| Drive-by hits Hesed house, causes injuries by John ColemanUMConnection Staff A bullet burst through a window of the Hesed House in Baltimore during a drive-by shooting June 15. In connection with the shooting, a speeding car injured a 3 year old girl and a young woman. Calvin Rich, a student at Wesley Theological Seminary, is the manager of and lives at the new Baltimore-Washington Conference transitional home for drug addicts slated to open July 1. He was in the home at the time of the shooting, but was not hurt. Outside the tragedy was unfolding. A car, reportedly fleeing the scene of the drive-by shooting, hit another car on the corner of Curley and McElderry streets. That car struck a woman carrying her 3-year-old child. The girl, Loureis Robinson, is recovering from serious injuries after being taken to Johns Hopkins Hospital. An 18-year-old man was wounded in the drive-by shooting. He was also treated at Johns Hopkins Hospital. A ccording to Rich, the bullet came through a top-floor bedroom of the two-story Hesed House, located at Linwood and McElderry streets. Theres no better way to become immersed in the community than to go through a tragedy with one, said Rich. I feel more of a bond now. Rich has been living at the house since last fall, helping to prepare it for use as a short-term transitional home for drug addicts awaiting entry into residential treatment programs It puts us now in the public eye, he said. Were getting an identity in the community. I dont have a response of fear, more a sense of being responsible for the community. Rich, who will supervise the home, said the Baltimore-Washington Conference plans to open the facility July 1. It will house up to seven men at a time. Abandoned until recently, the house formerly served as the parsonage of the now closed St. Paul UMC and as a youth ministry center. The Hesed Houses name comes from a biblical Hebrew term that refers to Gods tenacious love. It will complement the conferences Hesed Ministry, in which Charlene Williams of Mt. Winans UMC in Baltimore, and others, work to find treatment center openings for addicts seeking recovery. Many addicts who benefit from the Hesed Ministry respond to encouragement they receive at the conferences Saving Stations, the summer-long tent ministries that offer worship, social services, youth activities and help for inner-city residents wanting deliverance from drug abuse and addiction. The conference plans to operate a seven-week Saving Station in July and August at a field on Milton Avenue and Oliver Street, just over two blocks from the Hesed House and the scene of the shooting. | 
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