Day 2: Worksite

Today we worked at an old abandoned home. We cleared trees, branches and trash and then boarded up the the windows. the neighbors were so hospitable. They gave us pizza and cookies and made sure we had the tools we needed. One guy even came over and helped Chris saw wood so that it went faster. After work we went to a farmers market. It had delicious fresh fruit, ice cream, and cute shoulder bags. Goodnight.

By Emily

Day 2: Metro KidZ

Today instead of going to a work site, Annika, Leah, Rachel, and Libby stayed back at the church and helped with the churches summer camp called "Metro KidZ." It's like VBS mixed with daycare. We went to a park, played in the gym, watched VeggieTales, and got to know the kids. It was a different experience than what we were used to having, and a little difficult at times but over all we had a good time and made friends.

The first picture is of some of the kids we were with during the day, so cute!

The second picture is of us waving American flags with the kids. This weeks theme was "The Olympics" and we were taking part in the opening ceremonies!

The third picture is of Libby with some of the kids, wearing their hat, and hanging out with them at lunchtime!

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A few of the church, including the view from our dorm room.

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Break time.

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Duncan being Duncan.

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Cole and John working hard!

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I thought I'd add a few pictures from the day. Here's Duncan with our friend Woody Potter, the praying mantis. Leah serves as creeper for this picture.

Work Day 1 (part one)

Day one of work was not without its trials. We saw a lot of Detroit today, much of it quite by accident. The one thing you can not count on in Detroit is accurate directions from a GPS unit.

After finally arriving at our first worksite, we were tasked with clearing out a lot where a house had been bulldozed. We cleared out a long fence line that was full of trash, weeds, trees and wild grape vines. We worked all morning on this lot, we stopped to eat our sack lunches and then continued to work.

Later in the afternoon we were taken to another neighborhood where an abandoned house was in need of attention. This neighborhood was one of the nicer ones we had seen, save for this house. The house was unoccupied and looted many times over. The grass was several feet tall in places today we measured the windows and doors so they might be boarded up when we return. We also cleaned up a ton of garbage from all over the yard.

We were fortunate to meet many of the local residents who were so grateful for the help we were providing. They had hoped to clean the house up themselves, but lacked time and organization to work on it.

We met a nice gentleman named Radell who was eager to help. He had great pride in the neighborhood and was anxious and excited to work on the project. He promised to meet us there later in the week when we go back to finish the job.

After getting lost on the way home ( and getting a nice tour of the downtown area) everyone was in great need of a shower and a break!

More later...

We made it!

After several hours, several hundred miles, and too many bathroom pit-stops, we finally arrived in Detroit! Not much else to report except we arrived and got the lay-out of this beautiful historic church. We will try to get some good pictures of the building tomorrow.

We also had orientation and the Youth learned what chore groups they will be in. Duncan is especially excited about getting up early to help serve breakfast!

It sounds like we will be working in tall grass tomorrow, which is about the extent of what we know. We will be meeting Carl, who will be directing the week's work activities after breakfast tomorrow, then we will have a better idea of what to expect.

A link to the past...

Carol Considine brought this to me at the church today. This is from an Epworth League convention her father attended in Detroit in 1903(!). I thought it was so interesting that this badge has survived for over 100 years and that it was so important to Carol's father that he kept it in his safe, where Carol found it after his passing. The original Epworth League existed from 1889 to 1939. It now exists again based on many of the same principles of the original group.

From Wikipedia:

"The Epworth League is a Methodist young adult association for individuals ages 18-35. It traces back to the founding of the organization by the United Methodist Church's predecessor denomination, the Methodist Episcopal church, formed in 1889 at Cleveland, Ohio, by the combination of five young people's organizations then existing. At its conception, the purpose of the league the promotion of intelligent and vital piety among the young people of the Church."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epworth_League
http://epworthleague.org/

New Detroit Mission Trip Blog

St. Mark's United Methodist Church's Youth Group is heading to Detroit! Sunday, July 29th we will depart Iowa City to return Saturday, August 4th. The purpose of our mission is to assist in socio-economical disaster recovery in parts of Detroit most affected by job loss, recession/depression and general poverty. We will be working with our hands to paint, mow, trim, fix or improve whatever we can get our hands on. We are traveling through the Iowa Annual Conference and the service organization: Motown Mission. (motownmission.org)

Twleve Youth and 4 adults will travel from St. Mark's, along with one other church from Manson, Iowa. We will stay in the historic downtown Metropolitan UMC of Detroit. We will work every day, we will have free time in the city in the afternoons, and we will have worship/fellowship in the evenings, including a Tigers Baseball game on Friday.

I hope to add many pictures and at least a few stories from our trip as we go. I hope that you will encourage and pray for our group as we take this journey together.

Blessings,
Rob