Friday, June 26

 Hey guys! Amani and Hannah here with the blog for today!

(Amani speaking) Today was soo good in so many unexpected ways. We started off with the blessing of a later wake up due to our team's efficiency in breakfast clean-up :) After breakfast and our morning devotional time, all of our serve teams came together this morning to bring some kids from around the neighborhood to a nearby park for basketball, time on the playground, and fellowship. Some of the kids who came hadn’t seen each other in a while, so it was great to get to see them reunite!

This afternoon was also our final day of Big A! When we arrived, we realized that the building we usually use was already in use by another group, which had us changing things up at the last minute. We truly saw God’s presence in the way that the team was able to quickly figure out the new space and adjust to the needs of the kids in order to help them have an amazing time

I (Hannah) have been serving with the preschoolers this week, and even with the change of locations and scramble to set things up today, the kids had an absolute blast! They learned about how to be a light to others, which Jesus preached on in Matthew 5, and had fun with three different activity stations. Getting to spend time with them this week has been such a blessing to be a part of.

My (Amani) favorite part of the day was singing worship outside this evening with the whole team. Nothing but a guitar, our voices, and the flickering fire flies. Being here has truly been a blessing, watching this team grow and serve together as one unit; the body of Christ. 

After a week of growing fellowship, unexpected challenges, and wonderful opportunities to serve from God, our week is coming to a close. As we travel back to Minnesota bright and early tomorrow morning, we’ll have lots of time to reflect on how we saw God move in ourselves, our team, the Big A kids, and the people of Detroit. We wanted to say a huge thank you for keeping up with our trip and keeping us in your prayers this week. We look forward to all of the stories we’ll get to share, and to seeing God’s continued impact from the trip in our lives in the days, weeks, and months to come. Until next year!

Thursday, June 26th

 Hey Toby and Barbie here! Welcome back to the blog! Barbie speaking, today our team prayer walked the neighborhood. We prayed over churches in the area, the education system, & the city of Detroit. We met a man named Ken. We prayed over him, his children and grandchildren. We walked through “The Freedom Dreams” which is a community a man named Sam started that has gardens with flowers and vegetables in a cleaned up neighborhood where the community can have a safe place to gather and hang out. We also saw our friend Mary who we have met on previous trips. We prayed with her & we were happy to see she was safe & doing well.

Hey hey hey, Toby speaking, today our team did servant evangelism. We went to a park in Cass Corridor, and played pickup basketball with Michael and others that we met earlier in the week from the local rescue mission. We had a great time and even got more community members involved. After eating all of our great grilled cheese sandwiches provided by Lori, we prepped and prepared for Big A. At Big A , we did our skit, along with great conversations, games, and probably the world's sweatiest game of basketball. It was a ton of fun! After Big A we ate Detroit’s famous Little Caesars pizza and headed to the Tigers game. We had a blast and continued the fun by playing card games, basketball, and eating ice cream.

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

Day 7: 2025

 My name is Caleb, when I was asked to write part of today's blog I had no clue what I was gonna write about. I sat and pondered to myself for a while reflecting on my trip so far and today I have seen God move in ways I couldn't imagine. I noticed two different times today how I could see God having an active presence. The first time being at Big A, I noticed today when the leaders were picking up kids how ecstatic they were to play with us and remembered our names. I saw how kids were bringing up previous days and were so excited to learn about the gospel. The second time also at Big A was when we were wrapping up our 15+ age group and DJ (A dude I met on this trip) led our prayer. The words that came out of his mouth left me speechless, I could see Jesus working through him and sharing his word through DJ. As we keep going through this trip I am excited to see how else God reveals himself to me. I am so grateful for the opportunity and ability to go on this trip and share the gospel with others. 

Day 6: 2025

 Hello, This is Amelia Reynolds. Where do I even start, this team and this week has been just a blessing to be honest and tonight made that even more sure. In this blog I'm going to talk about the way our team of students have connected not only this week but in the last 3 hours and it all started with a sin. One of our team members brought a phone and got caught. It was brought to the team's attention and we all felt betrayed and trust was broken. We were all sent to go pray not only on how to respond but how we are living in our own sin. We came back all of our hearts were heavy and so was the air. We started confessing our sins and struggles and it just kept flowing and flowing out of us. Then we prayed as a group and tears started flowing. And more and more people started to pray and cry and just confess. We started to worship and all of us kids were huddled together crying, sweating, singing, praising, it was an all around God moment the fact that we just sat there and got to be vulnerable and there was no judgment whatsoever. We got to experience this all together and it was honestly so beautiful. Then we shared stories of the day and where we saw god today and there were more tears and more just pure emotions. When i tell you there was not a dry eye tonight that is not an exaggeration, we got to experience all of these emotions together and just be with one another and it was beautiful and it was just pure raw feelings and it was just amazing. Seeing everyone just be together is something that we will never forget. This trip has been so eye opening and just flat out amazing. Hi family, I miss you guys. 

Sincerely Amelia Reynolds 

Hey guys, this is Micah Kibwaa.And  HOLY MOLY God has been moving. Our team and others had the Holy Spirit moving over all of us tonight (06/18/25). God was so present today in all of us. It started with a mistrust of a person bringing their phone on the trip. We are studying the book of Philippians and how in Philippians God used a tough time and made it for good. That's exactly what happened.We all got in a group and The Spirit knew we needed to talk, God really had us all in tears from the vulnerability, the reactions, and add ons from others that was so God. I even mentioned that the emotion and having tears FLOWING down my face were not emotions I would even show around my own family which sounds crazy. But the Spirit put me in the position of telling me these people I literally met less than four days ago felt like I've known them for my whole life. It was such a heartwarming feeling that was MOST DEFINITELY from God and I can’t thank Him enough. God has moved all of us so much this trip and I pray for every single person that they carry that feeling home. Not just Detroit but that we still have this posture in our heart. God brought us so much more together as a body in Christ and I can’t thank Him enough. 

It’s been great, miss you all.

Sincerely Micah Kibwaa.

Day 5: 2025

 Today's day 4 of being here and I could not be more happy I came on this trip. The day began as most do, waking up, hitting snooze, eating breakfast (which is DELICIOUS thank you Lori!) and getting ready for the day. During our prayer walk Chuck (one of the people helping us on this trip) had us stop and look around. We were told to look for something that stuck out to us, and how we can pray about it. Amelia (one of the lovely members of my group) noticed that one door had three locks. We were reminded of how fortunate we are to live in the place where we do, most days only locking our single lock in the evening. As well as how unfortunate it is that these people go to the grocery store and have to worry, even with three locks, that their house will be broken into. Jaw. Dropped. 

Big A (the VBS we help operate) was so much fun! We walk in and are greeted by all these smiling kids who just want us. They want to be loved and man do we love them. From a record breaking 63 jumps on the jump rope, to holding a little boy who didn’t want us to leave, we loved these kids in every way we could. This is all I have to write tonight, I’m hot and ready for a good shower. Please pray that God continues to work in, and through us, in everything we do. Thank you. 

   Sincerely, 

Amani Kibwaa :)

Soooooo today was a long day lots of crazy things happened number 1 Big A man that was a lot of fun! I work at a youth camp full of about 300 kids a week and there isn't even a close comparison of these kids to the ones at home. they are so open so loving and just want to share about their day with you and they love the big A. it might be songs games crafts doesn't matter these kids have a blast with each other and  it's a lot of fun to see a group of kids from the city in the projects all get together and just have fun. And learn about the lord and savior Jesus christ. Also I want to make a shout out to the Crew this group of people I have grown up with for years and years and have never seen them so into their faith and sharing it  a wonderful place to be and so glad i came just Hoping the lord uses me the best he can for the rest of it 

Cooper

Day 4: 2025

 Hello everybody!

We had a busy day in Detroit today.  We started our morning with Lori’s delicious breakfast that consisted of eggs, muffins, bagels, and my favorite, cereal.  We then had our devotional time to spend some time with God.  After that some groups went prayer walking and some groups did service of evangelism.  My group went prayer walking and not even 5 minutes into the walk we met a wonderful old lady named Sheri.  She had a relationship with Jesus and told us she needed prayer because she was going through a hard time with housing and we were even able to answer some her previous prayers.  After lunch we went back to the building and had lunch.  After lunch we did chores and prepped for our first day of Big A.  Once we were prepped we had free time so I played basketball and hung out.  Then before I knew it we were at Big A which was very very exciting.  It was so awesome to see all the kids and even have kids come up to me to say hi and tell me they remembered me from last year.  Big A was fun and exhausting all at the same time.  When we got back from Big A Lorie had prepped a delicious chicken and mashed potatoes dinner for us and I ate plenty.  After dinner we had worship and shared our stories of the day.  Right now as I am writing this there is also a basketball game going on, so that is what pretty much everyone else is doing right now, or they are watching and cheering loud.  But that’s it for now.

Jaxon





Hello and greetings everyone!

We had a very eventful day today as we started our first day of full ministry. This morning started with quite a late wake up call giving me 5 minutes to prepare myself for breakfast. I did give my complete effort to get out in time, but I did still end up being just a little bit late to our morning prayer before breakfast. Breakfast, as always, was absolutely amazing with it being prepared by our wonderful chef Lori. After breakfast finished, it was devotional time. Our devos this year are in the book of Phillipians, which is a book I haven’t read too much from, but it is one that I actually referenced in my blog post last year with the verse Philippians 4:13. Now, this year one thing I set out to do was to be fully intentional in my devo time with the Lord. The previous two years I haven’t been completely focused on the Lord while in my devo time, so this year, I wanted to be completely intentional with Him so I could get the most I could out of it with this being my last time in Detroit for the foreseeable future. (We’ll see where the Lord takes me in my walk after high school :)). Our conversations after we finished our alone devotional time were very fruitful, and during our devo we focused on the verse Romans 8:28 (And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose), and how it relates to Paul’s experience in prison. This was especially meaningful for me as that is one of my most favorite verses, and one that I try to remember on a daily basis, especially when something might not go the way I want it to or something bad happens.

After we finished with our devos, we transitioned to our morning ministry. My group ⸺consisting of Barbie, Ella, Caleb, and Micah⸺ had prayer walking the community around the building that we’re staying at for our first day. We walked around and prayed for a wide variety of things such as run down buildings that are in desperate need of repair, or the Detroit public school system and how underfunded and undereducated it is, or even just for the roads and sidewalks and other basic infrastructure. Now prayer walking used to be something I personally didn’t like too much as I’m a relatively introverted person and I didn’t want to say the wrong thing while praying for someone. Over the years I’ve been here however (and also much thanks to Amanda’s help), I realized that even if I say something wrong in a prayer, that it ultimately doesn’t matter because the Holy Spirit knows what’s on my heart and on my mind and will still bless the person or place or community that I’m praying for. While prayer walking, we did end up running into an organization that helped people who just got out of prison with adapting to the new and changed world that they were entering into. They weren’t completely faith based, but they did still have a heavier emphasis on Christ. For me, to see an organization like that help teach people who are oftentimes not remembered about how to use a phone or debit card or computer, it really opened my eyes to just how much good can be done in the world, and that there are communities that exist that sometimes I completely forget about. It’s an organization that will be in my prayers for plenty of time to come, especially after we found out that they’re looking for a new building after their old building got the roof ripped off of their gymnasium.

Once we got done prayer walking, we headed back to the building and had another delicious meal from Lori. After we ate, we had our final prep for Big A (the VBS we put on in Detroit), I took a tiny nap, and we were all ready to go for our first day of Big A. This year, instead of helping with planning games before we left, I’m part of the skit group and all the planning that comes with that. Now, with it being a circus theme, Kris and I both get the special role of ring leader and we narrate the story and keep everything going along. After the skit, we moved to our small group time. I was in the group of people that would be taking 11-14 year olds, and I was quite happy that I could go with this age group this year as last year I got swapped to the 7-10 year olds to accommodate Natalie switching from there to the 15 and up group. I had my group of 4, and the rest of Big A went alright, the discussion was ok, most of them weren’t too engaged in the game, and they all sat down and made the craft that we had. However, there were two big God moments that stepped out to me. The first is that when I pulled out my bible and asked who wanted to find the scripture and read it (they couldn’t remember what Jesus said to fish for instead of fish, so I decided to have them look in scripture for it), pretty much all of them all at once either reached for it or begged to be able to. It was so cool just to see them all want to read God’s word, no matter what their reason for it was. The second cool God moment I had to do with the small group discussion that we had. In our small group, no one was really paying too much attention to the story, and I did have to end up explaining a decent amount of it, but I made sure at the end to explain to them what being a fisher of men meant. I kinda assumed that nothing much would come from it and that it would be somewhat of a lost cause, but God proved otherwise. Later, during the craft, one of the Detroit Love leaders came over to talk to two of the students. She asked the first one what the story meant, and the kid didn’t have too much of a clue, but she turned to the second one, one of the ones that was in my group, and he just immediately rattled off pretty much exactly what it meant to be a fisher of men. In that moment, I was just reminded that God can turn any situation into a positive situation and that even if I think something is a lost cause, it can still be something so cool and beautiful.  It actually reminded me of our discussion of Romans 8:28 in devos and how God works all things together for the good, which, is also such a cool God thing of how our devo discussion and a conversation at Big A almost lined up with what was essentially the same lesson.

After Big A finished, my team was on dinner prep. For dinner tonight, we had chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, and bread. Once again, we had another amazing, out of the park meal cooked by Lori, and I’m so looking forward to more of her food in the coming days. Once we were done with dinner, we had worship time and we also had a time to share our stories of the day, where we shared how we saw God working throughout the day. I shared my story of how that one student fully remembered what the meaning of what we talked about was because it was just so cool to see God work like that. Now, after this, we started a game of basketball (a regular occurrence during every free time opportunity we get), and I started writing this blog post once Jaxon got done with his part of the post. It’s been a great night relaxing, eating cake, and watching the basketball game going on, and I’m excited for the nights to come.

Finally, I just want to give a huge hello to all my family and friends. I miss you all greatly, and I can’t wait to see you when I get home. To my dad, I want to give you a belated happy fathers day. To my mom, I hope you’re enjoying the time alone that you have in the house for a lot of this week. I miss you so so so much, and I love you so incredibly much. Now, to my sister Maren, I hope you enjoy your time in Costa Rica, you better make the best of it as you don’t get an opportunity like that very often in your life, especially with your birthday coming up on Friday (only one away from being a legal adult after that!!). I love you so so much, see you in a week and a half when you get back. Remember to take lots of photos :)

Blessings to all of you,
Tyler Wallin

Day 3: 2025

 Sunday- 

Hi Everyone! This is Ella writing and my second time on the trip! Sunday is such a fun day because it’s our first full day in Detroit. We spent a lot of this day preparing for VBS (big A) and learning about Detroit. We also go to church at People’s Missionary Baptist Church. Our morning started off with breakfast then we walked downtown and saw the GM building. Church was next and is always such a cool experience, it’s different from a normal Timberwood service but so to see how others worship God. Unfortunately we don’t have Kevin here this year but we do have Lori still along with Heidi and Chuck. I really enjoy their teaching style and know that God is going to do amazing things on the trip. We got out teams for morning ministries and chores. Barbie, Tyler, Caleb, Micah and I are team 4! We are already getting into crazy adventures together, and I am excited to see what God does this week for us. I am so grateful for this team and can’t wait to spend the week together. See you all on Saturday!

Hi Everyone! This is Isaac Quisberg doing my blog on my 1st Detroit trip. I'm writing about sunday the our first full day at Love. We started our day after breakfast by going on a 40 minute walk to the GM building and got to learn about the culture in Detroit. We had a funny experience while on the walk this on lady started walking around Caleb calling him Big Daddy. It was a fun walk with friends and getting to know each other. We then got changed and went to church at Peoples it was a cool experience getting to see how other churches run their stuff. We then got in our teams for chores and im on team 1 with Cooper, Natalie, Riley, and Melissa. We flew through the bathrooms and helped finish cleaning the gym which is a big job. We also started devotions, worship and talking about how we saw God that day. A lot happened but that was only day 1.

Day 2: 2025

 We woke up at 5 in the morning to leave. The workers at the hotel woke up early to make us breakfast. After breakfast we left for Detroit. The first 3 hours of the drive we stopped at an ice cream shop/cafe to get food. Then we got back on the road and had another 3 hour drive to Detroit. Then at like 1:30 we got to Detroit Love. At 3 o'clock we left the building to go prayer walking. Then 15 minutes into prayer walking we had to go help the people that run Detroit Love for someone's graduation party for graduating from college. Then we came back to the Detroit Love building to go eat dinner. We had burgers, hot dogs, mac & cheese, chips and fruit. Then after dinner some people went to help clean up the graduation party.

From Noah

 Then people helped clean up dinner. We got to the church at 6 and left at 6:30 am. I personally went to sleep in all the cars till the hotel. Then we got there. We did our last 3 faith stories and hung out for a bit till about 930 pm then headed back to the rooms and crashed. We all got up around 5 530 and the hotel staff were kind enough to make breakfast for us early then we left and again I personally passed out till about an hour before we got to the Detroit love building. When we got to the building we were greeted by some very kind people that work here and they helped us clear cars and then got a tour of the building and the church and big A building which is for teaching kids about God. We got good food and fun games of basketball. Now we are hanging out and I'm enjoying it. The experience was great. I love it here and so happy to be here and glad we are here.    

From Elijah

Detroit 2025: Day 1

 We made it! We are safely in our hotel after many laughs, walks, games of basketball, and hours in the car. Please continue to pray for our safety and our unity. We are all in our rooms and snuggling in for a night of rest and rejuvenation for another day of travel. 

Stay tuned for more exciting details tomorrow. 

Last Day

   Hi! I'm Ella Owens and this is my first time on the Detroit Missions trip

     This trip has been a truly life changing experience. Big A (or VBS) has taught me to love everyone like Jesus and how much the fruits of the spirit can impact people. We started out our days this week with devotion time followed by morning ministries which was either a pray walk in Cass Park or the neighborhood around Detroit Love. We also took turns doing servant evangelism and led to God working in some pretty amazing ways. Big A was every afternoon, I was part of preschool so I hung out with the toddlers and got too see their curiosity and energy all week. I am so thankful for the people who encouraged me to come on this trip. I have gotten so close with this whole team and these memories will stick with me forever. 

THURSDAY 😁

     This week has been such an adventure and has definitely flown by. I want to first say I know this is very late because I was supposed to do this last night but we had a busy night out getting ice cream at Wally's Custard and preparing our last day of Big A for today. This week my group of Natalie, Tyler, Kristine and I had prayer walking during the first two days then servant evangelism the second half. Servant evangelism is where we basically drive around or walk and pray for the Lord to tell us how we can help the community of Detroit and serve Him. Wednesday we did a lot of driving around, praying and listening. Although we did not get to do anything for anyone, we met an absolutely LOVELY lady named Mary Kennedy who is 80 years old and was right outside her house. She has the most beautiful and lively smile and always wears bright clothes. Ever since we have gone back every day to visit her and at least say hi. Yesterday my team and I stopped by her house again to ask her for ideas of what we could put in care packages for the homeless. Mary is the most delightful woman and my team loves her so much, she never let us help her with anything but always prayed the Lord's prayer with us and gave us ideas on how to help the community. 

    Besides Mary, Big A has definitely been one of my highlights on this trip. The kids are SOOO AMAZING and SUCH a joy. I don't think you could go to big A and not fall in love with them. It makes me so sad to leave them tomorrow because I am going to miss seeing the Lord move in all of them. The moment you walk into the dream center you most likely would receive a hug from a kid or many kids within at least five minutes. They really say the darndest things and ask the weirdest questions but really theres not a moment where we are there and not laughing. I'm pretty sure at least seven kids are FULLY convinced Jaxon and I are siblings which makes no sense since we look absolutely nothing alike. Just yesterday I got challenged to two dance offs from the girls in my group and let me tell you they definitely won because I cannot dance. And all of sudden a little girl would come up to you and braid your hair or ask you to jump rope with them. After Big A Lori makes the BEST food for dinner, specifically her shepherds pie she made last night. 

    Normally after dinner Natalie and I play basketball with Ben, Jaxon, and DJ for the rest of the night or until Ben sweats so hard his shirt changes color. However, last night we went on an outing to Wally's Custard and got ice cream. After Natalie and I played cribbage which we just learned this week and have been playing a lot of. We are all exhausted and dreading the 12 hour journey home but we definitely plan on making the best of the rest of our time here tonight. 

    This trip has been so life changing and I am so grateful to be here and serve the Lord and watch him move in every person here. Much love,  Ashley Slaybaugh

bens blog

 

            This morning started off great with me waking up my friend with one minute before he had to prep for breakfast. The breakfast today was amazing and we had lots of funny conversations while eating and after. Once breakfast was done we had devotions witch is probably one of my favorite times of the day because we just got to talk and listen to what God has to say to us and learn more and more. After we had talks about all our devotions my group of three got to go prayer walking. which is super cool and unique to see what God wants us to pray about and what He want us to see. We met lots of really cool people and especially Marco. Marco is 54 years old and he lives in an all mens shelter right now. When we walked past the first time he wasn’t there but right when we started to walk by he came out and said, he just had a feeling to come out to get some fresh air he said it was just lucky but we think it was God telling him to which was pretty cool because he is a friend of Detroit love ( the place we are staying ) for a while and he loves when we come by and pray for him. so we prayed for him and a friend who was close by. It is also Macros birthday next Tuesday so we sang to him early which was pretty cool. When we all came back after spending time with our groups and God we all helped to get lunch together. And once again it was magnificent. After lunch we split back into our groups and I got the privilege to clean the boys bathroom, lucky me. Once all of us got our chores done we all kinda did an assembly line to package out snacks for big A. One of my favorite parts of the day was right when I walked through the doors I was greeted with one of the cutest little hug by one of the kids I had the day prior, and her name was Amaya. Today for big A I only had 2 kids to little boys named xzavior and Ace. They were 2 little boys who was really excited to learn about the gospel. Theses little boys were so into the discussion they had to walk around and talk because God was so powerful to them, and to see God moving within them was so cool. Also seeing them so engaged. After big A we came back to a magnificent smell of pasta and garlic toast. P.S it was so good. Then after dinner we had a little bit of free time that most of us spent that time playing volleyball. After getting all sweaty playing volleyball we had story time. Where we share times where we saw God in our day. After stories we got spoiled when fresh brownies and cookies came out for us to enjoy. And I will probably end up playing basketball or volleyball until my shirt is a totally different color because of sweat.

DAY 5 🤯

    When I say that being here has been such an adventure, I mean it.  My day consisted of a variety of excitement, joy and speed (the days seem to FLY here), but also a mix of slowness, waiting and a whole lot of patience. I started my day by helping set up breakfast with my team. The food made is absolutely phenomenal btw, thanks for asking. Some time after breakfast our super huge Detroit team, (11 whole people) split into our groups for prayer walking / serving evangelism. My team and I, during our time serving evangelism, spent a lot of time asking God for clarity, praying for signs, and asking to hear his voice. It was a really testing time for some of us who struggle with patience and waiting for a timing that isn't our own.  After some time driving around we decided to get out and walk. Something I noticed was all the little things I would have never seen zooming by houses, (going 20mph). I saw things like people sleeping on sidewalks, people sitting outside their homes because it was hotter inside their homes than outside (it was 88 degrees with 76% humidity, just btw 🥵 ) and so much more. It really hit me thinking about all the things I take for granted at home while so many people can't even stay cool. 

    On a much happier note, Big A (the VBS we're putting on) has to be the most beautiful things in the world. All of these kids, ranging in age from 3-18 years old, come together to learn about God and his love for them. Through them, the way they treat each other, and they way they treat us (total strangers) I think I'm starting to understand what an honest love REALLY looks like. Every day when you walk in, handfuls of kids come up and hug you, say hi to you and want to see you. But after all of that, after all we leave the kiddos, after we get home, my favorite part of being here so far is when the team comes together and we just hang out. We spend time worshiping, talking about how we saw God today, and the majorities favorite part, basketball. I personally don't play, but watching everyone come together, sweaty, tired, and exhausted  even, they all get even more sweaty. I say this in the most loving way possible I swear. In all seriousness, seeing our team get CLOSER through a COMPETITIVE sport is honestly inspiring. 

    Being apart of this missions team has to be one of the best things that I have ever been lead to do/been apart of. Everyone on this team is so amazing and has such a heart for God, it's so life giving and I am honored to be a part of it. 

                                              Much love from me and my heart, Amani Kibwaa :)