Current Happenings at HPCO

Our kids enjoyed some special events at HPCO this Christmas season. A group of them were able to perform at Barnes & Noble in Royal Oak, MI for an Urban Arts fundraiser. Urban Arts has partnered with HPCO in years past to provide  a week long summer camp as well as after school program to our kids. Our kids have learned music, art & dance through the ministry of Urban Arts.

Our kids also enjoyed a special Kids Club Christmas Party  in December. We are thankful to our Kids Club leaders who made the day very special for them Lots of yummy cupcakes & snacks as well as games, songs & a Christmas Bible lesson made for a great day!

The holidays are always a busy time at HPCO, but also a wonderful time for ministry and sharing God’s love to our families.
This fall, we were able to again do our Boxes of Love outreach for Thanksgiving. Over 60 boxes were delivered to HPCO families!

During the Christmas season, we also delivered food boxes, and also Christmas gifts to all the kids involved in our programs. Again, 60 food boxes went out to familes all over Highland Park as well as Detroit

Special thanks to Life Church of Canton for not only the donations of boxes and gifts- but also the many volunteers who came out to deliver. We are thankful for all those involved and their willingness to be the hands and feet of Christ to our dear families!

Our day camp classes are in action!

The 4th-6th graders are painting a mural on the fence in the backyard (more pictures to follow…) They are doing a fantastic job! We’re excited to see the final product.

Sign language class! The 1st-3rd graders now have quite the extensive vocabulary in sign language. They have learned the signs for animals, family members, times of day and seasons. It’s fun to see the kids learning.

The 1st-3rd graders are also doing well in their gardening class. On the first day of class, each child planted his own sunflower seed. Sunflowers are fast-growing and easy-growing plants. They’ve taken off already!

Befkadu (with his amazing talents) has given our kids the opportunity to explore the world of technology in media with our cinematography class. They have learned how to handle a camera, microphone, etc. An awesome opportunity they might never get otherwise.

Keep us in your prayers! We have less than two weeks left of camp! Pray that our kids would come to camp with willing spirits ready to accept the Truth.

Last week was our first week of Day Camp this summer. We were (delightfully!) overwhelmed to have thirty kids on our first day of camp! We weren’t sure, at first, how many kids were going to show up. Generally, we start out with a smaller group that gradually grows and the weeks progress. What an awesome surprise to reach full capacity on the first day of camp!

This year’s staff is fantastic. We have Dominique returning as Day Camp Director. We also have Emily returning for her second year on Day Camp staff. And we have Chris, Befkadu, and Rachel as our new additions to the day camp staff. Already, the staff is working as a team and offering up their unique talents.

Speaking of unique talents…. our diverse staff has given us the opportunity to “revamp” our traditional day camp classes. This year our classes are gardening, media/cinematography, sign language, and public speaking/drama.

Our first field trip of the year was to see our very own Detroit Tigers! We were blessed to have 35 tickets donated to HPCO.

Some kids got into the game a little more than others….

It’s been a while since HPCO’s been able to give a good update to this website! A lot has happened in the past few months.

In May, we had our annual sports camp. For two weeks volunteers from all over come to teach our kids baseball and soccer.

The number  of volunteers makes one-on-one teaching a possibility! The kids have a session in baseball and a session in soccer. The day concludes with gametime!

The last week  of Sports Camp, we had a cookout and guest speaker. This year we had Highland Park’s very own Dan Kanneth sharing the powerful testimony of God’s grace in his life. The Lord rescued him from drug addiction and shaped him into the man of God he is today. We’re thankful for Dan’s presence in the neighborhood and the opportunity he had to share truth with our kids.

Kids’ club this month was centered around Valentine’s Day! Our volunteers took the opportunity to really explore what the Bible says about God’s love for us. HPCO extends a warm thank you to our faithful volunteers for their consistence service with kids’ club. Pray that our young kids would have open hearts ready to receive Christ’s love.

Our Teen Bible Study has resumed session, as we pick up where we left off, studying the gospel of Mark. We have the girls and boys all together for worship and the Bible lesson, then separate the boys and girls into small groups for discussion. It’s always exciting to hear the deep and carefully formulated questions from our kids after the Bible lesson. It’s encouraging to  know that they are listening to the Word and genuinely thinking through what they’re hearing. Please pray against distractions that commonly rise up within the group. Pray also that their hearts would be seeking truth and open to accepting it.

It’s that time of year again!

Life Church of Canton put together over 175 boxes (a record for this year!!!) filled with enough food for a complete Thanksgiving dinner. These boxes were distributed by Life Church volunteers to families in need all over the Detroit area. 96 boxes were donated to Messiah Church in Southwest Detroit. We were incredibly blessed to be a part of this as well. Around 50 of those boxes went to our HPCO families and others in need in Highland Park.

God is faithful through every season. All of us with HPCO are excited to be a part of His plan for this fall and winter.

HPCO has a new addition to our regular fall programs this year. We’re excited to welcome back the staff of Urban Arts for the school year! Urban Arts partnered with us for a week this summer, donating their time and energy to love on our kids. We’re now blessed to have them for the duration of the school year as well. Every Monday night, we’re offering drama, art, and music to thirty neighborhood kids from 3rd to 8th grade. The drama and music classes will be working on a performance for this December.

Our tutoring program is still continuing faithfully. The small academic improvements and incredible growth in the personal relationships with these  girls are daily encouraging. We’ve also had recent interest from other volunteers to join our tutoring program and assist in its growth.

We had our first Thursday Night Bible Study with our junior high and high school group. It’s exciting to see such a solid group of consistent volunteers joining together for the single purpose of speaking truth to our teens. This school year we’ll be going through the book of Mark and studying the life of Jesus.

Please pray for the continual consistency of volunteers and kids. Consistency is very important in these kids’ lives. Pray that our kids, especially our teens, will have open ears (and quiet mouths when necessary ) to hear the Truth. It’s encouraging to see questioning and curious spirits in our young teens.

Life in Highland Park can be and will always be discouraging at times. The poverty of finances, education, and homelife is overwhelming to say the least. Yet, our God remains faithful. What an awesome reminder to know that He is far more powerful than anything this world may bring us! Here are the highlights of what happened in Highland Park this summer:

Day Camp

Another year of day camp has come and gone. The weeks flew by; it’s hard to believe all that happened within those six weeks. The day camp staff was incredible: a beautiful mix of talents, skin colors, personalities, and past experiences truly made the staff a team. It was a blessing to have such a diverse group with a common purpose. God united the staff for His glory and we can praise Him for that.

Urban Arts

Our second to last week of day camp, we had the pleasure of welcoming Urban Arts. Urban Arts is a Christian program in Detroit; they came in with their own staff and took over for a week, teaching our kids music dance, and art. We (HPCO’s staff) had the opportunity to step back from the roles of teaching and learn along with the kids. The kids absolutely loved it! New talents were discovered in the art room and on the dance floor. The Friday of that week our kids gave a performance of everything they learned that week. Parents and grandparents came to see their kids showing off their new moves and lyrics. It was an incredible week and we’re thankful to the Urban Arts staff for their help.

Overnight Camp

After day camp ended, we had one week of overnight camp. Overnight camp was available to kids ages 11-15. We partnered with Youth For Christ Detroit and brought 17 of our kids to Wildwood Ranch in Howell, MI. What a unique experience for our kids! Life at Wildwood is dramatically different from life in Highland Park; some of our kids loved it for that, others had a harder time. The kids had opportunities that most of them have never had before: horseback riding, canoeing, rock climbing, etc, all while hearing the Word of God. It was great for our kids to step out of their comfort zones and open their eyes to a different world than they were used to. Two of our boys enjoyed it so much, they went back again the next week.

Book Signing

Amidst all that was happening with camp, our tutoring program was still meeting. Dana Hall, the thirteen-year-old that faithfully attends tutoring every week, has written her own book. One of our volunteers, Miss Betty has been working with Dana for months now. Dana, though far behind in her reading levels, proudly finished her book titled “The Three Girls,” written by Dana Hall and illustrated by Sarah Hilliker. What an honor to have an author in our midst! We held a book signing and invited friends and family to help celebrate in Dana’s accomplishment.

p.s. be sure to find us on facebook! we have more pictures from day camp!

The Day Camp staff!!! (Jocelyn, Ashley, Emily, Dominique, Sarah Emily, Aubrey, Mario, Jaylin & Jake)

We are halfway through our summer day camp program! So far, it has been an amazing summer. God has blessed us with a great group of interns & teen staff this year. Each week, we have approximately 30 kids come from the neighborhood. They are involved in Bible activities, sports, art & education. We also take a field trip each week..which so far has included touring Ford Field (home of the Detroit Lions), swimming on Belle Isle and a Tigers game.

We are looking forward to going to Wildwood Ranch for a week of overnight camp the week of August 2-6th. We want to provide scholarships to make camp affordable for our youth. (cost is $100 each) If you are interested in sponsoring a child to attend camp, please donate through our website or send a check to:

Highland Park Community Outreach PO Box 3900 Highland Park Mi 48203

Also, we have a facebook page! Check us out at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Highland-Park-Community-Outreach/120186791344373?v=info&ref=ts#!/pages/Highland-Park-Community-Outreach/120186791344373?v=wall&ref=ts

 Ashley, one of our teen staff, has worked day camp  with us for the past 3 years

Thank you! We look forward to keeping you posted as the summer wraps up.