This summer, we completed our second group trip to Detroit to the K-LOVE Hope Center. The trip had so many goals to accomplish, yet somehow God accomplished them all. This trip had many travelers from Orlando, Tampa, DC, Chicago, Montana, New York, Missouri, Pittsburgh and Detroit. We were also joined by a youth group from Michigan called Journey Ministries for one of the work days. It was a full and phenomenal trip.
Getting the Houses Ready
In May, World Hope partnered with the K-LOVE fan awards. Through this partnership, World Hope committed to donating a house to a family in Detroit for every 500,000 votes cast for the K-LOVE Fan Awards. The K-LOVE fans came through in a HUGE way, and over 2 million votes were cast for the K-LOVE artists, entertainers, and athletes. Over the last few months, we have been searching for houses in Detroit and have secured a few of them. During this trip, major cleaning and upkeep was done on the houses. One of them had entire rooms of debris. However, some of our travelers were able to go in and turn the houses around in a major way!
Journey Ministries
Through a partnership with Dr. Mike Dell, a chiropractor who has been to Detroit as well as Kenya with World Hope, Journey Youth Ministries paid a visit to the Hope Center this summer. The students did some major overhaul on the facade of the Hope Center: clearing debris, painting and planting huge flower pots, and sprucing up the front of our property. The flowers were donated through another contact of Dr. Dell. The students also spent a lot of time sorting clothing we would give out later in the week.
Construction
The construction on this trip was one of our greatest accomplishments. Three walls were constructed in the garage area, walls were primed for painting, windows were covered and the large crawl spaces in the garage were also filled and secured. Upstairs, walls were removed and repairs were made to get ready for the REFUGE program. In addition, drywall was installed upstairs, lights were replaced, new electrical wiring was run, and walls were primed and painted. Outside, two large dead trees were removed, overgrown areas were cleared, and general upkeep was completed.
Outreach Event
Each trip, we like to take at least a day away from all the work that needs to be completed and really spend time loving on the community. This trip, the outreach event was bigger than ever. Nearly 300 people from the community and neighborhood surrounding the Hope Center came by on Saturday. We gathered contact information from each visitor in order to let them know when church services begin on campus later this summer. We had stations set up where we prayed with nearly every person who walked on our property. We gave out more clothes than we could have imagined. It was as if we had our own pop-up shop right there at the Hope Center, and people left with bags full of needed clothing items. There was incredible talent at the event as local singers, dancers, and musicians took the stage and really drew in the crowd. One of our newest partners, “Mr. Talk Box“, Byron Chambers, formerly of TobyMac’s Diverse City Band, even joined in on the fun. Food was donated by one of our board members, and we fed over 250 people in just 3 hours. There were crafts and games for the kids and even a pick-up basketball game. It was easy to step back on Saturday and see that this is what a neighborhood should feel like.