By Sharon Mager
CURTIS BAY, Md.—Inner Harbor Ministry (IHM) will have their annual block party from 10 am to 2 pm on June 10 and there are many opportunities for churches and individuals to help. The event is IHM’s biggest outreach, providing volunteers an opportunity for hands-on ministry sharing food, gently-used clothes, prayer, and the Gospel of Jesus as the Holy Spirit leads. Help is especially needed setting up and tearing down for the party. The event takes place in a field on the corner of Spruce Street and Pennington Avenue in Curtis Bay owned by Baltimore Gas & Electric, who graciously allows IHM to use the field.
Long Green Baptist Church members, along with a few neighborhood teens, serve those who gather at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church. Different churches serve each Thursday evening on a rotating basis.
The party usually draws hundreds each year. Volunteers give away hot dogs, chips, cotton candy, popcorn, and snow balls. A band plays and there are games and prizes for the kids.
Inner Harbor Ministry offers Bible study and hot meals every Thursday evening at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church on Pennington Avenue. Churches prepare and serve meals on a rotating basis. They also serve as table ministers, visiting with those who line up each week, praying with them, and just being a friend.
While volunteers from churches have most Thursdays covered, Gudmundsson said there is a current need for supplemental food for the first Thursday of each month—perhaps chili, soup or salad.
Gudmundsson said there are many ongoing needs for the Inner Harbor Ministry. The first is prayer. The ministry always experiences spiritual warfare. Families are being torn apart and people are broken. Gudmundsson said he was heartbroken when earlier this year a young man he and others had deeply invested in was shot in the back and killed due to the drug violence in the city.
“What could have saved that young man from such a grisly death and the unspeakably horrible eternal fate that may have met him? Simply and only the miracle power of the Holy Spirit. We pleaded with him, as we plead with everyone, but only the Spirit of God has the power to truly change a heart and genuinely set someone free. And that power comes in answer to prayer,” he said.
Gudmundsson expressed appreciation to the many churches who regularly support the ministry, supplying and serving food. He said the ministry is also grateful to Parkville Baptist Church for allowing IHM members to use their facility for planning and board meetings.
This year to date, over 1,184 meals were served, 126 people volunteered and as of March 31 there were 11 professions of faith.
“Some of our feeding ministry attendees come each week to enjoy the only hot meal they will receive for the entire week” Gudmundsson said. It may also the only time they hear the Gospel of Jesus.
For more information or to volunteer, email IHMBaltimore@yahoo.com.