Detroit's Christmas Gift

On Dec. 15, 2009, the Transforming Church of Detroit, under the leadership of Pastor Clarence Love, organized a special Christmas food and clothing distribution for Burns School (K-8th grade) and Cooley High School.

Assessing the Need
Love and Mark Judkins, director of East Michigan Christian Community Development Corp., met with the principal of Burns School to assess the need for food and clothing in the school’s area. She shared that 95 percent of the children in her school are on the free or reduced-cost lunch program. She went on to explain that many of the kids cannot attend classes in the winter because they have no coat, and if they attend, they risk frostbite and the school staff have to care for them upon arrival. She went on to explain in detail the severe need in the neighborhood and asked the church to consider doing something as a Christmas gift for these families.

Commitment from the Church
In their assessment, they determined that 500 families in this school were in need. Love committed to helping, and the word was spread throughout the East Michigan District of The Wesleyan Church congregations. Though many of these churches were committed to other local projects, people began to give.

A few days later, the principal asked if the commitment could be raised from 500 to 600 families, realizing the need was greater than anticipated. Love contacted Gleaner’s Food Bank and placed the order for enough food to provide 600 families with a 40-pound box of food as a Christmas gift. When the bill was totaled, God had provided funding to cover it through the donations made by East Michigan churches. The food was in place, coats were coming in and the necessary volunteers needed were signing up. It was all coming together.

Everything Changes
Then a phone call came. When Love picked up his phone, he found it was his contact at Gleaner’s Food Bank. Love was amazed as she explained that Gleaner’s was going to match the church’s effort and would be donating another 600 boxes of food!

Love realized that even though this was a huge blessing, it also changed everything. A box truck that would use the school’s loading dock now became a semi-tractor with a trailer needing to be manually unloaded. More sorting and packing of food meant more volunteers were needed. With this new information, the principal committed to rallying people from the school. The seventh- and eighth-grade boys were released from classes to help, as well as some students from the high school. This blessing from Gleaner’s meant that the effort would now extend to include families from the nearby high school and not just from Burns.

When Tuesday, Dec. 15 came, Transforming Church led the forces of the East Michigan District (eight churches from the district partnering and working together as the body of Christ) into Detroit for the distribution of such a special and needed Christmas gift. More than 200 volunteers lent aid, of which about half were staff and students from Burns School and Cooley High School. Many of the students serving were also recipients of this gift.

All in a Day’s Work
Assessment of the day:

• 43,000 pounds of food were boxed and distributed
• 1,000+ families were served with boxes of food
• 100 school staff members were given boxes of food with personally signed Christmas cards to bless and encourage them in their service
• 300+ coats were fitted and given to children and adults
• 150 winter hats were given with the coats with no hoods
• 135 pairs of winter gloves were given to children
• Numerous pairs of winter boots and scarves were given to children
• 600 "Wesleyan Life" magazines were distributed with the boxes
• 600 “Who Are The Wesleyans?” brochures were distributed with the boxes (gave a great way to tell them about The Wesleyan Church and the new church in Detroit)
• ”Registered” every family who received a food box to track stats for the school’s use in its funding requests as well as for the church to do follow-up for future ministry


We Are Wesleyan
When people saw us passing the "Wesleyan Life" magazines, they literally said, “Can I have one?” or “I want one.’” I watched as people read them, and I had more than one person ask me who we were and ask to know more about the Wesleyans.

Not only are people of Detroit physically hungry, they are hungry for the Bread of Life. While they appreciate the food and clothes, many are looking for answers to the deeper questions of life. Government isn’t solving their problems.

Without a doubt, the church’s time has come!

Change Comes in the Midst of Chaos
About halfway into the distribution, a young lady with her family approached me. I had spoken to her about 30 to 45 minutes earlier as she stood in line getting coats for her children. At that time she asked for a brochure, and I briefly explained the Wesleyans to her and told her we were coming to the community with a new church.

Upon this second interaction with her, she asked me, “What’s your role with the church?” Being a bad time to unpack the meaning of district superintendent, I simply told her that I was one of the pastors with the Wesleyan church helping serve the community. Immediately she asked, “So you can help lead me in a prayer to accept Jesus Christ?”

Caught off guard, I assured her that I could do that, and asked her if she knew who He is and what He’s about. As she answered the few questions presented, I knew this was a person genuinely desiring to be saved. So, there in the main entrance of Burns School, with hundreds of people scrambling around us, I stood with this young lady, her husband and their two kids and prayed with her to know Jesus Christ as her Savior!

After some words of direction and encouragement, I gave her daughter a Gideon New Testament that I had in my pocket. With tears in her eyes, she looked at me and said, “It feels so good to be back with God. I can’t tell you how good this feels right now.” I could literally see a change in her countenance.

This was the real thing ... what the day was really all about!

Will You Be Back?
At the end of the day, a young student was standing at the table once covered in coats, having received one of these coats earlier. As he waited for his family, he was chatting with a church volunteer. The boy asked, “Are you coming back to our school?” The volunteer replied, “I don’t know. We’ll definitely be around because we are starting our church in your neighborhood.” To that the boy responded, “I hope you come back. Whenever there’s a holiday, I think you should come.”

No doubt about it, Transforming Church of Detroit along with the East Michigan Christian Community Development Corp. will be back! Or maybe better said...The Wesleyan Church is in Detroit, and we’re here to stay!