Each and every month, the people of Berkley First participate in some sort of mission or service project. Locally, we partner with the Redford Brightmoor Initiative in one of Detroit’s most economically disenfranchised neighborhoods and with the Micah 6 Community in Pontiac. Projects have included preparing and serving lunch, painting, minor construction, and working in community gardens.
We also have international partnerships in Manzanillo, Cuba and San Pedro Sula, Honduras, where we feed the hungry, distribute Bibles, support local ministries, and put on revival events to serve as a “mountaintop experience” for local churches.
The work of the church, including all of our mission projects, is upheld continually in prayer. On the first Sunday of the month, all are welcome to join us after the 10:00am worship service in A Time for Prayer.
For more information on upcoming mission opportunities, email Patty at missions@berkleyfirst.org.
If you have a specific prayer request, you can submit them to Barb at prayer@berkleyfirst.org.
Stories of IMPACT – Ministries of Education through Birmingham and Berkley First
Birmingham and Berkley First is making an IMPACT in education around the world. In Haiti, 130 students are provided with scholarships for tuition, books, and uniforms – with backpacks and supplies going to all scholarship recipients plus an additional twenty students. Nancy Smith calls this “truly unbelievable”, writing that she is “so grateful for this church and other donors who have a heart for Haiti.”
Here in the United States, we support Henderson Settlement’s after school program, serving children from Kentucky and Tennessee, and fund educational field trips for children and youth during Henderson’s eight-week summer program to expand their world through visits to museums, zoos, aquariums, and petting farms. Backpacks were provided by the Berkley First Men’s Group for the July 2023 Mission Trip to Henderson.
In India, our church has resourced the Anton Public School, providing new uniforms for teachers and supplies for students. We also offer scholarships for twenty-four 9th and 10th graders to further their education beyond the Anton School. Meanwhile, our mission in the Czech Republic has expanded services to support Ukrainian refugee families and children, providing among other things the school supplies and necessary financial assistance to attend the local schools.
Birmingham and Berkley First joins with United Methodists from across Michigan in supporting the Conference Readers to Leaders program, educating students right here in Michigan through Freedom Schools and in Liberia through a scholarship program. Under the leadership of Rev. Dr. Charles S. G. Boayue, Jr. plans are also being put in place to build a new school in Liberia.
If education is indeed a pathway out of poverty, the work of this church is “good news to the poor.”
