FLINT – On August 9-10, Send Relief’s Serve Tour Flint overwhelmed the region with 606 volunteers from 49 churches from 10 states descending on Flint, Michigan erupting into two days of unstoppable acts of service to 4,480 people. There were 700 spiritual conversations that resulted in 41 salvations. The 33 projects took place in 7 schools, 8 community centers, 15 church communities, including 3 bi-vocational pastors and their families being helped in generous ways with transportation or home improvement solutions.
Block Party
A church of 40 attenders received 300 guests at their block party. The recently arrived pastor and wife said, “We told our congregation that we have to get outside the walls if we are going to make a difference in the community. That is why we handed out hundreds of invitations from door to door, weeks prior to this day.” Attenders played games, received school backpacks for the children, and engaged in long conversations with the members of the church.
Woman in Addiction
A squad of Christians paced their movement alongside a slowly moving van with a mobile grill cooking hotdogs and hamburgers while knocking on doors offering prayer, conversations about Christ, games and toys for the children, and food for hungry family members. One woman answered the door in tears gushing that she had lost her children due to her addiction.
As the Lord would have it, one of the volunteers on the doorstep explained that she lived locally and served as a counselor for people with addictions. The volunteer explained that she knew how to enroll the woman in a program to help her fight her addiction. Within two hours, the tearful woman was filled with renewed hope and heading toward a solution for her future and for her family because people who were walking her street were there to serve her needs out of their love for Jesus Christ.
Chicagoland Pastor, Wife, and Daughters
Pastor Nathan, his wife Andrea from Chicagoland brought his five daughters in an RV and camped in Frankenmuth during the evenings, but worked furiously hard for two days refreshing a homeless shelter for women and children and another shelter for men with fresh coats of paint. Pastor Nathan explained that his Chicagoland church had benefited earlier from volunteers coming to his community and so he and his family wanted to “pay the kindness forward in Flint.” That generosity was noticed.
A staff member at the shelter said, “Though the paint work everyone did at the Carriage House Ministries made the building look and feel much better, the real impact was how lovingly the volunteers filled up the “cups” of the staff members at the shelter.” She went on to explain, “At a shelter that runs 24/7 we are always emptying our cups of encouragement and love into others with empty cups who need those expressions of support from us. But during the Serve Tour, we feel as if the volunteers continually filled our cups with kindness, service, and love. We needed that more than we knew!”
A Jehovah’s Witness
One block away from Greater Mount Zion Church in Flint, Sasha stepped outside of the two-story, mid-century house after hearing the volunteers knocking on her front door. She apologized for her mismatched clothes and asked what was going on. One volunteer explained that volunteers with the nearby church were sharing hot grilled food for everyone, toys for the children, and an invitation to hear more about the church and Jesus Christ.
Sasha rapidly took a step back and responded with, “I am with the nearby Kingdom Hall.” To which the volunteer smiled and replied, “Well, is there anything at the Kingdom Hall that would keep you from receiving food from new friends and toys for the children?” Sasha moved forward again and with a warm smile unlatched the gate that had seconds earlier served as a protective barrier. One volunteer after another moved toward Sasha offering hot delicious food, toys for the children, and hugs around her shoulders.
One of the female volunteers rapidly connected with Sasha by calling her by name, looking lovingly at Sasha with the warmth of respect for being a mother and wife in a hard place, then offered to pray for Sasha. To which Sasha replied, “I would love that. I need prayers.” The volunteer was unaware of Sasha’s connection to the Kingdom Hall because she was had been gathering food for Sasha, but you would not have known it when you heard the prayers of the Christian volunteer. At one point in the intercession the volunteer prayed, “Lord, help Sasha to know the truth of who you are in Jesus Christ. Give her the courage to lead her family to you. Assure her that she is welcome at Greater Mount Zion Church.”
As the volunteers walked away from Sasha’s home, they offered a few more words of encouragement to Sasha, “The pastor is Joseph Brown. He is the third generation in his family to lead the church just down the street. He and his wife Marilyn are raising a family like you and your husband. He is a songwriter and musician; you will love them.” Sasha replied, “I just might come to the church with the family. I have never seen my Kingdom Hall do anything like this for anyone. I may just be there.”
More Information
The back of the t-shirts on volunteers from Oklahoma expressed it well - “The church has left the building!”
If you are interested in becoming a volunteer with a Send Relief Serve Tour, just review the details found at SendRelief.org/serve-tour - there are tours in North America and international tours each year. One of the most valuable takeaways from each experience is seeing how your local church could duplicate the projects in the community around your church building.
Serve Tours strengthen vulnerable communities around the world by meeting physical and spiritual needs in Jesus’ name.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dr. Tony L. Lynn is the Send Network Director for Michigan and the Language/Ethnic Church Planting Catalyst. Before coming on staff at the BSCM, Tony served as a lead pastor in Michigan churches and as an international missionary, along with his wife Jamie, in the Niger Republic, France, and Canada.
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