Nothing But Potential

“You look at a potato and see: mashed potato, baked potato, french fries, potato salad, hash browns, roasted potato, potato stew. You look at a homeless youth and see: a homeless youth.”

On a recent vacation, I was struck by this powerful poster campaign on buses and billboards throughout the city I was visiting.

In place of “homeless youth”, insert any of the people The Mustard Seed serves: “homeless man”, “mentally ill woman”, “drug addict”, “prison inmate”… Wider society often overlooks these people on the margins, stereotyping them and in doing so denying them their humanity as beings created in the image of God.

Maybe this is why the prophet Micah was so adamant in pointing out the responsibility of Christians “[t]o act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Ch. 6:8). If justice can be described, in part, as “providing people with the space, opportunity and resources to fulfill their God-given potential”, then this reinforces the need to view all people as image bearers of God, full of worth and possibility.

In this context, what does it look like to “act justly” ? At The Mustard Seed Edmonton, maybe it’s our art night or sewing group. Perhaps it’s our Clean Team- inner city residents employed in taking care of their neighbourhood. It could be Seedworks, which helps people attain skills to reach their employment goals. All of these programs encourage people in discovering and developing their gifts, skills and potential! For communities and church congregations, “acting justly” might look like actively seeking to create and/or become hospitable spaces for people on the margins to flourish.

As the poster campaign so succinctly put it, folks who are poor or homeless often have nothing… nothing but potential.

Correctional Chaplaincy

In my role as the Mustard Seed’s Community Correctional Chaplain, I have the weekly privilege of meeting with inmates at an Edmonton area minimum-security prison.  Many of the men I meet are finishing their prison sentences and preparing to return to community life.  This transition can be tough, full of difficult questions and emotions. 

On a recent visit, I spoke with ‘Pete’, a man who about to undergo this transition.  Fortunately, Pete meets each week with a Mustard Seed mentor.  He and his mentor are able to explore some of the reasons why he ended up in prison, and they can talk through the anxieties, frustrations, and fears that inevitably come with leaving prison. 

Pete told me that, by sharing his journey with his mentor, he has been able to heal some of his own wounds that ultimately led to prison, and feels prepared to start healing the wounds caused by his crime.  Not only that, but Pete has begun regularly attending a local church with The Mustard Seed, where he feels welcomed by a life-giving Christian community and by the God it worships. 

As Pete updated me on his life, I was struck by the unexpected way that God operates in the world.  The mentor’s simple act of listening to someone – someone who had been told he was not worth listening to – is helping turn a cycle of wrong-doing and violence into healing and restoration. 

At the Mustard Seed, we hope to be a community where healing can happen, where folks who find themselves on our city’s street or in our country’s prisons can be welcomed as people bearing Christ’s image - no longer simply people with addictions or prison records or without a home, but “dear brothers and sisters in the Lord” (Philemon 16).

- Jonathan

Thinking Smaller

As the COO of The Mustard Seed, I can drift into philosophical discussions in the search for large solutions to complex problems. And, as I blog, I feel like I ought to offer some grand rant or quantum idea that will make you feel certain that the problems we’re addressing are well in hand. But the fact is, poverty is mountain-sized and I have only mustard seed-sized faith, so I will instead offer two really small ideas that if we tried, may grow to move the mountain.

First, I believe we have to have local responses to poverty and by local, I’m not thinking city-wide. I’m not really even meaning neighbourhoods. I’m thinking as small as my neighbour. To me, one of the biggest things I can do is to know my neighbours well enough to listen for their challenges. If I can respond compassionately to the issues facing Matt and Candace and Chuck and Wendy I can support them if the cruel cloud of poverty descends on them. Equally, if they take note of my family and our needs, I wonder if we couldn’t step into the growing gap between the rich and poor by simply living attentively to our neighbours. Think of it: what if when Matt loses his job he knows that we will co-purchase groceries that month, help with child care and listen into the evening about the loss of dignity in their struggles through poverty.

My second small idea is to stop taking seconds. I know, sounds crazy but there is a macroeconomic challenge when I consume more than my share. Think of it on the smallest of scales: if you came to dinner at my home, wouldn’t it be outlandish if I served myself first, then enjoyed seconds only to leave you crumbs for your first portion? In this tiny act I set in motion the very large notion of scarcity. As consumers, we need to be mindful as we make our purchasing decisions: do I have I a right to a second home when my homeless neighbour has none?


Please don’t think of me as trite or Pollyanna. The fact is that root cause of poverty are enormous and the complexities involved in offering hope to those who are homeless, colossal. As we begin this week, with the hope in us to change the world, I want to give the gift of these seed sized idea and see what might grow from there. Think of it, if we have faith the size of a mustard seed we might move this mountain.

What’s your very best seed-sized idea?

Faces of The Seed: A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

I love photos. I love taking them and looking at them.  I love the stories that they tell with using no words.  So in light of that, I hope you enjoy today's post.  These are the beautiful people that I get to work with on a daily basis they have taught me more about strength, resiliency and the power of giving than anyone else.




You are Like Family to Me



Beloved

Passion

Soul Food

Many Hands Make Light Work

You Make My Day Brighter



Hands & Feet

 


Weary

*These photos are not my own and have been taken by many people at The Mustard Seed*

Put Me In, Coach!

Hi, I'm Eric and I'm filling in for Lydia today from the Employment department in Calgary.

As an Employment Coach you never know what a day at The Mustard Seed Employment Centre will involve.  Obtaining a job can be stressful and hard work, and my job as an Employment Coach is to help clients work through that process.  Some of our clients need help sprucing up their resume, or practicing answering basic interview questions.  Some clients simply need you to be present at an interview to provide that extra bit of confidence in order to impress an employer. 

Every day can involve a lot of different emotions for an Employment Coach.  Sometimes I come into the office and have a voicemail telling me that an employer is considering letting go of one of my clients because he got his first paycheque and spent it on something illicit.  But, thankfully, more often I come in and have a message from one of my clients saying that they have an interview at a restaurant or they got a job in a manufacturing plant.

Recently I had the opportunity to go with a client to an interview with a major Calgary employer.  I was there to support my client but she really didn’t need me there.  She was confident and made a compelling case that she would be a reliable and valuable employee for this company.  They hired her on the spot after a very short interview. It’s moments like these where a guest has chosen to change their life, and take the scary step of finding employment that makes my job fulfilling.  The role that an Employment Coach plays can be large or small with our guests but all that matters is that we continue to plant little seeds of hope in as many guests’ lives as possible.

- Eric