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VOL. 13, NO. 10

Bishop and pastors call for Saving Station volunteers

BY LARRY HYGH JR.
UMCOnnection Staff

From June to September, United Methodists will take to the streets in an effort to love the hell out of Baltimore, at a series of Savings Stations throughout the city.

Saving stations are tent ministries set up in vacant lots or parks near United Methodist churches. During the day, social services and Christian education for children are offered. In the evening, the church offers Christ to the community through a series of revival meetings.

In response to President Bushs plea for increased volunteerism, Bishop Felton Edwin May has issued a national call for people of faith to come and work with the Saving Stations in Baltimore.

The world is our parish and Baltimore City is a parish that needs us desperately, said the Rev. Theresa Oyler-Sayles, pastor of Graceland UMC.

According to Oyler-Sayles, whose church is sponsoring a Saving Station in the ODonnell Heights section of Baltimore June 27 to 30, these ministries are an absolute blessing,

Last year Graceland co-sponsored a Saving Station with St. Matthews UMC, a church in nearby Dundalk. More than 300 children attended. Despite the cold and rainy weather, some children swarmed to the tent, which was set up on a vacant lot, and didnt want to leave.

Amidst the crime and poverty they have hope, Oyler-Sayles said. The church needs to be there giving them options and reasons for changing their lives.

Oyler-Sayles describes the Dundalk-Baltimore corridor as a place still struggling with issues of racism.

I didnt ever experience that racism with the children, she said. Its our opportunity to bring everybody to the table to act in a positive relationship to weed out drugs and violence. Only the church can do that, we can offer a safe place.

This year, members from St. Matthews will be volunteering at Gracelands Saving Stations and members of Graceland will go to St. Matthews Saving Station Aug. 2325. The churches are working hard to bridge racial divisions, Oyler-Sayles said.

According to the Rev. Dred Scott, pastor of St. Matthews UMC, there are people who are active in his church right now that came as a result of last years Saving Station with Graceland.

We hope to get the community more involved, he said. We want to have people getting out and telling the story of Jesus.

The church will also bring the department of health and the local ministerial alliance under the tent to assist in the Saving Station effort.

The Rev. Connie Smith, pastor of Eastern UMC, said that the North East Baltimore cluster bonded with the community during last years Saving Station. Children are still active in her church from the Saving Station two summers ago.

The clusters Saving Station this summer is planned for the Milton Avenue section of Baltimore from July 21 to 27.

The neighborhood is hungry, Smith said. Last year, people came forward to be delivered from drugs while the tent was still being erected in the neighborhood. We hope we have places to send people who want to get off of drugs on the spot.

Smith said she hopes that more people will volunteer so that evangelism efforts can move beyond the tent, down the street and around the corner to reach people for Jesus and tell Gods story as it unfolds in Baltimore.