Today's YLI Link!
Sign up for MOTOWN MISSION EXPERIENCE 2010!
Another season of economic disaster recovery has come and gone for YLI's Motown Mission Experience program. This year we welcomed groups from 6 churches during two weeks of work on 5 houses in the Cody-Rouge neighborhood around the Joy-Southfield Community Development Center and Second Grace UMC.
We at YLI want to express our thanks to the Housing Committee of J-SCDC for organizing the work for our teams to accomplish. Special words of thanks to Dick, Randy, George, Rodney, Harry, Chuck and all the rest of the great volunteers that partnered with our youth to spruce up these homes for families in need.
Check out some photos of Motown Mission 2009 here. And, be sure to sign up your youth group for next Summer's Motown Mission 2010, registration online here! We'll also be opening up a new season of Alternative Spring Break weeks in February and March 2010 for college groups to come and work in Detroit, so tell the young people you know at Wesley Foundations and other campus ministries that this is available to them!
On the Sunday following our second week, one of the Motown Mission participants from Metropolitan UMC shared the following poem in the worship service. We think it is a great expression of what young people experience when they give a week of their summer to be in service of God by serving others. We hope you'll find your way to Motown for this kind service of others soon!
“Inspirational Experience”
By Stefan Sims
It’s funny how fast a week can go.
We worked hard, but tell me why the time was slow.
From doin’ one job, to goin’ to another task.
Hopin’ that the fresh paint I put up dries real fast.
Get little jobs like opening screws in little packets.
Then I go inside and take off my wet jacket.
Stayin’ inside to see how do pipes link.
Throwin’ everything out; only thing left was the kitchen sink.
But you all inspired me. We all connect like a chain.
From talking in the hall; to laughing hard at a baseball game
For no reason; we all got so close. It’s way better than sitting by myself at a lonely post.
What a experiment; this is a great remembrance.
Now I’m kinda glad my mom pushed me through the entrance.
I never cry, but for this I need a tissue. No I don’t need to sneeze, but to you all: God Bless you.
Praying for Detroit,
Carl Thomas Stroud Gladstone
info(at)youngleadersinitiative.org