Motown

For the past seven weeks I have been working for a non-profit organization called Motown Mission. I am the Project Coordinator, someone who arranges all of the work sites that our volunteers will be sent to, as well as work with Joy-Southfield Community Development Corp, assisting volunteers on site with construction and redevelopment. A much smaller part of my job has been to live in the community in which I’m working, so I’ve been living in a small four bedroom, one bath house in West Detroit, on Warren, with six other interns. Some of my house mates have jokingly called the area we live in Deartroit because of the close proximity to Dearborn. Our neighborhood is a mix of the Middle Eastern flavor of Dearborn and the often harsh realities of suburban Detroit.

My schedule has been crazy this summer, one that I had not anticipated by any measure. Every morning has been an “early” wake up call around 6 am. Closely followed by driving across the city of Detroit to Metropolitan United Methodist Church to prepare breakfast for our campers. After breakfast and devotionals I inform the groups of where they will be working that day. From there it is a drive back across the city to JSCDC to work with our volunteers on any of the construction jobs that JSCDC has planned for them. After working with the groups on the job site from 9 am until 3-4 pm, I have a break until dinner, when I drive back to Metropolitan eat, help out with the evening worship and whatever other activity is planned for the campers for the evening. Then it’s back home in West Detroit for a little relaxing before bed.

I’m entering into the last week of my job here at Motown Mission and I realized that there are somethings that should be said about the work that my coworkers and I have been doing. So I have rebooted this blog to share some of the lessons I’ve learned and experiences that I have had.