Alpha and a latte on Campus
From left, Omar Bambara, Mark Stoick and John Tolo sit in The Hot Spot coffee and print shop. They run Alpha three times a year for young adults near the U of M campus. Tolo is the director, Stoick is the business manager and Bambara is the graphic designer.
There’s a new Hot Spot There’s a new Hot Spot near the University of Minnesota campus for young adults, where the lattés are served on the house, WiFi is yours to use and music flows freely.
All that, along with a Christian atmosphere in the busiest neighborhood around — Dinkytown, the tiny town in the midst of the University of Minnesota’s Minneapolis campus.
Hot Spot is an outreach to young adults. It developed from a relationship with the archdiocesan Evangelization Office, said John Tolo, director of Young Adult Koinonia, the group that is opening the new Internet café.
“I’d been working with ways to connect with young adults [from] a perspective of faith . . . in everyday activities,” Tolo said.
Three years ago, he led an Alpha program, which teaches the basics of the Christian faith, at his home parish, St. Jerome in Maplewood. He geared the program for young adults. That is where Omar Bambara connected with Tolo and his faith.
“I’ve been working for John a few years now. He’s always been a mentor to me,” said Bambara, 21, who runs the print shop that funds Hot Spot. The print shop is in the same building as the café at 1315 Fourth St. S.E., Suite 100, Minneapolis, and can provide inexpensive printing services.
“I met him through school when I was getting him to buy ads for the paper at St. Paul Johnson High School,” Bambara said. “He was doing Alpha at St. Jerome, and he told me to come. . . . I asked him if he was hiring and started working in. . . his print shop.”
Desire to do ‘God’s work’ Bambara said the Hot Spot sounded “like it was God’s work,” and he wanted to be involved. “It’s a win-win for me,” he said. “In the Christian environment, it keeps me on the right track and I’m getting experience in the field I want to work in.” Tolo and Mark Stoick, business manager of Hot Spot, have been working with a team that has presented Alpha on college campuses for about 18 months. They offered one at O’Gara’s Garage, another restaurant, a coffee shop and on the Hamline University campus.
Then Auxiliary Bishop Richard Pates wanted them to offer it at St. Lawrence, Newman Center. But, they couldn’t work out the space and time.
“We were walking around Dinkytown,” Tolo said. “We went to visit the University LifeCare Center, where we share an office.” The building had space available for rent that was perfect for the pair’s vision of a drop-in Christian café. “It seemed that God showed us the possibility of renting the space we are in now,” Tolo said.
A generous anonymous donor gave them print equipment worth $150,000 so the group could afford the rent, renovation, free coffee and Internet service. Volunteers will be working in the Internet café. Many of those are involved in the Alpha group that meets in the building on Sunday nights, a Narcotics Anonymous group that meets there on Monday nights and a prayer group on Tuesday nights.
That is just the beginning…
Adapted from The Catholic Spirit, March 8, 2007
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