So What's With All This Community?

At The Mustard Seed we talk a lot about community— we have a community garden, community volunteers, do community recreation, have a community advocate and a community pastor.

What does all this ‘community’ mean at The Mustard Seed? It means that we believe in the importance of creating a safe and supportive environment for people to build healthy relationships and uncover and develop their gifts in their physical, mental, emotional, social and spiritual lives. We believe that every person we serve in a meal line, or help in the food depot, or provide clothes to, has unique strengths and gifts, skills and potential.

Living in poverty or being homeless means that you are constantly bombarded with messages (verbally or otherwise) that constantly focus on what you lack. When you spend your days trying to find food, housing, clothing, or a job you are always having to tell people what you need or what you're lacking. Often people get to the point that they feel like they don't have anything to offer. So at The Mustard Seed we are trying to change that thinking to say 'hey you have some great things to offer us too!'
An example was at our first art show last November at the Jeff Allen Art. We've had an art program for more than 5 years and this was the first time that the art had been framed and available for purchase. The artists were at the opening reception and were proudly showing off their work for all to see. At the end of the night one of the artists had sold 3 of her painting and kept on saying over and over again "I'm sooooo proud of myself, I'm sooo proud! I can't believe that I sold 3 paintings!!"

So the next time you hear the word community think about people caring about people to help them uncover their skills and potential!