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Mission
Statement of Nazareth Farm
Nazareth Farm is a
Catholic community in rural West Virginia that transforms lives through a
service-retreat experience. We are devoted to living out the Gospel
message through the cornerstones of community, simplicity, prayer, and service.
We serve alongside our neighbors to address substandard housing by providing
home repair. We celebrate the richness of Appalachia and experience God by
building relationships between our volunteers and the local community.
What does our mission statement mean?
Nazareth Farm is a Catholic community in rural
West Virginia that transforms lives through a service-retreat
experience. Our community of staff members serves with
volunteers of all ages who come from all parts of the country to work
with us for a week. They participate in hands-on homebuilding and
a retreat experience focused around the Catholic tradition but open to
expressions of all faith backgrounds. We believe that our faith
calls us to action through social justice.
We are devoted to living out the Gospel message
through the cornerstones of community, simplicity, prayer, and service.
The
full-time community of Nazareth Farm and the community of weeklong volunteers together form a community rooted in the Gospels and
Social Teachings of the Church by sharing morning and evening prayer,
meals, work, service and outreach. Our cornerstones anchor our
experience and create an atmosphere that focuses us on the most important
aspects of relationship with one another.
We
serve alongside our neighbors to address substandard housing by
providing home repair. The community of Nazareth Farm serves the people of Doddridge
and surrounding counties. We
are prompted to reach out to the families with whom we minister to build relationships and offer home repair.
We work with our local homeowners, not for them, recognizing
that service is an experience of mutual giving, whether that giving is
in the form of physical labor, a cup of hot tea, or a simple
conversation. We believe that repairing homes is a crucial step in
giving our homeowners economic justice and the dignity due to each
person.
We celebrate the richness of Appalachia and experience God by building
relationships between our volunteers and the local community. The Nazareth Farm
community immerses itself in the cultural diversity present in the
Appalachian Region. By seeking to understand more fully the
culture and the issues facing the people of this region, we are better
equipped to offer our assistance, to face needs in a meaningful way,
and to break down stereotypes by learning firsthand and then becoming
teachers for others.
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