from the heart of Adam

Our first day of prayer walking, servant evangelism, and VBS has come to an end.  All of the anxiety, nervousness, and anticipation (okay, those all mean the same thing) have completely melted away with our group.  The Timberwood Youth are impressing me to no end.  From an adult and parent’s perspective, the Timberwood family and parent’s of these kids should be so proud of what our kids are stepping up to do.  Being thrown into an environment that is absolutely outrageous by our standards, and totally stepping up and leaning into it has been awesome to see. 

            A few of the youth and I wrote thank you cards and letters to local firemen.  We went shopping together for treats, then we brought it all over to Detroit Station 23.  There, we were met by four firemen who brought us in to their “home” with open arms.  They were absolutely and completely impressed and appreciative immediately when we told them what we were doing and why.  They were about to go service fire hydrants when we arrived, because in Detroit, the fire department doubles as the public works department as well.  If they want their fire hydrants to have water, they have to fix them themselves.  Many fire hydrants in Detroit don’t have water pressure to them, so fire fighters show up and literally have to stand and watch buildings burn to the ground.  They can protect the adjacent buildings minimally with the water they carry on their trucks.  As we spent time with them, they were excited to tell their story to us.  They didn’t “bash” the city they work for, but simply explained that they keep doing what they do for the community that supports them, but more importantly for the brotherhood and family that exists amongst their ranks.  Their pensions they were promised when they started are being taken away before they are able to draw on them, they have to supply their “city owned” fire department with everything it needs to function out of their own pockets.  It is truly incredible how powerful of a bond these guys have that keeps them coming back to work every day.  Perhaps the most amazing thing is the positive attitudes they all have.  These guys insisted they take us for a ride on their fire truck.  So we climb aboard and they fire up the lights and sirens running code for quite a few blocks.  The kids got quite a kick out of running read lights and watching cars pull over for them.  Just because it was old hat for me, doesn’t mean I wasn’t all smiles too…

            VBS went off without a hitch!!  Okay, so there were some hiccups and challenges that we could critique.  But the fact that the kids pressed through and came away with smiles and looking forward to tomorrow was pretty cool.  Ben, Amanda, and I are official Detroit kid movers!  We are pros at navigating the streets from the church to the projects where we pick up kids.

I will let the kids tell you more tomorrow about VBS….

KRONSTEDT OUT!!!