Pubdate: Thu, 07 Aug 2014
Source: Cincinnati Enquirer (OH)
Copyright: 2014 The Cincinnati Enquirer
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/aeNtfDqb
Website: http://www.cincinnati.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/86
Author: Sheila McLaughlin

CHURCHES UNITE TO HELP HEROIN ADDICTS

About 30 Butler County churches will come together in a three-day
event this weekend in Hamilton to offer hope to heroin addicts and
their families.

The event, called Hope Over Heroin, will include a prayer march,
testimony from recovering addicts, live music, free food and prizes.
Former Bengal Bobbie Williams, who left the Baltimore Ravens after the
Super Bowl win, is expected to speak on Saturday.

"This thing is like a death angel. It's going into every house," the
Rev. Josh Willis, an organizer, said of heroin. "We need to appeal to
heaven because whatever we're doing here on earth isn't working very
good."

The event opens at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday in the city parking lot
across from McDonald's on High Street in Downtown Hamilton. A prayer
march up High Street is at 6 p.m. on Sunday and leaves from the
parking lot.

Willis said he expects that 3,000 or more people will take part in the
march.

Representatives from recovery programs, such as the Good Samaritan Inn
and the Darlene Bishop Home for Life, will be available to addicts who
are seeking help, Willis said.

Willis, a 67-year-old recovering addict and pastor of Grace Chapel
House of Praise in Hamilton, founded the Good Samaritan Inn for men in
1982. The Inn is a faith-based six-month residential program that
offers counseling and training in life skills.

Willis said he and Lawrence Bishop Jr., co-pastor of Solid Rock Church
in Monroe, came up with the idea for Hope Over Heroin, and reached out
to other churches to participate.

It's the first time so many churches have united for a cause, he
said.

"There are two reasons people come together. One's a crisis and the
other's a cause," Willis said.

"When the storm comes and blows somebody's house down, nobody wants to
know if you're a Baptist or a Pentecostal if you are pulling them out.
They just want help. We've kind of got the same thing here."
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MAP posted-by: Matt