Day 5

What a great day to end our week. We were privileged to help a family in the north-east side of Detroit. They have been in their home for about a year & we helped them paint the rooms inside. They were hoping we could get the upstairs double-coated, but we finished that and were able to do almost all of the downstairs too!!

The homeowners were Erika & Ed, and they had 3 children, Makaila, Aishantay, & Maurice. Ages 12, 10 & 8. Naturally, our kids bonded with them quickly & everyone ended up pitching in to help! They even had time to throw the football around some.

All in all, it was a great week. Motown Mission gave enough to experience the many different ways we can help. And this city needs help. You could multiply everything we did this week by thousands, and I feel it wouldn't be enough.

Day 4

We started our project for today last night. We made 400 sandwiches in preparation for NOAH's project. The folks from Newburg helped us out, and we all worked together very well. We were a little challenged with storing the sandwiches afterwards, but it all worked out in the end.

In Detroit, the NOAH Project stands for Networking, Organizing, Advocating for the Health of the Homeless. So, in the morning, we loaded up our sandwiches & made our way over to Central United Methodist Church. There, we met Devin. He was born & raised in North Dakota & is in Detroit via the "US-2 Program". This is a Methodist based program similar to Americorp. He will be in Detroit for 2 years running NOAH. We put together the rest of the lunches and readied ourselves for the big rush. The doors opened at 10:30. There were mostly men, but a few women & families came through the line to eat probably their only meal of the day. Just the kids manned the line the entire time. They handed out sandwiches, desserts, & coffee & tea. I think this was a pretty somber experience for all of us. We couldn't help but notice the disparity between the folks we were there helping & everyone lining up outside for an afternoon ballgame. About 262 people signed in for food.

Devin gave us a tour of Central & we saw the beautiful sanctuary & rooftop that overlooked Comerica Park.
After lunch we took it easy & visited Dabl's African Bead Museum & Bell Isle.

Day 3

Today we started with devotions. We talked about how 50% of children live below the poverty line. We talked about how every night, 9500 individuals and families are homeless. And, we talked about how the high school graduation rate is 25%. So, this was a good way to start our day, thinking in more detail about how being here and doing what we're doing will help.

Then, we worked an a garage for the rest of the day. We started scraping the old paint off, and then after lunch, split into Alpha, Bravo & Charlie groups. One on gravel, one on scraping & one on painting. Kevin & I have this cranking along like a well oiled machine! (The only bad thing is we didn't have time for "Hammers of Fury"....we'll have to do this Friday!!)

We met Andrea today too. She took great pride in her home & opened it up to us. She told us that her daughter is a Marine, serving in Afghanistan. Naturally, Kevin & I were even more pleased to be able to help her.

In the evening, we went to "Word of Faith" church for a service. This church welcomed us with a hug. Literally. Their welcoming committee hugged every single one of us! We then witnessed a very powerful service, filled with singing, a passionate liturgical dance, and a sermon provided by a woman leader of the church. She talked to us about sticking to the path of God, and what happens to us when we don't. I'm sure our kids received a lot from this message & overall service.

Day 2

Today we helped clear lots of tall weeds. We worked with the church from Newton MA. The block we were on had only two residents living on the street. Every other house was vacant. By the end of the day, we had all the tall weeds down & could see down the street completely. One of the residents on this street had their water & elecricity shut off. They are senior citizens who are handicapped & have no where to go.

SIDE NOTE: There is a church group staying at our church in Northville. They are helping out the Joy-Southfield connection we are involved in too. They were cleaning out this house while we cleared lots. We were told that this house had rats living in it, and that there was a hole in the back of the house a person could walk through. In addition to that, they are hoarders. The people staying at our church had to wear haz-mat suits to do this job. We were also told that Joy-Southfield is trying to get these particular people better living conditions.

We met Tony today too. He is in charge of the community develpoment in this area. He also works at Kronks Gym and told us about "K9" winning his match the other night. I'm not a boxing fan, but this was aired on HBO & apparently is a pretty big deal!  He also invited our group to come tour the gym sometime. (Potential field trip for Jr. High??)

On to the Tiger's game!

Day 1

Our greening project started out about 7 blocks from where we are staying. About 35 of us worked on a garden sponsored by "Greening of Detroit". This is a non-profit that works on a lot of different projects, with this garden being on of them. We were introduced to Sarah & Emily. Sarah has been working with "Greening of Detroit" for about 3 years. Emily actually works with Americorp. This organization pays her a stipend, & also helps to pay her student loans back. Very cool! The garden we worked on already had perennial plants, such as beets & other vegetables growing. We turned over about 60 X 60 feet of dirt and added compost. (We also removed about 3 tons of rocks....OK, maybe not that many, but it seemed like alot!) There were several neighbors helping out & took great pride in this garden.

After lunch, we went one block over to work on a "Pocket Garden". This was a burned down house 3 years ago, and it is now a mini-park. There are shrubs & flowers throughout this lot including 2 benches for residents to come and enjoy this garden. Jamana is a resident & a member of the club that manages this garden & she was overjoyed to see us. We pulled weeds, planted new shrubs, butterfly bushes & flowers. Then, we spread more mulch around trees that were planted up & down the street.

On to the fireworks.

Beginning of Day 1

We arrived last night with no problems on the road. Just a short, 30 minute jaunt! Our team consists of 6 youth, 5 girls & one guy (poor Alex!). We also have 5 adults. Four men & one woman. We're having to tag team out our woman leader, so it's a good thing we have Christina today. These girls are full of energy! Kevin recruited her at the last minute. She is an ASP veteran from many moons ago.

There are 2 other church groups with us. Neuburg UMC from Livonia & a church from Newton Massachusetts! Jeff & I met the Neuburg folks last year, so it's nice seeing some familiar faces. The Newton team is lead by 2 women only, no men came at all with that group. How brave is that! They do have about 9 young men & 8 young women.

We were introduced to the 7 interns who are working at Motown Mission this summer. One of these interns is my son Joe (I'll try not to be to biased in this blog;)) We were also introduced to Carl Gladstone who runs Motown Mission. He gave us a sobering presentation on why Detroit is how it is. It needs help & we're here to do that!! On to "Greening" Detroit today. Tonight we go to the fireworks!

Gearing up!

On Sunday, I'll be meeting a few folks from my church & caravanning to downtown Detroit. We'll be spending a week down there with Motown Mission. This is a Methodist based organization engaged in economic disaster recovery in the name of Jesus Christ. We will work on various projects including feeding, greening & home repair. We are taking a group of Junior High age youth, so I'm not sure what to expect. It should be fun getting to know these kids better while we're helping people in our own backyard!

I hope to update this everyday, but please don't be disappointed if I don't.