Mustard Seed founder to receive Order of Canada
CALGARY, AB—The founder and executive director of The Mustard Seed street ministry in Calgary has been named by Governor General Adrienne Clarkson for induction as a Member of the Order of Canada.
Pat Nixon will be formally appointed to the Order at a ceremony in Ottawa on October 29.
The 46-year-old native of Kamloops become executive director of "The Seed" in 1984 when he assumed responsibility for a coffeehouse outreach originally launched by First Baptist Church in 1973. Initially operating on a shoestring budget, the ministry eventually relocated to an aging house down the street from the church and word quickly spread throughout Calgary's downtown core that a cup of hot coffee and a caring friend could always be found "three doors down from that big red church on 4th Street."
"I'm a graduate of the school of hard knocks," Nixon grins when asked about his credentials to operate an organization that now boasts an annual budget in excess of $5 million. "But I have a certificate hanging on my wall that says I'm a licensed minister with a respected Baptist denomination."
The burly father of six sons is a well-known figure on the downtown streets of Calgary, a place he first came to as an eighth-grade dropout who'd just been released from jail.
"It's somewhat ironic," he notes, "but The Seed is located just a couple of blocks from where I used to hang out drinking Lysol when I first arrived in this town. If someone had told me 25 years ago that I'd one day be doing what I'm doing today, I would have suspected they had been drinking Lysol as well."
By the early 1990s, it was obvious The Mustard Seed had outgrown its facilities down the street from First Baptist on 13th Avenue SW. A small volunteer staff worked tirelessly to provide counselling, Bible studies and general assistance to its transient clientele.
The group of pastors and Christian laypersons that had formed a volunteer board of directors to assist Nixon and his staff began to pray that God would provide a suitable facility in the downtown area where The Seed could have an even more effective ministry. Intercession was made with the knowledge that the cost of real estate in downtown Calgary at the time was setting national records.
Soon after, the group learned that the federal Department of Agriculture was vacating a huge, five-story building immediately south of the Calgary Tower.
"The one hitch was that they wanted something like $2 million for the place," Nixon recalls. "God performed the first of what has been a long series of miracles by prompting a single donor to make it possible for us to acquire this facility."
Today, The Mustard Seed addresses the needs of more than 800 people per day. Nixon has built an impressive network of relationships with Calgary's corporate and faith communities, enabling the ministry to offer meals, short and long-term housing and counselling services, plus a variety of classes that teach basic job-skills to clients.
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