Detroit ASB

This break was amazing! from Monday night to Thursday night, I was able to have a Frontline alternative spring break trip to Detroit. Although there was a lot of last minute planning, it ended up being a huge success!

Y'all should plan one with your class for next year =)

The overall planning was very last minute. We didn't finalize our car rental until the monday of the trip. We didn't get our activity finalized until a week before the trip. There were a lot of last minute changes too. It was really hard for me, since I enjoy having all of the details smoothed out. But I think from past experience, God has taught me to just trust in Him.

Yes, as one of the organizers, I did get worried, but I think I was a lot less so than what I expected. I somehow had a peace of mind that as long as we are doing God's work and doing it in prayer, we can just have faith that it will work, which it did. God showed me that I have grown a lot but I still need to continue to trust in Him.

Brief Overview of the trip:

Volunteering: at Southwestern Detroit (1.4 miles away from Anna's school)

Task: Take photos of the broken down, burned down, vacant houses in the area so that UNI, our community partner, can make sure the city government is doing its job.

Why: To make the neighborhood a better place to live in. With all of the vacant homes, the neighborhood is a lot less appealing. Trash gets thrown there, shady people gather there, and its simply an eyesore.

Summary: The 12 of us had an amazing time there. We were able to see a lot of the brokenness in the neighborhood, yet realize that the people aren't any different from us, just in a worse off neighborhood. We were also able to explore downtown Detroit and see the brighter parts of it. Detroit has a lot of hope so we just need to keep on praying.

We also had a good community building time. We spent time sharing our life testimony. Almost all of us shared (except for two). It was really good since we got to understand each other better. We also had prayer and worship each morning and a lot of nightly worship jam sessions.

If you want to see pictures, michelle kim took a lot of pictures =)

Remedy, All-in, and Catalyst should definitely consider doing this in the future. I heard that All-in and Catalyst had a Troy trip. Why not extend it to Detroit? Its only 30 minutes farther!

-Jesse