Country Life — the café & food store
Expanding into the city
Beyond our rural campus, we're dreaming bigger: a health-food store and café in the heart of a major Central Asian city. It's a bridge to people who will never travel to a wellness retreat — but who will stop in for a good meal and leave with a taste of hope.
Why this matters
Right now, the only way to taste this ministry is to come and stay — which most of the city never will. Families ask us all the time where they can find this food, and there's nowhere to send them.
A café and store change that. They meet people where they already are — on a lunch break, on a busy street — and offer something good, no strings attached. For many, it will be the first warm encounter with the faith behind it.
What we're building
One ground-floor space in the city, in two halves that feed each other:
A plant-based café
The center's cooking, in the city — a real, warm place to eat, not a health lecture with a menu.
A healthy-food store
Bread, produce from our farm, pantry basics, and the ingredients our recipes call for — hard to find here otherwise.
A doorway for the Gospel
A place where a curious first-timer can taste it, ask questions, and be met with genuine care — no pressure.
A year-round engine
Profit that flows straight back into the ministry, steadying it through the lean months.
Country Life
What it will take
Total needed
$205,000
Two numbers, not one. The first opens the doors; the second keeps them open long enough for the café to pay for itself. We show them separately because a single lump sum hides which is which.
To build it
$123,400
Renovation, kitchen, bakery, shop fittings, permits, and the first stock on the shelves. One-time.
To reach break-even
$82,000
Twelve months of rent, wages, and running costs while the café grows into itself. On our base-case plan it stops needing this in month 12–13.
Costed in tenge against real Almaty quotes and converted at 473.40 ₸/$ (July 2026). Rent, staffing, and the break-even model are all in the business plan — ask and we'll send it.
Where the building money goes
The $123,400 isn't a round number we picked. It's six line items, priced at the upper end of each range rather than the best case:
Ventilation with grease capture, electrics, fire safety — the biggest and least glamorous block
Combi-steamer, induction range, refrigeration, and seating for twenty
Licences, till system, website, uniforms, and the first shelves of food
Convection oven and soft-serve freezer — the two things that bring people in off the street
Bulk-goods bins, label-printing scales, chilled cases, and the till
Packing benches, tray sealer, and insulated bags for the subscription meal sets
What a gift actually buys
No giving tiers, no membership names. Just real things on the budget and what each one costs, so you can pick something and know exactly what you paid for:
Gifts of any size go to the same budget — these are simply the pieces it breaks into. Country Life is funded separately from our training-school appeal, so write to us and we'll show you the quote behind any line above and how to give to it directly.
What it looks like when it works
- A family walks in for lunch, loves it, and comes back with questions that matter.
- The farm has a buyer every week of the year, not just in program season.
- A lean winter that used to threaten the ministry now helps carry it.
- The city has one warm, honest doorway it didn't have before.
We already have a committed team, a clear vision, and a fully costed business plan — rent, staffing, break-even model, and the risks we haven't solved yet. What stands between us and opening day is funding.
The dream, taking shape
Select any image to view it larger
Contact
Help us open the door
Country Life is funded separately from the training-school appeal above, so tell us which part interests you — we'll send the full business plan and show you exactly how to give to this project.