Detroit Day Five and Final Reflections

We're back!

Our final day in Detroit was filled with laughter and tears, joy and sadness. We are tired, and yet also feel revived. We woke up this morning, packed up our stuff and cleaned up the areas of the church we were using. I was happy that Keith McBain, our property elder had spent the night with us, so he could get the cleaning supplies ready for us. at was definitely good scheduling! After a brief stop at Starbucks for coffee (just for the adults) we were headed downtown to have breakfast served at Fort Street.

After breakfast, we set up for a special closing worship service. The service was lead by the Youth from the Presbytery of Detroit (POD), the church from Indiana and us. We praised God, sang, read scripture and listened to a message by one of the youth from Calvary Church. The kids from Geneva acted out the story of the Good Samaritan. It was a wonderful way to end our week together - worshipping and praising the Lord that opened our eyes this week and gave us this wonderful opportunity to serve Him through the people of Detroit.

After many group pictures and good byes we walked over to my favorite downtown Detroit restaurant, Lafayette Coney Island and ate lunch. It was a beautiful day to walk the streets of Detroit once again. On the way back we saw a few people in need, not too far from Fort Street. We were able to hand out our last two sack lunches! What a joy that was.

We spent a few hours after lunch at the Detroit Science Center. We were very happy to be able to see our friend, Rick Russell, who helps a lot with Geneva Middle School Ministry and also works at the Science Center. We had lots of fun together laughing at Marilyn's hair sticking up with electricity (though it was NOT much fun when she shocked me!!)

When we came back to Geneva we gathered together, read from scripture the story of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples and we had a foot washing/prayer ceremony. This ceremony is very emotional for many of us. We have time to reflect about the love of Jesus Christ, the joy of being a servant and what it means to serve Jesus through serving others. This was a great way to end our week together.

I had a fantastic week. Watching the youth and adults working together, seeing the joy on everyone's face, being open to wherever God was leading them this week renewed my heart. Our kids, and the youth from Indiana and the POD brought a little bit of hope to Detroit this week. More importantly, Detroit brought hope to them. In this desolate, violent, poor, blighted city, we saw joy, and laughter, and love and giving spirits.

Our youth once again blew me away with their spirit and willingness to help (except some of the 'not-so-morning people had a little harder time....) They never backed away from a challenge. They never complained about the hard work, they never complained about who they were working alongside. They did everything with joy and compassion. It was such a pleasure to see the attitudes of these young people. They pushed themselves way past their comfort zones and did more than they possibly thought they could. Speaking and praying with strangers, 'farming' for hours on end in the hot sun, leading worship, and seeing God in EVERYONE they met.

I'm very happy we chose to do our mission trip to Detroit this year. I am especially excited because we've made connections and friends with people we can see and serve and be with again, not just for a week every few summers. We can see what impact we have made in the community garden when we go back to harvest it. We can catch up with the friends we met eating at the soup kitchen, and we can work alongside and fellowship with our new friends from the churches in Detroit. We can serve this city again and again and again.

We thought we we would find sadness and down-filled spirits. We thought we'd see a city falling apart, losing hope and with no future. Instead, we met people who were proud of their city, who were working to help make it a better place through shelters, community gardens, youth programs, domestic violence programs, educational programs and hunger programs. We understand that with enough hope, with the help of God, with the commitment of God's people working together, the city of Detroit can have a future. It's going to take some time, and I hope we can continue to be a part of Detroit's future.

Thanks for praying for us and blessing us with your support for this trip. We hope that next time you can join us!

Once again, good night.