The Love Your Neighbor team was recently blessed with a large donation of woodworking equipment and tools – enough tools, in fact, to set up a complete workshop!
We now have a workshop onsite at Pulpit Rock filled with high quality tools ready to build bunk beds for kids, nightstands for families starting over, and anything else we can think of to love our neighbors here in Colorado Springs.
We have decided to name our new gift the Humblewood Workshop. We chose this name for two reasons:
- That’s a really cool name.
- To honor where the tools came from and the legacy behind the Humblewood name.
The tools were owned by a woodworker in Union, Maine named Lowell “Si” Sibole. He ran a woodshop called HumbleWood. Si passed away in 2016 and his brother was holding onto the tools until he found somewhere to donate them. I am overwhelmed that he thought the Love Your Neighbor team was worthy. I did not have the privilege of meeting Si, but the more I learn about him, it sounds like he was a great man.
Written by his family, this small excerpt paints a picture of a man with a big heart and love for everyone:
“His life was full of story, art, humor, good cooking, music, and most of all friends and family. Union, Maine, where he spent the last 15 years of his life, says it all.
Union! He brought everyone together! He was not a fighter and instead strived to bring peace and love thru the simple promise of a smile if you were to pause and sit or even just wave as you passed. He never stopped giving, never turned his back, and was always there with a warm welcome, a cold drink, and the offer to help.
If he wasn’t swapping stories on the stoop, you could find him building something or perhaps carving a little treasure – a little mouse perhaps. Look around, he may have hidden one in your house!
He made beautiful furniture his whole life and his work is in homes, private collections, and shops all over the country. In each and everything he has ever made, rests a piece of his heart and love for woodworking.
Si was an Air Force veteran, and not having seen active service, humbly turned down any recognition. He was a hero in his own way to so many. He’d be more likely to share the stories of his marble championship and soap box derby days as a child in his hometown of Conshohocken, PA than he would of piloting planes.”
There are so many things I love about what they wrote, but my favorite is, “In each and everything he has ever made, rests a piece of his heart and love for woodworking.”
That is something we can strive for in our new Humblewood Workshop. We can be intentional about using our gifts and talents and making sure all we do is done in love. Like Si, we can leave a piece of our heart in everything we make – we can give so others can feel loved.
Si was a very talented woodworker and it is evident in the partially completed pieces, jigs and patterns left behind with his tools. (Check out this replica that Si built of Andy Warhol’s dining room).
As we move forward and work to make Love Your Neighbor a more sustainable ministry, every piece we make to generate funding for bunk beds will be branded with our new Humblewood Workshop brand.
Some of the things we make will be exact replicas of pieces Si designed. Others will be our own designs, but all will (hopefully) reflect the love and care Si put into his projects.
Please join us this Sunday, February 9th, in the new Humblewood Workshop (room 115 at Pulpit Rock). We’ll be in there before and after both services – so stop by to see the workshop, ask questions and hang out for a little bit.
We’re looking forward to showing you the amazing blessing that is the Humblewood Workshop.
Hi, I just read the story about your Humblewood Workshop. I stumbled upon it through my search for Lowell Sibole. Si was a friend of my parents growing up. As an adult, Si became my friend and one of my dearest and most treasured of friends. He was there for me whenever I needed to escape from some very trying times in my life. Typically that meant me visiting him in his Southern New Jersey woodworking shop where I would sit and chat with him while he did his magic or lay my hands to a project myself under his direction. I moved out of the area for awhile and Si headed to Maine. Besides the occasional letters, and as life goes, we lost touch for some years. He has never been far from my mind and heart and last evening I decided to do something about it. I searched for him on the internet and as the pictures of him standing in the doorway of Humblewood (ME.) began to surface my spirit quickened with excitement realizing I had found him! I was fast forwarding to the following morning and my opening lines upon my phone call to him to reconnect. Then, I came upon this article and the knowledge that Si had passed… I was heartsick for sure and had to pause and grieve.. Si was a wonderful, dynamic, creative, multifaceted person and I miss him dearly. I am happy to know that his spirit lives on there within your Humblewood Workshop. Knowing Si I am sure that would please him. I have a table that he built for my family many years ago. A long dinner table. It has been in various family member’s homes at different times. Recently an experienced craftsman was in my home and I showed him the table. He proceeded to explain to me how the table was built citing the methods and techniques applied. He told me that it was built entirely without any modern tools, purely by hand. And that it was flawless and perfect. As we got under the table to continue to look at the construction I saw something for the first time. Si had placed an inscription there that none of us had ever seen. It read, “A table surrounded with love will never be empty” L. Sibole 5/97… And that was what Si brought to any table where he was seated. I myself am a born again Christian and can only hope that I will see Si again in glory. God bless you, your church family, your efforts in leading others to Christ, and the creations that will come from Humblewood – To Him be the glory.. Matthew Roncone (mroncone11@comcast.net; 215-858-5900).
Matt…I tried my best to track you and your mom down after dad passed. I hope you’re both well. I remember the day I took that photo of dad on his stoop. My kids and I were often up there for a visit and a slice of pie! I miss him terribly!
Hi Matt,
Oh, did I love your story! Thank you for sharing more insights into Si and his Humblewood craftsmanship. What a blessing to know more about the man who donated the tools that his love had flowed through for so long. I especially liked your discovery of that inscription on the bottom of your table. He might have loved to know that our team inscribes the bottom side of each top bunk with “You are seen. You are known. You are loved.” All kids need to know that, right?
Tomorrow, my husband gets to do his first delivery of one of these bunkbeds. I can’t wait to hear the story.
Thank you, dear brother, for your story!
Glad to see that my dad’s shop has been resurrected! I hope you feel the good mojo that flows through those tools!!
Hi Kate, I moved to NW Arkansas where I am trying to set up another HumbleWood to build bunkbeds for foster kids here.
Wayne Sibole in Rogers AR.