[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 and invite guests from away to share how God is at work among them.
I'm your host, Joel Furrow. Thanks for join all by him 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 ways in need of rope Hanging on by the last well, hello. I am really excited to hang out with Fitz for a little bit.
So fit from our Lewiston team and this is an introduction for you of sorts to the broader kind of Root Cellar family supporters. I know a little bit about your story, but I actually don't know that much about you. I mean, God's really positioned you, I think in a pretty unique way to love our neighbors to do the work that you're doing in Lewiston through the Root Cellar.
[00:01:23] Speaker B: Yeah. I grew up right in Boston, Revere, Mass.
And I grew up with an immigrant mother who came from Brazil to the States when she was in her younger 20s and kind of had this journey like many immigrants do. She came, didn't know any English at the time, and found someone who got her connected with a job and began to build a life here. My father's American, and so I grew up in this kind of mixed culture, mixed heritage family in Boston. And I love my upbringing, something that I really like, cherish and look back on. And I value kind of this natural way. I think that God has made everyone who's mixed race or from mixed cultures just this natural place that you exist in as a bridge from majority culture into immigrant culture to people from ethnic minority backgrounds. And just the way that you're kind of naturally designed in that way to be a bridge. And that's kind of how I see myself functioning in the different forms of ministry that I'm a part of is being just a bridge connector, a bridge builder. I've worked for about eight years in campus ministry, graduated from UMATH and went full time into campus ministry and just trying to see the kingdom build. And I've really valued that, just the opportunity to meet people from all around the world on the campus, talking about faith, talking about God. And then I came across this opportunity to partner with the Root Cellar.
I came on two consecutive years in the summer, first the super summer that the root seller Puts on. I came with some college students to be a part of that. And I just got to learn a little bit about the community, a little bit about the space, and just loved the kind of holistic ministry that the root cellar was living out, caring for every part of a person.
And that was something I felt like I always craved to make more a part of the ministry that I was working in, but found some challenges in that. And then the second year that we came, we were praying pretty heavily at that point about where God was calling us to be next. We were living in Boulder, Colorado at the time and just learned about this huge influx of Portuguese speaking migrants to the area and just got the sweet opportunity in that, in that short week that I was there to do a lot of translating my family, my mom is from Brazil, as I mentioned, and so I have this background of Portuguese and just getting to connect with people in that way. And that just sort of that week just kind of had the root cellar take a little bit of a hold in my heart as my wife and I were praying a lot about where God might be calling us to, to live and plug in next. And ultimately we felt led to come back to the northeast, close to my family, close for my family in Boston, and to be a part of this ministry. And so now I. I'm grateful. I get to do part time with the root cellar and in this community. And then I'm still part time on a couple college campuses and getting to continue in that ministry as well.
[00:04:29] Speaker A: That's amazing. Yeah, you've got two. You guys have two little boys at home.
[00:04:36] Speaker B: Yeah, we've got two little guys, Moses and Miles.
Moses is going to turn four in a couple weeks and then Miles is one. They're a blast. It's always fun. My favorite days at work are whenever they come around.
So.
[00:04:49] Speaker A: Yeah, that's some of our favorite days, too. They're a blast.
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[email protected] Fitz. First of all, your name.
[00:05:22] Speaker B: You aren't.
[00:05:22] Speaker A: We call you Fitz. You're Michael, actually.
[00:05:25] Speaker B: Yeah. Truth is.
[00:05:27] Speaker A: Yeah, Fitz from Rivia.
We have a couple positions in Lewiston and a new hire in Portland that are holding this role of a immigrant family support specialist.
So it's a mouthful, but, yeah, this. Yeah. Could you describe a little bit about what that. What that job Is what does that typically look like for you?
[00:05:52] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, most things at the root seller are versatile roles. Right.
My job here at the root seller is to support immigrant families and to other people who receive benefits from the root seller.
I have a couple major roles, one of them being the path Forward program, planning and administering the curriculum for a group of people who are in a general assistance program in Lewiston.
And so I develop curriculum. I plan classes for that group who volunteers regularly at the root cellar in helping them to resettle into Lewiston and to help them find a path forward.
Myself and Damon and others help with this.
The hope is that they would not just have this be a place where they can come and volunteer and do their hours, but that they can come and be a part of a family and learn and grow and receive help to find a path forward, to not just find a job, but find ways of flourishing here. Whether it's in the waiting or it's in their next stage of life, we want to help them to flourish and to find that path forward. And so I help a lot of the immigrant families and the local Mainers that are a part of that program.
I've also helped in the past with connecting local churches to volunteering. I do a ton of translating, which is fun and tiring all at the same time.
And I occasionally will help with the teens and the kids as well. Primarily, I help with the families, the immigrant family support specialists. So whatever the need is, I try to care for the individual and help them get connected to the resources they need in order to find flourishing.
[00:07:46] Speaker A: So one of the things that we. I've always noticed over the last. I mean, I've been with retailer now for 13 years, and it just seems like we. God brings us the right people at the right time, the right job consistently, and you never know how that's going to happen.
You know, one of the things I think that's so unique about you, when a few years ago, you know, if you were to tell me we needed someone who spoke Portuguese on the team, I'd be like, why?
No one speaks Portuguese in Lewiston. It was, you know, pretty strictly Somali.
We had a few families from other parts of the Middle east, and then, you know, and then you'd have some individuals from Burundi, a few other. But primarily the Somali language was what was needed amongst those who we were serving.
And then that started to shift. We saw families from the Congo, speak French, primarily drc. And then really our largest group right now and has been for the last several years, our families From Angola, which, you know, could you talk a little bit about how, you know, how has God kind of uniquely positioned you to serve and, you know, meet those families where they're at?
[00:08:56] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's just a gift to anyone to be in a foreign space and to have someone who can communicate with them in their heart language. You know, I'm not as fluent as I wish I, I was or could be in Portuguese. You know, I grew up learning it, and I've learned a majority of it as an adult, actually, and studying it on my own.
But just every moment that somebody comes in and you can just kind of sense this, like, exasperation of, I've got to try and figure out how to ask for what I need in English or pull out my translator, and then you just say.
And they just hear their language and they just visibly relax. You know, it's like, oh, thank goodness someone can understand what I need and they can help me.
And that's just, that's, that's a sweet moment.
And so, yeah, it's, it's definitely God's, I think, uniquely positioned me. Here we have another woman who works as an immigrant family support specialist here who speaks, I don't know, you know, so many different languages. The one that she didn't speak was, was the one that I do. And so it just seems like God's kind of pieced, pieced together the right team to be able to help people and in the way that they need to be cared for.
And so I do find that it just smooth things over. You know, you can survive a bit using Google Translate and then, and we make do with that, but whenever you can, just cut straight to it and see, how can I help you? What are your needs? How's your heart? You know, it's, I think it goes a long way.
[00:10:23] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, that's absolutely. One of the ways I've kind of seen God at work is just even, you know, placing it the, I mean, you guys were living in Colorado, I think, when we first started interacting, and you were thinking about coming back to New England and just how God had, you know, obviously gone ahead of you and prepared, you know, real incredible work for you to do, good work for you.
All of a sudden, when someone speaks you, you even notice, you can figure out the dialect. You're like, hey, I, I, we have something in common. And yeah, that, that ability to just relax, that's welcoming, right? That's like, that's that your ability to make the root cellar a hospitable place. Has just been such a.
I know it's such an impactful thing for the families we're serving.
I want to talk a little bit about this. You mentioned the program, the Path Forward. This is one of our newest programs, and it's not something that most of the people that support the retailer are even aware that we're doing just because it's been so quickly developed into what it is today. We've only been at this for seven, eight months at this point.
So, yeah, why don't you tell us a little bit about what it is and, you know, kind of go take us back a little bit.
How do we get this started?
[00:11:37] Speaker B: Yeah. So for, you know, I don't know how long before I got here, but for a while, Damon had been developing a program, helping to manage different volunteers. You know, whether they were coming to the retailer assigned for their workfare site, from.
From general assistance or from Fed Cap or, you know, wherever they needed to get their workfare hours for their volunteer hours for the root cellar was a place that they could come and they could help. They could help in our common grounds cafe, they could help in caring for children in the after school program or cleaning. Different responsibilities that we needed help here with. And we're able to provide some. Some training for folks. And it was a place where people could come and volunteer, complete their hours and. And that was, that was what they were doing. And when I had first arrived at the root cellar, one of the tasks that Alyssa, our site director, had trusted me with was developing a curriculum for something that was like an immigrant orientation course or something like, how can we help people who are newly arriving just learn the lay of the land? What kind of course can we plug people into that just helps people transition smoothly, helps them know what forms they need to figure out, how to get access to the different resources that are available to them, and how to continue to walk down the path of just following the steps that they need to take as asylum seekers, as refugees, whatever their status is, as they're coming in, how can we come alongside them in that process and how can we educate them to help them in that process?
[00:13:09] Speaker A: Yeah, I was going to say most people may not know what general assistance is.
And if you do, if you're from outside Maine, you've probably never heard of these terms before, but general assistance in the state of Maine is a program where through the local city, your local municipality or town, you can apply for a housing voucher if you meet certain requirements. Demonstrating homelessness is one of them.
And so the families that are coming and are part of a generic.
Once they're given that housing voucher, they need to go find a place to live that will receive that voucher. But then they still have to do a certain number of volunteer or work hours we call workfare is what it's called. And there's. Across the cities, especially Lewiston, there's multiple workfare sites, and the retailer has been one of those sites for a long time.
It's a way of making sure someone in need has the ability to continue to connect with community, connect with potential jobs, volunteer. Not just kind of exist, but work towards, you know, a more sustainable situation, as opposed to a housing voucher where they're not paying for it.
And so that's. That's kind of. We've been doing that for years, but we saw so many people coming and being assigned to us, we thought, we've got to do something different. Surely there's a better way than just, you know, volunteering or just mopping floors or. And I know you. It was you and Damon and Alyssa kind of put your heads together in a way, right?
[00:14:37] Speaker B: Yeah, kind of. You know, the initial task that I mentioned that Lissa brought up about trying to develop a curriculum for the group, and then Damon managing this group, and I was kind of racking my brain, putting together different possible classes, different structures for the class, and then I just couldn't figure out how to start.
And then just one. One day, sitting up in our office, Damon and I just got to talking.
And him being in charge of the volunteer group and me putting together this curriculum and. And just combining those two kind of gave it birth, you know, and it was just. Just really sweet, where we both kind of felt stuck in both of those places. And then bringing those two ideas together, it created, you know, the path. It created a path forward and gave us an opportunity to take a shot on that. And we have continually been learning as we've been going along the process, it's significantly evolved.
Initially, the idea of the curriculum that I had mentioned was going to be solely for immigrants learning how to settle into the city. And now it's evolved. We've got several local Mainers who are in general assistance who are assigned to the root cellar as well. And so it's also this beautiful opportunity where people from different cultural backgrounds outside of the US and in the US get to blend together, learn each other, their English gets to develop, and they get to make friends. You know, they don't just show up next to somebody else and clean the same room, but they get to talk to each other, go on trips outdoors, and hopefully find a healthier balance in life.
[00:16:09] Speaker A: So I. So how's this work? Like, so I show up at the root seller. I've been assigned there, I've got a housing voucher, I've got a place to live, but I may not have anything else.
I show up and I take us through it. Like, what's a typical. What's that path? What's the path forward for this individual?
[00:16:26] Speaker B: Yeah, so typically, people who are assigned for workfare at the root seller are assigned 32 hours a month, which comes out to about eight hours a week. And so someone who comes, they would show up on a Monday and we would do an intake. We'd get them added into our system. We'd ask them some questions about their life, their situation, Just get to know them a little bit. And they would be a part of our large meeting that contains everyone. That's a part of the password, which is usually around 30 or so people who are there for that meeting.
And they would get to learn a little bit of the layout. We have three cohorts, we call them three kind of job tracks, preparedness cohorts. There's the food service preparedness cohort, who helps with our common grounds cafe, who help cook the breakfast and make the coffee in the morning. And so they get to learn a little bit, they get some training on how to operate in a food service industry.
There's some folks who help with the childcare industry cohort and they are learning different ways to care for children. They're part of the after school program. And then there's folks who are in the industry cohort, who are the people that I work most closely to, which kind of deals with the upkeep of the building, front desk, sort of interacting with other folks. We have a food pantry here. Those are the kind of people who, who are at the front desk welcoming people and getting them connected to resources that they need. And so it's people who are being connected to resources and volunteering, connecting other people to resources. And so it's a community serving the community and not someone coming out from outside to take care of all that business.
[00:17:59] Speaker A: Gotcha. Yeah, that's. So what's been the impact that you've seen on the individual? You know, I mean, it.
How have you. What's the. Yeah, just in general, what's the impact you're seeing? How are you seeing God at work in a broad sense than maybe like on, like on an individual sense too?
[00:18:20] Speaker B: Yeah, I've seen It like really give intentionality and purpose to a lot of people's lives where they're kind of just.
At some times they're kind of just left to figure out their path on their own. And just having someone to go to for help in that process and to help show them the way as they learn the way, I think has been really alleviating. I think one of the things that asylum seekers or refugees or people who are just in need of help experience the most is isolation, sadness and depression and having a place where you can go to where you know that the help is there for you and you know that people want to know you.
I think that really it puts hope at the end of the tunnel, you know.
And so it's been cool to see people come and be a part of the program. It's sort of in.
There's not like an end date. If you're in general assistance and you're volunteering here, there's not a day that you finish your program. So it's just kind of continual training, continual learning until they find a job and they no longer are in need of the city's help in paying for their rent. And so the hope is just that while they're here, while they're part of this daily community at the root cellar, we get to know them as much as we can and, and help them to be able to flourish once they are at that next stage.
I think often what can happen is once they do reach the point where they're able to find a job, they take what's available to them, they work hard, but they don't have the necessarily support or the skills to find flourishing. And so the hope is that we can help them in that process.
[00:20:02] Speaker A: Yeah, that's, you know, I guess years ago, we started wondering about this with teens, like, how do you encourage, like, work opportunities? And we came up with the loot with Lou Crew. The path forwards kind of the. This, you know, the general assistance, just to be frank. And it's not, you know, this isn't news to anybody, but among certain circles in our state kind of has this like, really negative connotation to it. Like, it's just like it's. You're just kind of throwing money away at people, which is just, you know, not at all what we see. We see people in really difficult situations, incredibly challenging situations. And then, you know, as you, as you. As we give them this opportunity to work within the space of the root seller and genuinely feel important responsibilities.
You know, is there what's generally speaking Are you seeing like resistance to that or is there like a desire to work?
[00:20:57] Speaker B: Oh, no, there's so, so much a desire to work. You know, we constantly are doing a check in with folks on how they're doing, what their biggest burdens are. A question I like to ask people just in general is what is your strongest desire right now and what is your deepest desire? You know, strongest is kind of that need that's most in the front of your face right now. And then what is the like desire of your heart?
And just time and time again, people share my strongest desire. The thing that's in my face is I want a job, I want to contribute. I want to be part of something regularly. We'll have people who aren't scheduled for shifts, volunteer shifts, to just show up and say, hey, I want to be a part of this. I know that I'm not receiving credit for these volunteer hours, but I'm not just going to sit in my room alone. I want to come and contribute and just do something, you know.
And so there's so much, so much a desire to work. And there's some barriers to that. Language being one of those primary barriers.
People being willing to say yes and take a risk on someone. But the desire is the last thing that's lacking.
Desire is the last thing that's a barrier for people. People want to work for sure.
[00:22:03] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
You guys discuss in your groups. I know a lot about kind of the, the value of work, connecting work to the kingdom of God, you know, what place work has in the kingdom of God.
Just describe a little bit of that.
[00:22:19] Speaker B: And yeah, the, just, you know, humans, we were designed to contribute. We were designed to work. You know, an idle human is not going to be a healthy human.
We function best when we're contributing, when we're working, whether it's sweating or thinking hard, whatever it is, that's where you find flourishing.
Our heart is that we are ambassadors of reconciliation, you know, and that's on so many different spheres, emotionally, spiritually, physically, where there's something broken, you know, we see the world is broken around us. Relationships are broken, our relationship with ourself is broken. And we look to find ways to help repair those relationships. And we see this as an opportunity to help repair some of those relationships.
And in their work, they can find purpose, they can find value, they can feel like they're providing something of value. They, in and of themselves, people in and of themselves innately have value. But we feel that we need to contribute, and that's where we find the most health.
And so giving them a place to live that out and helping them to find a place to live that out once they're done here is kind of the goal.
[00:23:45] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. It's beautiful.
How have you seen that become impactful? Any individuals that kind of stand out to you that.
I know I have a couple in my head, but individuals that stand out to you that have just been impacted by, I guess, the community or the opportunity?
[00:24:05] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, there's definitely tons. There's one guy comes into my mind. He and his wife and their children have become close family friends with me and my wife and my children.
And I just. Whenever I come into the root cellar and I see him already here working and volunteering in our English classes, helping people who have arrived before him or after him, and just seeing him contribute at times where it's not required for his volunteer hours, again, he's just there to care for people, to love on people. I just feel like I have a brother in the battle with me, and that's one of our friends here, Fidel.
He's a hard worker, and I've just seen him rise to the occasion in so many different ways in not only going through the process of looking to find work and getting all his documents in a line, taking care of his family, but while he's in the middle of that battle, helping the others shoulder. Shoulder with him to walk that line as well.
[00:25:07] Speaker A: It's beautiful. That's beautiful.
That's always a kind of a fun thing for me when I come in and, like, I don't know, the person who's working the front desk. I get to meet a new friend, you know, who is working for the root seller, who is the root seller serving.
That gets blended within the path forward. And it's a really beautiful thing. We're literally working alongside each other to love this community, to restore it.
There's kind of this narrative out there that I've heard. It's just this, like, divisive idea that somehow, you know, a Mainer, somebody who's even born in America, an American who's living in Maine and an immigrant can't necessarily work together or that there's some sort of animosity between them.
And that's true on some senses. I know that, like, some people have had. People have a difficult time with the fact that there's so many immigrants in the state of Maine and in Lewis and Auburn specifically.
You know, what do you see, I guess, from the path forward, like, when those two communities start to interact, like, what's what are the challenges? Or are there challenges? What are the. What are the. What's the result of that when there's a connection?
[00:26:21] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I think it's true about human nature that people struggle to accept and understand, but they don't know.
People can be afraid of people who are different from them. We're just naturally, as humans, kind of like.
I don't know what the right word is, but we cling to the people who we're most similar to, and we feel trepidation or uncertainty around people who are different from us. And that's, I think, in our broken human nature and what we see described as flourishing in Scripture, in life and healthy relationships, is diversity. Diversity is this hallmark of health. Like, when you talk about how healthy is an ecosystem in a natural place, the hallmark that you measure it with is biodiversity. How different are the things in that place? And I see that lived out in the root cellar. When there's local Mainers, people from other countries coming together, getting to know each other, learning about each other, health comes from that. You know, there's. I think there's natural challenges to that, to get to know someone who doesn't speak the same first language as you.
But I think anytime that we speak to someone who comes from a different place, a different culture from us, you realize how much more similar that you are to them. And so it is one of my favorite things to have local Mainers and immigrants work together, get to know each other in the same process, and just shred off those barriers. It's natural to sit with the people you know, but just meet someone that's different from you, learn from someone that's different from you. I think it takes humility, and it's only beneficial.
[00:27:57] Speaker A: Yeah, I guess kind of the last question for you.
You came here to serve, you know, really, obviously out of your faith is kind of just always around you.
You talk very easily, talk about very easily, you know, serving out of, like, a desire to serve because of your faith, you know, serving others. But how has your faith been encouraged by those that you're serving?
[00:28:29] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Any. Anytime that you're walking through a season of unknown or what's next, it's incredibly trying to. For.
For you, emotionally, for your. For your faith.
I've experienced that in many different seasons. You know, just like feeling like your. Your life is permeated by stress. When you just don't know what's next, you know, you don't know what's around the corner, you don't know where you're going to be in a month.
And that's the constant state of existence for the huge majority of the people that we work here.
[00:29:04] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:29:04] Speaker B: And what I see is there's some stress, some anxiety, some worry, but I also see laughter, I also see joy, I also see hope. You know, there's so much to take encouragement by and the care to continue to help others when you're in that season of uncertainty and you feel alone.
So I've absolutely been encouraged in my own faith in that. I think that's one of the most trying things in people's life, in people's walk is uncertainty. And when you're in asylum seeker, when you're a refugee, that is every moment of your life is uncertainty of what's next, where are you going to be, what's the government going to say about your application, where are they going to tell you to go?
[00:29:52] Speaker A: And that's been true. That's not just the current reality in the current administration. That's been true for years.
Yeah, yeah. The. We had a good Friday lunch service thing not a couple weeks ago. And, you know, it was just this. You mentioned the kind of the. The health, the beauty of the diversity there. And like, we went around and read a passage of scripture, read through the crucifixion together, and everybody read a. A verse in their own kind of native language, and we all kind of just followed along and it was just this real taste of like, of what the Kingdom of Heaven's like, I think, which is this, you know, the, The.
The mature faith that was around that table from all over the planet, literally, like somehow come to little Lewis and Main, to this little, you know, old building in the middle of. On Birch street in the root cellar.
You know, the kingdom kind of happened there for a moment. And those are just those moments that it's the community that's fostered through a program like the Path Forward. It's those connections and friendships that cross so many different cultural divides where we're welcoming and loving one another, treating them as we'd want to be treated, following the way of Jesus, taking on that mind of Christ, of serving one another as if the other is more significant. And it seems to be that's just what happens, you know, not. I mean, not without issue. There's tons of issues and tons of problems. We're really not perfect at it at all.
Things to learn. But there's glimpses of that where our neighbors are and our staff are kind of are. Are interacting on a level that, like, man, there's. There's something beautiful there where there's again, just that deep friendship that reflects what I think Jesus really wants us to experience in a right relationship with God and right relationship with each. With each other.
Kind of a.
A beautiful example of. Of restoration of. Of all things where kind of people can kind of come together.
Yeah. So that's the. I get to see it from that, like, big picture. And you're kind of on that ground. On the ground seeing it. And it. It's. I'm just really. I'm really grateful that you could share this today with everybody and excited to. For them to learn more about the path forward.
If you want to know more about the path forward, there's some information about it on our website.
If you would like to just jump in and be part of something, you know, how could you. What kind of help could someone be for the path forward fits or for you?
[00:32:27] Speaker B: Yeah, prayer would be tremendous. Honestly, if you're local and you've got some skills that you know how to teach and communicate, that would be beneficial to either people newly arriving in America, people looking for work. If you've got skills like knowing how to build a good resume, if you've got skills like knowing how to interview well, if you've got trade skills that you'd like. Skills num. Chucks. You know, that's. We haven't taught that one here yet, but it's definitely on the list.
If you've got good skills and you're available on a Monday and you'd like to come and share those at a Path Forward and we can translate for you, that. That would be tremendous.
We're always looking for new value adds for the group. What are ways that we can continue to help them be prepared more and give them more resources to find more paths forward, you know, there's not just one, there's several.
And so if you've got anything that you could contribute in that way, that would be extremely helpful. Yeah.
[00:33:28] Speaker A: Awesome. And you're gonna be blessed doing it. It's gonna be incredible. You're gonna love doing it.
[00:33:32] Speaker B: So we've had people come from different places. One person in particular who works in healthcare. They've come to share about what it's like to just find a doctor, how do you get a pcp?
And it's not something that we know how to do it naturally as Americans, but somebody in that profession that's come to just share about that and we handle the translation.
It's so beneficial to people.
[00:33:58] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Just the experience that God's given You share it. You can share it with that. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I think we're also kind of looking for those, those local employers that are looking for a workforce that's ready to jump in.
We've got, I mean, we didn't talk about numbers at all. I guess we should have mentioned that. I mean, I ran the numbers the other day and I think like through from September when we started this, through the end of the year, it was like 135. We expect there to be like a 250 individuals this year that will, will take through this program, which is just, it's highly impactful. There's a lot of people and a lot of really great relationships. But there's, it's not just, you know, hey, checkbox and you're done. It's. There's some really deep impact and skill building preparation, work preparation that, that's going on there. So if you're an employer, we'd love to talk to you.
[00:34:49] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. And we can give you good, honest referrals.
[00:34:53] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:34:53] Speaker B: Lets you know the truth.
[00:34:54] Speaker A: I like. We like that. We like that. It's good. Well, Fitz, you're, you're proof that good things do in fact come from Massachusetts up here in Maine.
So we're, we're really grateful to have you on our team, Fitz, and just. It's a blessing to work alongside you, sir. So thanks for doing this.
[00:35:14] Speaker B: Thanks, Joel.
[00:35:16] Speaker A: All right, thank you for listening to this episode of the Root Seller podcast.
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[email protected] it farther along.
[00:35:55] Speaker B: Understand.
[00:35:56] Speaker A: Why so cheer up, my brothers Live in the song.
