Posted on 07/21/2003 9:23:12 AM PDT by Charlie OK
Kind of a long article, but well worth the read IMHO!
DAN Short arrives at his office inside Hope Community Church with his arms loaded with goodies, looking much like the Santa he often portrays during the Christmas holidays.
He's bearing much anticipated gifts this day, ice and soft drinks, destined to make a board meeting for the Mustard Seed Development Corp. an oasis on a day with triple-digit temperatures.
Short, 57, greets each board member and assorted visitors in his easy-going manner.
A pretty brunette wearing a vivid blue dress walks in and is greeted warmly by the people who are quickly taking their seats around a table. She is Gae Short, Dan Short's wife.
After the meeting, Gae Short tells her husband she is heading home.
Home was once a comfortable house in a quiet Edmond subdivision.
But, in answer to what they believe is God's calling, the Shorts now live in a smaller home in the North Highland neighborhood just west of the Broadway Extension, between Britton and Wilshire in northwest Oklahoma City.
They are a far cry from "retiring and going to the beach together," which is how Dan Short describes how he and his wife had planned to spend their retirement years.
Instead, both are so entrenched in the neighborhood renewal and development organization Dan started that they can't think of any other place they'd rather be right now.
Even Gae Short's battle with lung and bone cancer, which began shortly after they closed on their Oklahoma City home, did not deter the move or the couple's determination to become a part of the solution to many of the problems that plague their new neighborhood.
Dan Short said it all really stems from that biblical mustard seed from which the development corporation's catchy title is derived:
"If you have the faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible to you." (Matthew 17:20).
"We think it's prophetic -- there's power in that Scripture, which basically means 'trust Me, and I'll take care of that for you,'" Short said.
The Shorts insist they didn't just wake up one day and, on a whim, decide to move from their suburban home to an inner city neighborhood.
No, it didn't quite happen like that.
Two years ago, Dan Short met Mike Hays, pastor of Britton Christian Church, and the two of them began talking with John Birsner, a member of United Methodist Church of the Servant who had worked with Hays and the youth outreach called Urban Impact.
Birsner had worked with Hays and another organization on a project called Campus of Care. The project called for a variety of solutions to be pumped into the targeted "campus" of vacant land just south of the North Highland neighborhood.
Short, armed with community redevelopment expertise he gleaned as a former director of Catholic Social Ministries for the Oklahoma City Archdiocese from (1977-82), wanted to refine the Campus of Care project by broadening the scope of the targeted area to include North Highland and surrounding neighborhoods to hone in on specific problems there.
"They had a beautiful vision but didn't have a way of getting people involved," Short said.
He said his vision for the "campus" was not just people coming in to solve the area's woes. Short said he wanted to bring residents within the targeted area together, to involve them in finding solutions for problems plaguing their community. Those problems included deteriorating housing stock, low homeownership, drug abuse, elderly living at poverty levels, the absence of fathers in homes and the consequent high number of single mothers as heads of household.
With the support of Hays and Birsner, Short started the Mustard Seed Development Corp. in 2001. The organization's goal goal is to bring hope, in very specific ways, to people living in several neighborhoods, generally bounded on the north by Memorial Road, on the east by Kelley Avenue, on the south by Wilshire Boulevard and on the west by Waverly Avenue between Western and Pennsylvania.
With limited funding and the mustard-seed faith Short talks about, he set up his office at Britton United Methodist Church. The church is now defunct, but the Mustard Seed organization is still firmly planted in the building as a new ministry, Hope Community Church, now occupies the structure at 1001 NW 92.
Dan Short said he knew he would never be satisfied simply working in the neighborhood he hoped to aid; he wanted to live there. Many of the issues he hoped to address with Mustard Seed were long- term problems needing someone with long-term commitment to push for progress over a span of 15 to 20 years.
While her husband was out of state working as a Santa Claus during the Christmas holidays, it was Gae Short who closed the deal on the couple's North Highland home.
Just one month later, she was diagnosed with cancer. It was time for that mustard-seed faith to kick in again.
"We could have backed out of it. We certainly talked about it, but we decided not to," Gae Short said.
His wife's courage, Dan Short said, "just blows me away, sometimes."
"Her comment was that this is where we're supposed to be. We're supposed to be there, whether we're sick or not."
Dan Short said they are just doing what Jesus did thousands of years ago.
"He lived in heaven, and he came here and lived with us and put up with us," Short said. "He lived in 'the neighborhood,' if you will.
"We explain that we're here because the Lord wants us here."
Seeds of faith Many churches have supported the organization's efforts by providing funding, volunteers for housing repair projects and other support. Short said these include Church of the Servant, Britton Christian Church, St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Edmond, Christ the King Catholic Church, St. Eugene Catholic Church, Bridgeway Church, All Souls Episcopal and Mayflower Congregational Church.
Hays, with Britton Christian Church, said Dan Short's commitment to the area is what makes Mustard Seed work.
"The call of God is so evident in Dan's life, because he hasn't just theorized what can happen. He and his family have moved into a neighborhood so they can make something happen," Hays said.
Hays said it is fitting that Short portrays Santa two months out of the year. "There is a heart of love in that big man in the red and white suit. Some of those same qualities are found in Dan."
Bryan Thomason, a member of the Mustard Seed Housing Action Team, said he heard Short speak about his work at Church of the Servant, where the Shorts are members. Thomason, who is in the land title business, said he has been honored to work with the group.
"The Lord spoke to me and said 'You need to be involved in this.' Homeownership is the American dream, and this offers that dream to people."
Dan Short said he is grateful to have partners who are helping him scatter seeds of faith in the community where he has chosen to live and minister. He said he hopes God will continue to guide their paths as they continue their efforts.
"This is a partnership with God," Dan Short said. "People want to make Him a 'minority partner,' but we have to remind ourselves sometimes He is the one who should be in control."
I was reminded of an episode of King of the Hill where Hank's neighbour becomes a year-round Santa.
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