[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 aways in the rope Hanging on by the last threads of our hope in a house of miracles.
[00:00:52] Speaker A: Hey, welcome to another edition of the Root Cellar podcast. I'm your host, Joel Furrow. I want to take just a second and say thank you to those of you who have giving us some great feedback on the podcast that you've told us. You're enjoying it, you're enjoying the content, enjoying hearing these stories. Thank you for listening, thank you for joining us, thank you for subscribing those of you who are giving us ratings. That's awesome to see. It really does help get the word out about the Root Cellar and about what God is doing through our staff, our team, our, our volunteers and our neighbors. It's, it's really, really an awesome opportunity. So thank you so much for just spending this time with us. Uh, I really, I'm uh, just kind of blown away that people want to hear me talk and hopefully you are enjoying these conversations from our, primarily from our staff lately. And uh, we've got some really fun things in the works. We've got some new people that are going to be joining us, people that are just doing really good work in the New England region that we're excited to talk to. We also are going to hopefully get more of our neighbors on in future podcasts and that's a challenging thing. Not everybody wants to have a microphone in front of them and be recorded, but it takes some work and it's really important to capture those voices I think. And so, uh, we got some fun things in the works. Really, really grateful for you guys to enjoying us along the way so far.
If you haven't already, please subscribe.
Hit the like button. Give us a, give us a thumbs up if you're on YouTube or give us a maybe a five star rating on Spotify or Apple podcasts. It helps us get the word out. So please, please do that if you haven't already. Today I had a chance to talk with Kathleen Thunderbirk. She is a volunteer over the years, but she's also recently become one of our teachers. And she's provided this really, really beautiful space for women to create. We call it Fruitful Sewing. She teaches sewing. She's a seamstress and a designer by trade. She has an incredible resume, really, and she's really just a wonderful artist in this particular field. But she's very generous, not only with her knowledge, but with her ability to create relationship and spaces for these women to feel safe, safe, relaxed. She's. She's just always pushing for more, uh, of a. Of a safe space for these women to. To learn, but also share life together.
There's a lot of things shared in these classrooms. We talk about this in the conversation, but there's trauma that these women carry and they. They're able to talk about that with each other. They're able to just not talk sometimes and just create. It's. It's become a really important space in each location. Over 180 women were served by this program last year alone. She's been doing it for about 10 years now, which is really rem.
It's a really great conversation. She's, uh, kind of a wealth of knowledge in this field, but also with these women. I hope you enjoy it. You're not going to want to miss this one.
I am really excited to be joined this week by Kathleen Thunderbirk. Kathleen, how's it going?
[00:03:44] Speaker C: Good. How are you?
[00:03:46] Speaker A: Good, good. I'm. We're where we have this little magic thing going on where I'm in my office, uh, our. Our studio just down the hall, and Kathleen's in our sewing studio in Portland.
[00:03:57] Speaker C: But this is the Portland one. Yes.
[00:03:59] Speaker A: One of two sewing studios. So, Kathleen, stitching. Sewing. That is just. That's been a huge part of your life for a long time. So we're going to talk about fruitful sewing and what it is and all of that, but could you tell us a little bit about kind of your passion for what you do just in. Just in general and, and kind of maybe start to go down the road to kind of how you ended up at the root cellar?
[00:04:22] Speaker C: So I, uh, I'll give you a mini backstory, and then that leads into that. I went to school for fashion design, and I worked in several larger companies, uh, in design. And what I did there was kind of explain to the factories overseas how to make a garment for. From scratch. So there'd be somebody else picking out the colors and whatnot, and then they'd give it to Me. And. And so I can kind of, um, reverse engineer a garment, um, for pretty much anything you'd put in front of me. Some stuff's a little harder than others, but I'll. I'll give it a go. I'll do my best, and we'll have fun, and it's a lot of trial and error.
Um, but. So that's my background.
When I got here to Maine about 16 years ago, I kind of wanted to leave the corporate world, but I knew that God had given me this, like, ability and this education and this passion for sewing. And I just was like, how can I use this for his glory in serving him? What does that even look like? And literally was in a Bible study. We were all praying about this, and it didn't take more than about a month. And I don't remember if you, Joel, showed up at my church to, like, present that you. As the root cellar existed for the first time or exactly how that shook out. But within, like, a month of me and a bunch of women praying together about how I can use this for God, you dropped into our church, and then there was this, like, set up a Christmas party event for your. You m. Know how you do that every year, and you sell or you don't sell, but you, like, have neighbors come in and pick up gifts for their children. And so, anyway, this whole Christmas event that you guys run. So I came and helped decorate for that. And then there met this whole group of women that were serving with the Root Cellar who were teaching a sewing class, and started chatting with them and realized that there was a bit of a gap in what they were able to provide and what the students at the time wanted and wanted to do. And I realized, oh, yeah, I can do that.
So I, um, kind of came alongside them, and pretty quickly I felt like they all just kind of passed it off to me, which was fine, and it was super fun. And I. It just kind of built from there. I. You know, I don't have eight years, ten years. How long? It's been a long time. It's been.
[00:06:51] Speaker A: It's been a long time. I want to say at least nine at this point. Uh, it's kind of. Kind of amazing. That's been a trend with some of the people I've been interviewing on the team, like, how long they've been here and how long we've been working together. It's kind of incredible.
At least nine years, I think. We. We actually had this version of sewing with women that was happening. It's always kind of it's kind of always happened at the rooteller, at least in Lewiston. We've always had some form of sewing. The Church of the Brethren started this program with called Dorcas Project way back and that was, that was with kids and they would make all kinds of things, some really cool, just like fun kids projects. Uh, and. And then we had a woman from the local Catholic community that joined us and actually it was kind of our first foray into sewing with women, with immigrant women specifically. And she kind of took, took the reins and tried to pull off this multilingual thing with Somali, French. Not a ton of different languages in the room. And she was kind of finishing up her work with us and we weren't sure where it was going to go. She couldn't really keep doing it anymore because of her job demands and family situation. But we were just praying that someone would come along that would care enough about this. Clearly I wasn't going to take over. It wasn't going to uh.
[00:08:01] Speaker C: You're above that apparently.
[00:08:06] Speaker A: I don't know if I'm actually above that. I'm definitely, definitely uh, below that in skill level of anything like that. But that's way too many details for me to convenient me to be good at. But you were really just such an answer to prayer. It's kind of the real part of that story. I mean I remember going to your church and yeah, it was for our Christmas toy store. They interviewed me to talk about the root cellar in general at the church and then had a chance to meet you and a few other people in the church and you just jumped right in. And uh, really it's actually quite a rare thing for us to. It was a time especially for someone from Brunswick or Topsham to come all the way over to Lewiston and invest in relationships. But you know, you've just been there for the long haul.
Uh, and just really, really. We had ah, a few broken down sewing machines and some uh, bounce, really bouncy folding tables.
[00:08:56] Speaker C: Yep.
[00:08:58] Speaker A: And you, you jumped right in. A little bit of fabric.
[00:09:00] Speaker C: Yep. Yeah. No, it's come, it's come a long way. And it was, it was a. I clearly it was a mutual answer to prayer because that was like I said what I was hoping for. And it's just continued to blossom and grow and just have its own life. And I've loved kind of following its lead and not trying to have too much of an agenda. And it's just been really awesome to watch how go has kind of turned and pivoted and um. Yeah, it's been beautiful.
[00:09:33] Speaker A: Yeah, it's been incredible to watch happen. I mean those early days you were running with women and then teen girls, so women in the mornings or mid afternoons and then teen girls and kind of a after school time.
Could you kind of recall some of those stories? Like what were you guys? What was that like, what was the community like? And go back a little bit into Lewiston way back in the day and kind of how this all kind of how you got started.
[00:09:57] Speaker C: So it was Lewiston first and the very first class that I was teaching that was alongside with the Brethren group. And it wasn't the Dorcas project because that was little kids. And I really just wanted to focus on like middle school and above because they just have a different level of engagement and ownership and. But that first group was teenagers and um, they. They were working on bags and some pretty basic stuff and they wanted to, uh. They were. A lot of them were from the Somali community and they wanted to make their.
They call them bhatti dresses, which I think bhatti means dress. Um, um. And it was. It's just a very simple dress. Actually what I'm wearing right now isn't too far off from that. And the community that was already helping them sew didn't really necessarily know exactly again how to reverse engineer a garment and figure all of that out. And so I just kind of jumped in and started with them and built that relationship. It's so much fun working with teens and I kind of will work with teens and then we'll shift and it seems like the need is maybe more with women and adults and then I'll kind of pivot back in and pick up a teen class again. And I always forget how much I love working with teens. There's just a different energy.
This was a group that I was with for several years and they were designers at heart. Like they would draw things on paper that were beautiful. Like their, their sketching skills were better than anything. And I took four years of trying to learn how to sketch. I was terr at it. But they would just pick up a piece of paper, draw something, and we would try to figure out how to make it. And we actually had. I don't think you made it to this one, but we had a fashion show in 2016. I know this because the playlist that we had was from that year and it was. They picked out all of the music for it and they picked out all of the clothes that they wanted to put on display. And they were like just Very unique things that they had put together. And this was back when our fabric selection was really small and it was just like, this is what you have. Just let's figure it out. And now there's so much more to, to pull from. I think they would really love it if they could be back in the class. They've all kind of moved on during college and stuff now. But anyway, we had this fashion show. It was the Fire and Ice Festival in Lewiston and Auburn, which is in February, I think.
[00:12:17] Speaker A: Sounds right.
[00:12:18] Speaker C: Uh, they had this little space where they did some indoor activities. And I was asked by the, um, the presenter of that or the organizer of that if she knew that I did, did this class with students if I want to do a fashion show. So we did, I think we did it either two or three times that day on rotation. It was like a, a 10 minute or 20 minute show. And we did it at like three different time slots. And it was so much fun. I mean, it was like they were in it and we rehearsed it and you know, it was, it was, it reminded me of college and when I had my, my senior, the all of my fellow fashion students and we had to do a fashion show. And so like, it hearkened back to that. And just putting that together was so much fun. And um, and then more recently, literally last month, I had another one. It was very last minute, but it was. I hadn't had any other fashion shows in between because it's really just, you know, who's gonna jump on board, who wants to do it and you have to have the commitment of the person so, or the group of people. So we, you know, pulled that off just last month and that was just as fun. But yeah, so that was the start was with the teens. What I forget about with teens is that they have a different level of learning and absorbing and vulnerability than some women do because they're, you know, like, as we get older, we get set in our ways. We're a little jaded, we're a little cautious, we're a little like at hand's length. And that's just, you know, that's our, that's our nature.
But they're much more trusting and engaging and we would have some really amazing conversations just about their lives and their struggles and their family situations. I'd ask them very personal questions that, uh, they engaged in and they invited the questions about just how they felt about their culture in comparison. Because these are all people that had been. They're at about 16 years old. They'd been in the country since they were probably about three.
And so they had seen the differences between what their. What their culture offered and what their family expectations were versus how America does things a little differently, what our culture looks like. So it was just a really open place for us to talk about the differences, the good and the bad kind of. There. There were opportunities working with teens where I was able to even really just discuss some of the, I guess, freedoms that we have that they might not have even realized because of the culture that they grew up in and this just safety nets. And so, yeah, there. I mean. I mean, literally, conversations as intimate as. Just because something might have happened personally to you in the past, you can.
You can start over. You are redeemable, and you don't have to do those things again. And it was just beautiful to a. For them to trust me with what has happened to them by choice or not by choice in their past, explain to them that they're not going to hell because of something like this, that that's not. That's not who Jesus is.
And then to be able to really just speak like this breath of life and redemption into them. And those are conversations that I've had a lot more with some of the teens and. Yeah. And I'll step out and not work with teens, and then I'll go back in. And it's just amazing how quickly they become vulnerable and want another adult that's comfortable talking about issues that, you know, their parents probably don't talk to them freely about.
And I'm a pretty.
I feel pretty comfortable talking about these things. And it's. We're usually all girls, so it's. You know, I can be pretty blunt and honest and bold in the way I talk about things, and I think that they opens up.
[00:16:05] Speaker A: It's hard to imagine you being blunt and honest and bold. It's difficult.
[00:16:09] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:16:09] Speaker A: For me. But, yeah, it's, uh.
[00:16:12] Speaker C: You.
[00:16:12] Speaker A: I've seen a little bit. I had the privilege of seeing a little bit of those interactions over the years. And you're describing. You're not describing a sewing class.
[00:16:21] Speaker C: Oh, no, right.
[00:16:22] Speaker A: That's not what you're describing. I mean, there's so much I've seen. There's beautiful things that are created in these classes, in these groups, for sure. I mean, it's absolutely. There's absolutely beautiful garments that we. You guys did prom dresses, I think, at one point.
[00:16:33] Speaker C: Yep.
[00:16:34] Speaker A: Uh, and, you know, there's. There's all kinds of stuff that gets created, which I want to talk about, but what you're describing is just this real life, life on life, community. You know, you're, you're, you're sharing life with one another.
Uh, you know, the, there's even this like, you know, idea of like the old. Not to say that you're older, but older than the teen girls, older women teaching younger women in the faith and, you know, just inviting them into that, that whatever situation they've been in which there's just, you know, you learn so much about the trauma that they've experienced that these aren't irredeemable situations. Uh, you know, these are, these are situations that Jesus actually can heal.
Um, you know, but you've created this space where that's comfortable and normal. Yeah, it's safe. I've always described fruitful sewing as kind of this place where, like, our women and teen girls literally, in some senses, get to let their hair down and just relax a little bit and, and then create. I mean, what's the impact do you think of.
And I'm just kind of curious, what's the impact of, uh, creating something together that you can't just, like, sit around and talk about? Like, hey, let's talk about a traumatic moment in your life. You can't just introduce that as a topic, you know, uh, just in general in a conversation. But what kind of. What do you think sewing has to do with creating that space? How is that happening?
[00:17:52] Speaker C: Well, I mean, I, I have always said that, uh, this. And this is my pitch at the beginning of every round of classes. This is, this is a safe space that we are coming together.
We are beautifully created by God to create beautiful things. And that's the environment that I want it to be. I talk a lot about how, uh, it'll be fun and how it'll be. We'll make mistakes. But it's. But the space is supposed to be safe where we can come together, we can encourage each other, and if you've learned something, then you can help somebody else. And so I kind of set the ground rules for that. And I've always kind of said this is not about learning a vocation. Yes, they're going to learn a vocation at the amount that they're able to put into it.
But this could be a book club. This could be a knitting club. It's really, it's really insert club here. But this is about community and people feeling like they're making new friends from a different culture and they can't even necessarily communicate with each other because I do have multi. I think even the English classes have the same issue.
There we have people that speak many languages coming together, and even people that are American, that are part of the group, and they all kind of have to just put down their language for the most part. Because I only speak English, I'm totally the weakest link in the room. And so it's really about learning this new language of sewing, then just.
It puts you in a space of immediate vulnerability, no matter who you are, because we're dealing with clothes and bodies, so there's already this wall that's just torn down because of, you know, and just for them to feel comfortable in that space, knowing that everything that we're dealing with has to do with, you know, clothing in our bodies. And that just feels like an intimate space. So that just. And it's a fun way, so it's not a threatening situation.
It just puts funness around all of that, and it has allowed for a. A pretty quick opportunity for vulnerability. People will come in.
Everyone kind of comes in broken. This is just.
We are all broken. And God wants to just love us. And I just want to create a space where we can all just put it down and love on each other and open up if there's an opportunity to talk about those things, but really just to, um, join with each other and celebrate the beautiful things we're doing together and encourage each other and make new friends that you would have never thought you would have made. And that's really the environment that they're stepping into. And I watch literally, people walk through the door completely broken and sometimes, like, in tears and, you know, big hug.
I love you. I'm so glad you made it here today. You know, and sometimes we enter into a conversation about whatever the trauma is, but a lot of times everyone just wants to put it down. Okay, what are we working on? Let's. What are we making beautiful today? And they'll leave, and everybody's in a completely different headspace. And it's just, you know, just God's healing power of creating and supporting and loving on one another and.
[00:21:13] Speaker A: Yeah, beautiful. I mean, it's restoration.
This. We've been talking about this on the podcast, anyways, about this. You know, the work of God's restoration, uh, in and through the root cellar, and our volunteers, our neighbors, themselves, how they're adding to that, but restoring things to how they should be, you know, is. Is what God does.
You know, he's. He's clearly doing that through fruitful sewing. It's. It's beautiful. We kind of transitioned not. I mean, it's always a demand around the teen girls.
It's expanded pretty dramatically with women. You've added Portland.
So we're in Lewiston and Portland. You were in Brunswick for a time in the recent years, but this past year I just looked at the numbers. Recently it was 186 women, uh, served through, uh, fruitful sewing in 2024. Which is just wild seeing how we.
[00:22:07] Speaker C: Only have like 10 sewing machines at each location. It kind of seems like how to even do that.
[00:22:13] Speaker A: How did that happen? We'll talk a little bit about that. I mean, how does that work? Uh, I think there's a really. We need to talk about kind of what does this operation look? I mean, exactly how, how does it work? How do you, how do you accomplish that? It can't just be you.
[00:22:24] Speaker C: No, it's not. Um, I have a team of volunteers in both locations and they're all actually neighbors from the community that are engaged in the root cellar on multiple levels. So I have brought in, I, I basically some of them were former students of mine. I have one, like, she's always with me, Consul A. And she's been around for years and years and she was one of my students.
She got a job in the industry and then because of some physical complications, it was better for her to, um, not do that type of work anymore. Just the scheduling was very difficult for her. So she wanted to be a part of the community again.
Uh, she missed the root cellar and she loves sewing and so she's one of my. She's always there. She's been with me for several years now since I think, yeah, since like the past three years. She has been a co teacher in Lewiston with me when I get applications for the class. Um, some of the questions I ask is, have you ever sewn before? And I'll take people who have never sewn anything and I'll take people who are potentially better than I am because, uh, again, this is just about creating a community. And I feel like we can all learn from each other. And I have learned tons from my students about different ways of putting things together because they're. Some of their traditional clothing is made in a very different way than Chanel would make her pattern or whatever. Um, anyway, so we. I can identify some really high level stitchers sometimes based on what they write in the application of their former jobs or what they. The fact that they have experience. And so sometimes I'll bring them in to like a higher level class that I create just to identify potential teachers and if they are still Looking for or waiting for their uh, their work papers to come through and they need to have volunteer hours. They can be a volunteer teacher aside me alongside me and. Or have their own class. I don't need to be at all the classes. The more teachers I can identify and the more space is available as far as like time of day that the classes are available, the more classes can be had. So that was a big part of how we got up to 180 people was because I had identified several different teachers and we utilized our sewing spaces in both locations pretty much as uh, as many hours as were available to us.
So um, that's how we do a lot of that. And that's been. I think I really enjoy finding those other volunteers that are from the African community or just neighbors from this community that love doing it so much and appreciate it as much as I do that they are like, oh yeah, I can do more of this. I would, I would love to do it Seems like there are more people that want to be. I'll do my own class if that's okay with you. And I just, I love being able to expand it in that way and just pass it off to them. And you know, everybody has their own like favorite thing to teach that they do really, really well that they can do in their sleep. And all of the teachers have something different to offer that is their like super easy. They can do it in their sleep project that like, it's like. It is like completely different classes. It's almost like like a mini college of like once a week classes. So you're with Helen or you're with Consul or you're with whomever. And um, yeah, it's, that's part of how I'm able to kind of expand that. And that's been really fun to be able to do.
[00:25:55] Speaker A: Yeah, it's the interdependence that we, we talk about this at the Roseller of. And so you're sharing the responsibility and inviting the person that's being served by the program or ministry to actually have a role and be part of, part of the work itself. You know, we really, it's, you know, it's not that we do it that way because we kind of like it. It's that we actually find it to be really impactful, you know, and it's, it's how the programs grow. It's how we can multiply things. It actually stretches our resources really far. This was, I mean those programs meet uh, you know, at least twice a week each with your. In a Particular group. Right. And, and so you're, and sometimes you have multiple classes in a day. There's that number. You're. You know, I think our budget this past year was uh, something like $25,000. Pulled this off for that many women, which is just an incredible return really. On, on, on an expense, on an investment in women in these women's lives. It's really incredible. The Root Cellar engages neighbors and volunteers.
[00:26:54] Speaker C: To cultivate social, economic and spiritual wholeness as part of God's kingdom.
We are able to do this work.
[00:27:02] Speaker A: Thanks to generous individuals like you.
To volunteer, make a gift, or learn more.
[00:27:10] Speaker C: Join us
[email protected].
[00:27:18] Speaker A: Tell me a little bit about, or tell everybody about the kind of the impact, I guess this on the skill set of sewing. What have you seen, you know, where they've joined the workforce or uh, maybe just how they've added this skill to their life. And you know, what kind of impact does that have on these women?
[00:27:35] Speaker C: So there's, there is a small industry here in Maine of stitching opportunities.
And this is something that I let them know going in that this is again, it's like insert sewing here. It's more of a club. It's more about relationship and community.
But you will learn a vocation. But if you're only looking to learn the vocation, there are other opportunities that will do that.
All that to be said, um, I have forged, uh, a relationship with a couple of those local industries in, uh, Lewiston and Westbrook and Bath actually. And I have gotten phone calls from the owners and you know, hey, we have some positions open and I've been able to uh, you know, identify a good fit for what their needs are. And a student that, you know, I mean, I am super the advocate for the, for my students. So I am never going to put them in a place where I just don't think that they're going to succeed because different sewing is harder than other. Some things are harder to do than others. Right. Physically.
[00:28:45] Speaker A: So, uh, the work environments are harder to be in.
[00:28:48] Speaker C: Exactly. And so having had relationships with all of them, I kind of can identify the level at which they need a, ah, seamstress and then what my students are able to provide, um, and do with confidence. And so anyway, I put those pairings together and it has, you know, maybe a half a dozen or so people have gotten jobs. Maybe even a dozen, maybe, I don't know. Anyway, and it's been a good fit. It's. In all honesty, it's not the most stable work because it's one of those types of things that has ebbs and flows with orders. And so therefore when you're busy, you need to hire a bunch of people and then you don't have as many orders, you're not as busy. So you keep your like you've had them forever employees and you lay off new people. I mean that's just, that is, that's the type of work it is.
So that creates a lot of um, transition with that. But if the people that come in and join the class, they, they would love to make a career out of sewing. And um, so I just speak very honestly about what that can look like. I have one student who was a designer at heart and she's pretty much started her own business of designing, um, design having them made overseas and then they come back here and then she's selling them. And that's just awesome to watch that happen. And her having the foundation of sewing that I was able to teach her because she joined in the class, I think that's really been beneficial to her to be able to understand exactly what she's asking to have these created and exactly what she should be charging based on what's going on. And just it's been fun to partner with her on that a little bit and kind of watch that flourish and see where that's going. Because that's all just now starting. And then that's Mama Jocelyn. Yeah, that's Jocelyn. She's so talented.
[00:30:47] Speaker A: So ah, she's incredible. And she's, she's one of our, actually one of our employees in Lewiston. She's our, one of our immigrant family support specialists. She a local minister in her own right at her church and just adds so much kind of life and just, I mean just beautiful designs. She is always the best dressed person.
It's not even close. And uh, and they're her own creations. They're always incredible.
[00:31:12] Speaker C: Yeah. And I can't take credit for her creativity because that is totally God given dropped on her. But what I loved being able to support her in was just having a foundation of how this is even made because that can take her to a whole nother place. And I think that's been able to help her out a lot. And then I partner her with somebody who's like an amazing seamstress that can do the alterations. So when the dresses come in and somebody needs like this custom tailoring, that's not necessarily the skill set that uh, Jocelyn has, but I can pass her off to Shaun Salvi because she can do that she's been doing it since she was in Africa. And she's one of the ones I identified and just was like, do you want to teach a class? Because I've got more students and you're probably a better stitcher than I am. So.
[00:31:57] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah, that's. That's one of those things that I get asked this question pretty routinely. You know, could you give us a success story from the root seller? And what's always. It's a good question. I understand why people ask, but it's always kind of with this idea that, like, somehow we. I say we like the staff of the root seller, or you, Kathleen, are somehow, um, you know, doing this incredible work to help these, you know, quote unquote poor people and give them the skill sets they need to succeed. And look, you know, I can lift them up and see, look what I did. Like, that's almost like what the conversations they. That the conversation is supposed to be about. And that's not what this is. It's. It's. It. That's not what's happened. That's not what generally happens. You know, you. You're able to meet, uh, Jocelyn. You're able to give her a space to do this, but it's. It's what God's already prepared in her to do.
[00:32:42] Speaker C: Uh, I feel like I'm just coming alongside a lot of people and encouraging them and lifting them up and helping them identify something in themselves that they maybe didn't see already or realize and than just kind of helping them figure out the reality around it. And sometimes it's, if you need to put food on the table, that's not the job. Walmart will pay you more. So go do that and use this to help your actual immediate family and your neighbors and support them in fixing things or mending things or, you know, creating things at home. Like, sewing is a skill that anyone can use.
It doesn't have to be your vocation.
So I just help. I really just. I come alongside them and like, what are you trying. What do you want to do? And let me see if I can help, you know, steer you in that direction. And if you really want to be a seamstress, then I will keep my eyes open. And for those few jobs that pop up, you know, you're great fit for this. And so, you know, but yeah, it's. That's. It's. Yes, it's not about. I. It's not about the success story. And that's part of. As far as that's concerned, I see the Success as they feel accomplished, they feel capable, they feel loved, they feel welcome.
They feel like they have this new community and they want to come back. And they're laughing and finding joy and creativity in a space and loving on each other and helping each other and realizing, I barely know how to do this, but that person struggling with the one thing I understand, I can help them. And, like, there's so much restoration, as you say, in realizing that you have something to offer.
And I feel that way about all of my students that they come in and they all have so much to offer, and I want to just allow space for them to do that and encourage them to help one another and pour the love that they have into other people as well.
[00:34:41] Speaker A: Going on over here, there's, um. What would you say? You know, there are a lot of people might be listening to this and say, you know, I'm, you know, man, I'd love to just have a place to create too. That. That's nice. But, you know, why do these women in particular need that? You know, what. And why is this a need in their life? You know, could you talk a little bit about kind of some of the things that these women have. You've met, maybe. Maybe some of the things they're. They're carrying into a sewing class, you know, that. What are. What are some of the pressures or some of those experiences?
[00:35:12] Speaker C: Well, I have taught some men, but I am cautious about the space that I bring men into. There's a different dynamic, um, that the women are coming from. And it's across the board whether they're coming from, um, a more Christian culture from Africa, or if they're coming from a more Muslim culture from Africa.
There is a very similar situation where they feel like they are.
They have to. They have a place. And their place is definitely more in a subservient role and to allow them the opportunity to come, uh, into a safe space where they're able to teach each other and they're able to do a job that is sometimes reserved for men only in their culture and that they're allowed to learn it and then they're allowed to share it and that they're allowed to even potentially teach it or be employed in it. And, um, that. That's definitely something I've noticed with a lot of the students.
And that's also why I'm a little bit cautious sometimes to bring men in to the class. Just I want to make sure that sometimes it's a, uh, it's a cultural thing, like, because, again, we're dealing with the vulnerability of clothing and our bodies and measuring our bodies and you know, just, even the idea of putting a tape measure around someone's waist when they've only ever worn like a very big, you know, sack style dress can feel very, it's just a very intimate space to sit in. So having a man in a room at that time is not going to necessarily feel safe.
So I kind of, when I do bring men into the classrooms, I, I, I'm cautious um, of that. And I've also, even if, even if the man was at a level where they might be able to be a teacher, I, I have not yet done that just because I think that's much more of a common situation that they feel like they have to fall underneath of that again, that subservient role that like I'm being told what to do. I don't have a voice. And so I'm just very cautious to make sure if I have a man in the class that they are definitely on an equal playing field with all the women and that I, as the woman, have that teacher level, higher level voice and that they're all at the same place together and that they all have the same voice with each other.
[00:37:43] Speaker A: Yeah. So you're, and you're serving women from Democratic Republic with the Congo, Angola, uh, Somalia. A lot of Afghani women these days. You know, there are, they're all kind of coming from. And then also American citizens. So people who are ah, that are just, you know, born here in the United States, born in Portland, grew up in Portland. There's some trauma that I know that you've kind of shared some stories with me. I don't recall her name at the moment, but there's a woman that we met years ago in Lewiston and I remember coming in and seeing her baby and this little baby was just like the funniest. It's just big, huge smiles. I remember specifically she had this as a little girl. She had just uh, these like the fattest like thighs you could you've ever seen on like a baby. It's just adorable. I had a, three baby girls and so it's a, I always, if there's a baby girl around, I'm like, I need to go hold her and hang out with her.
[00:38:35] Speaker C: I'm pretty sure her name was Rachel.
Okay.
Oh, this must have been in like 2018, 2019, something like that.
Um, I believe she came from Angola, but she was, she was an interesting age. She was, I think if I recall correctly, she was 19 or 20. So she kind of wasn't quite old enough to be with the women, but not quite young enough to be with the teens.
She had, uh, just a really creative mind. She wanted to make so much clothing for herself. She had so many ideas. And so she would bring in her baby and I would let her stay late because at that time I was doing like a women's class and then it rolled into a teen class and I had about an hour between the two classes. So I would just kind of let her stay. And sometimes she'd even roll into the teen class, but she just wanted to make so many things and couldn't get enough time. But yeah, she had her baby with her all the time.
One time I, um, I was just kind of trying to have the best of conversation as I could. It's hard because we did not speak the same language at all. So it was a lot of Google Translate.
Um, and I was asking her just a little bit about her story.
And I think I, I think I started by asking, uh, you know, who, you know, was the father of the baby here, which that's always.
And I almost knew what the answer was going to be, but you never know. And then just, it doesn't matter what the answer is. It's probably going to be bad. I, uh, probably. I, uh. Like in hindsight I was like, why did I ask that question?
But we were just in, you know, we were just having an intimate opportunity. I mean, I was literally just sitting there next to her while she was sewing and just kind of carrying on a conversation, trying to get to know her and get to know her story and who she was. All that to be said. She had been raped on her journey over. In order to get from point A to point B. It sounded like that was part of the transaction. Who knows what happened for the rest of it. But by the time she got to South America, then she had to walk for the next nine months pregnant. And again, who knows what else happened on that journey. Because I've heard that it's a pretty horrible trek, just physically, but also relationally, and who you end up running into along the way and the trauma that that brings. And then she arrived here, and I believe she did give birth in America. But I think what I, what I did notice, which made me just so, so sad, but also, again, I know God can redeem all of these things, but she has this child. She didn't want that situation. Her relationship with the child was not what a normal mother and child relationship looks like or what we all think is the sweet quintessential situation. I think that it's very likely that she saw that child and it brought trauma to her just looking at her own baby. And it was beautiful to see how everybody came around the baby and loved the baby. And I don't know that she, especially at the beginning, was able to give as much love.
That again, in a quintessential like, oh, we all love babies. Everybody wants babies. That's not how it always works out. And I was glad that the root cellar was able to embrace her. She spent so many hours at the Root cellar for that period of time. I mean, she was there for English classes. She just was there all the time. It was like a second home to her. She was there a lot, and so was her baby. And that baby was just hugged and passed along and loved, and it gave her space to heal and, you know, put her mind on, you know, creative things and making some new friends. And.
No happy ending to that story, necessarily.
It.
[00:42:32] Speaker A: Right. Yeah. But it gave her a community and a landing spot at a pretty traumatic. A really traumatic time in a young life. And I think that's, you know, that's a. That is, uh, from I understanding, like an all too common story. Not necessarily the pregnancy always, but the. The story that we heard, the assaults, the journey that so many of these women specifically are taking, that. The stories we've heard from, you know, from Brazil up through South America in. Through Mexico, the. The. There's one spot in Panama that's become famous because of how treacherous it is. You know, a lot of. A lot of individuals, a lot of women have lost their lives. I've heard stories of miscarriages along the way. Just really traumatic moments. And I think in this whole conversation of asylum seekers and immigration and the larger political dialogue, you know, the. The. The people kind of get lost. These experiences, these individuals get lost in the mix. Their actual stories, their actual human experiences, just the.
There's some really horrific, traumatic things. And these individuals land at the root cellar in Portland and in Lewiston, have this welcoming community. Community that you've helped create and are able to create beautiful things. Um, you know, you've, uh. You've really created something beautiful and incredible, and it's been really fun to see this develop and shift and change and grow over the years. These women are. They're earning sewing machines as they give back, right?
[00:43:56] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:43:56] Speaker A: So, you know, they're able to.
[00:43:57] Speaker C: They are. When they're able to be a teacher, um, and they teach first semester, then we give them, um, a brand new Sewing machine. Whenever I have donations of sewing machines and I take donations of sewing machines that are in working order, I like to. I have a list of students who would like a sewing machine at their home. And so I'll use a donated sewing machine to kind of give to those students. And then there's also a program where they're able to receive sewing machines as part of the bigger, um, DHHS and FedCap programming as well. And so we are, you know, if they're part of my class, I'm able to request a machine for them for that. So they're, they all want sewing machines at their house, even if they've got space, even if they don't have space because they want to keep sewing at home. And that's the, that's really like, that's from a vocational purpose. That's the point. Like, let's stop creating trash. Let's start fixing our things and reinventing them and, and keep wearing them. So yeah, so they're, they're getting sewing machines through a number of different avenues. And I'm always trying to. Again, I feel like everything's very fluid with the way I do things. Teach them what they want to learn different levels of classes and like figuring out how to provide them with whether it's a, uh, vocational opportunity or even just, you know, vocational advice or I'll give a lot of people, you know, I'll be their reference on an application. And I've gotten calls from jobs and been able to like rave about somebody's just communication with me and just, I mean that's basically what it is. It's what everyone wants. They want a good communicator. I can't be here today. I'm sick. I'm not sick. I'm late and you know, and I'm pleasant to be around. I'm helpful.
I bring like a bright spirit to the community and I'm able to like give a reference to these people and help them find jobs in that way. And um, so just fluidly figuring out what's. What, what's. What's the need today?
You need a hug? Okay, then we can do that.
[00:45:53] Speaker A: You know, for somebody listening to this and they want to get involved, what's the best way to, to do that?
What do you, what would be helpful there?
[00:46:01] Speaker C: Well, there's so many different ways. If you can sew, then you can help to teach a class. If you're, ah, a local and you're got some free time, you can teach with another teacher or you can teach class on Your own. If you have fabric or thread, we need thread. We need thread all day long. We need thread. Or any of the other sewing supplies and you'd like to donate them. That's a way that you can be involved.
Everybody takes money thrown at them. It can always be spent on something. There's always a need to spend money on things. If you have a good working sewing machine and you want to donate it and you know it works, then please donate it and I will find a home for it.
[00:46:41] Speaker A: Emphasis on good and work.
[00:46:43] Speaker C: Good and working.
[00:46:43] Speaker A: Right.
[00:46:44] Speaker C: Well, I mean.
[00:46:44] Speaker A: And uh, not in one of those bench things, right?
[00:46:46] Speaker C: Yeah. The table ones, they don't have room for that in their homes. The ones in the tables, they don't have rooms for those in their homes. But you know, the portable sewing machines that are in working order, then I will find a home for that. Everybody wants one. So. But yeah, donations of supplies, donations of money, donations of your time and your skill, if you've got it.
Yeah. Those are ways to get involved.
[00:47:10] Speaker A: Absolutely. Yeah. And you can learn more about this
[email protected] we have a special giving section on the fruitful sewing page. Just go to the what do we do section I believe is what we call it or program section. You'll see Fruitful sewing. You, uh, learn a little bit more about Kathleen's background. She kind of sold herself short. She's worked for like big time design. I got a big time. What do they call this manufacturers? I'm not sure.
Children's clothing companies.
[00:47:35] Speaker C: Disney, Dillard's, L.L. bean?
[00:47:37] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Those are some big names.
That's a part of what we're doing here. There's some really high skill that's being developed. But more than that, it's a really high level of community.
Uh, and, and just a real love for these women. You know, Jesus absolutely in his ministry. You know, I've watched, uh, one of the things I love about the, the show, the Chosen, um, has been just. It emphasizes his relationship to women, uh, all through it, and his deep love and inclusion of women in his ministry all the way. All the way through. It's, I think that's so much a big part of who we, who we're not only who we're serving, but who is doing the serving. Who has a role here. And it's an important space that you've created for these women to be safe, uh, and learn what it's like to be part of a loving community. That kind of developed in this love of Jesus. Just kind of steeped in this love of Jesus. So thank you.
[00:48:29] Speaker C: Glimpse into what the kingdom of God is supposed to look like. I love that it's the creativity. I love that there are all the cultures and languages and this is spoken about in scripture. And I.
That has been really cool to see that culmination in this space and be like, for that hour and a half that they come together, like, we're entering into the kingdom of heaven right now for this next hour and a half.
[00:48:53] Speaker A: Yeah, I love. And that's. I mean, that's. I think that's so true. There's. We're kind of told that we're going to be ruling with him. Uh, we're going to be doing things. So I think it's not just the togetherness and this diversity, but we're actually doing things and what that. And whatever that's going to look like. You are. You're definitely getting a taste of it. Uh, so thank you so much for being here and jumping, uh, on telling us more about this. Yeah. Again, if you want to learn more, therootseller.org, you'd like to support this. We needed that. Genuinely. We've been funding this out of our general operating doll. And so, uh, if this is something specifically that excites you, if you love ministry with women and creating a space where women can learn and be empowered, this is a great way, a great organization, a great ministry to get involved in. So you can donate
[email protected] fruitfulsowing and yeah, thanks again, Kathleen.
[00:49:44] Speaker C: Thanks.
[00:49:46] Speaker A: 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 teens, mentor children, welcome immigrants, and expand God's kingdom in our cities.
To learn more, volunteer, or make a gift, join
[email protected] uh.
[00:50:16] Speaker B: Farther along understand.
[00:50:22] Speaker C: Why.
[00:50:26] Speaker B: So cheer up, my brothers Live in the song uh, we'll understand.
[00:50:39] Speaker A: This.
[00:50:41] Speaker B: All by him by tempted and tried I wonder why the good man dies Batman thrives in Jesus Christ Cause he loves them both we're all castaways 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, uh, seen but where did I go wrong?
I sang along to every chorus of the song that the devil wrote. Like a piper at the gate Leading my men down to their fate Some will courageously escape the seductive voice with the heart of faith While walking line back home there's so much more to life Than we've been told Is full of beauty that will unfold and shine like you struck gold My wayward son the dead weight burden weighs a ton I'll go down to the river and let it run Wash away all the things you've done Forgiveness all right Farther along.
