Fresh Start

December 6:  You all know how I love to give God the glory when He blesses us! Today we woke up chilly and wondering what was happening with getting a new furnace, we faced snow outside and COLD temperatures, yet we all slept well, stayed warm, and were alive for another day! We will be getting a brand new furnace at noon tomorrow and I do believe that God allowed this short delay so as to bring my attention to all the goodness He can give you if you are willing to wait on Him.


A client of mine paid me this morning and I was a woman on a mission. We have a beautiful fireplace and no wood, so as I drove off to get some groceries, I called a local tree service that sells cords of wood from trees they cut down. They had no seasoned cords but was I aware that Marion County Juvenile Department had firewood for sale? I wasn't but now I am and I am here to toot a horn for Fresh Start Market and Espresso. 


Located on Center Street in Salem just down a block or so from Oregon State Hospital (where One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest was filmed 40+ years ago), Fresh Start is in a darling little building next door to a juvenile correctional facility. R&R Tree Service, the company I'd originally called for firewood, donates some of their wood to this business to sell either in cords or by cart. Carts are four feet long, three feet high, and a foot deep for $35; I bought two carts of wood. A young man named Jacob loaded the wood into the back of the Dodge for me. Inside Fresh Start is a little cafe/coffee shop. All the workers there are juvenile offenders that are on probation. Everything they earn working there goes to pay restitution for their crimes until it's paid in full. Jacob was SO polite, very hard working, very pleasant. I told him I was really proud of him, and that I didn't mind patronizing this business if it meant encouraging him and other juvenile offenders to stay on the straight path and not end up at the prison. I told him about Mike and that he'd worked in four max prisons and would do anything to see kids get going down the right path and leaving a life of crime. Some other business has donated Christmas trees and they range in price from $5-$40 and Jacob was only too happy to show me a few of them. The menu for the cafe is small and simple, just enough to create the basics but excellent prices and all made by the kids. This entire operation is overseen by adults. The cafe was clean, organized, and full of customers, which was nice to see. They sell seasonal produce which is either grown in their gardens or purchased from local farmers. They have a summer plant sale including large hanging baskets, as well as cedar planters, garden art, holiday gifts, and recycled wood and metal art made by the youth there. Their address is 3020 Center Street, Salem, 503.585.4956.


One of the sweetest compliments my husband has ever given me was that I'm his ideal of the Proverbs 31 woman. High praise from a man that has hated women most of his life because of his childhood and first marriage. It was such a wonderful feeling to get paid by a client and be able to go find the firewood, on my own and bring it home to warm up the house. Groceries purchased, firewood stacked (Alison--what a little trooper, helping me unload and stack in 25 degree weather. Couldn't have done it without her.) Tonight, the house is toasty, a beautiful fire going, husband showered, leg, dressed and bandaged, you'd never know the furnace is dead, it's so warm in here thanks to Him leading me to Fresh Start. His provision is always just PERFECT for what we need.