Sunday, January 17, 2016

Interfaith reaching out to Detroit!

Welcome back to the Northwest Suburban Interfaith Council blog page!

Drive with us to the Motor City - Detroit, Michigan!

This summer, we will be working with Cass Community Social Services (CCSS), an organization started in 2002 to work in poverty stricken areas of Detroit, providing programs for food, health, housing and jobs. In line with the housing, the are in the process of final approval to break ground for the building of 25 homes. This is where we come in!

Our team will be part of building some of this new housing, even sending a crew out a day or two early to line up jobs and ensure our group hits the ground running. The specifics are still in the works, but come here to check out the trip as the plans come along, and please consider participating on the inspiring and valuable team!

Learn more about CCSS


here: http://casscommunity.org/

To recap our past experiences, and what we bring to the table, the past two years our teams have been about 45 people, from teens to those in their 70's, men and women, skilled and apprentices. We have worked in Washington, IL to clean up farm fields, making them usable after a devastating tornado dropped a large part of the town on them. We built sheds to help those recovering from that same tornado, working in construction teams which brought out our construction and team building skills!


Our second trip was also tornado recovery, in Brookport, IL. We worked on three different sites, and five different buildings in various stages of construction! It was a privilege to watch some of our crew maneuver an end loader around our foundation site, to see the skill and near acrobatics or some of our younger crew staining rails and decks, and to admire the trade skills of those who installed water heaters or precision cut trim. Our outdoor work crews, especially, deserved special acclamation as the heat index kept climbing until it reached 110°F on our last day!

Throughout both of these trips and our time together reminiscing here at home, we enjoyed the fellowship of coming together to talk and worship in different ways. We have built solid relationships between our faith communities, and formed bonds of friendship with one another.

Peace and prayers to you, as we prepare again to be the hands and feet of God in the world.