In February 2015, four sisters from the Detroit Church of Christ attended the “Heart of a Champion” singles retreat in Charlottesville, Virginia. At the retreat, they met two brothers, Jason Jones and Reggie Kitchens, from the Hampton Roads Church of Christ. As they began to discuss their respective singles' ministry, it became apparent there was a need for single men in the Detroit Church of Christ. Jason and Reggie decided they would visit Detroit the week of July 4th for a mini-mission trip to evangelize the area in hopes of finding open men. When the brothers returned to Virginia, they enlisted the help of three sisters to join the trip: Andrea Lymboris, Alexandria Harris, and Yvette Blai.
Five months after that fateful meeting in Charlottesville, the five disciples from Norfolk journeyed to Detroit with a two-fold purpose: 1) to encourage the disciples to remember how big God is, and 2) to seek and save the lost. When they arrived on Thursday, the men and women had a night of prayer and honest conversation. On Friday, they went sightseeing at the Motown Museum and evangelizing followed by a game night. On Saturday, they went downtown again to tell people about the Good News and to invite them to a Bible discussion/BBQ. The disciples went to the Detroit Riverwalk and met many people. Some were interested while others were not.
While one of the sisters was talking to a group of women, a young man overheard her conversation about the Bible discussion. Although the women were not interested, he wanted to know more. That young man was named Michael Jackson. The sister invited Michael and he came to the discussion. There he saw a group of believers who were passionate about following Jesus. It was exactly what Michael longed for and needed.
Not only did Michael stay after for the BBQ and fireworks, he came to Sunday service the next day and started studying the Bible.
In five short weeks, on August 7, Michael was baptized into Christ with the Virginia disciples watching and praising God via Skype. It was a faith-building time for the singles in Virginia to see the vision that God put on their hearts had manifested into a saved soul.
Jason reflected on what God has done. He said, “Faith is all we had because this was nothing we had done before. To see everything come about in the five months of planning is a true testament to what can be done with a mustard seed of faith. Reggie and I made the decision to help make disciples in a place we had never been before so we could encourage a ministry. It inspired three awesome sisters to come and inspired a community of disciples in Detroit to have the faith that if we spread the seeds it will fall on good soil. Now, we have a new brother in the gospel in Michael Jackson.”
It also reinvigorated the Detroit singles to believe there are people who are willing to respond righteously to the gospel.