This morning Center City Churches’ Development Committee met; usually a so-so event, but this morning a most exciting report on the first fruits of our affiliation with the Hands On Network. Center City Churches as one of the newest Hands On affiliates will be coordinating two events as part of a national Corporate Month of Service. On Saturday September 16 as many as 50 United Health Care employees will be providing volunteer service for an extreme makeover of Peter’s Retreat. The project will continue on Thursday when Home Depot will be mobilizing as many as 200 volunteers along with major financial backing to finish the Job of transforming Peter’s Retreat from a once elegant but now shabby residence into a beautifully transformed home for the 26 residents who living with HIV/AIDS.

Perhaps you have wondered what happened to my weekly entries this month; I have been away in North Carolina on vacation. We had a wonderful time with our long time friends and were happy that our daughter and family were able to join us for the first week of vacation. Our beautiful 5 month old granddaughter Hanna Marie was a delight. If you want to see some pictures we took of her follow this link http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/revtdavis@sbcglobal.net/album?.dir=/2ff7re2&.src=ph&.tok=phMs2XFBgQE5UxPY

The one sad part of our vacation was finding out that two of the residents of Peter's Retreat died during the time we were gone. One was Willie a man I had been visiting with once a week for about two years, the other was Maggie, a long time resident who everyone seemed to love because of her sweet and outgoing personality. I had visited with both of them the day before we left before vacation and was able to say some things to each of them knowing that it might be my last opportunity.