“What do you do there?”
“Is there really that much need?”
“Who is welcome?”

These are the questions most often asked about Little Lamb’s Compassionate Ministry Center (LLCMC). As Executive Director, I have answered these questions countless times over the last 21 years, and I will continue to answer them wherever and whenever they are asked.

My first answer is always to invite folks to come experience us in person in Flint, Michigan.

When a visit is not feasible, I offer the following:

We are a Nazarene Compassionate Ministry Center in Flint, Michigan, USA, where we serve in and throughout the surrounding community. Flint was once known as the birthplace of General Motors. Now, the name is synonymous with lead-contaminated drinking water and a cover-up of the crisis that followed. Flint is also home to vibrant and diverse cultures, important movements of racial reconciliation, and countless stories of hope.

For twenty-one years, LLCMC has been working toward our vision of a community without margins where families flourish. We do this by walking alongside families with children and offering hope by providing barrier-free resources. Barrier-free means no hoops to jump through—no documentation, zip code, or referrals required. Currently, we serve approximately 140 different families each month, including more than 300 children. Resources available at the center include everything from diapers and wipes to clothing and safe sleep items. For parents, we offer maternity clothes, bottles, formula, nursing items, and bags of groceries from our food pantry, all at no cost to the family. Each month, we connect, pray, laugh, and cry with moms, dads, abuelas, and tías, providing them with the resources they need to care for their families.

Before the vision and mission statements, the buildings and the bags of baby bottles, LLCMC was an idea written on a napkin—an idea planted in the hearts of several women in Flint based on this understanding:

“Compassion has no limit; for the love of God has been poured into our hearts by His Spirit dwelling in each one of us, calling us to a life of devotion and inviting us to bloom in the garden where He has planted and directing us to radiate the beauty and spread the fragrance of His Providence."
– St. Francis de Sales (1567–1622)

Little Lamb’s CMC began in 2004 in a small room as an outreach ministry of a local Nazarene church. We moved into a separate church-owned building on the property seven years later. In 2017, LLCMC became a 501(c)(3) charitable organization and received status on the USA/Canada Region of the Church of the Nazarene as an official Nazarene Compassionate Ministry Center.

Over time, we realized the lack of mass transit was often a barrier for families to reach resources. We needed the ability to serve families when they could not come to us, and we launched a mobile unit to bring supplies directly to communities in need. Unfortunately, that vehicle was lost to a fire. In time, we created a second mobile unit, which became a key connection to families during the COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns. Today, families can come to us—or we can go to them.

I know the Holy Spirit has guided us through every stage of this ministry, and we can testify to God's providence working through His people's provisions. In our most recent iteration, LLCMC became a property owner. In 2024, we purchased a building, doubling our space again, centralizing our location, and gaining access to a city bus route for the very first time.

As director, I have begun to see LLCMC as a tapestry, where many threads woven together form a picture. Our threads include weekly and one-day volunteers, churches, local agencies, small business owners who support us with collection drives, and donors.

Other threads are the families we serve. Their backgrounds are diverse—they speak English, Spanish, Farsi, and a variety of African dialects. Sometimes, a family’s season of need is brief. Other times, we walk with a family for years. Often, they return and become a part of the volunteer staff or a board member. Regardless of the length of time spent together, each family leaves an indelible mark on our staff and volunteers. Each family changes us for the better by inspiring curiosity, cultural empathy, and a deeper compassion that honors every person’s dignity—even when that means simply sitting with others in their pain. Truly, we are better together.

The Master weaves these threads together, creating an image. The why of what we do and who we are is found within this image. If you turn the tapestry over to view the back side, you can trace the individual threads. Like life, it is messy. The front is where the individual threads disappear, and the image is revealed. For us, the tapestry of Little Lamb’s CMC is an image of ushering in the kingdom of heaven, now, in Flint, Michigan.

Prominently displayed at LLCMC are these words:

“Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are his body.
Christ has no body now but yours.”
– Teresa of Avila (1515–1582)

If you have questions about the work and ministry of the Little Lamb’s Compassionate Ministry Center, my invitation is the same: Come and see what God is doing here in Flint.

Rev. Dawn M. Ramirez is an ordained elder in the Church of the Nazarene, where she serves as Executive Director of a Nazarene Compassionate Ministry Center in Flint, MI, and provides pulpit supply for the Eastern Michigan District. She and her husband, Dr. Benjamin Ramirez, are parents to three adult sons, two daughters-in-law, two teenage grandsons, and a variety of grand dogs and cats.