Young woman puts a face and testimony to immigration and poverty at annual conference

• By RJ Walters, Editor •

Just as the Word became flesh when God became man, the theme of the 2011 Detroit Annual Conference became flesh when 19-year-old Jasmine Franco told her story and the church responded joyfully.

With Franco standing behind a podium adorned by a sign that read, “I was a STRANGER and you took ME in,” a video by United Methodist Communications detailed her story of being a stranger in desperate need that found life and an abundance of grace in the Ypsilanti First United Methodist Church.

Franco is the American-born daughter of illegal immigrants from Guatemala who decided to bring their family to America in 1991 for more educational and work-related opportunities.

Franco was part of fairly normal working-class Ypsilanti family doing whatever was need to get by prior to November 2008, when immigration agents stormed into the family’s trailer.

By January 2009, Franco’s mother was deported back to Guatemala and her father and sister voluntarily headed back to their homeland to be with her.

Franco decided to stay behind.

She was adamant about finishing her high school diploma at Huron High School, even though it meant working 5-11 p.m. for minimum wage every day after school and fighting hunger and exhaustion at times.

Then her counselor at HHS, Stephannie Ruzicka, contacted the Education Project for Homeless Youth at the Washtenaw County ISD and along with school supplies and bus tokens, Franco found a saving grace — a relationship with the Rev. Melanie Carey, lead pastor at Ypsilanti FUMC.

“I did not even know the church, I did not know the pastor at the church — she just found out about (my story) through an organization and she was really interested in immigration and she got a hold of me,” Franco said. “They welcomed me with open hearts.”

Eventually Carey and her husband took Franco in as part of their family and the church fully embraced the young woman whose dedication and drive inspired them.

With their prayerful support and financial backing she graduated from HHS in 2010 and she is currently in her third semester of college, studying to become a physician.

Ypsilanti FUMC provided her with money to visit her family “who is still living in poverty” in 2009 and Franco has aspirations of bringing her sister Jennifer — also an American citizen — back to the states to live with her.

Franco now lives with a pair of empty nesters who attend Ypsilanti FUMC and she works on the weekends, sending money to her parents whenever possible.

For the complete story, courtesy of AnnArbor.com, click here.

Franco said she shared her story at annual conference to “say thank you to the wonderful people of the church”, but also to give people a different perspective on the volatile issue of immigration.

“I know not a lot of churches are open to the topic because it’s a very difficult subject, but I believe churches can help people…families are being separated every day and we’re sitting over here right now and I feel like if we all came together as churches we have the power to change that,” she said.

Franco received a standing ovation from the crowd, as many people wiped away tears and stood in awe of Franco’s courage and strength.

Later that day Carey took an impromptu “Ziploc bag” offering to give to Franco.

More than $2,500 was raised and when Franco — who had to leave conference to go to work Saturday afternoon — learned about the generosity via a text message from Carey, her heart was filled with gratitude.

“I can’t express the feelings I felt when Melanie texted me saying that all of you had taken a special offering for me,” she said in a note that was read on Sunday. “I was shocked and I felt the love from my family.”

She said she plans on visiting her family again soon thanks to the offering.

Franco’s story was a perfect parallel to the preaching of Desert Southwest Conference Bishop Minerva Carcaño, who proliferated on “opening ourselves to all means of grace, including the poor and hungry” in several reflections on immigration and ministry with the homeless.

The nudging of people’s hearts at annual conference did not end with the offering to Franco.

Twenty-five medicine kits were collected to send to Haiti, nearly $3,900 was collected for SPLASH — a youth initiative to provide fresh water to people in Liberia, gently-used children’s books were donated for schools in Zimbabwe and food and goods were collected for a food pantry in Adrian.

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New DS for Metro Detroit is a diverse woman ready to embark on a multi-cultural mission

• By RJ Walters, Editor •

From being part of a family that adopted a young boy from Guatemala when she was still a child, to spending some of her college years in Spain and Costa Rica, the Rev. Melanie Carey has always embraced multiculturalism without regard for borders.

Rev. Melanie Carey

Now Carey hopes to tear down cultural divides and barriers standing in the way of progress in Detroit area as the district superintendent for the new Metro Detroit district, effective July 1.

Carey has flourished as the lead pastor of Ypsilanti: First UMC for the past 12 years, starting a weekly Spanish language worship service and shepherding a pair of Kingdom Assignments (www.kingdomassignment.org) that have provided grant money to help more than 20 Detroit Conference churches start their own Kingdom Assignment projects.

The Kingdom Assignment utilizes $100 gifts within congregations with a focus on growing that money for whatever type of ministry is near and dear to a recipient’s heart.

Carey’s penchant for local-church missions and meeting the needs of others caught the attention of Michigan Area Bishop Jonathan D. Keaton.

“Melanie combines fruitful pastoral ministry, a wide variety of conference responsibilities done well, and a passion for social justice," Keaton said. "Whenever and whatever she has been asked to do has been done with excellence, enthusiasm and attention to detail, and I am confident that she will bring those same attributes to her work as superintendent for this new district in the Detroit metropolitan area.”

Carey said she feels privileged to be part of “building God’s kingdom in the city and suburbs with everyone together” and she feels like her background fits the calling appropriately.

“I guess my story would be that Bishop Keaton asked me to serve this particular district because it’s a very diverse district in terms of every way you can think of — not just racial, ethnic diversity, but there’s economic diversity, there’s a lot of diversity in the sizes of churches — basically any way you define diversity, the new metro area is that,” she said.

She grew up in Chelsea, Mich., which she admits, “was not a very diverse place.” However, during her childhood, her parents hosted seven international exchange students for a year at a time.

In 1978 her parents adopted her younger brother from Guatemala, where the family spent weeks waiting for his paperwork to come through.

“That greatly influenced me, so I kind of grew up where multiculturalism was normal,” she said. “It was weird for me to just be around people who were exactly like me so I’ve always been kind of attracted to that.”

Carey has been actively involved in helping create Hispanic/Latino ministries in the conference. She is also a member of the regional advisory board for Justice for Our Neighbors Southeast Michigan, a program that provides free legal immigration services, education and advocacy.

Since 1994, Carey has served as a national facilitator with the General Board of Global Ministries' National Plan for Hispanic/Latino Ministry.

She acknowledges that being a vital part of a new district is one of the largest challenges she has taken on, but she said she will lean on the local churches and leaders of Detroit to “help create and cast a new vision.”

“Having churches and ministry sites work together, there all sorts of wonderful possibilities,” she said. “Plus we have such rich resources in the district in its people, who bring amazing gifts, so I think that’s another way sitting down and talking about what people can bring to the table will help.”

Carey calls her leadership style “very collegial.”

Some of her mentors include the Rev. Saul Trinidad, a National Hispanic Plan missionary who helped Carey practice her Spanish-speaking skills after college when he was serving at El Buen Pastor UMC in Detroit; FUMC of Birmingham pastor, the Rev. Jack Harnish, the first person to really encourage Carey to consider the ministry when she was younger; and the Rev. Jerry Parker, the pastor at Chelsea FUMC during Carey’s childhood.

Carey said she cannot wait to do ministry in new ways with new people in Detroit, but she is reminding people to be patient as fresh ideas and many years of history come together.

“I would to say that whenever we form something new there’s a lot anxiety about what it’s going to be. It’s important that we all give each other extra, what I call, ‘Space for grace,’” she said. “I would connect it to, you do a lot of wandering in the wilderness when you first start something brand new, but it’s also a very exciting time because things pop up that weren’t possible before because you did something a certain way.”

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Building the kingdom $100 at a time

By RJ Walters, Editor

Just as the parable of the mustard seed is about the potential of a towering tree, it was the discreet slip of an envelope that opened people’s eyes to the marvels of God’s work at Ypsilanti First United Methodist Church.

Through several projects dubbed the Kingdom Assignments and with the help of numerous partnerships, the congregation has raised more than $375,000 for local people and programs since 2006.

And now Ypsilanti FUMC Rev. Melanie Carey and her colleagues are spreading the wealth through 

knowledge and grants, hoping other churches will jump on board with an initiative that has transformed the way some Methodists view outreach.

Humble beginnings

The first domino to fall was a donor who wishes to remain anonymous, to everyone except Carey.

Four years ago she came through the greeting line after a service and told the pastor to expect a visit from her the next morning, after having some time to digest the information in an envelope she gave her.

“And then she came in the next morning to see me and she came with a check for $5,000 and said she would like our church to do the Kingdom Assignment and she was willing to give the money to do it, but didn’t want anyone to know who she was,” Carey said.

The donor was inspired by an ABC News piece on an Iowa pastor who got his church involved with the project and she thought it would be appropriate for Ypsilanti FUMC to be the next in line.

“I was like wow, okay, without a clue to what it was,” Carey said. “It was my first encounter with it and I wasn’t really sure about it to be honest. I was sort of like hmmm, I don’t know.”

Little did she know it would be the mission that helped her realize that far too often Christians underestimate God’s power.

Following the call

The purpose of the Kingdom Assignment, which originated at a California church eight years ago, is to provide $100 to Christians, with a focus on growing that money for whatever type of ministry is near and dear to their heart.

In Ypsilanti those ministries have included everything from providing health insurance to cancer patients to donations to the Boys and Girls Club to funds for organizations like Meals on Wheels.

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For those about to rock: Largest Christian tour coming to Michigan at end of March

By RJ Walters, Editor / March 2010 Issue

From humble begins has come an abundance of hope, and some of the premier Christian bands in America are in the process of pleasing ears and changing hearts during the 2010 Winter Jam Tour.

The largest Christian music tour in the country showcases a handful of talented artists from a variety of genres and several insightful speakers, hoping to transform youth and young adults across the country.

As of Feb. 9 Winter Jam had already put on 16 shows in front of 112,336 people, and Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids and the EMU Convocation Center in Ypsilanti are tour stops for Newsong, Fireflight, Third Day and more on March 25 and 26 respectively. What makes Winter Jam more than “just another rock tour” is that 15,230 people have made the decision to follow Christ in their lives along the way.

Billy Goodwin, the lead singer of Newsong, who has been nominated for eight Dove Awards the past three decades (the Christian music industry equivalent of a Grammy), said 15 years ago his band saw the need for camaraderie and love during the winter months and the rest has been the hand of God at work.

They set up a free concert in Greensville, S.C. to entertain what they thought would be a few thousand people at a one-band gig and their lives have never been the same.

”That night when we went to open the doors the hall filled up completely and we turned about 2,000 people away and we were totally taken aback by it. It was like ‘Woah, what is going on here,’” he said. “It became a thing of prayer after that. ‘God what are you doing, what do you want from us here?’”
What that night provoked has been nothing short of magical.

On the tour’s Michigan stops Newsong will be joined by Fireflight, Third Day, the Newsboys, Tenth Avenue North, MIKESCHAIR, Robert Pierre, Revive and guest speaker Tony Nolan — all for $10.

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A vision of diversity for the Hispanic/Latino Ministry

By RJ Walters, Editor / March 2010 Issue

Living in a state where more than 81 percent of the residents were white people as of 2008, it would be easy to shove aside racial and ethnic minorities because the word “minority” loans itself to notions of people “on the fringe” and sometimes it is easier to ignore what people aren’t even willing to think about.

But the United Methodist Church is making valiant efforts to be at the forefront of acknowledging Hispanics and Latinos are currently the fastest growing population in America, with close to 50 million people.

Through in-depth discussions and planning, and the allocation of 3.8 million dollars from 2009-2012, the UMC is committed to opening its doors and arms to the largest ethnic minority in the United States. The vision of the National Plan for Hispanic/ Latino Ministry, put out by the General Board of Global Ministries (GBGM) at the 2008 General Conference, is “based on the experience of the Holy Spirit’s power on the day of Pentecost, to be a ‘Church for all the Nations,’” according to the Communications Unit of the General Board of Global Ministries.

“It is a vision of ‘a dynamic and growing church, joyously sharing and living the good news of Jesus Christ in a multiplicity of places...and in a variety of cultural settings,’ that affirms the cultural identities and not just the language of those among whom we are called to witness.”

With well over 400,000 people of Hispanic or Latino descent in the Detroit and West Michigan Conferences, according to the 2008 American Community Survey, the Michigan Area has been expanding the reach of its ministries.

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