Cedaridge Ministries celebrating 30 years

As the old saying goes, sometimes God works in mysterious ways. These were the first words of my opening paragraph in a story that I wrote regarding Cedaridge Ministries in August 2012 when the ministry was finally able to get its very leaky basement waterproofed after more than 15 years. What’s so mysterious about that, you may be asking?

Mark White is Editor of The News Journal.

The donation, which made the waterproofing possible, was thanks in large part to a hail storm that damaged an Illinois church.

Second Baptist Church in Granite City needed to replace its flat roof and two large air-conditioning units on top. The whole process was going to cost it $50,000. Then a hail storm struck the church. As a result, the insurance company covered the entire replacement cost of the roof and the air-conditioners.

The church decided to take a portion of the $50,000 that it planned to use on its own roof and help somebody else instead.

A few months earlier, it had taken its first church-wide mission trip to Williamsburg with 23 church members. As a result of that trip, Second Baptist Church decided to donate $5,500 to Cedaridge to help get its very leaky basement waterproofed.

Affordable Waterproofing and Home Builders originally quoted a $10,000 price to waterproof the Cedaridge basement, but decided to do the whole thing for $5,500 because they too wanted to help the ministry.

Ironically, Cedaridge didn’t get to enjoy that waterproof basement very long or the new roof it had gotten put on the building months earlier.

Fast forward to December 2012 when the University of the Cumberlands purchased Cedaridge’s building off Exit 11 for $453,000. This enabled Cedaridge to move into the old Tri-County Assemblies building off Exit 15 near Three-Point. It was nearly three times the square footage of its old facility, which used to house the old Bailey Brothers Country Store before Cedaridge bought it.

The irony of the situation wasn’t lost on Cedaridge President Keith Decker when I interviewed him in late 2012 about the move.

He told me that God spoke to him in February of that year when the ministry celebrated its 20-year anniversary telling him that what had been done in the past wouldn’t even be a shadow of what would be done in the future.

In the years since then, I have been over to Cedaridge Ministries many times for various giveaways the ministry helped facilitate through partnerships from other churches and groups from near and far.

One of those partnerships that sticks out in my mind was facilitated by a lady named Jeannette Thomas, who grew up near Williamsburg. When her family fell on hard times, local residents gave them a hand up.

It’s something she never forgot.

Later in life Thomas became part of the Appalachia Enterprise Team, which was originally comprised a group of volunteers from churches in the Knoxville area. She started organizing mission trips to Williamsburg at Cedaridge’s facilities that included food giveaways, free haircuts, and free clothing for some of our local residents in need. For years she used to mail me handwritten letters letting me know when the group was coming so I could get it in the paper and let local residents know.

Along the time that Cedaridge moved to Goldbug, it took over the recycling program for Williamsburg, which has turned into a major operation for Cedaridge and the city.

While I wasn’t around when Cedaridge first opened, I remember most of its early days and walking up the street multiple times from my old Second Street office in Williamsburg to visit Decker when Cedaridge’s office was still located in the old warehouse that had been used by RC bottling.

I look forward to talking to Decker later this week as Cedaridge celebrates its 30^th anniversary. It will be fun to catch up a little bit, find out just what all the ministry has been able to accomplish in recent years and see what plans it has for the future.