Detroit Report

Detroit Training Report: April 6-10, 2007
Juliette Martin, Christella Hardman

 

Friday
We (Christella and Juliette) arrived on Friday afternoon, close to 1:00pm, at Detroit airport.  Uncle David Kasbow picked us up and we immediately drove to Canada to extend Juliette’s visa; everything went well. Then we accompanied Uncle David in running errands, going to the post office, shopping at Home Depot for linoleum and fundraising buckets, and shopping for groceries for the weekend. We then returned to the Michigan Family Church of Peace center and Juliette went to a nearby home and printed song lyrics, bucket signs, etc. from the WAIT manual CD. 
During that time, the 14-member Ohio WAIT team (including 3 girls from Kentucky) arrived at the church and we discussed the next day’s itinerary and watched “Kenya’s Wait”, the documentary on WAIT’s recent work in Kenya.  This was very interesting for the Ohio WAIT team to watch, especially because Claire Masuda, of the Ohio team, was one of the three people to go on this trip; Aunt Aye Jin Masuda and Claire shared about how Claire had had the dream and desire to go to Africa months before going, the importance and power of following one’s dreams, and how God does not give you a dream without giving you the means to fulfill it. 
After, we began teaching the Ohio members the “Desert Rose” dance, and the Ohio girls, Chris Culbertson, and Juliette worked on “Wait for Me”.  It was very encouraging to see that all of the Ohio team members were really motivated to immediately jump into working hard on everything they could, even after their long four-hour drive.   We were very appreciative; we had a good evening working on the dance and the song, preparing for the Detroit members’ arrival the next day.

Saturday
On Saturday we woke up for prayer and reading, had breakfast, cleaned up the church, and had a quick meeting with the Ohio team to organize and prepare for the day.
At 10:00am around 15 Detroit kids arrived, Christella and Claire gave some welcoming remarks, and we all played an ice breaker game where each person said his or her name and something he or she likes that starts with the beginning letter of their name and then remember the same for all the previous people in the circle (for example, “my name is Juliette and I like Jell-O; this is Christella and she likes creating; this is…”).  Actually, it was a very good game in that it helped everybody to feel more comfortable. After that, we watched the “HIV stories” documentary DVD and talked about WAIT and the HIV/AIDS situation.
We then began to teach Desert Rose; after teaching everybody the beginning section, Il Seuk taught the Detroit boys the capoeira section that Christella had taught him the previous night, Christella taught the girls’ ballet section, and Claire Masuda and Juliette led the girls’ fan section. Everybody worked really hard and learned quickly; it was really nice to work with Detroit and Ohio people. After lunch we had a few testimonies by Christella and Harmony on “how to perform” (from the heart) and Claire, Christella, and Juliette, with the help of other Ohio members, explained the four rules of WAIT.  We then continued working on Desert Rose for an hour and a half, followed by a snack break, and breakout sessions: Juliette led “Wait for Me”; Il Seuk Masuda and Christella worked with the boys on breakdancing; and a group of Detroit and Ohio boys did instrumentals practice.  We closed with some more sharing—Juliette sang “Amazing Grace,” Claire taught about how to internally prepare before each performance for MC’ing, and Andreas Culbertson gave a very good testimony on how to be a supportive friend and stay clear about your personal stance on dating when a WAIT friend or any other friend begins putting themselves in unhealthy dating relationships.

The Detroit kids went home, we had dinner, and Claire and Juliette made a cake for a surprise birthday celebration for Aunt Yoko Becker.  After eating the scrumptious cake, we had entertainment with an “improvisational dance” by K.B., Nina, Gracie, and Harmony; testimonies from Harmony, Gracie, Allen (Aunt Yoko’s children), and Claire; then Christella and I offered our “Beauty from Pain” dance, and we had the privilege to
hear a Japanese song by Aunt Yoko.  We closed the day with some spiritual reading and prayer.

 

 

 

 

 

It was a pretty full day, and we were able to accomplish a lot.  Everyone was amazing and easy to work with.  I think we all appreciated that!

Sunday (Easter):
Four of the Ohio members drove home early Sunday morning to prepare for school and/or work.  After breakfast, spiritual reading and prayer, and cleaning, the rest of us attended and participated in the church service at the Michigan Family Church (where we were staying at and training over the weekend).  We sang “Hero” with the Detroit and Ohio team, introduced by Juliette. Then Christella introduced WAIT and we had some testimonies on “how WAIT grew/changed my heart” by Gracie Becker, and Il Seuk Masuda and Heromasa Passalacqua (combined), and Christella.  Finally, Juliette and Christella finished with a dance, “Beauty from Pain”, to support the Easter and WAIT message that everyone can bring rebirth and renewal to themselves and the world, bringing beauty from pain by deciding to live selflessly for the world. 
After a good lunch, the Detroit and Ohio team did a full WAIT performance for the church congregation with a testimony by August Lindsay of Detroit, a breakdance act, skit, “Wait for Me”, game show, and “A Rose is Still a Rose”.  A couple who were guests to the church for the day were especially moved and inspired by our presentation during the service and the performance; they told us that they are interested in helping to bring the forming WAIT team to local schools and groups, and they bought a few CDs and took our contact information.
Immediately following the performance, Aunt Aye Jin held a parents training session while we continued to work on Desert Rose with the kids.  There were some new participants that had not learned the dance the day before so we had to teach them what they had missed. 
At 3:30pm we held a short training on the purpose and how-to’s of fundraising.  We then began organizing everyone into three-person fundraising teams and, using the highlighted maps and informational brochures and flyers that Uncle David had prepared for us, went fundraising for a freezing hour in the local area, since the stores were closed for Easter.  When all the teams had returned, people shared their experiences—including Young Sung and Tada who got a $40 donation at their last house.  We all felt it was a valuable experience, especially for the Michigan children, to see that they could fundraise pretty easily, explain that they are going to start a local team to their neighbors, and practice courageously standing up for abstinence.  Later on, Uncle David told us that the Detroit area has a 70% out-of-wedlock birthrate.  We agree with him that having a WAIT team in Detroit will be very good for everyone involved, as well as for the Detroit community.
After a closing prayer, the Detroit families went home and we had a nice Easter dinner.  We were then pleasantly surprised when six of the Detroit teen boys returned, ready to learn more and sleep over at the church with us, so we continued work on Desert Rose and were able to finish it!
Everybody was quite inspired by the whole day.  It was great that we were able to give the Detroit team a taste of all three aspects of growth and outreach—performing, fundraising, and practicing! 

 

Monday
We started Monday early teaching “Beauty From Pain” to the five Ohio and Kentucky girls—they were really excited for us to teach them!— while the Ohio boys helped the Detroit boys create a martial arts act.  The girls finished learning the dance after lunch after a quick total four hours.  Then Christella and Juliette took showers at a nearby church member’s home (it felt really good after 3 days without a shower!!)  Unfortunately, when we returned the Ohio team had to leave, so we had a closing meeting and said good-bye. 
Left alone with the remaining six Detroit boys, we then showed them the Jerusalem-U.S. Multicultural Project DVD and the South Africa DVD, and shared about the heart of WAIT.  Dinnertime quickly came upon us, and we all worked together to prepare it.  Aunt Mariko, one of their mothers, arrived at the church in the middle of our cooking and quickly went shopping for a lot of food to help us with dinner; we really appreciated that!  After dinner the boys jumped straight into practicing their martial arts act, again; it was pretty good!  And then they worked a little bit more on Desert Rose. 
We finished the day with a Jackie Chan movie—“Shanghai Noon”. 

Tuesday
We woke up early Tuesday morning to pack and clean the church up back to its original state, with much help from the Detroit boys, before being picked up by Uncle David to drive back to airport and fly back home to Maryland.  The Detroit boys’ company was really nice.  They are really amazing, sincere-hearted, fun guys and very responsible.  We were very impressed and appreciative.

Thank you, everyone, for your hard work, participation, support, care, and heart.  We have much hope for Michigan and continued confidence in Ohio.  We met and worked with so many glowing, growing, gifted, great young and not-as-young people.  We feel very blessed to have had the opportunity to be with you this weekend. 
You all are amazing and precious and you ARE worth waiting for.