Partnering To Serve
Partnering To Serve
At Ann Arbor Christian Reformed Church we seek to live out the love of the Triune God through compassion, reconciliation, and justice in our community and the world. This gets lived out through local and global partnerships.
Email Mission Action Team (MAT) at mission@aacrc.org
View service and donation opportunities at Serving With Our Partners…
View newsletters at Partner Newsletters…
(Some partners have requested to not be listed on a public website. For more information, contact one of the deacons or MAT members.)
 Campus Chapel – Ann Arbor, MI Rev. Matt Ackerman – Campus Chapel Pastor – Director of the Center for Faith and Scholarship Matt Ackerman is the Campus Chapel Pastor. He’s a graduate of Calvin College and Princeton Theological Seminary and has been involved in campus ministry in some capacity for most of his life. His hometown is Seattle, Washington, though he spent many of his formative years in State College, Pennsylvania. He’s married to Marianne, a special education teacher originally from Cleveland, Ohio, and they’re parents to a rambunctious toddler. Pastor Matt is always up for a cup of coffee, so feel free to send him an email at mattack@umich.edu or just stop by. Campus Chapel Matt & Marianne Ackerman mattack@umich.edu |
 Campus Chapel – Ann Arbor, MI Rev. Bailey Sarver – Campus Chapel Pastor Bailey Sarver serves as Campus Chapel Pastor. She was born and raised in the wide-open spaces of the Hawkeye state (Iowa) and is a graduate of Dordt College and Calvin Theological Seminary. Bailey has been working alongside college students in some capacity since 2010. In her spare time Bailey enjoys reading, floral design, and watching more Netflix than she cares to admit… she is also on the quest for a new hobby. She, loves a good conversation over a hot beverage, and you can reach her at bbsarver@umich.edu. Campus Chapel bbsarver@umich.edu |
 China Outreach Ministries University of Michigan – Ann Arbor ~ Lynn & Mary Degener The Degener’s are campus missionaries with China Outreach Ministries (友爱中华). Locally we go by “China Friends” to make our name more relatable. COM is a national mission organization with staff on 53 campuses in North America. They focus exclusively on China’s students, scholars and their family members in the U.S. and Canada. Lynn and Mary spend their time at the University of Michigan. At the U of M 38% of all International students are from China and Taiwan. The U of M has more graduate students from China than any other school in the U.S. These facts raise the importance and the opportunities we have to share the Gospel and impact a nation for God. Lynn and Mary lead a team of volunteers that meets weekly with scholars and or spouses for English class in a large group setting and in homes for English conversation. They and their team also have several “in home and on-line” individual/group Bible studies each week and share with them the message of Christ. Lynn has completed the certification course to become a certified facilitator in the Prepare – Enrich program. This program is intended to build stronger marriages and can be used internationally. They also assist students with countless details related to living and going to school in a foreign country. Lynn & Mary Degener |
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Community Assistance Program (CAP)
CAP is an agency located in the Nardin Park Neighborhood in Detroit that provides financial assistance, food and clothing to individuals and families who are in need. AACRC participates in several of their programs including CAP Closet (donations of good used clothing), Thanksgiving Day meals, Spring Produce Run and food collection. |
 DAAM/Detroit’s Afro-American Mission Detroit, MI ~ Maud & Duchess Robinson Founded by Haman and Malettor Cross in 1964 and now under the supervision of Maud and Duchess Robinson, DAAM is Christ-centered and committed to reaching families for Christ. Located in the North End Neighborhood in Detroit, its ministry is devoted to meeting the spiritual and physical needs of the poor in surrounding neighborhoods while promoting and encouraging general rescue mission work in the City of Detroit and nearby suburbs. The ministry includes Sunday School, Sunday morning worship services, Tuesday Outreach to the community with a hot meal, a message, food to take home and clothing as needed, Wednesday night Bible study, Vacation Bible School and summer camp for children. DAAM Maud & Duchess Robinson |
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Family Life Services
Family Life Services is a Christian pro-life non-profit ministry. It empowers women to make informed, life-affirming choices by providing the following for free: pregnancy testing, ultrasounds, education on pregnancy options, referrals to outside resources, baby and maternity supplies, parenting classes, support for healthy relationships, individualized care for women who have experienced pregnancy loss through miscarriage or abortion, and a scripture-based peer sharing group. |
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Friends In Deed (FID)
Friends in Deed is an interfaith organization that responds to unmet needs of low-income Washtenaw County residents. They partner with the community to provide critical financial assistance, furniture, congregational services and agency referrals. FID Circles Program – Circles is a unique program that is based on the premise that developing meaningful relationships across socio-economic lines can have a dramatic impact on the effort to move families out of poverty. Knowing that relationships and connections matter, the Circles program matches a person in poverty with at least three middle or upper income partners for at least 18 months to build relationships. The goal of these relationships is to break the cycle of generational poverty by creating circles of support and connections with people who are committed to making real change in our community. Friends In Deed… |
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Habitat for Humanity-Huron Valley
Habitat for Humanity of Huron Valley partners with potential homeowners to build a new life for themselves through decent, affordable homeownership. |
 Hesed Community Church Hesed Community Church is a joint CRC/RCA faith community focused on discipleship, leadership development, and community development in Detroit neighborhoods. Mark Van Andel and Nate Bull provide leadership for this ministry. They have developed and empowered two local young adults as “ministry house supervisors” for outreach and Christian ministry in both the Brightmoor (west) and Morningside (east) neighborhoods. From these ministry houses, they provide prayer, bible study, discipleship, and physical needs (food, clothing, laundry, etc.) to their neighbors. It is their desire to continue to multiply a ministry presence in other disinvested neighborhoods through raising up additional gifted leaders who will have a vision for reaching their neighborhoods for Christ. |
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Hope Clinic
Hope Clinic is a nonprofit, interdenominational Christian medical and social service organization. Its goal is to provide compassionate and practical help to those in need, ministering to the whole person. This includes providing comprehensive health and dental care and a range of other services aimed either at meeting basic needs or equipping people with the tools needed to improve the quality of their lives and/or to become self- sufficient. |
 ISI University of Michigan ~ Doug & Kathi Sawyer International Students Inc. (ISI) exists to share Christ’s love and good news with every international student and scholar and to see them discipled to take His kingdom back to their people. Doug Sawyer has pursued God’s calling of reaching the nations through international student ministry since his time in college in Upstate New York in the 1980’s, and Kathi has brought her hospitality, kindness, and practical wisdom to this same calling from the time they first met in 1990. Doug and Kathi joined the Ann Arbor ISI staff in 2004. Doug Sawyer, |
 Resonate Global Mission Irving, Texas ~ Joel & Jeannie Huyser Joel serves Resonate Global Mission as global area director for Resonate’s.regional teams in Latin America, the Middle East and Asia. In this role Joel coaches Resonate missionaries and local mission partners. He casts a vision for a Gospel that transforms all of life and encompasses all of our relationships. Joel also leads the work of Resonate in nurturing mission-shaped relational networks. These relational networks are formed by friendships that bear witness to Christ by crossing barriers of race, culture and faith community. A particular focus on this work is on helping congregations around the world to welcome immigrants, migrants, refugees and international students in the name of Jesus. Jeannie teaches English as a Second Language on line to students in China. She is also involved in a counseling ministry with women in Dallas where she and Joel live. Jeannie travels with Joel as she is able. All of Joel and Jeannie’s children are now out of the home. Joel & Jeannie Huyser jhuyser@crcna.org |
 Resonate Global Mission Costa Rica ~ Jim & Ruth Padilla-DeBorst James and Ruth live in Casa Adobe, an intentional community working together to create a vision of God’s Kingdom here on earth, where friendships exist across distances, where justice becomes a visual practice, and where love is shared with friends and strangers alike. Through local, regional, and global ministry, we seek to serve as catalysts for contextualized Kingdom worldview and transformational engagement: Jim & Ruth Padilla-DeBorst jpadilladeborst@crcna.org |
 Resonate Global Missions – Cohort Detroit Nathan Groenewold Cohort, a Resonate Global Mission experience for young adults to serve in a local grassroots ministry, launched in Detroit in January 2020. Cohort is already equipping young adults in Central America and the Middle East. Detroit is Cohort’s third location. Young adults have opportunities to serve in areas such as community development, discipleship, healthcare, and even coding. The service experience will be paired with reading, site visits, and thoughtful discussions about faith and how faith can influence ones’ work in the world. Cohort Detroit pairs those coming to serve from outside of the city with young adults who live in the city. |
