[00:00:02] Speaker A: Welcome to the Root Cellar podcast.
We believe that God is at work restoring broken lives, families and neighborhoods around the corner in Lewiston and Portland, Maine, across New England and the world.
On this podcast we'll discuss what God is doing on our team at the Root Cellar through our partners in Maine, uh, and invite guests from away to share how God is at work among them.
I'm your host, Joel Furrow. Thanks uh, for join.
[00:00:33] Speaker B: All by him by tempted and tried. I wonder why the good man dies bad man thrives in Jesus Christ cuz he loves them both. We're all cast away in need of rope Hanging on by the last threads of our hope In a house of miracles.
[00:00:52] Speaker A: Hey friends.
I wanted to jump on here uh, before my time is finished the reteller and uh, just record a few kind of reflections. Um, you know, it's been some time since we had a podcast episode. Um, there's been a lot going on through seller. There's so much to talk about. I mean, I mean I, I would. Before I get to my reflections, I just want to share a little bit about what's happening this week in each location. We're in the middle still of summer. Uh, we have super summer programming in both locations right now. There's about 180 to 200 kids between the two locations that are being, uh, just having it, having an absolute super summer, super uh, summer day camp Monday through Thursday. In both locations. There is, this is such a huge effort.
There are mission teams from all over the place. We've had mission teams from Minneapolis, from Minnesota, New York, uh, there was one here from Lancaster that just here in Portland this week. Um, they are just a team from Boston is in, is in Lewiston right now. Um, really just incredible to see all these churches come from all over the place, join with us for a week, stay with us and, and choose to sacrifice their time, their summer, uh, and, and for the greater glory of God in, in loving their neighbors as themselves. In Lewiston or in Portland. It happens every year. And every year I'm just amazed at the incredible generosity of those individuals of those churches. Um, and, and beyond that though, what's holding all that together is a, is an incredible team. There's interns, there's summer staffers, there's our staff in each location. There's the leadership in each location. There's uh, and then there's the teens in Lewiston, the Lou crew teens just firing on all cylinders, learning, loving their community, their neighborhood and learning how deeply God loves them and how much they can participate in the life that he offers and renewing, uh, the community that he loves so, so deeply there in Lewiston. It is, uh, just. It's all happening all the time. Um, and every year gets a little sweeter, gets a little better. And in the midst of all that, I'm finishing up. What is my last week, uh, on the job as the Root Cellar's executive director.
Uh, and more importantly, my last week on the job at the Root Cellar. For, uh, the past 14 years, I've had the deep, incredible, just joy and honor of, in one form or another, being leading, uh, at least a portion or the organization in its entirety. And man, what a blessing it has been. A, uh. Lot of people talk about how they're. How many people are blessed and impacted and um, loved through the Root Cellar. I think I get to claim the one who's been the most blessed for sure during that time.
Um, working with our team, working with so many incredible people, uh, um. Just going all the way back to the early days in. Of my time in Lewiston, uh, when it was just me on staff as far as employment goes.
And then, uh, a couple of really incredible volunteers that said, hey, we're going to dedicate our lives to this.
[00:04:03] Speaker B: Um.
Uh.
[00:04:05] Speaker A: And. And that. That. That was the. That was the case. That was the team for a while, for. For a season, for. For a few years. Um, and. And I.
That was the. In the midst of it, there was God at work, uh, in and among us, uh, through us, in spite of us, in spite of me, God, um, was still at work, uh, and building something that was, uh, meant to love a community that he loves so much. That was meant to show and demonstrate and be a conduit for God's love. Um, that was there in Lewiston. And then all the while the same thing's happening in Portland.
But I wanted to. I jotted down a few notes and just. I decided I need to throw some reflections together.
Uh, and maybe this hits you. Maybe, uh, it's helpful for you or maybe it's just therapeutic for me.
Uh, I'm. I'm leaving not because anything is wrong, but simply because I feel like God has made it very clear that uh, he, uh, has something different in mind for me. And there'll be more information about that. Not, um, leaving Maine. I'll be still serving in ministry here in the state. And. And there'll be plenty to talk about that in the future. Connect with me personally and we'll. We'll talk more about that and. And it'll be more very public very soon.
But uh, I wanted this time as I finished up the root seller to be not about me at all, but it'd be about the root seller. Um, and so, uh, the.
I have kind of three things that uh, I wanted to share. My favorite things about the root seller, the things that I love, the things that I want to. There's. There's so much that I could, I could talk about.
Um, there's so many things I could talk about. Things that I love about the root cellar. It's the neighbors, the people. It's the, the diversity, uh, of who we serve. It's the, it's this crazy cross section of, of, of who is God working through. We get front row seats to that. What's God up to? We get front row seats to that. Man, that, that's something I love so much.
Um, uh, uh, but, but, but there's three specific things and I want to talk about maybe, um, a fourth. But we'll see. Um, the first one is just like our locations, man. Like I.
It's so they're right where they should be.
And for years I wasn't really convinced of that in Portland anymore. I thought maybe, you know, Portland wasn't really where it should be because it's gentrified so much, it's changed so much. And, and then we realized how centrally located in God's wisdom he placed this building, this location.
You, uh, know, it's a full block frontage on Washington Ave. On the peninsula in Portland that you. We could not possibly ask for a better location in the city to be accessible to everyone.
Uh, and God put that together. The stories I've heard about how that happened was, you know, 10 different parcels of land over time just kind of came together and they were made available. They were for cheap or free or purchased at very small, uh, ah, uh, through donors and then given just. God worked in incredible ways to make this happen. You can see God at work in the very presence of this building that uh, I'm sitting in right now.
Uh, and we watch that fill up over the years, uh, in different ways. And it's been used in so many in a diversity of ways. It's been, you know, a school.
During the pandemic, we were a functioning school for the Portland public schools, uh, keeping kids reading scores up, which was incredibly important as we've all found out. Um, and you know, the kids that were. That were present at the root cellar in both in Portland and Lewiston during COVID they can have continued to advance academically whereas other.
The Kids who were not have struggled naturally. Uh, it's one of the impacts that happened. Uh, it's been a food bank, it's been a, uh, meeting place for churches. Both locations have been that, uh, they get to be used in so many ways because they're little outposts of God's kingdom. And so they're there to be used by God's people for his purposes, to advance his kingdom in these cities.
Uh, and it is a beautiful thing to watch. It's a messy thing if you've been to either location, you know that. But that's how it works.
Uh, the Lewiston location, man, the Tree Streets neighborhood in the news constantly, more so last six, eight months really than at any point I can imagine I can remember for so many reasons.
And one of the things that's always missed in the news and that's. And it obviously it would be. But they don't understand and most people don't get just how deeply God desperately loves that part of town.
We get that because we're seeing it every day. We understand it. Um, yeah, the Tree Streets are hard. It deserves and earns a lot of the reputation it gets.
Not all of it, that's for sure, but it earns some of it.
And in the midst of it, God is at work. It's. His presence is absolutely clearly there.
You see it in the lives of the kids and the teens and the families that we get to work alongside. We don't just serve them, we work alongside them, uh, invite them into the work that we're doing.
Uh, that location, that little old building, it's 100 years old now, over 100 years old now. Man has uh, been used and beaten and reused and beaten and will be again.
And it is a beautiful outpost of God's kingdom, of his presence at work in that city that he desperately loves. Man, what a joy has been to just watch that happen. Uh, to, to uh, even just be aware of, of uh, of God's presence like that. You know, that's the other thing I wanted to say. Um, within all of this. And I want to share this just from like a passage that was near and dear to my heart way back when.
So, um, in 2013, I just started at the root seller about a year before. We just had a, I had a one year old.
Um, and uh, the root seller was desperate for funds, had no money. Um, uh, and, and I didn't have a clue how true that was. Uh, they came to me and told me that they were going to close the, the board came and said, we're going to close the Lewis location.
And, uh, I was distraught.
Just couldn't believe it. I didn't know what to do.
I was mowing the grass over the weekend and listening to his sermon on the book of Haggai, of all things. And, uh, here's the passage that was. This passage is interesting. You know, there's. The people of God are trying to rebuild the temple, trying to rebuild Solomon's temple. And, uh, they've been in exile. They've been, uh, you know, in Babylon. They've been gone. Um, and. And they've, um. They're coming back to try to rebuild the temple. Uh, it is a task they're finding to be basically impossible. They're. They realize they don't have the skills, they don't have the materials. There's no way it's going to be nearly as, you know, glitzy and incredible as Solomon's temple. It's. It's nothing compared to what they were told Solomon's temple was like, uh, what they remember it to be.
And uh, and. And so they're. They're concerned, they're. They're distraught about it.
And God sends a message through the prophet. This is one of the way God speaks in the old testament through his prophet haggai. And he says this, he says, tells the people to be strong. Be strong, all you people of the land, be strong. It says, be strong three times work.
For I am with you, declares the Lord of hosts, According to the covenant I made with you when you came out of Egypt. My spirit remains in your midst.
Fear not. Yeah, that passage, uh, had the most clearest, uh, most clear moments of my life in hearing, really, I felt like what God wanted me to do and was to take that message to the board. And they received it gave us the opportunity to raise enough money to keep it open.
And God started a tradition in me that I got to at least start a tradition that I didn't. I wasn't aware of at the time of over and abundantly more doing more than I could ever ask or imagine. We wanted to raise a certain. Wanted to raise 50. He raised 65. We, we. I had all these ideas of how it was going to work. He. He. Those didn't work at all. God did all of it. Um, um. Uh.
[00:12:54] Speaker B: And.
[00:12:54] Speaker A: And I didn't know then, but that was just the beginning of how God would be at work. Over the years, a lot of people have told me, you know, hey, you've done a great job. And, you know, uh, you've done a great job, fundraising and all that stuff. And I can't take credit for any of it.
Every turn in. At every turn, every moment, whether it was in much or in little, whether it was an abundance of staff or in a little bit of staff, abundance of volunteers, abundance of fundraising funds, resources, or a little. At every moment, God was constantly at work doing something beyond what I was envisioning, going beyond what I considered possible, um, exceeding all of our expectations.
I put my plan into work in the process, and he would blow it out of the water either. It wouldn't work at all, but it would come from a completely different source.
I can tell you story after story after story about that.
Uh, over and over again, God has provided for this ministry.
Why? Because he's here. Because his presence is here.
Because he desperately loves the people that are here. That's why it's His.
It's His.
Each of us, whether board members or staff members, executive director, current, future, past, whatever our team, we're just stewards of what God's actively doing.
We're just trying to tap into what his vision is for this place and put it to work. And he's with us.
So we get to work.
He's with us. That's what I want to leave you with.
I want to leave you where I started.
Why should you give to the retailer? Why should you volunteer? Why should you, um, give monthly? Consider making a legacy gift. Why should. Why is this place worthy of that?
Why is, um, you know, worthy of your time week in and week out?
Because God's presence is here.
Because he's with us.
That's why.
Why should you work here?
Because his presence is here.
That's why.
I could tell you that because I tasted it, I know it, and it's good.
It's not easy, but it's good. I can't wait to see what it does next. Thank you to each of you that have been on this journey with me for the last 14 years.
Um, I'm so humbled and grateful and just blown away.
Um, we don't really have a founding person necessarily in the organization at the root cellar, but if we did, it would be Pat Iriana. I did not ever have the joy of meeting her. Um, but her book, she wrote some. Some words. And you see this book as a picture of her. Her husband.
Um, she called it Blown Away. And, uh, stories of Working God's garden. She called the root cellar God's garden. And I know what she means.
I get it. I've been blown away by how God is how, uh, God's love for this community, both Portland and Lewiston is expanding love through you.
His generosity that you've shown over the years at every turn.
Generosity of time, resources, so many things.
Yeah. So, yeah, not my most eloquent moment.
Final words to you guys. Get to work. God's with you.
Thank you.
M. Thank you for listening to this episode of the Root Cellar podcast. This ministry depends on the faithful giving of individuals just like you.
For us, it's an honor to be partnered with so many in the work of loving our neighbors. When you give monthly, you create jobs for team teens, mentor children, welcome immigrants, and expand God's kingdom in our cities.
To learn more, uh, volunteer or make a gift, join
[email protected] uh uh
[00:17:32] Speaker B: farther along.
Um understand why so cheer up my brothers Live in the song Will understand this all by him by tempted and tried I wonder why the good man dies Bad man thrives in Jesus cries cuz he loves him both we're all cast away in need of rope Hanging on by the last threads of our hope In a house a mirror full of smoke, confusion illusions I've ah, seen but where did I go wrong? I, uh, sang along to every chorus of the song that the devil wrote like uh, a piper at the gate Leading by some men down uh to their fate Some will courageously escape the seductive voice with a heart of faith While walking line back at home there's so much more to life than we've been told it's full of beauty that will unfold and shine like you struck gold my wayward son the dead weight burden weighs a ton or go down to the river and let it run Wash away all the things you've done Forgiveness all right farther along.
