Proclaim Community Day

Blog Entry: Irina McCay-Pedrick

I walk into Ford Field and there are about 30,000 people there. I can already feel the energy emitting from all the people around me. It is the most incredible and indescribable feeling in the world, to see 30,000 people all rise up together and sing with one voice and dance with one body. It is an explosion of people from different parts of the United States, joining together as one. It is the most electrifying feeling. This worship reminds me of the worship in Honduras, when people dance and sing with all their interior being. The music at Ford Field was so loud but loud in a good way. I could feel the vibrations move through my entire body. I could feel the rhythm pump through my veins and flowing into my heart. I found myself not wanting to sit down; I let go. It is the most powerful feeling in the world to be united with so many people. How could you not feel like you could do anything? I always want to feel the way I felt in that stadium. I wish this feeling could be explained better but there are no words in the human language that could possibly describe it.  

Blog Entry: Valerie Wessel

Today was our Proclaim Community day: a day all about learning and giving back not only to the Detroit community, but communities around the world. We started our day with worship. The 9:15 service was full of beautiful word and song, featuring Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton and Christian rapper, Agape. After dismissal, the morning was our time to explore. The huge Cobo Center convention halls held hundreds of activities to partake in. Things such as writing graffiti, making puppets, building houses, carrying water through an obstacle course, playing on the "Bumper Karts" (which was hilariously entertaining), and much, much more. Two of the more in-depth giving opportunities were giving blood and donating hair. I didn't participate in either because I'm too small to give blood and too attached to my hair to donate it, but four of our awesome youth group ladies had the heart to donate 8 inches each of their gorgeous hair to make wigs for girls who hope to feel just as gorgeous. It was all such a humbling experience and an incredible day.