I’ve been home for almost two months now- and it’s been weird… a lot of fun, catching up with friends, a lot of rest. I’ve been trying to get outside and have been trying to be intentional with my time in the Word. As I’ve been doing some reflecting and dreaming, I’ve been trying to keep my eyes open, and the number one thing I’ve been seeing acutely is the need in this world.

Need #1: Flood Relief

About two weeks ago, I started seeing messages and posts about something that happened back at RVA. After one too many concerning texts, when I got home I booted up my computer and checked my RVA email to see news of a significant landslide-right out our back gate. It started here… at the railroad and the tunnel under the tracks that dump into a pool dubbed around campus as the hiking destination of the hot springs, then miles down the mountain into the valley I take kids down to for outreach Sunday school.

I started reaching out to find out about those I work with closely. Two close colleagues of mine lost their mother, a niece, and a nephew. Devastating news, I was quite shaken. After a day of listless wandering, now sure how I could help, the next morning was my Wednesday Women in Prayer meeting, and I was so blessed to be surrounded by prayer warriors who lifted me up and encouraged me as together we poured out our hearts to the Lord on behalf of my community.

I’ve been checking my emails since then almost daily to hear news of updates. A second, third and fourth slide added to the destruction of the Forest, but added very little destruction to personal belongings or loss of life. After a week of heavy rains, the Lord brought reprieve as the sun shone, allowing the Red Cross and Kijabe Trust time to pump water out of the other building pools near the top of the mountain growing behind the berm of the railroad acting as a dam.

I’ve seen pictures of destruction galore, but also word of our students and staff on campus stripping their closets of clothing, donating to those who lost everything. I’ve seen in the student announcements sign-ups for students to fill work slots in the cafeteria as the regular employees either can’t get to work due to the blocked and dangerous roads, or are home burying their friends and relatives. I’ve seen videos of students digging out mud, clearing paths and removing rubble. While conditions seem to be in the process of stabilizing, the need is still so abundant.

While it’s been hard to be on this side of the world while tragedy wreaks havoc on my home, I’ve seen need right in my own backyard as well.

Need #2: Community Development

Last week I was part of my churches “Global Missions Fest” (GMF) as one of the featured missionaries. The goal of GMF? Pray for missionaries and their ministries and raise awareness of some of these very real needs.

One of the incredible women I had the privilege and honor of rubbing shoulders with is the Executive Director of Central Detroit Christian-a ministry right here in, you guessed it, Detroit. I can’t even begin to summarize in a few short paragraphs the work of the Lord through this incredible woman. She embodies the idea of “being the hands and feet of Jesus.” Almost thirty years ago she and her husband moved into the poorest zip code in Michigan, establishing first their home, and second their ministry. They have grown from a one-family-show into a large, trusted, well known to the community organization, working to help grow the community they live in the middle of. To hear her, with tears in her eyes talk about the vision of literacy for all, the huge win of increasing the percentage of students who read on-level in the local school district from 2% to 7%- a massive victory, yet still falling so shy with 93% still below level is only the start of the moving stories she has to share. Affordable housing, government roadblocks, local businesses, a laundromat to serve the community, supported by work from local hotels, souls coming to know Christ as little-by-little CDC works to bring healing to the local community. Their vision is simple, coming from Zachariah 8:4-5, “Once again men and women of ripe old age will sit in the streets, each of them with cane in hand because of their age, telling stories to one another. The city streets will be filled with boys and girls playing there.”

Let me tell you, her ministry has not been an easy journey- she shared stories of brokenness, stories of fear, and stories of deliverance. When asked about her dreams for her ministry, what she had to share was short, yet lofty and impossible with nothing less than a mountain moving God: education, employment, and affordable housing.

While some needs in the community are clear-who in our entire nation does not hear Detroit and associate it with poverty, the riots from the 60’s, and knows our inner city is a place of need- some needs are not so obvious.

Need #3: Refugees

My missions organization has teams all over Africa, but also all over the world. The vision of my mission, “Create Christ Centered Churches Among All African Peoples” recognizes many African Peoples have left their homeland of Africa and are scattered across the world. The global news calls them refugees, a people God holds close to his heart. My organization has people here in Detroit whose full-time job is connecting with some of these very children of God. I’ve connected with one of the gals on the team, R, and last week I had the joy of joining her on two home visits.

Very different from one another, our second visit brought us laughter and joy, delicious food and life updates. This Syrian family has been connected with R for over a year. She has been able to grow in relationship with them week by week as they have come to learn English and establish themselves in the community. Together we got to share in the joy of the engagement of one of the daughters, ask the son if he’s been practicing English at school and laugh as the dad, in broken language skills declared my friend had been swindled by the mechanic she’d taken her car to (she hadn’t btw) and that next time R needed to bring it to him, all while sitting cross legged on the floor around an incredible feast of chicken and rice, the mom scooping more onto my plate even as I could barely finish what I had already been served. There was levity in the air and such a contrast to the home we had just come from.

R had cautioned me before we left that she never quite knew what to expect when she came to the home of this single mother and her two children. The first time R had visited, she’d taught them how to flush the toilet. Another time, walked into a freezing room that reeked of natural gas. The stove burner had gotten locked on and the mother had been unsure on how to turn it off- flooding the room with a danger she didn’t quite understand.

Very little English for the way of communication, we entered her studio apartment and R observed to me that the mother seemed sluggish and tired today. Culturally a hostess, this Eritrean woman began to boil water for tea and pulled out her best snacks to serve to us her guests, captain crunch and ritz crackers on a plate. Finally settled across from us on the floor, my friend began to attempt communication as I sat and watched, a smile on my face. Our host pulled out her phone and scrolled a few pictures down, the best communication form she had, and showed us a picture of herself sitting in a hospital bed, an IV in her arm. “Oh!” R declared, our next communication task underway: discover why and when this mom of two had visited the hospital.

Through hand gestures and charades, it was established that the trip had happened just yesterday by dialing 119, er, 911-the only medical help my new friend knew how to use. A stack of paperwork an inch deep was pulled off the card table and passed to the English speakers in the room, me and R. I watched as R carefully weeded through, looking for key documents. A prescription was found first and we began to google the medication in an attempt to decipher why she’d been admitted in the first place. Okay… this one is for nausea… that an antibiotic? R turns to me and says, “Well, I think we may be making a trip to the pharmacy today.” More rustling and we found discharge papers, and nicely documented at the bottom a diagnosis, the final clue to the puzzle, and relief that it’s something small, treatable, and routine.

We are interrupted by a phone call, quickly put onto speaker phone, as the woman on the other end is clearly expressing frustration. I catch every 25th word as it flips between English and an unidentifiable language to me. Luckily, my friend knows this neighbor and catches every 10th word. The two women, R and the friend, stand as a declaration is made, “S, (our friends’ daughter) has run. The neighbor is chasing her, the two boys were left at school. We’re going to help, stay here and just wait a few minutes.” Okaaaaay. Next twist of the day. Luckily the situation was less dire than it seemed on the phone and less than a minute later the two of them returned with the five-year-old daughter who was more than delighted to find a new visitor sitting on the floor of their tiny apartment. Shortly thereafter the neighbor arrived after fetching the two boys from school where she’d left them to chase down the daughter. One of the boys hers, the other belonging to my new friend. Once the neighbor had been given tea and the boys had settled down, R stands up and asks me if I’m okay to stay with the kids while she makes the pharmacy run with mom.

I pull whiteboards out of R’s bag, along with a couple of markers and some ESL books, an alphabet book and a lesson book with pictures of different inanimate objects in it. I draw a chicken on the board, having ruled out my other farm animals I can easily draw cartoon versions of, a pig and cow, not wanting to accidentally insult these new Muslim friends. The kids eyes light up and it quickly becomes a game of “this one!” as the little girl points to something in the book and demands I draw it. The boys gleefully show off the one skill they seem to have mastered, their numbers, and bright eyes, seek my approval. We interact in a mottled silence, English words, no sentences, thrown out as fingers point and little bodies wiggle.

After a little more than half an hour R returns, medication in hand, and we leave. In the car, she expresses gratitude that the pharmacist spoke Arabic. It seems the numbers and enough words overlapped with our friends’ heart language that she THINKS dosage instructions were communicated…

The need is so real. It is not comfortable, sitting with someone who has almost zero English. It is not comfortable trying to figure out how you can help. It is a lot more fun eating chicken and rice around a disposable tablecloth with a spoon. But the family with the chicken, rice and spoons were once where this gal is, a refugee from whatever it was she fled, seeking a better life, living in a tiny studio apartment with two children and captain crunch.

I had dinner with a different friend last night, a friend who is a certified ELL teacher whose district just cut the schools English Language Learners (ELL) program, deeming the need “not a good enough use of resources.” She’s going to begin looking for another job. The little boy in the thriving Syrian family shared that he isn’t learning much English… his friends also speak Arabic, so they do. What good is it to him to try really hard to learn this new language when he can get around no problem with his Arabic? Especially in a school system that may or may not have an ELL program?

The need is so real.

So what can you do?

Pray

All of these people need so much prayer!!! People in natural disasters, people in a cycle of poverty, people fleeing for the hopes of a better life. They all need prayer, and they all need life, life that only comes through the loving grace of Jesus Christ. Pray that their physical circumstances would change, but pray that through their interactions with those around them, they would find the only rescuer who can truly pull the out of the depth of the pain they are facing: Jesus.

Volunteer

Find a local ministry to get involved with. What are your passions? Do you want to visit a family once a week? Can you meet with some men or women for an hour and help them learn English? Ask! I can connect you! Can you volunteer your time to help in a ministry like CDC, maybe volunteering this summer at their kids program, a very real need they have? Want to clean for Jesus? I did this for six months a few years ago at CareNet, a pregnancy resource center also in Detroit who help women who need resources, support, or just love as they wrestle through tough decisions. The ministries out there are endless! Reach out-get involved!!!

Give

If you’re not sure where to even start with volunteering… not sure where you can fit it into your schedule, not to fear! You can partner in ministry with your finances. Not sure where to start? There are so many ministries that would steward your gifts to serve those in need. Think about what need God has placed on your heart, jump onto google and pursue that… but in the meantime, here are links to how you can give to support the needs I shared about above…

-> Flood relief: Donations have been flooding in (pun intended) but if you’d like to contribute to the flood relief too, here is what RVA has sent out as they distribute funds throughout the community:

“If anyone would like to give financially, this can be done via RVA’s benevolence fund. Online donations can be made to this fund at the following link: RVA Benevolence — Flood Relief. When making the donation, please check the box to “Leave a note for the finance office” and type “Flood Relief” in the notes section.”

->CDC: Want to know more? Navigate to the about page to learn more about this incredible ministry, scroll down for the option to volunteer, or just follow this link to donate: https://www.centraldetroitchristian.org/donate/

->Refugees: Helping refugees is R’s full time not-paying-job. She works with different families daily, doing visits or errands like I described above on a regular basis. If you want to support her in what she does, she like so many other missionaries who live on gifts like yours, would love your partnership in her work: https://usgiving.aimint.org/donate/1060890