u00a0And there was morning, and there was evening, and then the paint dried nicely overnight – the first day.<\/p>\n

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\"Screenshot<\/a>And the team said, We’d better do some planning. \u00a0And behold! there was coffee, and there were ideas, and there was much chat and laughter and excitement about this crazy idea of running an Honesty Box Cafe. \u00a0And there was a plan, and it was good. \u00a0The second day.<\/p>\n

And the Electricians and the Plumbers did come unto the cafe and work their wonders. The waters did flow; there was a sink, and a tap, and there were plugs, and power, and the team did flick a switch and say Let there be Light! and there was light – the third day.<\/p>\n

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And the pictures and signs did come unto the cafe. \u00a0The team did construct wooden display boards, and did paint them with \u00a0a coat of white paint. \u00a0And then another. \u00a0And then another. \u00a0And still the flipping things weren’t white enough. \u00a0But the pictures went on the walls according to their kinds, and the Dock logo went above the doors and windows according to their kinds. \u00a0And there was art and there were signs (and wonders) – the fourth day.<\/p>\n

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And the team said, Let the furniture increase in number, let it be fruitful and multiply to fill the cafe and cover the floor. \u00a0And so a battered old white van was purloined, and across land and sea didst travel Chris and Jeremy, to borrow and beg and buy and bargain every last free or cut-price piece of furniture in greater Belfast. \u00a0And there were chairs, and there were tables; there were shelves and there were sofas – the fifth day.<\/p>\n

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And then verily did the gloves come off. \u00a0The cafe was cleaned from \u00a0end to end and top to bottom. \u00a0The flat-pack furniture was created in the image of the little man on the ikea instruction sheet. \u00a0The tea was arranged according to its kind, and the coffee according to its kind, and the mugs and the plates and the glasses and the spoons according to their kinds. And it was so. \u00a0And there was evening, and there was morning, and then there was midnight, and then there was still more to do, and so the team kept working and building and moving and shaping, for Eamonn was coming. \u00a0And finally, there was relief and there was calm (and there was exhaustion) – the sixth day.<\/p>\n

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And so, on the seventh day, Eamonn Holmes walked in the cool of the cafe in the heat of the day. \u00a0He saw all that had been made. \u00a0He chatted to the people. \u00a0He had a cup of tea. \u00a0And he said that it was very good.<\/p>\n