It has been a time of decompression and of catching up following the intense week at the General Assembly, and I am still not caught up.

Today I visited Peter’s Retreat, Center City Churches’ AIDS residence. I have been visiting W. each Wednesday for about a year and a half through his ups and downs. As I have visited him I have also become acquainted with many of the other residents, all of whom have enriched my life. I missed two visits while at the Assembly and it was good to be back and to find W. doing well. He had another visitor today whom he met about 6 years ago at the Hartford Dispensary where they are both clients. They have become fast friends over this time.

I also found the house full of teenagers who are involved with two different programs that bring them into the inner city on work projects. It was sort of a buzzing confusion at lunch, but much cleaning and repair seems to be taking place. It was also good to see that long awaited work on the electrical system is taking place and that a large through the wall Air conditioner has been installed in the library. All new windows are to be installed during this summer and as the windows and electrical work are completed each room will have an air conditioner. Except for the window units a city grant is paying for most of this work. The window AC units need to be bought with contributions from supporters and Center City Churches is still working on raising this money. You could help, go to http://www.ccchartford.org/ and click on Donate.

After having lunch and visiting with W. I went to Chelsea Place nursing home and visited M. one of the residents who has been quite ill recently. She was in bed and definitely not her usual cheerful self. We visited briefly and I prayed with her and laid hands on her.