Hi guys! Welcome to the first “For The Kingdom - Be The Seed” blog post. I’m Camille, the co - founder and designer of Black Mustard Seed (BMS) a Christian clothing brand. BMS is a Holy Spirit led black owned Christian business operated by myself and husband. Let me tell you a little bit about my journey and why BMS exists.
I don’t honestly remember a time when Jesus wasn’t a part of my life. Thanks to a devoted mother who taught Sunday school and a minister as a father I grew up in church. Whether I liked it or not I was in church 2-3 days a week for most of my childhood. But honestly, I didn’t mind. It would be a pretty accurate statement to call me a “church girl”. There are three major categories I fall into since I was a kid in elementary – nerd, tom boy/jock, and Christian.
Nerd:
So, yeah…I was a nerd. Like a big one. I actually made a remix to “I like big butts” called I like big dictionaries. Don’t judge. It’s not even my era of music – I’m a millennial smh.
I graduated top of my class and went on to have a career as an engineer. It’s in college where I met my husband also my business partner. Yep, you guessed it. Husband is a nerd too. We had an awesome nerd wedding – anime themed.
He was a skateboarder so there was a splash of cool. Likewise my love of sports dialed back my nerdiness a bit.
Tomboy/Jock:
Luckily, I was never bullied. In large this was because I was 5’10 from age 9. For a while my nickname was TALLy. I loved being tall so I took it as a compliment. And just in case you forgot about the nerd part…The nickname came with a theme song. Remember the Tony the Tiger song from Frosted Flakes commercials …Hey Tony I like the things you do…yeah just replace the Tony with TALLy. Good times. Good times.
Naturally I loved playing basketball. Growing up I mostly played with boys so I was a bit of a tomboy. Eventually I played competitively on the girl’s high school team and AAU. I was even scouted by a few D1 and D2 colleges. I just knew my life was going to mimic the movie – maybe one of the greatest movies - “Love and Basketball." God had other plans. I'd much rather wear a t-shirt and basketball shorts then a dress. To this day my favorite outfit is a hoodie with a dope message and a backwards snapback. Albeit my favorite color is pink so there is balance, I guess.
Christian:
The only thing that would keep me from playing basketball was when I had to go to church. My parents were very strict about this. Drop a comment below if you can relate? I skipped practices on Wednesday for bible study and Sunday AAU games for church service. At the time it seemed excessive but I learned to prioritize God. If I dropped a pass my coach would say “I bet if it was a bible you would catch it.” LOL I probably would have still dropped it. I had a mild case of butter fingers. My teammate even wrote church in the tag of my Jersey. But it wasn’t just going to church. I lived it. I talked about God with my teammates constantly. I love sharing the grace, mercy, and favor of God. It didn’t matter if they were non-believers or another religion.
The way I see it – God loves me so I should love others. And the greatest love I can show is to introduce people to God the Father, Jesus Christ the son, and the Holy Spirit. God is love. God is dope. He is funny, empowering, powerful and gentle. In Him we are bold and free. I wanted to provide clothing I would wear: bold, thought provoking, and dope. I didn’t want to just stick scriptures and saying on t-shirt. Every design comes out of intimate and hype moments with God.
Yes, Hype. Get hype with God. Come to the throne bold ready to worship and receive. I talk to God like we are about to run out the tunnel to the championship game. Let’s go!! Let God!
BMS in the form of dope, athletic, street wear is my way of giving Christians a way to share who God is and the authority we have in Him. There are also nods to my basketball and husband’s skateboard pasts in the Baller and Boarders collection.
I committed BMS to donating a portion of cost to Christian charities so that we not only grow the Kingdom of God but also fund His works too.
Next post I’ll go over why we are Black Mustard Seed and the meaning behind the scriptures.
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