Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ!

On April 22 we completed our second food distribution in the community. The outpouring of support for our efforts right now has left us humbled. From people buying, collecting, packaging, and delivering food, to donors providing funds to help people with rent during this time, it’s just been amazing. Hope is alive in the midst of great unknowns ahead of us. People have given generously even as they face their own challenges right now.

To those of you who have been following our efforts to provide relief from the stress in our community caused by COVID-19, you will be delighted to know that we have raised $100,000 to continue to purchase food, provide rental assistance, and whatever additional needs surface over these coming months. Thanks to so many of you we are prepared to help and encourage people where needed. Hope is alive. We praise the Lord.

We have been met with more tears of gratitude and thanksgiving than we can begin to count. We will be including many of the comments from people in our next news update! We are truly excited about the open doors of ministry these many conversations over food, rental assistance, school and so much more have provided.

If you feel led to support our COVID-19 relief efforts going forward after reading this news update, please click on the button below. Those struggling here in Regent Park would be extremely grateful. We’re anticipating that there will be needs going well into the summer, so would you please pray for us, and tell others about this great outpouring of love for the residents in our community. Encourage people to get involved! We will be sure and keep you updated on our efforts as they unfold.

Today, we are happy to report to you that we are safely serving our community where the biggest need is right now, and that is providing food.

Here’s how we did it.  We masked and gloved up this morning and picked up 200 loaves of bread that we purchased from Gordon Food Service.  This will get distributed tomorrow along with other food items to our seniors and others in need.  Yesterday our staff put on masks and gloves, filled up our box truck and distributed food to nearly 100 families. In each box of food were notes from the LifeBUILDERS team with words of encouragement, scripture verses and ways to stay involved online over the coming weeks. 

Almost immediately we started getting texts thanking us, telling how greatly the food was needed and so much more.  Here are some of the notes:

“We really appreciate you and appreciate what you are doing for the community and we thank God for you.  This has been a big, big blessing to us and to be able to talk with my other neighbors during time even though we have masks on it was just a really good time to fellowship with one another”

“I’m so grateful, thanks for everything”

“Thank you, we received our package”

“Bless you for the gift of food delivery yesterday, very much needed and appreciated”

“Thank you for groceries and encouraging letter”

“This was so greatly appreciated”

“Thanks for the food and household items.  Be blessed, be safe”

“Bless you for the gift of food delivery yesterday, very much needed and appreciated”

There were so many that simply said “thank you”.   The pictures here show our team picking up at Heritage Church, also a pickup at Gordon Food Service.  Everyone is working together to meet vital needs.   And then we are seeing so many donating funds that will go to help people with rent, utilities and other needs over the next few months. 

If there was one particular area of our mission where we have felt we have come up short of our goal it’s in community engagement.   We had a vision at the very beginning of people helping people, working together, loving and caring for each other.  We are believing that this pandemic is going to demonstrate that people really do care about each other and when given clear ways to do just that they will respond.  We are believing that we will have many stories to share over the coming months.

Even if stay-at-home bans are lifted, we are facing a lot of uncertainty in all aspects of our lives going forward.  This is where we need someone to trust in that does not change, who is always there.  I invite you, if you haven’t already, to trust Jesus.  If you want peace in the midst of this storm, ask Him into your heart, and start following Him.  He is the giver of peace to those who trust in Him.  

We expect to be called on to serve in more and more ways over the coming weeks and months.  Please be praying for us.  

Just this week, around 8 a.m. on Monday morning, I had to take a quick drive around the neighborhood to verify some facts related to a grant application. The particular streets are on the far west side of the community in which we have been working for the past 15 years. It’s called Regent Park, and its boundaries are from 8 mile to 7 mile, and Gratiot Ave. to Kelly Rd.  I was discouraged.  I sat near an intersection with empty lots and a boarded-up house.  There was so much work to do and I was feeling that I just don’t have it in me to continue the work.  It’s just too hard. 

And then I was quickly reminded that 15 years ago I felt the same as I looked around the corner from our offices on Kelly Rd. to almost the same level of devastation and hopelessness. At the time it was something we had never seen, didn’t understand and had no idea what we could do to alleviate the conditions we saw.  That was 2006.  It was at that time with great enthusiasm we took a step of faith to do what we could do to bring hope and life to a neighborhood of 10000 residents.  It turned out it required more of us than anything else we had ever done in our lives, emotionally, physically, spiritually and financially.    

It required, ultimately, that we move into what was known as Detroit’s most dangerous zip code. Oh, but the Lord was with us.  HE was our constant companion. That’s my belief and conclusion as today we consider the 60 homes we rehabbed and made available for sale and rental, the $1.2M Early Childhood Education Center, the repurposed parks and commercial buildings and more importantly the hundreds of lives that have been touched by the love of Christ over 15 years.  Add to that an exciting Christian education initiative now in its 4th year. 

With that reminder of all that the Lord has already done I lifted up my head as the psalmist said in Psalm 120 when he said “I lifted my eyes to the mountains, from where does my help come from?.  My help comes from the Lord” and I felt in my heart that we can do this too. HE will continue to provide hope and life. It may take another 10 years but that’s fine.  The Lord has brought a team unique in their gifts but with commonality in passion for the community.  It is extraordinary. 

Our 15 years of work have reduced the risk associated with this work and we are beginning to gather partners from all over that will help us accelerate our ministry and housing development efforts.  On our team, we don’t have any big names you would recognize or people with decades of development experience.  What we do have is a few passionate people who have decided to give their lives to something that matters.  Each of them could be doing something else and making a lot more money. The Lord brought each person.  Together we are strong.  

What’s on the horizon?   You are going to come back to this page for that.  From someone who has lived and worked in the world of plenty and in an environment of poverty and oppression, you might gain a different perspective on the City of Detroit and its people.  It’s all good.  You will be encouraged.  You might just find your place in Detroit’s recovery.   We’ve made it easy for you to forward this article to your friends, family, and co-workers.  Change and recovery don’t need big names, it needs a heart of compassion and a willingness to step out in faith and play your part.  There are opportunities all over Detroit including right here in Regent Park.