The good new is: We have a house!!! It's a nice brick house (see pictures below). Gorgeous woodwork. 4 bedrooms. Brand new furnace. Built in 1915. 1.5 miles from church. Smack dab in the middle of Detroit. We're the only white people on our street. We're so excited to finally be here. We've been commuting between Detroit and Lansing for the last 2 years (at least when we were in the country!) and we're so excited to be in one place and to start putting down some roots and working towards transformation.
For those of you who don't know much about Detroit, it is one of the poorest cities in the country. It is also one of the most segregated racially. There is so much fear, division, racism, poverty and hopelessness. We have a painful history and a legacy of darkness. But this is a city with so much potential, and there has already been a lot of rebuilding. God has called us here for this season to be part of the solution, to contribute to wholeness and healing. Our church has been working very hard to build bridges and transform the community.
Right now, I'm volunteering with Central Detroit Christian CDC, working on developing an urban agriculture and community gardening program in conjunction with a produce market we're developing in the neighborhood. The plan is to transition into a full time position as I finish my thesis and we finalize funding for the project.
Here's are a few pictures of our house (these are all before we bought it):
the entryway:
and the dining room:
