| Conference opens Hesed House to help heal addiction by JOHN W. COLEMAN Jr.UMCONNECTION STAFF  On a temperate Sunday afternoon, March 7, the sounds blasting from outdoor speakers on an East Baltimore street corner changed suddenly from R&B music to the fervent prayers and proclamations of people of faith. About 50 witnesses had gathered to help the Baltimore-Washington Conference publicly reclaim the corner and offer a refuge against the drug addiction and violence so prevalent there.
After months of renovation, conference leaders and community supporters opened and dedicated Hesed House, at the corner of Linwood and McElderry streets, to provide temporary shelter and services to people waiting to enter residential addiction treatment programs. The two-story, brick former church parsonage had sat empty and in disrepair for several years until it was used to house volunteers at a nearby Saving Station in 2002. The conference began a complete renovation of it last summer, hoping to fill a dire need in the battle to rescue people addicted to drugs and alcohol.  We began to realize early that when people come forward seeking deliverance from active addiction, if we dont get them into a place of healing or find some place to send them, well lose them, said Timothy Warner, who directs the conferences community and economic development programs. So many people are still in bondage to alcohol, crack cocaine, heroin and other substances. But God is a delivering God with power to set people free, and we proclaim that through our presence here today.
In anointing the house, whose name comes from a biblical Hebrew word for Gods tenacious love, Bishop Felton Edwin May covered its door with consecrated oil of gladness, healing, peace, protection and deliverance. This is a prayer house, a saving station, he said. This is just the beginning. Were going to establish more homes like this across the city. Charlene Williams, who coordinates Hesed Ministries for the conference, hopes to see that dream realized. This city has so many people in addiction, and so many of them relapse, partly because the city doesnt have enough long-term residential treatment programs, only 30-day detoxification centers, she said. Williams, a member of Mt. Winans UMC in Baltimore, tries daily to get addicted people into the types of faith-based treatment programs that worked for her. She was delivered from drug addiction after seeking help about five years ago at one of the conferences summer outreach and evangelism tent ministries, known as Saving Stations. During the Hesed House opening, two men came seeking help for their addictions. One, according to Williams, is now in a drug treatment center in Philadelphia. The other, although intoxicated, was inspired to get off a passing bus and join the gathering when he heard the Rev. Pat Johnson of Mt. Winans UMC praying over the loudspeakers. Several clergy prayed and laid hands on him as he collapsed to the ground shaking. We gave him some information, said Williams, and we just hope and pray he comes back to see us. Williams prefers to send her clients to out-of-town programs, including the one she attended, Stop and Surrender, in Philadelphia. About 30 graduates and staff of that program attended the Hesed House opening. She said she is always in need of donations to help pay for the $20 bus tickets to Philadelphia and the rents and fees for residential programs, which range from $75 to $300 per person. Hesed House can accommodate up to seven men at a time, along with house manager David Brock, who formerly managed a house for Stop and Surrender. Clients will likely stay in the house for less than a week, Williams said, until she can get them into treatment programs. Still needed for the house are a washer and dryer, donated food and clothing, and volunteers to prepare meals and offer encouragement. What Williams really hopes for, however, are more residential programs for the growing numbers of addicted women, including many with children. Such programs, she said, will need to offer health care and education, childcare, counseling, parenting classes, court advocates and other wrap-around services. These women have so many needs, and they have illnesses they dont even know about, said Williams, who recently discovered she has lupus. We need to ask God for help and put people to work, getting some of these abandoned houses, donating materials, and doing the repairs. Places like Hesed House are places where healing can begin and where people can begin to reclaim their lives. | 
Login/Register to leave comment