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VOL. 15, NO. 12

NEWS

Saving Stations return, offering hope to those in need

By John Coleman Jr.
UMCONNECTION STAFF

At least seven congregations in the Baltimore-Washington Conference will take turns welcoming community residents, visitors and volunteers under the large, white Saving Station tents again this summer.

Each church will offer a full array of ministry: Bible study, prayer and worship; community meals; health education and screening; distribution of food, clothing and school supplies; information about social services; and creative arts and recreation.

'Our church has a vision to minister to all those in need, especially the children and youth in our community,' said the Rev. Jean Weller, pastor of Monroe Street UMC in southwest Baltimore.

That church will hold its Saving Station in nearby Carroll Park, at South Monroe Street and Washington Boulevard, June 27 to June 30, from 4 to 9 p.m. daily.

Like other churches planning Saving Stations this summer, it is seeking donations and volunteers. The help-wanted list includes preachers, teachers, musicians, dancers, clowns and puppeteers.

The Monroe Street church, which attracted many volunteers to its Saving Station in 2002, struggled this year to maintain an under-funded but critical after-school program for local youth in the midst of severe poverty, rampant crime and drug abuse.

'We need to touch the hearts of parents, neighbors and friends for these kids to have a chance at a better future,' wrote Weller in a recent appeal letter. 'We have too many families in which the parents are addicts and are unable to care for their children. We need to reach these parents and the network that supports their addictions and to become known as a center for healing and recovery through Jesus Christ.'

At all of the Saving Stations people struggling with drug and alcohol dependence will be encouraged to seek physical and spiritual deliverance from their addictions with help from the conferences Hesed Ministry, which places addicts in faith-based residential treatment programs.

The conference opened Hesed House in East Baltimore in February to provide temporary shelter and services to people awaiting entry into long-term residential recovery programs.

Coordinated since 2001 by Charlene Williams, the Hesed Ministry reportedly has helped more than 1,000 people find treatment in Maryland and other states. Like Williams, admittedly once an addict herself, many of them first sought that help at Saving Stations.

'This ministry has been awesome in so many ways and its important because of the great need here,' said Williams. 'The kids who come look forward to the food and activities because they have so little at home; and several of the people who go through the (Hesed) program come back to volunteer.'

Bishop Felton Edwin May started Saving Stations in 1989 when he headed the denominations Bishops' Initiative on Substance Abuse and Related Violence. He resurrected it in 2001 in response to Baltimores widespread drug addiction and related violence.

After helping a record 20 churches in Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and surrounding communities host Saving Stations in 2002, the conference focused much of its attention and resources on one East Baltimore site in 2003. That site, a grassy field at Milton Avenue and Oliver Street, will host a Saving Station again for three weeks in July and August and will eventually become the location of a new church start, the New Milton Avenue UMC, which now meets at a funeral home across the street.

For more information on Saving Stations and the churches that will host them in 2004, visit the Saving Stations Web site at www.bwcumc.org/saving stations.