Cedaridge celebrates its first 30 years

Cedaridge Ministries President Keith Decker has seen some remarkable things during Cedaridge’s 30-year history.

Cedaridge Ministries President Keith Decker and long-time board member Jerry Wyatt welcomed visitors for the celebration Friday from the back porch of the facility.

During one instance, he was working at the ministry on a Friday when an elderly man’s wife contacted the ministry saying that her husband had gotten a bad report from the doctor regarding his heart. It was the kind of report where doctors tell patients there isn’t anything they can do.

The woman was bringing her husband to Cedaridge because he was lost, and she wanted Decker to witness to him.

When they pulled up in the parking lot, Decker walked over to the man and started talking.

“Right there in the parking lot, he accepted Christ as his savior,” Decker said.

On a Tuesday, the man went back to the doctor, who told him that something had happened to his heart.

The man told the doctor that he knows and he had gotten saved.

The doctor replied that wasn’t it. Something had literally happened to his heart, and it didn’t need fixing any longer.

This was just one of the many wonderful things that Decker has witnessed at Cedaridge.

Kentucky Baptist Convention Missions Mobilization Coordinator Teresa Parrett presents Cedaridge Ministries President Keith Decker with this plaque commemorating 30 years of service by Cedaridge Ministries.

Cedaridge celebrated its 30th anniversary during a celebration held Friday at the ministry, which is located in the old TCA building near Three-Point.

“We expect our communities to do things for us, but one of the better things that you can do for your community is give back. That is what Cedaridge Ministries is all about,” noted Williamsburg Mayor Roddy Harrison, who was one of the guest speakers during Friday’s event.

Whitley County Judge-Executive Pat White Jr. noted that over the years he has had numerous opportunities to work with Cedaridge.

While making preparations to speak Friday, White noted that he started researching volunteerism and charity and came across a quote by Aristotle, which stated, “The essence of life is to serve others and do good.”

“I have seen this organization do that for 30 years helping the needy and under privileged in our area, everything from food boxes to wheelchair ramps to recycling and shelter during emergencies. I have seen this sort of help come from Cedaridge when, generally in America, we have seen volunteerism and charitable numbers decline,” White added.

“Keith Decker has been selfless and tireless in his efforts to lift up people in this region. I think that is why Cedaridge has been able to buck this national trend. Strong leadership. I have watched as he completely devoted his life to his mission, helping others in this community while trying to help bring them to Christ.”

Whitley County Judge-Executive Pat White Jr. was one of a handful of speakers at the event.

Humble beginnings

Cedaridge Ministries can trace its roots back to a fundraising yard sale at the Williamsburg Tourism and Convention Center, which was done in 1990 to raise money to buy a youth center for the Mount Zion Association Youth Ministry.

Afterwards, some of the youth ministry leaders, including Decker, approached Janus Jones, who was director of missions for the Mount Zion Baptist Association, about using the association’s basement for possibly another yard sale.

Jones, who was happy to have recently gotten the basement cleaned out via another yard sale, said “OK” to the request.

About this time, Decker got laid off from his job and ended up giving a lot of his time to the project.

On Feb. 18, 1992, God gave Decker the word “Cedaridge” as the name of the ministry.

“We didn’t know exactly what that word was going to mean going forward. We just knew that it was a lot shorter than Mount Zion Association Youth Ministry. That is how it started,” Decker said smiling.

A few months after this, Cedaridge outgrew the associational office basement and moved into a facility next to Family Fitness in Williamsburg where it stayed for about six months before moving into an old warehouse on Second Street next to the RC Cola Bottling Plant.

Trula Matlock, who runs a Cedaridge satellite program in Knox County, spoke during the event.

“That is where we really started getting semi loads of stuff,” Decker said about donations the ministry got through the Christian Appalachian Project, Feed the Children and the Society of St. Andrews among others.

Before Cedaridge had its own forklift, Decker would go in the evenings to W.D. Bryant & Sons to borrow its forklift then drive it to Cedaridge, organize the donations and then get the forklift back to W.D. Bryant’s by 7 a.m. the next morning.

IGA let the ministry borrow its pallet jack.

When planning for the Williamsburg floodwall started, it became apparent that Cedaridge would have to move.

Then Williamsburg Mayor Bill Nighbert suggested the Bailey Brothers building, which is off Exit 11, as a possible new location for Cedaridge.

The only problem was that Decker didn’t really want to be the person to shut down the Bailey Brothers store. It was a place that, as a child, he had dreamed about visiting.

As he learned more about the Bailey family though, Decker came to view it as an opportunity to continue the legacy of the Bailey Brothers country store.

In 1996, Cedaridge officially moved into the Bailey Brothers building.

Public-private partnership

About 2007, Harrison had only been mayor for about two years and recalled that he had started getting several requests to restart the recycling program. The prior recycling center had burned down.

At the time, Harrison didn’t have a place to put such a program, nor any of the equipment, which would be needed.

Then one day Decker walked in off the street, introduced himself and started talking about wanting to partner up with the city to do recycling.

“We both knew that it was divine intervention that made us partners to do things with the recycling. It was something that was just meant to be. There is no way I would have ever though to call him. I don’t know how he knew to come see me,” Harrison recalled.

Move to Three-Point

In December 2012, the University of the Cumberlands approached Cedaridge wanting to purchase its building at Exit 11 in order to build new ballfields.

About the same time, Cedaridge got the opportunity to move to the old TCA building at Three-Point, which it did in 2013.

“This was exactly what we needed loading docks and stuff,” Decker said.

When Cumberlands decided to tear down the old Bailey Brothers building, they offered to let Cedaridge take anything and everything they wanted from it.

Since that time the ministry has only grown.

Cedaridge today

Cedaridge currently serves nine counties and over 450 organizations and churches.

Cedaridge receives large shipments of food that it distributes to local food pantries and churches. Food is also stored in an emergency food bank for families, who suffer major loss. Potatoes and other seeds are made available to needy families each spring for planting of a garden.

The ministry uses its shipments to help local residents first then reaches out to others in need with what it has leftover.

Cedaridge has three satellite ministries, including one in Knox County, one in Jackson County, and one in McNeil Hollow-Corn Creek.

To date, over five million pounds of food and over 450,000 pounds of seed have been distributed.

Clothing is provided to poverty-stricken families, and also sold at Cedaridge’s thrift store. What isn’t distributed locally is shipped to Native America reservations and overseas. So far over 1.5 million pounds of clothing has been distributed.

The thrift store provides low/no cost items to many people within the area. Most items are given away free of charge, and when there is a clothing charge it ranges from 10 cents to $2.

Cedaridge facilitates the housing of national organizations and church groups, who come to the area to conduct home repairs, renovations and construction. In the past 14 years, Cedaridge has assisted in the building or renovation of 200 family homes aiding over 5,000 individuals.

Cedaridge has funded over four million pounds of building supplies to needy families and organizations for their homes and places of service.

Before the pandemic, Cedaridge played host to about 40 mission groups each year. The ministry has dormitories where volunteers can stay while doing mission work.

Since Cedaridge moved to its current facility in 2013, it has gone from leading an average of 50 people per year to salvation to average of 300 people annually, Decker noted.

So where does Cedaridge go in the next 30 years?

“I hope in the same direction, because the Lord has been leading us this way and we just basically follow,” Decker said.

“One day someone told me that Cedaridge needs to run more like a business. I told them keeping Cedaridge a business isn’t the problem. Keeping it a ministry is. Keeping the Lord out front and keeping the focus on helping people and spreading the word of Christ is so important to us. Wherever the Lord wants to take it, we want to let him do it.”