Detroit 2010 Trip Report

War Week is an annual youth conference coordinated by Pastor Tim Dilena’s church in Detroit. Watch this video that shows how hundreds of high school students pack the sanctuary of Revival Tabernacle to be challenged by the Word and participate in outreaches in inner-city streets.

The next team of young adults will be going out in July 2011. Today is the last day to register, so check out the 2011 SYP Trip Schedule to register now!

Detroit 2010: Day 4 – War Week

The final day of War Week here in Detroit was amazing.  Just like the previous few days, we started here at RT for some worship and a word to prepare for the day.  The students were all given cardboard to write the prayer requests on (which we’d been getting in the community all week)…more on that later!

Then it was back to McKenzie field (where we served yesterday) to do some more work.  After working for the afternoon we packed up and headed back to RT where we got the cardboard with the prayer requests and lined a mile of the main road here and interceded for the town and all of the requests that we’d gotten this week.

The night ended with more worship and a final word from Pastor Dilena…can’t wait to get back and share more photos with you of the powerful week here in Detroit!

Some of the prayer requests that were prayed over:

Click on the images below for a larger view:

Detroit 2010: Day 3 – War Week

It’s the end of our second day here in Detroit at War week and I wanted to give you some facts that Pastor Dilena shared with us this morning about the city of Highland Park (just outside of Detroit – it’s where we’re working)

- Highland Park was a world renowned city at one point

- The first car ever made was here in Highland Park

- The first ever production line was here in Highland Park

- The first (and shortest) paved road in the nation was here in Highland Park

- in the 1930′s and 40′s it was called the cleanest city in America

- it also had one of the best school systems in the nation

Here are some current facts about Highland Park that he shared:

- Highland Park is the most violent city in Michigan

- Highland Park has the highest rate of single parent homes in the nation (77%)

- 38% unemployment

I hope that gives you a better idea of what War Week is all about and why we’ve traveled from New York City to Michigan for a week to serve with Revival Tabernacle.

Today we went out into the community again, this time to a local park that’s been abandoned and rundown for years.  We spent the morning cleaning, cutting down trees and weeds, moving trash and just getting the park back in shape.  During our evening service the Mayor of Highland Park came and thanked the groups for their work on that park, remarking that he’d played at that park some 20 years ago and was so happy to see how much work we were doing to give it back to the community.  We had the chance to pray over him and then got back into worship followed by a powerful word from Pastor Dilena.  We’re all looking forward to our 3rd and final day here tomorrow at War Week!

I’ve included a few ‘before and after’ shots for you to see the work that we were a part of today!

Detroit 2010: Day 2 – War Week

We started our first full day of War Week here in Detroit with some powerful worship at Revival Tabernacle that led to a great time of prayer and preparation.  After our morning session we had a quick lunch and headed out into the community.  Our team went into a neighborhood nearby and broke up into several groups, partnering with youth from Detroit.  We went door to door inviting everyone that we met to some of the events that War Week is putting on over the next few days – from a fair with inflatable games for the community kids to giving out backpacks full of school supplies for the upcoming school year.  We got the chance to take prayer requests from many of the people we met and even prayed with quite a few of them.

After a quick shower we came back together at RT for the evening session with some more worship and a great word.  The young adults on the team spent the evening doing some ‘behind the scenes’ work such as cleaning up the kitchenafter 500 youth ate dinner there, and taking over the childcare for the evening.

Now it’s off to bed…and back to work in the community tomorrow!

Detroit 2010: Day 1 – War Week

Today was a long and exciting one, starting at about 5am at Times Square Church in New York City and ending here tonight in Detroit, Michigan at War Week.  We’re looking forward to an amazing time here with Revival Tabernacle serving the people of Detroit.  We had our first service tonight and spent the day flying/riding in the bus, setting up our home base in the gym of a local school, meeting a team from California and then ended here at the first War Week service with some amazing worship and a great message.  More soon after our first full day of work tomorrow!

Detroit 2010: Departure Day

I’ve never seen a group of teenagers & young adults so alive at 5am!! A few hours ago the SYP (Strictly Young People) team of 31 jetted off to Detoit to attend War Week – an annual youth conference & community outreach hosted by Revival Tabernacle. The team will be joining young people from accross North America for 4 days of powerful preaching, united worship & Christ-motivated social action! 

Be sure to check back here for more photos & updates as the team from TSC puts their faith into action on the streets of Detroit.