| Saving Stations: Sounding a hopeful refrain BY MELISSA LAUBER UMCONNECTION STAFF  This summer, the Baltimore-Washington Conference is sponsoring 19 Saving Stations in the Baltimore and Washington, D.C., metropolitan areas.
The differences between the churches that host the activity tent sites are often dramatic. Mount Zion UMC, for example, is in a middle-class residential neighborhood in Baltimore. When church neighbors heard about the tent, they wanted to know how it might negatively affect property values, said Karen Blake. In downtown Baltimore, at Ames UMC, drug dealers linger in the streets and gunshots are a familiar sound. This is a church that lives in the fire, said the Rev. Louis Shockley, superintendent of the Baltimore West District, who attended the Ames Saving Station Aug. 7. Ames is the example we need to look to. This is a very special church. Some of the leaders of Ames have found deliverance from drugs and other addictions at previous Saving Stations. Many of the members of the church have been down in the valley and theyve been touched by a unique light thats made a difference, Shockley said. They want to help lift someone else. They have a commitment to make a difference. The praise music and preaching each evening of the weeklong Saving Station dont always turn around the lives of people who come forward to the altar. But even if you go back, Shockley said, you had one night when your soul was transformed. While the neighborhood around Mt. Zion is tidier and more affluent, the church and its Saving Station are addressing many of the same issues. People are waking up to the fact that drugs are not isolated in poor communities, said the Rev. Stephen Tillett.  During the first night of Mt. Zions Saving Station there was a Jazz on the Lawn concert. Two people came by and said they were sick and tired of being sick and tired, Blake said. They, and several more people throughout the week, were assisted into recovery programs.
Standing on the sidewalk in front of the tent at Mt. Zion, Aug. 13, Rhonda Gaines talked with passersby. Gaines knows the saving grace of God. She lives next to the parsonage and is a recovering addict. She proudly declares a clean date of Nov. 11, 1999. She is less proud of who she used to be. I used to catch a taxi on the corner across the street to go get drugs, she said. I was very bad. I was very far gone. I believed there was no hope for me. In her wanderings, Gaines frequently ran into Ivan Summerville, a member of Mt. Zion who continually invited her to church. She avoided him. Ivan was everywhere, she said. He never judged, he just kept inviting her, with enthusiasm and a smile. Gaines found deliverance from drugs in a 12-step program. But she still wasnt interested in church. People get hurt a lot in the church, just like they get hurt a lot in any fellowship, she said. However, listening to Christian radio, she began to believe that she was being disobedient to God by not being part of a fellowship of believers. She was still avoiding Ivan, but he somehow found her. He received 99 rejections and, in hope, he offered the 100th with the same enthusiasm, Gaines said. Eventually, she took him up on the invitation. Today, she is a church trustee. She is uncertain where her faith is leading her. But she does have words that gbwc_superusere her. Seek God, Gaines whispers. That is the only truth I believe anymore. She also believes in second chances. Ivan gave her one. Today she counsels others who come by the church seeking deliverance from their addictions. Recently Ivan died. He died too young, said Tillett. But his ministry continues through her. Just come for the Word, Ivan used to say. Its also a message being delivered at this summers Saving Station. | 
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