Once again we’ve seen that God is always at work! Recently, we've needed more help to carry on our work here in Regent Park. We are so excited to announce that God has provided for our ministry needs by connecting us with two incredible women! All along He has been preparing the hearts of Crystal and Mackenzie to join us, and now they have become a part of our LifeBUILDERS team. We are so thrilled! God is expanding our army here in Regent Park. We praise Him. Welcome to the LifeBUILDERS Family Mackenzie and Crystal!!
We’re so excited about our upcoming 2022 Summer Programs! Our staff has been hard at work getting ready for what is shaping up to be our most full and wonderful summer of programs yet! There is great excitement amongst our staff, volunteers, donors, and community members for these renewed and expanded programs that we have coming up. We’ll give you updates on just a few of them below:
Summer Day Camp
This year, we’re seeking to have the largest Summer Day Camp in LifeBUILDERS history! With strong partnerships with local organizations, a team of wonderful volunteers, and a group of hard-working interns, we are staged to put on what will be an absolutely wonderful 2022 Summer Day Camp. One of the many exciting new aspects of our Summer Day Camp is an optional week-long outing to Camp Michawana! We’re partnering with our friends at Camp Michawana to provide scholarships for our campers who would like to take part in this exciting program to travel to the campgrounds and learn more about Jesus, while learning more about the great outdoors! This is a great opportunity for our youth to travel outside of Detroit and see more of God’s wonderful creation.
Summer Youth Employment
We will once again be hosting our Summer Youth Employment Program! Teens from our neighborhood will be able to participate in meaningful work going on in their community, all while learning the value of hard work and getting paid! We have incredible leaders who will be mentoring our teens as the summer goes on. These leaders will help to build up our teens not only in their ability to get a job and make money, but to build them up in their faith as well.
Teen Mentorship Program
For the very first time, we’ll be kicking off a year-long teen mentorship program! Starting this spring, we’ll be connecting weekly with 20 teens from our neighborhood in order to build them up mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, as they discover what it means to be young men and women made in the image of God. As we meet throughout the year, our vision is that these young men and women would be rooted in their faith, so that they are able to weather the storms of life that come their way. We are very excited to see all that God does through this program!
We are so excited about these upcoming programs, and there’s still more that we haven’t even mentioned yet! We’re looking to once again have our Flag Football Program, our June Mini Camp, Youth Retreats, and much more!
If you’d like more information or have any questions about any of these programs, you can email youthprogramming@lifebuildersdetroit.com to connect with our Youth Programming team for more details!
Our programs can fill up quickly, so if you’re interested in having your child attend, please reach out to us as soon as possible!
We’re excited about this Summer, and we hope to see you and your child at one of our many programs!
In Christ,
LifeBUILDERS Youth Programming
This morning we had a 2022 budget planning meeting. It is often a laborious task for me personally, but it's all part of the stewardship part of our work and we make sure it is done with excellence. Our finance director, Aaron Marsh, made our discussion fun, and we got really excited as we looked at the numbers and what they mean as they are spent in the community in 2022.
We believe you will get equally excited about what we have planned. In 2022, we plan to spend the largest amount of funds on youth and community programs in our history. Here’s what that looks like:
- Additional Staff
- Expanding Expenditure for our Summer Camp Season by 40% to include overnight camping experiences and retreats for our youth. Around 150 youth would be impacted.
- Addressing the low literacy rate amongst our children by providing an after school program that encompasses much more than just tutoring!! Around 70 youth would be impacted.
- Expand our existing teen girls and boys programs. Around 60 youth would be impacted.
- Provide 10 additional scholarships to Parkway Christian School, bringing our total to 20 students.
- Launch an exciting year long mentoring program in the community collaborating with Positive You, where 20 of our youth will be involved.
With the implementation of these programs in 2022, we will be touching the lives of over 300 youth! That’s enough to get us excited here.
Ever since the Lord called us to bring hope and life to Regent Park, we believed He would meet our every need, and we have seen Him provide abundantly more than we have asked or imagined. Because of this, we have also said ‘yes’ to the call to continue on in our community development efforts in 2022. We believe that our efforts will be complemented by public investments beginning this year and continuing far beyond. Here’s what we have in mind:
- New affordable housing
- Further Park Improvements
- Repurposing historic structures in the community
- Creation of safe pathways to recreational assets in the community
- Multi-use development building on Kelly Rd
In addition to this, many of you have seen that we have young leadership coming along to advance the work for another 20 years and more. This young leadership is being trained educationally in biblical principles and teaching that will guide our work going forward. They are currently attending Moody Bible Institute in Chicago and Moody Theological Seminary in Plymouth, MI.
There is so much to be excited about here! Many of you reading this have helped provide the funding to make much of this possible going forward, and we are so incredibly grateful. You’ve made a kingdom investment and we are committed to steward your investment well.
We pray that the Lord will bless you this Christmas Season. As we close, we hope that you would remember the ultimate Good News: “unto us a Savior is born, a Savior for you and for me and for anyone who is willing to repent of their sins and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord”.
Sincerely,
The LifeBUILDERS Team