It's easy to get caught up in the apparenty glamour of going to far-away places to do mission trip work, but we can't forget that we have an opportunity to serve in a very poor, oftentimes very desperate environment just east of Ann Arbor.  Detroit is a city in crisis and with profound need in many areas. And we believe the Lord calls us to enter into that brokenness to serve and be Christ to the people there. 

For the past number of years we've been working with a partner group called Youthworks Detroit to put on these spring break trips, called 'Urban Encounters'.  This year we will most likely run another trip, provided we have people to go serve.  If you ask anyone who has spent any amount of time serving in detroit, they will recommend that you go.  

More information on this year's trip is forthcoming, but stay posted!  Talk to Colin Miranda (colseanm@umich.edu) if you have questions about the trip.

"One of the events that really touched me was when we delivered lunches to homeless people and every one of them would say "God Bless you" before you could say anything. It was amazing to see how strong these people's faith are even though they technically have "nothing." The main reason I went down there was to help people in Detroit and evangelize to them, but I didn't really expect them to evangelize to me. After the trip I was taken aback at the many ways the Lord works through people's lives and that anybody can evangelize and be evangelized.”

“My favorite part was seeing--and being a part of--love in action.  We handed out bagged lunches to the hungry.  We witnessed men, by the grace of God, rebuilding their lives after years of imprisonment and alcoholsim.  We helped renovate the house of a family striving to radically answer God's call to be a light in a darkened city.  We experienced God at work in Detroit.” 

       -Chris, U of M Graduate (now serving in Detroit as a missionary)