The Re-Launch... Great Food... Write The Vision...

Hobie's Snicker Cupcakes

What's up guys,

I hope that your week is starting out with joyful anticipation! I am joyfully anticipating a wedding in 19 days to the woman of my dreams and the greatest gift that Jesus has ever given to me! The beginning is near! There are also some new beginnings coming up at Kairos as we prepare to re-launch our delicious goodness to you guys in new and exciting ways. I'm also working on an awesome Menu for Mothers Day at Kairos Kafe and also thinking about putting together a “pop in the oven” menu for those of you who like to eat at home. Either way I look forward to Kairos being a part of your special event as we celebrate our Mommas!

Last week I made a cake for my future brother-in-law's birthday. I wanted to do something special so I asked his lovely bride what some of his favorite things were. The list was getting long so I requested that she nail down one thing. Snickers Won. So I went about the fun time of figuring out how to create Hobie a "Snickers Cake". The results were awesome. One layer of chocolate cake followed by another layer of yellow butter cake. In between I put layers of scratch made chocolate icing and homemade caramel. Oh and the batter for both cake layers had chopped up snickers inside. The whole cake was covered in the chocolate and caramel. And decorated with sliced up Snicker Bars. The evening of his birthday we were all eating in a very snazzy restaurant, seven of us present and talking up a storm. Then the cake came. Hobie liked it and went about the task of cutting us each a slice. The funniest thing happened next. We all started eating our cake (which was off the chain with delicious goodness) and I noted that none of us were talking. None of us were even looking at each other. It was like we all had this special relationship going on with this cake. It was really that good. I'm not saying all that to toot my own horn. I'm saying it because cooking is one of those things that I do in life that is not only my greatest passion, it also brings me intense joy when something I made makes people excited and happy like that. "Love People. Cook them good food." That is a tag line for one of my favorite spice stores. But more importantly it is something that my Granny did almost everyday of her adult life and it’s also something that she instilled in me. Building Relationships Around Food is our mission. I'm ready to take that to another level. Re-lationships with all of you, but with an emphasis on Real. I don't just want to stand back in the kitchen and cook for you. I also want to connect with you in the Dining Room, off site when we Kater your events, and of course here through this weekly newsletter that has become a very meaningful part of my life. Last week I had a customer say, "If you would make your Lemon Kobbler I'll be back tomorrow!" I told her I would love to make the Lemon Kobbler for her. Building Relationships. Last week as I walked into Wal-Mart I spotted one of my regular customers and his family. He said he sure did want some of my Chicken Tetrazzini. I asked him which day he would be in. He said Friday. I promised to have it on the buffet. Friday morning at 10:58 guess who comes strolling in? My Chicken Tetrazzini Guy! When I told him I made it special for him he lit up like the Fourth of July! These are the things I want to do at Kairos. Do what I Love. Cook. Make up new recipes. Make you guys feel special by doing things especially for you. And in the process building great relationships with great people around great food. This passion and this perspective has caused my staff and I to ponder how we can make this the "Kairos" experience on many new levels.

We are currently in the process of transitioning and rethinking your experience both with Katering and in the Kafe. We want to provide you with the most authentic experience that we can provide while staying genuine to all of the things you already love about Kairos Kafe and Kairos Katering. Currently the initial atmosphere in the Kafe seems to be one with a slight air of confusion. To Buffet or not to Buffet? Southern Fried Chicken off the menu or Cheesy Chicken Ziti off the buffet? Chicken Florentine off the menu but I really want some of that braised cabbage and creamed corn... All this leads me to the point of knowing that at Kairos we have to do one thing and do it well. I Love options. But if I have too many options I get confused. I don't want this to be anyone's experience with Kairos. We are in the process of streamlining our operations, but I need your help. A "re-launch" is in the works but I want your input. I want you guys to be a part of the process. I'm excited about the changes we are making, and even though we are introducing a new look with a new system it will still hold the same philosophy and the same great food. My desire is for the Kafe to be like all of us going to my Granny's house every Sunday. The cool thing though is we can do it five days a week! I'm stoked. I want to hear from you. Via email or Facebook or talk to me when you are in the Kafe or some of my staff! And I want you guys to get excited with me about the good things to come! I can’t wait to see you this week!

Vision. It is one of my favorite words. The most meaningful quote in my life goes like this: “Vision without Action is merely a Fantasy... Action without Vision is simply the passing of time... Vision accompanied by Action can change the World!” I’m not sure whom the quote came from and I have modified it over the years but it is the absolute truth to me. I first learned about “writing a Vision” from some guys that came in to teach us when I was in prison. I got really excited by their teaching, and I set about writing Visions and making up confessions to exhaustion, but somehow it never really quite worked out the way they said it would. Then one day as I was reading the passage of scripture that they taught from something jumped out at me. “I will [in my thinking] stand ... and station myself ... and will watch to see what He will say within me... Write The Vision...” (Habakkuk) This doesn’t say just write something down and confess it. It says find out what God has to tell you and then write the Vision. Wait on Jesus; be in vital communion and relationship with Him, and when He tells me what to write, then Write The Vision. Only then will the Vision come to pass. I learned that if The Vision did not come from God then He wasn’t obligated to bring it to pass. This little lesson changed my whole life. I asked God to give me a Vision, and I wrote it down and it came to pass! I actually wrote one about 3 weeks before I got out of Prison. That was 14 years ago and it is still impacting my life today. I knew that I was going up for parole, and I believed that I was going to make it. One weekend before that I got by myself and prayed and listened to what God wanted me to write as a Vision for my life. I spent pretty much the whole two days alone with Him, writing. At the end, I had a Vision for my future. It was not magic, it was simply a Son listening to his Father and writing down what He said. When I got finished I had some goals for the future that may have looked silly to someone else, but I knew they were for me. It utterly amazed me the first six months I was in Birmingham because if you read it afterwards you would have thought I didn’t write it beforehand. It was pretty awesome. In that cell in 1999 I wrote down for the first time that I would start a business that would also be part ministry. Today, I am sitting at my computer writing to the customers of Kairos Kafe! The reason I am sharing this is because I had many portions in that Notebook. One was for my wife. I had long since given up on that part though as I dated one young woman that I tried to make fit that Vision and was engaged to another young woman who tried to force herself to fit into that Vision. The past few months have been an exciting whirlwind of meeting my Miss and getting engaged. It was only after we were engaged that I thought about my Vision and took it out to read it to her. Guess what? It was her. To a T. It really flipped me out and excited me. I began to go about the task of declaring that the Vision was complete and it’s time for a new one! Haley and I even discussed writing one on our honeymoon. Last week Jesus challenged me to go through and read the whole thing again. I was amazed at something I missed. Have you ever just known that something wasn’t quite right or that there was something missing? I’ve been sensing that for months with Kairos. To my amazement when I reread my Vision there was no restaurant in there. Only a Catering Business. That may not mean much to you but I understood it clearly. Katering was always what I was supposed to do and I believe I do it well. It was the missing piece. Don’t get alarmed though. We are not closing the Kafe, but we are going to refocus our efforts and for me The Kafe will be handled like a daily Katering Job. So, be on the lookout for some great changes coming up. And let me hear from you!

You may be asking, “What is a God-Given Vision?” It is what God dreams for me to do. It is the potential that He has placed in me, but it is also a blueprint for the Goals that He has for me. A Vision that comes from God is something that could span your whole lifetime and take years to come to pass. But it will come to pass as we cooperate with Him, and in the meantime we have something to focus on that will give us hope: The Vision.

“I will stand my watch

And set myself on the rampart,

And watch to see what He will say to me,

And what I will answer when I am corrected.

Then the Lord answered me and said:

Write the vision

And make it plain on tablets,

That he may run who reads it.

For the vision is yet for an appointed time;

But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie.

Though it tarries, wait for it;

Because it will surely come,

It will not tarry.”

Habakkuk 2:1-3 (NKJV)

“Where there is no vision, the people perish...” Proverbs 29:18

God Bless You and have a wonderful week!

James K Jones

https://www.facebook.com/ChefJameskjones

P.S. We are changing the weekly Coupons back to simply printing them out and bringing them in the Kafe! The other way was confusing to some people.

We are getting married! Sign our online guest book! The Miss and I are both lovers of Words! Check out http://www.jamesandhaley.com/