Friends,

This year the Motown Mission Experience will welcome over 250 youth participants to the City of Detroit for "economic disaster recovery work" in the name of Jesus Christ.

Below is a message from Rev. Bill Ritter of the United Methodist Union about a partnership initiative with the Joy-Southfield Community Development Corporation with whom we place many of our youth work teams. Please read and respond!

Thanks,
Carl Thomas Stroud Gladstone
YLI Director

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To: Detroit East and West Colleagues

From: Rev. Dr. Bill Ritter, Executive Director, United Methodist Union

Re: A tool-drive for Joy-Southfield Community Development Corporation

Joy-Southfield is taking off -- big time. Birthed by Second Grace United Methodist Church, it is an ever-expanding Medical Clinic. Now it is also a Community Development Organization with a thriving housing component. When it comes to housing rehab, Rod Gasaway and Randy Kovach are going great guns. This is something that should occasion great pride. It should also occasion widespread support.

But, for once, start by thinking small. One tool. Two tools. Five tools. Or a donation to purchase some tools. Why do they need tools? Because they have acquired a tool truck. It’s big….with a 20 foot bed. It can go from jobsite to jobsite. No one needs a “qualified” license to drive it. Yes, local churches can borrow (rent) it. The only qualification is that it cannot leave Michigan. But it can support a local project, handle small moves, or do large pickups for rummage sales. What a resource.

Read Rod and Randy’s information sheet. Then read their tool list. This summer, alone, they will work on 20 houses with over 200 volunteers. Those volunteers (teens and adults) come from everywhere. Some of them could even come from your church.

There is no church so small that it couldn’t put its hands on a tool or two….or purchase a tool or two. Every church has someone with a tool crib (box) in their basement for which there is no longer need or skill. Detroit West District churches have an offer from United Methodist Men to pick up boxes of tools. What’s more, Rod and Randy can co-ordinate such matters and answer any and all questions. Email them at rgasaway@joysouthfield.org or call Joy-Southfield at 313 581-7773. This is as close as you will ever get to a “surely we can do something” project.

Click on the attachments for more information. And thanks for reading this. I suspect you can tell that I really “dig” these guys -- assuming I can get my hands on a shovel.