Raise the Roof!

Raise the Roof!

Raise the Roof! Phase one classroom construction begins! We have great news! We are close to completing Phase One of our Mustard Seed Village construction! This weekend we will take the first step in putting a roof on our classroom in the Mustard Seed Village. A team of seven construction workers has volunteered their time to bolt 8x32 foot beams to ...

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Igniting the Divine Spark – part 2

Igniting the Divine Spark - part 2

-- by Cindy Todd -- I’ve been slow to write up a debrief, report, summary of the “Igniting the Divine Spark” workshop that I facilitated at Mustard Seed House on March 16. So here goes. The intent and the vision of the workshop was to help followers of Christ to recognize the divine light that lives within each of us: the light ...

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The question for this week: what are your creative ideas for making a little difference in your community 2013 to 2018?

The question for this week: what are your creative ideas for making a little difference in your community 2013 to 2018?

-- by Tom Sine -- I want you to take you back to 1970 one more time to meet a mentor and friend…Frank Herbert, author of Dune and a host of other compelling books. Dune was widely used as an environmental study book when it came out in the early 70s at the very beginning of that first environmental movement. What arrested our ...

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Companions in the Neighborhood

Companions in the Neighborhood

– by Andy Wade – What does it mean to become a companion in the neighborhood? Many of you know that I'm an avid gardener. You probably also know by now that the garden is one of my favorite places to talk with God. It's probably no surprise that, while sitting around tables at a gathering in southeast Portland a few ...

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Sustaining Life, Sustaining Faith for the Future

Sustaining Life, Sustaining Faith for the Future

May Newsletter - 2013 I am currently in New Haven Connecticut at the Overseas Ministry Study Center teaching a course on spiritual renewal. This yearly seminar is one of the most enriching and challenging I facilitate. Students come from across the globe. Methodist ministers from Myanmar and Korea sit together with Anglicans from Kenya and Ghana. Catholic sisters from the Philippines rub shoulders ...

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Wild Camano Tour!

Wild Camano Tour!

-- by Christine Sine -- The Wild Camano tour is over. On Saturday a small group of us gathered on the future site of the Mustard Seed Village on Camano island to tour the land, identify edible species and plant a beginning garden. It was an amazing experience. With the help of Nancy and Greg from Shambala Farms and Nursery we identified and ...

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Simplicity isn’t Simple.

Simplicity isn't Simple.

-- by Christine Sine -- For the last five year’s my husband, Tom and I have taken what we call the $2 challenge during the season of Lent. For at least one week of the season we restrict our food budget to $2 per person per day. It reminds us that half the world’s population still lives on less than $2 per ...

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Are you ready for the Lenten discipline of coming out of hiding?

March 5, 2013
Thumbnail image for Are you ready for the Lenten discipline of coming out of hiding?

- by Tom Sine – Christine and I, and our golden retriever, Bonnie, just came back from one of our prayer retreats at a doggie friendly motel in Anacortes just north of Seattle.  It is a modest place with a little view of the water and a great walking trail.  Part of the discipline of [...]

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Digging to China

February 27, 2013
Digging to China

– by Cindy Todd – Not sure about you, but I fondly remember hazy days of summers as a child. Mine were spent mostly in Crown Point, Indiana. Ours was the era before back-to-back summer camps and the emphasis on days spent productively. Sure, the lawn had to be mowed, weeded, and trimmed once a [...]

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Are you ready for the Lenten discipline of celebrating each step on the way home to join the great family for the homecoming feast?

February 26, 2013
Thumbnail image for Are you ready for the Lenten discipline of celebrating each step on the way home to join the great family for the homecoming feast?

– by Tom Sine – Last night Christine prepared a magnificent Greek feast for a wonderful group of friends to celebrate another year of growing up and growing older. The feast included roast leg of lamb, oven roasted potatoes, beets and onions and two wonderful salads.  The first salad was comprised of roasted eggplants, red [...]

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Restoration Village Arts

February 25, 2013
RVA

– by Tracy Howe Wispelwey – After a decade of touring I began to seriously re-imagine my work as a performing songwriter and the director of a small nonprofit that has become the umbrella for international artistic collaboration and faith-based activism. In the last several years my husband, Seth, and I, along with a small [...]

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Infused with the Breath of God

February 22, 2013
urn with ash

– by Andy Wade – Peanuts circa 1954, Pig-Pen enters the comic strip in a cloud of dust. We don’t know his real name… “I haven’t got a name… people just call me things.” As the dust rises around him, Pig-Pen proudly announces he’s surrounded by the dust of ancient civilizations. He is as perceptive [...]

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MSA Imaginings February 2013

February 21, 2013
Barn Foundation

Igniting the Divine Spark Ashes on my forehead, A longing in my heart. Ready for a journey, Beyond the cross. Wanting to be changed, To be transformed, To be made new. These words from the prayer I wrote for the First Sunday of Lent remind us that the season of Lent does not end at [...]

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Igniting the Divine Spark

February 20, 2013
Cindy Todd - Igniting the Divine Spark

– by Cindy Todd – Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house Matthew 5:15 Many of you have likely read about my unlikely journey into soapmaking.  It was a pretty interesting path.  First unemployment [...]

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Are you ready for the Lenten discipline of celebrating those who have gone before?

February 19, 2013
Christine Sine

– by Tom Sine – “Ashes to ashes” are the words I heard again on Ash Wednesday last week as my pastor placed an ash cross on my forehead.  As I turn 77 this week I am much more aware of my mortality than I was a decade ago. Christine led a very inspirational retreat [...]

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Ash Wednesday, a doorway into Lent

February 14, 2013
Ash Wednesday

– by Andy Wade – For the Western Church, yesterday marked the beginning of Lent, 40 days of self-examination, of deep reflection, of humility. One thing that bothers me about Ash Wednesday is the smearing of ashes thing. While there is good, biblical support for acts of repentance marked by ashes, I wrestle with those [...]

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Are you ready for the spiritual discipline of daily gratitude?

February 14, 2013
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– by Tom Sine –   Last week we ask you: are you ready for the spiritual discipline of daily laughter? We encouraged you to join Ted and Company in learning to laugh at our own foibles every day so we could learn to live without taking ourselves too seriously. This week we are urging [...]

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