(The Lot at the end of the day)

Our first Serve Detroit day on July 15th, was a tremendous blessing - both to Mike and I, to our communities, and I believe to everyone who joined us. We had about 20 people from the Ann Arbor Vineyard come out in the sweltering heat, to help out our neighbors in Detroit. The first team was assigned to work at the former "Mr. Fofo's Chicken Shack," which was recently purchased by CDC, across the street from their headquarters. The building will be converted into an ice cream shop and will provide jobs for high-school students in CDC's workforce training program - helping students gain skills needed to acquire and keep a job! The team helped weed the parking lot for the ice cream shop, which was not an easy task considering the heat and the overgrown nature of the weeds.

The second team was at our friends, the Freeman's place, where they cleaned up the place and provided much needed encouragement to the Freeman's. While they were there, they even discovered a gas leak and called DTE to fix it. DTE arrived immediately and fixed the situation. Praise God for His providence as the gas had been leaking for some time.

The third team was at Ms. Smith's house, around the corner from CDC. The team trimmed the elderly woman's bushes and helped prepare her kitchen for some fresh paint. They had a really enjoyable time with Ms. Smith. Most of us hung around afterward and went to dinner at Los Galanes in Mexicantown and the Tiger's game. The heat + labor combined was truly a bonding experience. We were blessed to get to know other members of the AAV community, but more importantly, the oportunity to extend love beyond the walls of our church doors.

MANY THANKS to all of you who came out to help with this endeavor on Saturday. God's grace was surely over all of us and we thank Him for the opportunity to give something so small yet important, back to Him and to His work.

I think this verse from 1 Chronicles 29:14, from David's prayer, echoes our same feelings of thanks.

"But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand."

UPCOMING EVENTS:
July 29th: Working in Detroit, 9am - 12:30pm
August 12th and 26th: 313 in Detroit resumes its normal schedule on the 2nd and 4th Sat of the month, 9am - 12:30pm
September 7: 313 in Ann Arbor begins our study of Simpler Living, Compassionate Life (1st and 3rd Thurs)