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For eight years, Mandy Mastros spent her work days surrounded by numbers. But a life in accounting was far from a calling for the lifelong Lancaster County resident. She didn’t enjoy “being in a world where one plus one always equals two.”
Instead, Mastros longed for a life where her day-to-day was less clear-cut. One that was centered on people. “I was really missing that human connection,” she told PA Local.
At the same time that she felt disconnected from her career, she felt more in tune with her spiritual journey. Things clicked for her when Mastros learned about a dual Master’s of Divinity/Master’s of Social Work program through the Moravian Theological Seminary and Marywood University.
“It just gave me goosebumps,” she said. “I read the description and I’m like, ‘That's what I want to do.’ That intersection between all of the human stuff that we go through and our faith, because it’s all so deeply connected.”
Mastros — a member of Lititz Moravian Church since her early 20s — became pastor and licensed social worker at the Moravian Center of Lancaster in 2017, shortly after she completed the dual degree program.
These days, instead of numbers and figures, her days revolve around following Jesus Christ's example of serving and supporting those around her, from the older adults who attend a day program affiliated with her church to people experiencing homelessness in downtown Lancaster.
The many hats she wears inspired one Spotlight PA reader to nominate her for PA Local Heroes, a monthly series sponsored by Ballard Spahr that profiles community do-gooders and change-makers.
Mastros’ work — which she describes as “not what I do” but “who I am” — involves leading her congregation's Sunday service, various administrative tasks, worship preparation, and leading “bilingual spirit time” at the Moravian Center's fee-for-service day program for older adults with memory conditions. But the scope of her role also extends far beyond those duties.
When she became pastor at Lancaster Moravian, the church had recently moved from the suburbs to the city — four blocks from where Mastros grew up in downtown Lancaster, and a floor above the Red Rose Transit bus station. The Moravian Center’s central location meant a lot of people were “coming to the doors” in need of food, shelter, transportation, addiction support, or other things, Mastros said.
That presented a dilemma, she explained: they didn’t want to “just turn people away, but we also know we can’t be everything to everybody” given limited resources. So Mastros focused on getting to know other locally available services so she could point folks toward them.
Her primary priority, she told PA Local, is to welcome everyone who comes into the center, to get to know them and their needs, and to treat them “with dignity and respect.”
“Even if we can’t meet whatever need they’re having, this is going to be a safe space for them to come and talk about that,” Mastros said. “And I’m gonna do everything in my power to help make the right connections for them, so that they can get the help that they need or to find those resources.”
When there’s someone with specific needs that “fall through the cracks” of other programs — she gave the example of someone starting a construction job who may need help affording a neon vest — the church can order that for them, she said.
Given its location above the bus station, the Moravian Center also has a program that provides bus passes to people in certain situations, like when they’ve got a job interview or an appointment at the Social Security office.
Mastros also focuses on addressing particular immediate needs of the people who come to talk to her — namely, food and warmth. She keeps shelf-stable items and frozen meals on hand, and the church maintains a closet full of donated socks, blankets, gloves, hats, scarves, and toiletries for people to take, which a previous visitor dubbed “The Hope Shop.”
Something that’s absent from all these conversations, Mastros said, is “proselytizing.”
“If you come into my office, there’s a really good chance we are not gonna talk about faith at all,” she said. “It’s not because it’s not important to me, and I’m certainly open to talking about it, but it’s because I want to respect where every person is coming from.”
Mastros also does prison visits once a week with people who were unhoused before being incarcerated, and she advises a body called the Homeless Advocacy Board, a group of five people who’ve experienced homelessness and are engaged in local advocacy work on the issue.
The nature of her work can make her feel overwhelmed at times, and seeing “stigmas and misperception” toward people who are unhoused or experiencing addiction or other mental health issues can make her feel disheartened. But Mastros said she’s got a “really good support system” to help her along, like her partner and his children and friends who do similar work.
Ultimately, she keeps doing what she does “because in the highs and the lows of it, the highs are so meaningful,” particularly in moments when she notices a way that her work has helped change someone’s life for the better.
“The purpose, the meaning, the joy that comes from that,” Mastros said, “makes those tougher moments … tenable.”
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