Mission meets Vision
By Donna Curtis (IMS ’02)
Donna’s Mustard Seed “mission” is a specialized Montessori program for children of parents in her neighborhood. In this mission, she has many encounters with parents in her area. Here is one interesting “collision” of her mission with the vision of another that led to some very promising developments for the good of children in their community of Petaluma, CA.
Mustard Seed’s Mission: Grow Montessori.
Hillside Church’s Vision: Grow a Preschool Sunday School Class.
Bam! Two visions collide, to form a marvelous complex web of new possibilities that is now unfolding in our community. How did this story of colliding visions begin? Maybe it was a year ago when I first visited the Hillside Church and met Brie Manson. Or maybe when she first brought her son Caleb to join my Mustard Seed Montessori program.
No matter. The mission and vision did collide, which then led to our meeting together to look over a proposed space for a little Montessori Sunday School Classroom in her Church. What a disaster! An enormous amount of heaped up stuff was everywhere. So, the first thing I suggested was to remove all this stuff.
For this clean up project, Brie rounded up a “team” at her church (that is, her husband, the Lead Pastor) to do the grunt work. When Brie and I met again, there emerged a rather lovely little space to outfit as a Montessori environment.
We used IMS technology, such as Imagination-Previsioning (IP) to develop a plan that called for a small rectangular table with a few chairs, a small shelf, an area rug, and a space for Montessori Materials on the floor. A bathroom is directly connected to this sweet space so no difficulties with that!
We both went to work. “Hillside Brie” got the table, chairs, and shelf and “Mustard Seed Donna” donated some basic materials for Practical Life work. I gave Brie a clear direction to purchase a Pink Tower, some Knobbed Cylinder Blocks, Sandpaper Numerals, and puzzles. And, after a little patient waiting, Brie received them and set them up in the space along with some Practical Life activities.
Voila! Mustard Seed Donna and Hilllside Church Brie had collaborated and created a sweet little normalizing space for children we hoped would soon arrive. We waited, and waited, and waited…
Now, in these past few weeks, the children have begun to arrive! One little fellow was brought by his Grandma DeeJay, scheduling time for one day during the week. Her little guy did great in the room for his first time! As Grandma sat and watched me supervise the environment, they both loved it and have returned to use the room during the week. Not only that, but Grandma DeeJay is now planning to send her little darling to Mustard Seed next school year. And, she is also enrolling in the IMS distance learning course as well!
These past two Sundays have also seen two students use the Hillside Church Montessori Preschool Room! What a joy watching them independently use the Practical Life activities and the Montessori materials. And seeing them enjoy snack together while the adult reads Bible stories to them. It is a big success!
Our new Big Question? What are we going to do when we have too many children?
