wfn.org | United Methodists to challenge heroin's grasp on city

[NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG]

April 12, 2001 News media contact: Joretta Purdue *(202) 546-8722*Washington
10-31-71B {180}

By Dean Snyder*

BALTIMORE (UMNS) -- Baltimore is the heroin capital of the United States.

More than 60,000 people - one out every 10 Baltimoreans - are drug addicts,
according to a U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency report issued last summer. About
$1.5 million worth of pure South American heroin is sold in Baltimore every
day.

Last September, a CNN report said addiction is a family disease in
Baltimore. It called Baltimore "a multi-generational heroin city, where
grandparents, parents and grandchildren have all used heroin."

United Methodists intend to give addicted Baltimoreans a way out this
summer.

Tim Warner, Baltimore-Washington Conference coordinator for Holy Boldness,
an urban ministries initiative, met with a group of 40 United Methodists in
March to plan a Christian assault against addiction by establishing saving
stations in four drug-infested Baltimore neighborhoods this summer.

Saving stations are tent ministries that combine social services with prayer
and spirituality as a way of offering the addicted and other marginalized
people an opportunity to find hope, salvation and deliverance. Saving
station ministries were originally established in Washington by Bishop
Felton Edwin May in 1990 when he served on special assignment to address
drugs and violence on behalf of the United Methodist Council of Bishops.

"The yoke of the bondage of drug addiction is going to be broken by the Holy
Spirit this summer," Warner said during the meeting held at historic Lovely
Lane United Methodist Church there. "We want to be the vehicle, the
catalyst, for spiritual renewal in the communities of Baltimore and change
the city one soul at a time."

At the meeting, the Rev. Patricia Johnson, pastor of Mt. Winan's United
Methodist Church in Baltimore, testified to the effectiveness of saving
station ministries. More than 30 persons went into rehab programs last
summer as a result of a saving station held outside her church in the
economically distressed Mt. Winan's neighborhood, she said.

The city of Baltimore has promised 100 slots in rehab programs for people
who respond this summer to saving station ministries, Warner said. "I want
to fill those up in the first week," he added.

A tent will be erected sequentially in four different Baltimore
neighborhoods. During the day social services - health screening, food and
clothing distribution and welfare-to-work opportunities - will be offered
under the tent in cooperation with city agencies. Vacation Bible schools
will be held for neighborhood children under the tent.

At night, street evangelism, sidewalk drama and even a circus will be used
to attract neighborhood residents to revival services and prayer meetings
held under the tent.

A member of the Mt. Winan's church, Charlene Williams, will train a team of
"hesed" ministers who will do whatever needs to be done to help addicted
people get the help they need to experience deliverance.

"Hesed" is a Hebrew word that means "God's steadfast, clinging, tenacious
love," according to Warner. "Hesed" is a difficult ministry but some people
are called to it, he said. "There is maximum exposure (and) maximum blessing
here."

During the Lovely Lane meeting, people broke into three groups to plan
saving station ministries: potential "hesed" ministers, street evangelists
and workers in the Jesus Circus, an event for each saving station as a way
of getting the attention of neighborhood children and adults. Training was
provided by leaders from the churches at the planned saving station sites.

Although 40 people attended the March meeting, more than 200 United
Methodists have responded to invitations extended at an Advent Holy Boldness
celebration and Baltimore Leadership Days to participate in saving station
ministries. The tentative summer schedule begins June 17 and ends Aug. 24

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* Snyder is director of communications for the Baltimore-Washington
Conference of the United Methodist Church.  This story is based on one he
wrote for the conference newspaper, the UM Connection.

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United Methodist News Service
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