Communion

It has been a really tough couple of weeks. We have been mad crazy trying to raise money to keep City Mission Academy open in the fall. There has also been some very difficult personal issues that we as a family have been going through.

This morning Caci, my 10 year old announced that she has prepared communion. She used the bread and juice that someone had given to us for dinner the night before. We as a family had communion together. Caci did the whole things. She had it set up. She put the "blood" in her cup from her birthday...it is a tiki cup from a summer theme birthday party. And then she put the bread safely between two plates. She lead us in prayer and then encouraged each of us to make sure we each had accepted Jesus into our hearts. She said "this is serious, really think about it."

Then she served each of us one by one and then she served herself.

After such a week communion was very welcome and appropriate.

"Let the little children come onto me", Jesus said.

I say indeed.

We can learn so much from children and how they think of God if we would just follow their lead.

Cass and Elizabeth

Thanks to many generous supporters we often get to go to different sporting events in the area. This particular night we had Tigers tickets and I was excited to spend an evening at the ballfield, without children. Well, like most events in my life a few of them manage to sneak in. So, I loaded the Bonnie up with the two interns (who I adore and am not considering them the children :) and two neighbor girls. I thought they had been to a game before but they acted like they had never even seen downtown! We weaved through the streets and found somewhere to park amidst the baseball fans and Aretha Franklin fans that were also attending an event downtown. The girls had the job of remembering the streets we parked at. One remembered Cass and one remembered Elizabeth. They practiced the whole short walk to the ball field. On the way in we saw a homeless asking for money and one of the girls was so sad she had left the three pennies on the floor in the car, she wanted to give him money so badly. This, from a child who most would consider poor. Clearly, she is not poor, but rich in spirit. We can learn so much from children.

Another beautiful thing about taking children on outings with you is seeing them discover things for the first time. We were walking (all the way!) around the stadium and one of the girls stopped in her tracks. I thought from the shoe that had broken about 100 times on the way in. But, after I picked her jaw up off the ground I realized she was marveling at the amount of people. She said, "there are 4 million people here", she had never seen something so large before! After she picked up her jaw, she also found a nickel on the floor. She was so intent on keeping that nickel safe and that we walked back the same way to cass and Elizabeth to give the homeless man her nickel, and she did. What a testimony to us all.

We didn't make it through the whole game, and mostly played with each other more than watched but they got a round of Take Me out to the Ballgame in and that's all that matters in my book. So, after we did the 7th inning stretch we made our way back to the car, gave the nickel to the poor man, and ended with a drive through the McDonald's drive-thru. Successful night indeed.

This is church

City Covenant Church We had church last night, and it was beautiful. As we stood at the door and greeted folks they came in all shapes and sizes from all locations. This picture doesn't do justice as to what happened last night but it's the beginning of something new. As Pastor Semmeal said over and over, isn't something new so great. Yes, indeed, it was. We started with dinner, of course. Then we had a meeting to share passion, vision, and need of this something new we are about to embark on. Everyone needs to at least experience this something new and the beauty of starting a church in a place such as Detroit, such as Brightmoor.

Isaiah58:6

Beauty in the Brightmoor

There is so much beauty in my neighborhood.

This picture is the City Mission Garden. We grow fruit in vegetables, the kids help in this process. They love to go out the garden at recess and eat a bunch a peas or berries. On Saturday we had a barbecue in the garden. It's like a slice of heaven.

The City Mission garden sells it's "goods" at local farmer's market in the neighborhood.

This is a tree a drive under everyday to get my kids to school or to go for a bike ride. It amazes me how it has bent to cover us all. Just as Christ's covers us all. This tree has adjusted to living in the neighborhood. I'm sure at times it wishes it was in a forest, but I'm sure God sent it to live with us to show us His Beauty.

This is my daughter, Caci. She loves horses. And last year the buffalo solders came into the neighborhood and opened a horse camp. She is a volunteer there. She cleans stalls & feeds the horses. Yes, you read this correct. We can ride our bikes to the stables. God chose to bless Caci with a stable in her own back yard.

"In that day the Lord almighty will be a glorious crown, a beautiful wreath for the remnant of His people." Isaiah 28:5

Buggy Friends

This morning on the way into City Mission a saw an interesting happening. The picture of the happening is above.

Since I knew the woman in the buggy I said "What are you guys doing?" She said "I got a nail in my foot and I can't walk. So my friends are taking me around the corner." When I asked her if she was planning on going to the doctor she replied "No, I got shot last month and they gave me a tetanus shot, so they won't do anything for me now." I encouraged her to see a doctor and then asked if I could take her picture. She agreed. And then they made sure to get their beer cans and the like out of the buggy and not in the picture. They said "this is for City Mission we can't have that stuff in the picture."

This woman comes to Bible Study at City Mission each week. She knows her Bible. We at City Mission want to continue to love her. What a picture of love her friend pushing her in a buggy. What a picture of Christ's love people welcomed in Bible Study when they are still in their "stuff".

"No greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friend." John 15:13

Summer Fun in Detroit

Today I thought I would share some fun things that we have done at City Mission over the last couple of weeks. These fun things happened right in the City of Detroit. I think the city gets a bad rap. There are so many great things to do in this city.

Belle Isle. The children can play for days at the playground at Belle Isle. We didn't even go to the beech or rent a paddle boat. We did get a bit wet at the fountain, however.

The Rouge Park Swimming Pool. It is free and it is fabulous! Last year we took the kids there for swim lessons. Many of them could not swim. They were scared to get into the water and just stood in the pool. This year the kids were kicking around, getting wet and having a grand time!

Chandler Park Aquatic Center. This is a great place for anyone. I want to go without my kids so I can just float around on my own tube in the wave pool. Again, it is very inexpensive and worth every penny! We had to drag the kids out of the pool and off the slides.

If you have not experienced any of this greatness of the City Of Detroit I challenge you to do it this summer!!

Welcome to City Mission

For the next 365 days I, Nicole Aikens (Executive Director) want to share with you what it is like to live, breath, eat and love "the Work" of City Mission.

Isaiah 58:6-12

This picture is of Jamila (Jami) Aikens, my daughter with her very best friends. They had their first "Friendship Meeting" on Saturday at my house. They took an oath to always be friends and to be nice to one another and to others. They had to dip their two promise fingers in water and then put them over their heart.

There was a lot of giggling. It a blessing to hear these children laugh together and love one another.

I should also mention that Jami announced last week that she is officially "Brown". At City Mission the kids call us "Cream" and they are "Brown". She announced it to us as her family and then to her classmates as they are her family as well.

We are family around here. I hope that you will get to know us as your family as you read about the exciting things that happen everyday at City Mission.