After seeing a few sites from my hometown of Baltimore, MD I decided to take a look for some key places of my childhood. I'll post two.
The first is the church building where I was lead to the Lord. 2nd and 4th Baptist Church. It's located on the corner of Orleans and N. Luzerne in Baltimore, MD. In the heart of the city. I came to Christ because a guy I called "Mr. Don" got in touch with a bunch of us kids running the streets and started a Sunday School class of hoodlums. I was the first in my family to receive Christ because of Mr. Don's efforts and now I'm a Pastor... pretty cool.
The church owned a row house across the street that they used for classrooms and Mr. Don's new class of street kids got the basement. In a basement classroom for nearly 5 years is where I received the bulk of my 'intro to Christianity'. We had a table, some donuts and the bible. Pretty complicated discipleship.
The last bit of show and tell is of the place of residence I remember most in Baltimore. Most of my developing memories came from this place. My mom showed me a receipt a while back of rent she paid here... $60/month. We lived in government housing (projects) for a number of years into my middle school life. During this time my mom got her G.E.D. and a 2 year business degree. I credit her for being the springboard to everything I've been blessed to enjoy.
(back yard)
(front of house. Middle section, 3rd entry from left)As you may see from this picture, the windows and doors are all boarded up. I drove through the neighborhood a few weeks ago and it looks like the city is trying to get the residents out so they can level the place. See below.
Our place was right across from the school (left of this pic) so it looks like they started leveling with that section. We had the tree in the yard so the circle above is accurate. If you look closely you can still see the road under the grass.
It's cool to look back at where we've come from so that we can see God's hand in our lives. Too often we live with a horizontal vision that doesn't take into consideration the past or future. All we tend to do is react to what's in front of us today. As I see what God has done in my own life I am forever grateful for his continued blessing on my life. I know that he's already been able to use my past experiences up until today but I'm certain he'll use this past to further his Kingdom in new ways in years to come.
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