Wednesday, June 24th

 This is Norah and Ben, welcome back to our blog. But first make sure you like, comment, and share so you can keep up with all the fun! Today was busy. We were able to sleep in and have a later breakfast, which was a blessing. ( Ben Talking ) Today my group had prayer walking in Cass Park. We started off talking to Ron ( Papa Smurf is what Detroit calls him ) and he ended up gifting us all shirts and bobble heads of retired red wings players. We talked to a couple other people, praying for all of them, which our other groups had talked to the previous days. Which was a pretty cool experience to have. (Norah Talking)

Today my group also had prayer walking but we were in a local neighborhood. We walked around and prayed for buildings and learned some facts about the City. One of the things was that only 16% of kids in elementary schools in Detroit pass in English and only 12% of middle schoolers pass; which is really sad. Today for Big A we had a lot of preparation to do. We didn't read the skit that we had to do until 4 hours before big A. But you know us, we did it flawlessly. Today went sooooooo much better than yesterday, from the skit to the games to the craft everything went smoothly, only with one little struggle, the pre-schoolers. Or what we like to call them - the orbeez. There were so many of them (32)! And when we brought them outside after struggling inside. It started to rain and the kids freaked out. They literally scattered like orbeez. Luckily, Amanda was outside and brought them inside and gave them stickers to play with. But otherwise everything else went great. When we got back home, group 1 had dinner prep. Lori cooked up another amazing meal, we had pasta and fresh garlic bread and a fruit salad. We ended the night like every other night with worship and stories of how we saw God throughout our day. Thanks for reading and tune in next time for our crazy adventures, Norah and Ben signing out, Bye. 

Tuesday, June 23rd

 This is Amelia, hello to everyone reading this. I hope you have found enjoyment in the last few blogs and I hope you will find it in mine as well. Today was fun! We started the day with a good breakfast and devos. We are going through the book of 1 John and we talked about Mercy, justice, and grace. And how God gives us justice, but has mercy and grace for us because of Jesus. Then the group split and my group went prayer walking around Cass park. We stopped and talked with a man and prayed for his life and that God will provide a safe place for him and for him to find a job. We then went and met Ron AKA “papa smurf”. He was a very wise man that had a lot to say about life and about God. We then found out he had a lot of merch from the hockey team Red Wings and so my group each got a t-shirt and jersey and a bobble head. Now I personally am not a big sports or hockey fan but just seeing the smile on his face about giving us a gift and being able to see our smiles made me so excited to have this and grateful that he is so willing to give things. We then got to prepare for VBS and that was fun!!! Last night while praying for the day I prayed that I could get to my girls and make somewhat of an impact on them and today I was at Big A. God answered that prayer. One of the girls in my group just walks up to me and gives me a hug and that just melted my heart. I see God in each of these kids and I am so lucky to have this trip to love them. We came back to the building for dinner and then did worship and stories of the day. After that we got to celebrate the Detroit Love Birthdays and have some great cake and play a game with the whole group. It was a great day! 

Hello blog, Eli here. Our second day of Big A and 5th day of the trip is complete! After a later breakfast we had great devos going through 1st John specifically chapter 2 and grace/ gods justice. We then went on a prayer walk near the building and encountered many improvements to the area and a nice man named Ken who just celebrated his 63rd birthday. After going back for lunch we prepared for Big A day two including the skit about the parable of the farmer and his gold. Big A went great and all of the kids were very energetic but took the message well. We returned for dinner worship and discussion before playing Wiffle Ball. We also celebrated Max’s 19th birthday and had some great cake from Lori. We lost the game but it's okay, everyone then just had a chill night hanging out and playing games to be well rested for tomorrow.

Monday June 22nd

Hey it’s Jaxon, we started off our day pretty normal with some breakfast and devotional time.  After our devotional time we go into our daily ministry activities.  My team was assigned servant evangelism.  This means that my team spends some time in prayer and asks God to tell us how he wants us to serve.  We thought maybe we were supposed to go downtown so that is where we went, praying along the way.  We ended up stopping a few times to ask if people in the city wanted any prayer.  They respectfully declined and we went on our way.  Although we didn’t find a specific way to serve we still spent a lot of time in prayer which is always a good thing.  After that we came back to the building for lunch, chores, and Big A prep.  All these things went pretty smoothly.  Big A on the other hand was absolute chaos, but it always is.  My group of boys were in a bad mood for whatever reason and simply did not want to be around which was a bummer.  They had a rocky start but did turn it around at the end of Big A and I’m sure I will see them tomorrow.  After Big A we made our way back to the building for dinner, worship, and stories of the day.  For dinner we had Lori’s chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, rice, and beans.  It was pretty good.  Once we were done with dinner and had that all cleaned up we worshiped and had stories of the day which are always a good time.  After worship we had some free time to play games and hangout.  Lori also made some cookie bars that were absolutely delicious.  We did have the opportunity to go to a firework show over the river in downtown because it was Canada’s version of 4th of July.  So of course I went because who doesn’t love some good fireworks.  It was fun to watch those and talk to people.  That pretty much caps off the day because once we got back to the building it was lights out and time to go to bed.

Sunday June 21st, 2026

 Today for the blog, ya’ll get Aubree and Micah. Happy Fathers Day, to all the fathers!

We started the day off with walking around Downtown Detroit, viewing what the city has to offer with its landscape, murals, and community. We stopped at the Detroit river and saw the canal between Detroit and Canada. Aubree noticed the water was a pristine teal color. We noticed the different smells of the city, weed, burning trash, and the surprising nature smell. After around 2 hours of walking, we were headed back to our vehicles, when we ran into “Papa smurf” and Rick. They were two kind souls who gave us an insight of the city. Getting back to the building we got into our church clothes and headed off for church. 

Starting at 12 P.M, Peoples Missionary Baptist started their service. It was very different than Timberwood church, the constant worship in song, the pastor breaking out mid service in song, and the singing and dancing going on. Instead of 1 hour it was 2. There was a man who was shouting out, "Hallelujah”, “Praise the Lord”, and even “On my mama”. It was a very interesting and new experience.  

Back at the building we started prepping for our first day of Big A! Aubree was prepping for the preschool group and set up the puppet show they will be performing. The first puppet show will be of God creating the Heavens and the Earth. Micah on the other hand was working on the daily skit, which focused on the parable Jesus told about the Farmer and his seeds. After 45 ish minutes we got led into our devotionals. (We're in the book 1st John). We had a good discussion of the questions that was promptly given. After devotionals we were led in worship, singing “I Thank God” and “Make Room”. After worship and discussing our days we have free time. Where we are playing games together and Aubree and Micah are writing this blog. Now all caught up to the present there is nothing else to say except have a great night. 

Happy Father’s day,

Aubree and Micah

We Made It!

 Noah here! We are safely in Detroit after a smooth final day of travel from Elgin, IL.  Our time in Elgin last night was eventful and ended on a great note.

After dinner, Toby, Eli, Micah and I were exploring near our hotel after witnessing the most pristine double rainbow any of us had ever seen. What a gift! We stopped at Jimmy John's to see if we could pick up some end-of-the-day bread. We were in luck and they generously offered us 7 loaves of bread left over from the day! Perfect for some hungry teenagers.  Then, we pushed our luck even more and stopped at Panera to see if they might need our help taking their end of the day bread off their hands. Shockingly, they gave us a full box of leftover bagels....at least 40 beautiful, delicious, absolutely perfect bagels were all ours. God provided for us as we were going to be up and out of our hotel before the continental breakfast and would have had to stop somewhere for food. Instead, we were able to save $150 and time not having to purchase breakfast for our team. It was awesome! 

After after a fulfilling breakfast and lots of coffee, we were off. We made our traditional stop at Fruit Acres fruit stand Coloma, MI, where we picked up fresh cherries, blueberries and watermelon and two pies. We then drove the final stretch to Detroit and were at the Detroit Love building by lunch. We unpacked and settled into our bunks. The Detroit Love staff was so welcoming! The afternoon was spent doing a driving tour of downtown Detroit,prayer walking in the neighborhood were we put on our Big A vacation bible school and Heidi shared with us the history of Detroit. Lori fed us a wonderful dinner and we just finished worship and stories of how God has showed up for us so far. Its so cool to see how our team is working well together and I am excited to see how God will use us this week!

Please pray for great weather, unity as a team and that God would work in all of our hearts as we prepare for Big A. Thanks so much for your love and prayers already!

Love, Noah and Kris

First day of 2026 Detroit Trip

 After a day of travel, games, snacks, music and laughs, we have made it to our hotel. We enjoyed a nice walk at local park where it felt good to move our bodies and enjoy the sunshine. We then ate dinner and finished sharing our faith stories with each other. Seeing the connections between the team members has been a joy. I pray that God continues to knit us together to appreciate the uniqueness that each person brings to this team and that God uses it all. 

Thank you for your support and prayers. 

Day 8: 2025 (Final Day in Detroit)

 Hey wassup, coming at ya from Ashley and Ben from Detroit. Today was such an amazing day. We all slept pretty well last night. Team 2 was on breakfast duty so they had to wake up a little bit earlier but that's okay. We had pancakes, cereal and muffins. It was pretty good. Then after breakfast we had our devos. Today we were reading Philippians 3 : 1 - 11. This was a little bit of a struggle for me ( ben ) but it was really good to hear. It was so awesome to be able to talk about the different ways to explain the Gospel and the things that are not in comparison to a life with Christ (Ashley). Our group (Team 3) then went prayer walking around Cass Park which we did today because it was too rainy yesterday. Even though we got rained on we were able to meet a lot of people like Dan, Tony, and the men in the men's shelter who we were able to say grace for before their lunch. While we were praying, some of the other teams picked up some kids at the Digs project and all went to the park to play. Which is an answered prayer for our team because we have been praying over the parks and kids around the neighborhoods for them to use the parks and playgrounds. Then we all came back for lunch. After lunch we did Big A prep and chores. We all went shopping ( Mama Kottke ) Kris got a couple shirts and (Chickadee) Summer got a cup but nothing super cool. After a speedy shopping trip NATALIE spilled the whole bucket of orbeez right as we were walking out of the door to head to Big A. The orbeez went ALL down the stairs and ALL across the road. It was silly. Big A was smaller today because the daycare was not running so we were only able to pick up the kids from the Diggs. Ben was able to experience 15 and up today for the first time because none of his usual kids were there. Ashley was able to team up with Cooper today for 7-10 yr olds even though we only had 3 whole kids. It was a blast. Ashley and Natalie had the opportunity to teach the kids a new song and dance called the Hippo Song and it was a total hit. We added a new fruit to the fruit song, a pineapple. We (Ben and Ashley) could not star in a skit today because today was a bit different since it was the last day of Big A. Then we just came back to the building, ate pasta for dinner, had stories of the day, packed, and hung out for the night. We plan to leave at 6 AM. 

TTYL- Benny BooBear and Ashley LOOK AT ME