Forty-four years ago, I stepped into a small church on Locust Street. I’d become a Christian that summer, and when I returned to WMU, finding a church was a top priority. I visited several churches but had yet to find one as passionately alive as the Mexican church I attended in Lansing. While at a church on campus, I expressed to another student how I found the service lacking passion and intensity. A friend of hers attended a church she thought I’d like and gave me directions to it.
That was the Redemption Center, now called New Day. It met at 2 PM in a small building on Locust Street (not New Day Vine, but the building next to it). The church was passionate and biblical and I quickly joined. We would often pray to get the larger laundromat next door, but soon moved to various locations before building our Nichols Road facility. About 30 years later, our prayers were answered. Sarah and Seth Gerber bought the old laundromat building to use the upstairs as income property and the downstairs as a young adult ministry center. The Gerbers and New Day raised a lot of money and invested a lot of work to completely renovate it. When the Gerbers moved to California, New Day purchased the building. The young adult group was replaced with a satellite church which prospered for several years. For a variety of reasons, during Covid, New Day Vine services ended and regrouped at our Nichols building.
The Vine Ministry Center is still being used for the Kingdom on a daily basis. Three different Recovery Group ministries use the building and are extremely grateful for the facility as it perfectly accommodates them. This is a very meaningful way New Day is meeting genuine needs in our community. Additionally, my office for New Day and for leading Harvest Alliance, our international network, is located there. Ministry literally is streamed from there around the world. The building is also often used for other smaller groups and special events. The upstairs functions as a residential facility for those involved in ministry and leadership development. It's incredibly rewarding to see the answer to prayers from 30 years ago being fulfilled.
I am deeply grateful for the vision of all who invested, and continue to invest, in enabling New Day to have a ministry center in the heart of our community. You never know how or when God will answer your prayers!