WAYS TO HELP & BECOME INVOLVED
Ozarks Church of Nature & Magical Food Forest
The Ozarks Church of Nature & Magical Food Forest has grown through service, sharing, planting, teaching, rebuilding, learning, and the help of ordinary people who cared enough to contribute what they could. We are not looking for followers. We are looking for people who believe in helping build something worthwhile.
You do not need to live here to become involved. You do not need to have money. You do not need to possess specialized skills. And you do not need to believe exactly what we believe.
There are many ways to participate. Some require physical presence. Some can be done from a distance. Some require experience. Some simply require willing hands and a good heart.
What matters most is honest contribution, respect for the land and community, and a willingness to practice what we profess.
HELP DOES NOT HAVE TO LOOK ONE WAY
Someone may help by planting trees. Someone may repair a fence. Someone may teach a class. Someone may wash jars. Someone may donate materials. Someone may help with a website. Someone may bring a meal to a community gathering. Someone may identify a grant opportunity. Someone may share a skill we do not have. Someone may spend an afternoon pulling weeds. Someone may simply tell another person that this place exists.
Small contributions matter. A forest is built one tree at a time.
VOLUNTEER LAND STEWARDSHIP
There is nearly always something growing, needing care, being repaired, waiting to be planted, or trying desperately not to die in an Arkansas summer. 😂
Help may include:
- Planting trees, herbs, flowers, food, and medicine
- Watering
- Weeding
- Mulching
- Garden maintenance
- Food forest care
- Seed saving
- Harvesting
- Plant propagation
- Trail maintenance
- Habitat restoration
- Soil building
- Composting
- Cleanup
- Removing invasive plants when appropriate
- Maintaining gathering areas
- General land stewardship
No experience is required for every task. We are happy to teach people who genuinely want to learn.
ANIMAL STEWARDSHIP
Animals are a significant part of life here.
Depending upon current needs and experience, help may include:
- Feeding
- Filling water
- Cleaning animal areas
- Fence maintenance
- General livestock care
- Poultry care
- Helping improve shelters
- Preparing animal areas
- Emergency assistance
- Transport or practical animal support
Because we have livestock guardian dogs, livestock, poultry, cats, and other animals already living here, animal work requires prior approval and appropriate instruction. Nobody should simply begin handling or feeding animals because they saw something furry. 😂
BUILDING, REPAIRS & INFRASTRUCTURE
We have far more dreams than money. Fortunately, many dreams can also be built with skills, reclaimed materials, creativity, and cooperative labor.
Future and ongoing projects may include:
- Cabins
- Community gathering areas
- Covered outdoor kitchen
- Pavilion
- Outdoor showers
- Sanitation systems
- Trails
- Fencing
- Animal shelters
- Storage
- Greenhouses
- Garden infrastructure
- Water systems
- Solar and off-grid systems
- Workshops
- Market areas
- Repairs and maintenance
People with experience in carpentry, construction, plumbing, electrical work, mechanics, solar, welding, masonry, excavation, design, engineering, or other trades may be especially valuable. All significant construction or permanent alterations require approval before work begins.
SKILL SHARING
One of our core beliefs is that knowledge should remain among the people. If you know how to do something useful, we would love to explore ways you might teach it.
Possible subjects include:
- Gardening
- Herbs
- Food preservation
- Canning
- Fermentation
- Cooking
- Seed saving
- Carpentry
- Building
- Sewing
- Repair
- Homesteading
- Animal care
- Off-grid living
- Art
- Music
- Photography
- Crafts
- Natural skills
- Emergency preparedness
- Traditional skills
- Other practical knowledge
You do not need a formal teaching credential to share genuine knowledge responsibly. You do need honesty about what you know and what you do not know.
COMMUNITY TEACHING & GATHERINGS
We offer and hope to continue expanding:
- Herb walks
- Plant education
- Book gatherings
- Nature-based spiritual discussions
- Meditation
- Music
- Circles
- Skill-sharing gatherings
- Food preservation classes
- Gardening education
- Community meals
- Seasonal gatherings
- Memorial tree planting
- Nature stewardship projects
- Other educational and spiritual activities
People who have something meaningful to teach or facilitate may contact us about participating.
FOOD & COMMUNITY SUPPORT
Feeding people is part of our ministry.
Ways to help may include:
- Growing food
- Donating locally grown food
- Harvesting
- Preserving food
- Helping prepare community meals
- Canning
- Freezing or dehydrating produce
- Sharing seeds
- Providing jars or preservation supplies
- Helping distribute surplus food when available
- Teaching food-growing or food-preservation skills
We believe food should nourish relationships as well as bodies.
MATERIALS & SUPPLIES
Useful materials are sometimes more helpful than money.
Depending upon current projects, we may need things such as:
- Lumber
- Roofing materials
- Fencing
- Gates
- Garden tools
- Hand tools
- Building supplies
- Gravel
- Mulch
- Compost
- Soil amendments
- Water tanks
- Irrigation supplies
- Solar equipment
- Hardware
- Shelving
- Storage containers
- Canning jars
- Kitchen equipment
- Animal supplies
- Seeds
- Perennial plants
- Fruit or nut trees
- Native plants
Please ASK before bringing or dropping off materials. A donation that requires three people and a trailer to haul it to the dump is not technically helping. 😂
PROFESSIONAL & BEHIND-THE-SCENES HELP
Not every useful job requires dirt under your fingernails.
We may also benefit from people experienced with:
- Nonprofit development
- Grant research or writing
- Accounting
- Bookkeeping
- Legal or organizational knowledge
- Website work
- Graphic design
- Photography
- Video
- Social media
- Writing or editing
- Printing
- Fundraising
- Event organization
- Marketing
- Administrative systems
- Research
- Community outreach
We are building both physical and organizational infrastructure. Both matter.
CHURCH SERVICE & MINISTRY
As the Ozarks Church of Nature continues to develop, there will be opportunities for people who feel aligned with our spiritual mission to serve the church.
Possible roles may eventually include:
- Gathering facilitators
- Teachers
- Community-service coordinators
- Garden stewards
- Animal stewards
- Food ministry volunteers
- Sacred-library stewards
- Music or creative ministry
- Memorial and tree-planting support
- Outreach
- Education
- Hospitality
- Land stewardship
- Board or governance service
- Other forms of ministry
Titles are less important to us than consistent service. Trust is earned through patterns over time.
STEWARD POSITIONS
We are particularly interested in eventually developing a group of trusted stewards who help protect and continue different parts of this mission. A steward is not someone who simply receives a title. A steward accepts responsibility.
Potential stewardship areas may include:
LAND STEWARD
Gardens, food forest, trees, habitat, water, trails, and soil.
ANIMAL STEWARD
Support for livestock, resident animals, shelters, fencing, and animal systems.
FOOD STEWARD
Growing, harvesting, preserving, storing, and helping coordinate community food.
EDUCATION STEWARD
Classes, skill sharing, books, research, workshops, and teaching.
COMMUNITY STEWARD
Gatherings, meals, visitors, outreach, and practical community support.
SPIRITUAL STEWARD
Circles, meditation, sacred-text study, spiritual discussion, memorial practices, and other religious activities consistent with our beliefs.
BUILDING & INFRASTRUCTURE STEWARD
Repairs, structures, utilities, tools, projects, and physical development.
CREATIVE STEWARD
Music, art, photography, writing, storytelling, media, and preservation of the church’s history.
ORGANIZATIONAL STEWARD
Administration, records, nonprofit development, grants, finances, governance, and long-term planning.
A steward role does not automatically create employment, residency, property ownership, board membership, or financial rights. Those arrangements, when applicable, are separate. Stewardship begins with service and trust.
LONG-TERM STEWARDSHIP
We are especially interested in eventually meeting people who think beyond next week.
People who might someday say:
“I want to help care for this place for years.”
“I want to help build something here.”
“I want to teach here.”
“I want to help protect this land.”
“I would like to make this part of my life’s work.”
“I want this place to still exist after all of us are gone.”
Those relationships are not created overnight. We believe trust should grow slowly. Anyone interested in long-term residency, stewardship, development, partnership, investment, or future governance should first read our applicable community documents and complete the appropriate interest or application forms.
HELPING FROM FAR AWAY
You do not have to live nearby.
People may also help by:
- Sharing our educational work
- Telling others about the church
- Sharing skills remotely
- Helping with research
- Editing or writing
- Grant research
- Website assistance
- Connecting us with useful people or organizations
- Sharing resources
- Helping locate needed materials
- Supporting specific projects
- Participating in online education or discussions when available
Distance does not make contribution meaningless.
FINANCIAL SUPPORT
As our church organization develops, financial gifts may eventually help support free teaching, community service, food programs, land stewardship, educational materials, infrastructure, gatherings, and other mission-related work. Until our nonprofit and tax status are formally established, we will not represent contributions as tax-deductible unless and until we are legally entitled to do so.
People may also ask about supporting specific practical projects or material needs. We believe financial transparency and responsible stewardship of donated resources are essential.
WORK TRADE & LIVING HERE
Helping at the sanctuary does not automatically create permission to live here. Likewise, wanting to live here does not automatically make someone a steward. People interested in overnight stays, work trade, longer-term residency, or developing a personal living space must read our separate:
Living, Visiting & Work-Trade information
Property and Community Standards
Work-Trade Agreement
Application materials
Animal policies, when applicable, and any other relevant documents.
Please understand the expectations BEFORE planning a move or visit.
FUTURE DEVELOPMENT, BUSINESS & PARTNERSHIP
We have long-term dreams that may eventually require larger partnerships.
These may include:
- Cabins
- Guest accommodations
- Retreat spaces
- Community facilities
- Markets
- Educational infrastructure
- Renewable energy
- Food-production projects
- Other sustainable development
People interested in contributing substantial funding, labor, expertise, materials, business development, or long-term stewardship may request our:
LONG-TERM STEWARDSHIP, DEVELOPMENT & PARTNERSHIP INTEREST FORM
Completing that form starts a conversation. It does not create ownership, investment rights, partnership, residency, or any other legal interest.
THE MOST IMPORTANT THING
Please do not begin by asking: “What can I get from this place?”
Begin with: “What can I contribute?”
And we will ask ourselves the same question about you.
What can we teach?
What can we share?
What opportunities might exist?
How can we help one another become more capable?
Healthy community is reciprocal. Nobody has to arrive wealthy. Nobody has to arrive knowing everything. Nobody has to work themselves into the ground to prove they belong. But we are looking for people who understand that community is something we CREATE together.
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO HELP
Tell us:
Who you are.
Where you live.
What interests you about this project.
What you enjoy doing.
What you know how to do.
What you would like to learn.
Whether you want to help occasionally, regularly, remotely, or potentially long-term.
And most importantly: What would you like to contribute?
There may not always be an immediate place for every offer. Sometimes timing matters. Sometimes compatibility matters. Sometimes we simply don’t need 17 donated toilets. 😂
But sincere offers of help are deeply appreciated.
OUR PHILOSOPHY
We are not trying to build a community where one person does everything. We are trying to build a place where many people each bring something.
A gardener brings seeds.
A carpenter brings knowledge.
A musician brings a song.
A cook brings a meal.
A teacher brings a lesson.
A neighbor brings an afternoon.
A donor brings materials.
A child may bring curiosity.
An elder may bring experience.
And sometimes somebody simply brings a pair of hands when the work is heavy.