Previous Post – The Good News – Blog Series

For over a year now The Dusty Cover has grown into a small hub of relationship and activity in the West End of Winnipeg.  When we opened the doors our goals were to create a hospitable and safe environment for people in our neighbourhood to connect with us and each other.  The books & the coffee were secondary to our commitment to be present for our neighbours in a neutral context in order to build genuine relationships and trust.  Our weekly kids program has developed into connections that serve families of all kinds.  We wanted to tangibly love our community while taking our place alongside the people as part of the fabric of the West End.  In all these things we have been successful.  In fact, it has gone far beyond our expectations.  It has been out of the core community built from the bookstore that our church plant, Little Flowers Community, was born.

While we have exceeded our own expectations in the vision for The Dusty Cover, we have been faced with some very serious challenges.  Though set up as a business, it was intentionally designed to place emphasis on community building and relationships, not profit or marketing.  The growing expenses of sustaining the business side of the ministry have become more than we can handle.  However, the bigger challenge is volunteers.  Because of the hours and nature of the ministry, it has proven nearly impossible to get adequate volunteers, making it a significant stretch on our small missionary staff who are also actively involved in programs & ministries both here and abroad.

Faced with these challenges and after much prayer and consideration we have come to a decision.  At the end of Saturday, August 15th, 2009 The Dusty Cover, as it is, will be closed for good. We cannot express how appreciative we are to all those who made this project possible.  The time, energy, passion, books and money people invested into us have born good fruit that will continue to blessing our community for years to come.  We do not see this as a failure, but the next step in an exciting journey for our ministry.

You may have noticed that I said that The Dusty Cover as it is will be closing.  That’s right!  This isn’t the end of The Dusty Cover.  Little Flowers Community (which is a partnership between YWAM & Mennonite Church Manitoba) is in the process of working with a group of Christian business people who want to help us find a more permanent ministry centre in the neighbourhood.  Their goal is to acquire an apartment building in the community with retail space on the main floor.  In addition to providing quality housing to low-income people and a Christian presence in residence, they are committed to converting a section of the commercial space into a multi-purpose ministry centre for Little Flowers, community programing & outreach, etc.  In other words, like a small community centre.  (More details about this project coming in the near future).

Since The Dusty Cover did it’s best to building community, our hope is to integrate the store on a smaller scale into this community space.  Why have a church library when you can have a community book space?  We may even try to develop a lending and/or trade program.  So, as you can see, while the store will be closing in it’s current incarnation, it will return.  Please pray for us through the coming months as we process these changes.  I’ll keep you posted, as we are sure to have some special events/sales (as well as work days, for the braver few) in the months to come.

If you have any questions, please feel free to let me know.