Last night after my awful day I had a delicious supper made by my friends Shane & Mary Jane and I got to hang out for a long time with 4 other great ladies. When Dan and I first moved we really prayed that I'd be surrounded by community while he was training and on deployment. It wasn't long after that that I met Mary Jane and her friendship got me through the tough beginnings. Then I made more friends and last night I realized that I had 4 close friends that I think are just great and I actually have more than that because our small group is great too! I'm so blessed.
It's been two months since The Mustard Seed opened its first low-income apartment building. We've had about 4 tenants so far because the selection process is very specific for very good, important reasons. There are a lot of concerns when you venture into giving this kind of support for people who have been homeless for a significant period of time. I think a lot of people assume that people who are homeless don't know how to take care of their possessions or that they don't respect property. This is true of people from all walks of life. Because restoring dignity is so fundamental to the Mustard Seed's way-of-being, the apartments were renovated to be beautiful, life-giving spaces. When I did the lease signing for one of the tenants, he couldn't get over how much light there was in his apartment. He couldn't stop talking about how he was going to fill it with plants. His last place was so small that he could touch opposite walls with his arms outstretched. One night before the renovations had been completely finished, two of the tenants realized that the contractors had forgotten to put the lock on the door correctly. They stayed up all night watching the door to make sure that no one got in, and this is the sweet part: they didn't tell the female tenant about it because they didn't want her to worry! Every Tuesday we have staff lunch and the staff take turns preparing food for the rest of the staff. Today our community chaplain supervised two of the apartment tenants who made us chicken, roast beef, amazing rice, salad, buns and cake for lunch. They had big smiles on their faces. It's really uplifting to see the joy and hope that radiates out of those who are treated with dignity and given a second chance at living a full life.
Tomorrow Dan is coming home. Those are my favourite days.
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