12/25/2010

It’s been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.

It started out Sunday with Morning Worship. We talked about how, like that wise men, when we encounter a God who loves us enough to become Emmanuel that our dreams change and we take our life down a different road.

Between services the Paulsons arrived along with the friends they brought with them. They set up for the Kids' Church Christmas Party then had time to finish putting stamps on our Christmas mailing and the one for January, too. I had underestimated and bought only 300 stamps so I'll have to get some more in order to complete the January mailing. Gary took the Christmas mailing to the post box that evening.

We opened the doors to the Kids' Church Christmas Party at 3:00 p.m. Upon entering, each kid got to choose from either a box of markers, colored pencils, or crayons for a Christmas gift. They were then free to spend as much or as little time at each of the centers we had set up. Vonceil supervised the cookie decorating center where the kids frosted, added sprinkles, then ate cookies she and Carol had baked. Tamara supervised the coloring center. The rest of the crew supervised the Nintendo Wii center, the Lego center, the UNO center, the checkers center, the sticker page center, and the Tinker Toys center.

We normally finish Kids' Church at 3:45. We'd had absolutely no behavior problems so we extended the activities for another 15 minutes. One girl's older brother arrived to take her home at the regular dismissal time. I think she was having a good time as she told him, "I'm not going home until they make all of us go home."

About 25 people came to the Celebration Service and Christmas Dinner that evening. It was an almost completely different crowd than the ones at either of the other services. Gloria had baked the church's 20 lb. turkey and the church provided cookies for people to decorate. Others took part in a vegetable potluck. We polished off every morsel and had a great time visiting together.

We started distributing the postcards in the neighborhood on Monday. That day we covered the Camden Crossing and Round House Square areas of Pigtown. Once that was done I worked on putting together a wedding for later in the week, finalizing the order of worship for Christmas Eve, and contacting people to staff that service.

Damon and I distributed postcards on Tuesday. We covered several blocks on the 21230 side of the boulevard. Afterward we drove out to Wendy's for lunch. There we met two of our young adults who were filling out job applications

While we were distributing fliers we'd run into another young adult who had been active in church as a kid. I knew that he worked for the city but was surprised to see him pull up in a big green city dump truck. We were able to chat for a few seconds. Our main topic of conversation was about some people he was trying to find on Facebook. I was able to help him connect with those friends once I got home.

With fewer than 70 participants we had a surprisingly small SonRisers on Wednesday morning. Those in the office at school 34, however, were very pleased to receive a few dozen leftover donuts later that morning.

Later that morning we finished our postcard distribution as we covered the 21223 side of the boulevard. That evening was the NA Meeting and the Mid-Week Service. Following that service we prepared for a Staples run by printing off the orders of worship for Christmas Eve, Sunday (12/26), Sunday (1/2), Pizza Church Press, and Kids' Church News.

With that, we spent some time on Thursday in Staples getting the copies made and organized. When we got back home Marjorie was waiting for us. She updated us on some potential new initiatives in the neighborhood as well as updated us on some current programs, some of which are not functioning well.

When she left I got a call from Paul's Place Outreach. They'd finished their Christmas toy distribution and had a few toys left over. They wondered if we had any use for them. I arranged to meet them a few hours later.

Upon my arrival I learned that we have very different definitions of "a few." With the large quantity of toys and games I sent out a text message calling all hands to the church that evening to wrap gifts for kids. We had planned to set up the church that night for the Christmas Eve Service but the toys now took priority. Damon, Carlo, Fred, Tamara, and I showed up to work. We wrapped, sorted, and packaged the gifts from 7:30 until nearly 11:00 p.m. In the end we had presents for kids in 24 different households.

We also learned on Thursday that Salem had died. Though I don't think he'd ever been to church at the Power House, he was a close relative of several members and friends of the congregation. He had been hospitalized for over a year prior to his passing.

Tamara and I loaded up the van and delivered presents on Friday morning. We were able to surprise a lot of people in just a couple of hours.

At 1:00 that afternoon I officiated at a wedding. It was held in the couple's home just a few miles away. They're friends of many people in the congregation and have been at a high percentage of the weddings and funerals I've done over the years. It was a really neat ceremony in front of their Christmas tree.

After the wedding I had some gifts for families that still needed delivery. After that was finished we finally got around to setting up the church for the Christmas Eve Service. This takes more time than usual as we have more elaborate worship centers, configure the chairs for a bigger crowd, place candles throughout the building, and the like. Tamara designed some amazing worship centers for the event. Along with this, Bryce came to the church to practice the song he was playing on his trumpet at the service.

We'd gotten several calls and questions during the day about Pizza Church. The kids had been informed repeatedly that the Christmas Eve Service replaced Pizza Church this week yet confusion seemed to abound. I decided to be at the church by 5:45 in case kids were still confused and came looking for pizza.

By 7:38 a crowd had gathered for the 7:30 service. Charlotte played the keyboard. Vonceil ran the A/V equipment, Bryce played the trumpet, Tamara and Lennard read the scriptures, Earl offered a Christmas blessing, and I presided and shared several short messages throughout the service. Afterward a quick clean-up afterward, I took Gary out for some dinner and dropped him off at home. I went back to the church to close up. Of course, once I got home I noticed that I'd left something important there so had to go back and find it.

As is our tradition, the offering at the Christmas Eve Service is called our Christmas Gift to Jesus. The monies received go to support a project somewhere outside our neighborhood. This year the congregation helped purchase a water purification system for a village in a developing country. We don't have a grand total yet, but it looks like we'll have raised enough money through this offering to provide nearly 70 people with clean drinking water for the rest of their lives.

Robert got to the church not long after I left it on Christmas night. I finished my final sermon preparations a little earlier than usual and he came over to set up for Morning Worship since he wouldn't be there the next day to do so.

Looking ahead to next week we have a different schedule of activities. Sunday will include Morning Worship and Kids' Church. With school closed we will not have SonRisers on Wednesday morning. We will have the NA Meeting on Wednesday evening but have cancelled Mid-Week Service that night. We'll be closed on Friday because of New Year's Eve. Our regular schedule resumes on Sunday, January 2.

Along with the individuals and activities mentioned, please keep the following families in the forefront of your prayers:

The Carroll Family
The Wilson Family
The Smith Family
The Battle Family
The Sykes Family
The Braxton Family
The Boozer Family
The St. Thomas Family

Thank you for your continued prayer support.

Jeff and everyone at
The Power House
“Building the Kingdom of God Here and Now”
PowerHouseMD@Juno.com
www.pigtownchurch.org
http://thisweekatthepowerhouse.blogspot.com/

12/19/2010

It’s been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.

It started out on a rainy Sunday with Morning Worship. As expected, we had a bit smaller group as it's harder for people to get to church in the rain. The social work student from the University of Maryland who contacted me last week joined us for the service. Afterward, Vonceil lead her on a tour of the Peace Pavilion then we visited about programming and services in the community. Meanwhile, Tamara worked with some kids on making the T-shirts they'd earned through church participation.

As is traditional here at Christmas time, we showed the Veggie Tale flick "The Toy that Saved Christmas" at Kids' Church. Most of the kids who were at the service hadn't seen it before. With the rain and darkness, the big screen, and the lights turned out it gave a theater-like feel to the event.

That evening was our annual Christmas concert with The Arundel Singers. With the rain we were worried about having more than just a couple people in the audience. The choir itself was a few minutes late coming from their earlier concert, too. Once things got started, though, we ended up having a good sized group for the event. This included some kids who came and brought a parent with them.

We had some new appliances scheduled to be delivered to our house this week. One active participant in the church knew of someone who could use the things we were replacing so he brought some friends by on Monday night to haul them away.

When the mail came on Tuesday we received grocery store gift cards from the Towson Congregation. These will provide a Christmas feast for a family in these tough economic times.

Tamara took one of our young adult members Christmas shopping on Tuesday evening. They had a fun time shopping and a good chance to talk about some more serious issues as well.

Around 105 kids stepped out of the bitter cold wind on Wednesday to take part in our SonRisers activities. During that time we had a couple of kids who had earned T-shirts come by. They were the first to receive ones from the supply we got last week from the Ottawa, Ontario, congregation.

Later that morning Nick came to the church and we worked together on the Christmas Eve mailing. Before we ran out of stamps he also put the labels on our youth ministries mailing that will go out the second week of January.

That evening after the NA meeting, Gloria, Tammy, Patricia, and Violet gathered to assemble our Christmas gifts for people who work at our local schools. The gift this year was a "Teacher's Night Before Christmas" poem with a candy cane and a couple sheets of stickers.

When I came over to the church later that night I found a set of keys on the table. I called Gloria and we determined whose they were so we got them returned before the owner knew they were missing.

A lot of time this week was spent on cleaning, planning, and organizing. I discovered the top of my desk. A friend contacted Gloria about another organization who was giving our Christmas baskets so we recommended a few families in the congregation. We sorted through recent copies of magazines (like Guideposts and the Herald) to set out at the church for those who don't subscribe.

First thing Friday morning I headed out to the schools. I took the Christmas gifts to the elementary school and had a brief chat with the secretary and the principal. I then took the gifts to the charter school. They didn't know that the gifts were coming so they were quite surprised.

When I got home I had a call from Ron. Carol had baked cookies for Sunday's Kids' Church Christmas Party and he and I needed to rendezvous to get them to the church. He was leaving work at the hospital right around the time I would be driving by it while bringing Onalee home from school so we met up in the circle drive and had a smooth hand-off.

Friday night brought Pizza Church. All three sessions had been studying the Christmas story for the past couple of weeks. Since this was the last Pizza Church before Christmas their job was to take the elements of the story and put them in order. Larry, our President of Seventy, Bill, our Mission Center President, and Dick, Bill's brother, joined us for the activity. All three sessions went very well.

People spent the day Saturday getting ready for Sunday's events. Gloria got the turkey ready to go in the oven Sunday morning so it would be set for the Christmas dinner Sunday evening. Vonceil baked cookies to add to the ones Carol baked for the Kids' Church Christmas Party.

Tamara took a group of our high school kids to the movies on Saturday evening. They were seeing the newest Narnia movie and talking about the Christian principles found therein.

Looking ahead to next week we have a different schedule of activities. We have Morning Worship on Sunday followed by the Kids' Church Christmas Party that afternoon. Some young adults from the Mid-Atlantic Mission Center are coming down to help staff the party. Sunday evening at 6:00 is our monthly Celebration Service followed by Christmas Dinner. We'll be distributing invitations for the Christmas Eve Service to every house in the area over the first few days of the week. We'll also need to put together the January newsletters for Kids' Church and Pizza Church. (To do so we'll need to do some curriculum writing as well.) On Wednesday we have SonRisers, NA, and the Mid-Week Service. We have some Christmas dinners and/or gifts to give to anonymously to people in the neighborhood. I'm officiating a wedding on Friday afternoon. Instead of Pizza Church on Friday evening we'll have our Christmas Eve Service that night at 7:00. Though our regularly scheduled Saturday activities will be cancelled on Christmas Day, we'll need to get things ready for next Sunday's services that day.

Along with the individuals and activities mentioned, please keep the following families in the forefront of your prayers:

The Smallwood Family
The Kerler Family
The Iman Family
The Gray Family
The Mills Family
The Purnell Family
The Cox Family
The Taylor Family

Thank you for your continued prayer support.

Jeff and everyone at
The Power House
“Building the Kingdom of God Here and Now”
PowerHouseMD@Juno.com
www.pigtownchurch.org
http://thisweekatthepowerhouse.blogspot.com/

12/11/2010

It’s been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.

It started out Sunday with Morning Worship. All the first-time visitors from last week returned this Sunday. Jeff and Beth were back for the first time since moving back to the area. With them they brought some boxes of young peacemaker T-shirts and hats that the congregation they'd been a part of had donated to us. After the communion service, many people stayed and visited for quite a while. We locked up the church about an hour after the service ended.

We reviewed the Christmas story at Kids' Church. We then made Christmas cards to send to friends.

Because of the many extra events in the schedule over the next few weeks we moved our Priesthood Meeting to Sunday afternoon. Two of the primary topics of discussion were the plans (or lack thereof) for snow removal this winter and the situation regarding raising funds for camp next summer.

Sunday evening brought our annual business meeting. We elected and/or sustained congregational officers and approved our budget for 2011. After the business meeting, Bill (our Mission Center President) and I had a dinner meeting together.

We were greeted with a flat tire on Monday morning. When AAA came to change it we learned that the spare had been stolen when the car had been stolen. We were able to get the situation resolved in time for me to get to Charlotte's house in Germantown. After lunch together I brought her keyboard back to Baltimore. We're borrowing it for Sunday night's Arundel Singers concert and for Christmas Eve.

That evening we had a conference call with pastors throughout the Mission Center. In it we discussed new plans for next summer's reunion.

On Tuesday I made some connections promoting the Arundel Singers concert. I visited with Joe at the Laundromat and got some posters hung up there. I also got in touch with Ms. Frieda who usually promotes the concert at the AME Church and brings friends with her when she comes.

108 kids participated in SonRisers on Wednesday morning. We had been warned that the T-shirts we'd received might be a bit musty and that we would want to wash them. Each trip home from the church that day, then, included a bag full of shirts to run through the washer. That evening after the NA Meeting we had our Mid-Week Service.

I met with the art teacher from school 34. We looked at some of the Peace Pavilion items and thought of ways to improve them for next year. We also went through the bulk of the the "Peace for Us" materials and looked at ways add some color and display them well.

That evening Bill Brian was on his way through town so he stopped in. We had dinner together and had a good visit.

I had a message on the answering machine when I got to the church Friday afternoon. A graduate student from the University of Maryland School of Social Work had run across the Pigtown Peace Pavilion on the internet and wanted to know more about it. She's planning on attending Morning Worship on Sunday then touring it and visiting with us about it for a few minutes afterward.

Friday night brought Pizza Church. Our groups were generally smaller than they've been the past several weeks but still had a good number of kids. We continued with our study of the Christmas story.

Mailing lists were the order of the day on Saturday. We worked on getting the labels ready for the Christmas Eve mailing and a youth ministries promotional mailing for the first of the year.

Our monthly Solid Rock Cafe was on Saturday night. We had a good sized crowd that behaved fairly well. Several of the boys spent the bulk of the time in the bathroom working on their hair.

Looking ahead to next week we have our full schedule of activities. In addition, we have the Arundel Singers concert on Sunday evening at 6:00 p.m. Some members will go home from the concert and log on to the Christmas service being broadcast live from the Temple via the internet at 8:00 p.m. We'll be assembling the teacher care packages on Wednesday during the Mid-Week service time and will be preparing the Christmas Eve mailing mid-week as well. Larry McGuire, our President of Seventy, will be joining us for our Christmas Pizza Church on Friday. We'll also be preparing for the 12/19 events which include the Kids' Church Christmas Celebration and the Christmas Dinner.

Along with the individuals and activities mentioned, please keep the following families in the forefront of your prayers:

The Eisenhardt Family
The Bolaski Family
The Burrs Family
The Mueller Family
The Glaesar Family
The Sturgill Family
The Buckner Family
The Bunner Family

Thank you for your continued prayer support.

Jeff and everyone at
The Power House
“Building the Kingdom of God Here and Now”
PowerHouseMD@Juno.com
www.pigtownchurch.org
http://thisweekatthepowerhouse.blogspot.com/

12/5/2010

It’s been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.

It started out Sunday with Morning Worship. Four new people from two different households joined us in worship that morning and all stayed after for visiting. The Livingstons were responsible for the Advent candle lighting portion of the service.

When I opened the box for crafts that afternoon I quickly realized that the manger scene sticker pages we'd planned to use were missing stickers of the baby Jesus. This would not do. With I quickly dug through some other projects in the boxes and turned a more general Christmas stocking project we had planned to use at a community event into "Happy Birthday Jesus" stockings by using some sticker lettering.

That evening Tamara and I took two teens out to Friendly's for ice cream sundaes. They had earned the trip through attending church more than 40 times since July.

The Christmas Eve postcards we'd ordered a few weeks ago arrived on Monday. This was just in time as some were to go in the envelopes with "Kids' Church News" and "Pizza Church Press" on Tuesday.

Crystal and Tamara decorated the church for Christmas on Tuesday evening. Tamara also started planning how to decorate for the Christmas Eve Service.

Pouring rain and strong winds greeted us on Wednesday morning. Even in those conditions we still had 96 kids participate in SonRisers that morning. About a dozen of them came for the first time.

On Wednesday afternoon we welcomed a first grade class to the Peace Pavilion. After the evening's NA meeting and Mid-Week Service, I switched out the welcome banner in the front of the church with our Christmas banner.

Two classes, one third grade class and one fifth grade class, came to the Peace Pavilion on Thursday. The third grade teacher's comment upon leaving was, "I wish I could bring them back here tomorrow." I took that as a sign that things went well.

While the kids were in the balcony Nick was in the front room. We were a little behind in getting our newsletters in the mail so he finished stuffing, sealing, and labeling the envelopes. He and I will be working on our upcoming mailings later this month.

The computer system at Staples had a glitch in it on Friday morning when I went there to run copies. It didn't recognize our copy card, then our tax exempt number, then our rewards number, then my own debit card. It took over an hour to get just a few copies made. However, during all the waiting I found some materials we can use for the Peace Pavilion and some stickers we can put with our teacher Christmas care packages. They were all on final clearance.

Though we had one last class scheduled for the Peace Pavilion on Friday, they didn't show up. With the very full schedule both at the church and the school between now and Christmas we may not get it rescheduled for some time.

Friday night brought Pizza Church. Numbers were down from our record-setting group last week. After the first session, both parents of one kid who started coming about a month ago came by to check us out. They were pleased and excited about what they saw and are interested in participating in other activities, especially some of our Christmas activities this month. At the start of the second session, one of the new families from Sunday morning came by to drop off their teenaged daughter. The senior high group brought some unique challenges as we discovered bottles of alcohol in some kids' pockets once the lesson was over.

In between the Pizza Church sessions Tamara started working with kids on making T-shirts. The "Make a Power House T-shirt" prize is awarded when kids have come to church 20+ times since July. We have over a dozen that are ready to make their shirts. Two made theirs on Friday and a few more made appointments to make them in the upcoming weeks.

Some students from Loyola came by on Saturday. They were working on a project in their sociology class comparing and contrasting two neighborhoods in Baltimore. Pigtown was one of their assignments so we spent about 90 minutes discussing issues in and dynamics in the neighborhood.

Looking ahead to next week we have our full schedule of activities. In addition, we have our monthly Priesthood Meeting on Sunday afternoon and our annual business meeting on Sunday night. After the business meeting I'm meeting with our Mission Center President. On Monday I'm going to Charlotte's house to pick up the keyboard she's lending us for a few weeks. That evening I have a conference call about next summer's Mission Center Reunion. We'll be working throughout the week in marketing next Sunday evening's Arundel Singers concert and updating our mailing lists for the Christmas Eve Service postcards. The art teacher from school 34 is coming by on Wednesday to work on some Peace Pavilion projects. Saturday is our monthly Solid Rock Cafe.

Along with the individuals and activities mentioned, please keep the following families in the forefront of your prayers:

The Hampton Family
The Eaddy Family
The Battle Family
The Munoz Family
The Ratcliffe Family
The Meyers Family
The Woodrow Family
The Covington Family

Thank you for your continued prayer support.

Jeff and everyone at
The Power House
“Building the Kingdom of God Here and Now”
PowerHouseMD@Juno.com
www.pigtownchurch.org
http://thisweekatthepowerhouse.blogspot.com/

11/28/2010

It’s been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.

It started out Sunday with Morning Worship. One new person joined the group for the Thanksgiving message. Bill and Caleb were down from Pennsylvania for the day, too. Afterward, Bill, Caleb, Lennard, and I had lunch together.

About 20 gathered for Kids' Church. After attendance and announcements, I lead the music then Bill and Caleb were responsible for the lesson and craft.

That evening was our monthly Celebration Service and our annual Dessert Potluck. Though we had a small group, the majority there were people who were not at a service earlier in the day. This included some friends from the Gatchelville, Pennsylvania, congregation. We had some open mike time to share what we're thankful for then indulged in all kinds of delicious desserts.

About 112 kids participated in Wednesday's SonRisers activities. It was the first we'd seen Tamara since she got back from training in Nashville, Tennessee, so during the breaks between serving the kids we got to hear a bit about her experiences.

With Thanksgiving approaching, the schedule for the rest of Wednesday was a bit different from usual. Patricia opened and closed for the Narcotics Anonymous group. We canceled our Mid-Week Service we usually have on Wednesday night.

The church building was closed for the day on Thanksgiving. Paul's Place, which is located a few blocks from the church, provided a Thanksgiving dinner to those who wanted to share in that way. Some people active in the church served meals while others received them.

We spent much of the day Friday on paperwork and planning. We put together December's newsletters, printed our Advent readings, prepared a mailing, and redesigned some follow-up materials for youth ministries.

Friday night brought Pizza Church. Usually the Friday after Thanksgiving has limited participation. This was not the case this year. The first two groups were at to slightly above our normal levels of participation. More people came to the third group than usually come in an entire evening. Also, Quentin was back in town from college so he came that evening, too.

We were running low on all kinds of supplies so a chunk of the day Saturday was spent shopping and restocking. Robert and Ebony came by that evening to clean the church as they would not be there in the morning to do so. Later that night was our monthly Sundae Church.

Looking ahead to next week we have our full schedule of activities. In addition, we're planning to take some kids who have been to church 40+ times since July out to Friendly's for ice cream on Sunday night. We'll be getting our December newsletters in the mail. We have four classrooms scheduled to come through the Peace Pavilion this week. We'll also be putting the finishing touches on some of our Christmas activities and preparing the mailing for the Christmas Eve Service.

Along with the individuals and activities mentioned, please keep the following families in the forefront of your prayers:

The Wagner Family
The Kline Family
The Marsh Family
The Howe Family
The Spence Family
The Pringle Family
The Church Family
The Zachary Family

Thank you for your continued prayer support.

Jeff and everyone at
The Power House
“Building the Kingdom of God Here and Now”
PowerHouseMD@Juno.com
www.pigtownchurch.org
http://thisweekatthepowerhouse.blogspot.com/

11/21/2010

It’s been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.

It started out with a good crowd on Sunday morning. It was a nice blend of people from the neighborhood, people who drove in, people who have been in the congregation for many years, and people who have started participating in the last year or so.

At Kids' Church we reviewed the Fruit of the Spirit. The kids then did a fall themed craft incorporating the lesson with colored leaves on trees.

That evening was our monthly Priesthood Meeting. Though we covered a variety of topics, we spent the bulk of the time talking about SonRisers and Camp. We'd been overrun at SonRisers this fall and needed to make some procedural adjustments to make sure we have enough donuts to go around. Our camp discussions revolved around the combination of the increased cost of camp in conjunction with our increased number of kids who are on track to qualify to go. We solved the problems with SonRisers but have a long ways to go in figuring out the camp situation.

Our web site went down on Tuesday. I didn't know that a domain name could expire. We got in touch with Don to find out what to do and he got it taken care of for the next two years.

One of the bakers called in sick on Wednesday so the others were still frantically making our 14 dozen donuts when I arrived. When I got them, the donuts were still so hot that when I got back to the church and opened the trunk of my car steam came out. The heat and moisture also weakened the boxes so many were crushed on the drive. 117 kids participated in the activities that morning.

As SonRisers was starting, Tamara and Sarah stopped by the church to say good-bye. They were heading out that morning to the National Youth Workers Convention in Nashville.

Wednesday was also the last day that the nursing students met at the church for the last time this semester. A new group will start there in January.

I spent some time coordinating the Peace Pavilion schedule with school 34. They'll be bringing the kids over for the "Peace for Me" activities the week after Thanksgiving.

Thursday was dedicated to paperwork. Trying to keep our mailing list up to date with the influx of kids this year has been challenging at best. We got a good portion of things updated but still have a ways to go.

Friday night brought Pizza Church. We had the seating arranged differently to try to keep things under control with a smaller staff. It worked a little bit but we still had some issues. We're going to need to revamp some of our procedures to better reflect the population that is now participating in this activity.

We have four kids who have earned a trip to Friendly's by attending church 40+ times since July 1. We scheduled a trip there for Saturday. Only one of the four was able to go so we had some good ice cream and conversation together.

Looking ahead to next week we have our full schedule of activities. In addition, the Brians are coming down from Pennsylvania on Sunday and will take the lead of the Kids' Church activities. Sunday evening is our monthly Celebration Service and our annual Dessert Only Potluck. We've canceled Wednesday's Mid-Week Service due to Thanksgiving. Saturday is our monthly Sundae Church for high school students.

Along with the individuals and activities mentioned, please keep the following families in the forefront of your prayers:

The Brown Family
The Jones Family
The Smead Family
The Cox Family
The St. Thomas Family
The Pettis Family
The Ceo Family
The Bryson Family

Thank you for your continued prayer support.

Jeff and everyone at
The Power House
“Building the Kingdom of God Here and Now”
PowerHouseMD@Juno.com
www.pigtownchurch.org
http://thisweekatthepowerhouse.blogspot.com/

11/14/2010

It’s been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.

It started out Sunday with our monthly Communion Service during Morning Worship. Even with several people out of town we still had a good sized group of people participate. We also had one first-time visitor among the group.

We've come to the end of the video series we've used at Kids' Church for the past 18 months. We enjoyed a few of our favorite video shorts then designed individual panels that that created a full-sized poster.

123 kids participated in SonRisers on Wednesday morning. Of those kid, over 20 were first time participants at the church. Afterward, we had a woman come by the church hoping we hand one left over that she could have. We didn't have any extras and she ended up in tears.

During the day we designed and ordered the postcard invitations to the Christmas Eve service. Ordering them this week saved us over 50% (nearly $100) because we beat the Christmas rush.

The art teacher from school 34 met us at the church on Wednesday afternoon. She brought over different fabrics that she and her grandmother had collected in their travels around the globe. She hung the fabrics over some of our dividers to provide more color and texture to the Peace Pavilion experience. (see them up close at http://pigtownpeacepavilion.blogspot.com/) She finished just as the Narcotics Anonymous meeting was ready to start.

We spent some time after the Mid-Week Service thinking about funding next year's summer camp. They're making some positive changes in the camping program and those changes will raise the costs quite a bit. At the same time, we're breaking all our participation records and potentially have many, many more kids who will need to spend a week at camp. With the increase in fees and the jump in the number of kids, we're looking at needing nearly ten times the money that we raised last year (excluding the grant).

I've gotten several calls and emails from people in the neighborhood this week who are facing eviction or utilities shut-off. We don't have resources to help with this beyond referrals, and referrals were what had encouraged them to call us. It could be a long winter ahead.

Earl, Tamara, Sarah, Penny, Gloria, Patricia, and I gathered at the church on Thursday morning to staff the Peace Pavilion. The class of third graders arrived a few minutes early so we didn't waste any time getting started. About 1/3 of the class had been to activities at the church in the past so they were both familiar with the people and excited to be able to go to the previously forbidden balcony. The students were engrossed in the activities and the staff did an excellent job. When it was time to leave the kids were wanting to stay and do more. Afterward the staff had a debriefing about things that worked well and things we needed to adjust to make better. We all learned a lot from the kids in how to approach the subjects at hand.

We've had some scheduling confusion and conflicts for the other classes who are to participate in the Peace Pavilion this year. We tried to connect on Thursday and Friday but kept missing each other. Hopefully we'll be able to get things straightened out this coming week.

Friday night brought Pizza Church. We had a normal sized group for the first session, a small group for the second session, and a large group for the third session.

While taking one of our kids home after Pizza Church we noticed that an intersection was blocked off by several police cars, much the same way it looks when there's been a shooting. Once back at the church I walked over to see what was going on. There hadn't been a shooting. Instead, the police were stopping every car and conducting searches for illegal substances. In the few minutes I watched while visiting the neighbors we saw them bring out drug-sniffing dogs and make several arrests.

Our monthly Solid Rock Cafe was held on Saturday night. 40 kids showed up which is the largest Solid Rock we've had in memory. Several kids were first-time attendees who came with friends.

Looking ahead to next week we have our full schedule of activities. In addition, we have our monthly Priesthood Meeting on Sunday evening. We'll be working with school 34 to finalize the schedule for the Peace Pavilion and have some groups tentatively scheduled for Thursday morning. Wednesday is the final time the nursing students will meet at the church this semester. Next weekend Tamara will be attending the Youth Specialties convention. We're also hoping to take care of some of the rewards kids have earned through their attendance this year.

Along with the individuals and activities mentioned, please keep the following families in the forefront of your prayers:

The Oliver Family
The Alexander Family
The Boswell Family
The Rodriguez Family
The Lawson Family
The Smith Family
The Erbe Family
The Squirrel Family

Thank you for your continued prayer support.

Jeff and everyone at
The Power House
“Building the Kingdom of God Here and Now”
PowerHouseMD@Juno.com
www.pigtownchurch.org
http://thisweekatthepowerhouse.blogspot.com/

11/7/2010

It’s been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.

It started out Sunday morning with guest ministry at Morning Worship. Don Compier, head of our denomination's seminary, brought the message. He was in town for last Saturday's healing workshop and Ron Gillilan, director of the workshop, made it possible to Don to share with us. We were also joined by the Gillilans, our friend Pat who was also in town for the workshop, and a first-time visitor to the congregation.

As a part of the announcements during Morning Worship we included a video to promote giving to Outreach International. I highly recommend it. You can link to it at http://www.vimeo.com/16095679.

There's an Easier Way To Give a Goat - outreachshop.org from Outreach International on Vimeo.

After the service a couple of people who were planning to serve at the Peace Pavilion stayed to get a feel for the materials they'd be using with the kids. Also during this time Ron, Don, and I made a quick home visit to a woman who had just gotten out of the hospital.

With Sunday being Halloween we anticipated a small crowd for Kids' Church. We were correct as only 5 kids came. We did not anticipate, though, that we would be repeatedly interrupted with trick-or-treaters at the door during the 3 o'clock hour. We weren't ready to accommodate them and suggested they return starting at 4:30.

As soon as Kids' Church was over we finished setting up for trick-or-treating. Bryce, Lennard, Isaiah, Tamara, and I all took part in handing out treats. This included toothbrushes and toothpaste that Marjorie Buchanan had secured for us, pencils, stickers, and (of course) candy. We were pretty well cleaned out by 7:30 so we shut down for the night.

I started seeing "RIP" postings on Facebook on Monday afternoon. I soon learned that there three people had been killed just a few blocks away when the car they were in was hit by someone who had just stolen another vehicle. Those in the stolen vehicle survived the wreck.

That afternoon I met with the teachers at school 34 to talk about the Peace Pavilion. They were very excited about the opportunity. Several on staff had been to the church when the Peacemobile had visited nearly 5 years ago and were thrilled to now have access to the learning centers on a regular basis. In fact, on Tuesday I got a letter from the art teacher asking if she could come by and help get things set up.

111 kids participated in Wednesday's SonRisers activities. Later that morning a few more Peace Pavilion volunteers spent time reviewing the materials and procedures. We made a final shopping list and I headed out to get the remaining supplies.

The art teacher from school 34 came by that afternoon before the Narcotics Anonymous meeting. We talked about several ideas and ways to make the place look more inviting. That evening after a small Mid-Week Service we put the finishing touches on the Peace Pavilion in anticipation of Thursday's opening.

Penny, Earl, Ebony, Robert, Sarah, Tamara, and I gathered at the church on Thursday morning to welcome the first kids to the Peace Pavilion. We had two first grade classes scheduled back to back. The appointed time came and went. After waiting a half an hour, I headed over to the school to see what was going on. I learned that since it was raining they decided not to walk the kids over to the church.

Friday night brought Pizza Church. Despite being a little short on staff, the first two sessions went quite well. The senior high group, however, was quite a different story. We had five new kids over the course of the evening.

Looking ahead to next week we have our full schedule of activities. In addition, I'll be checking again with the schools to make sure that kids will be coming to the Peace Pavilion on Thursday. Saturday evening is our monthly Solid Rock Cafe.

Along with the individuals and activities mentioned, please keep the following families in the forefront of your prayers:

The Jackson Family
The Johnson Family
The Boone Family
The Bryson Family
The Burley Family
The Purcell Family
The Jones Family
The Whitney Family

Thank you for your continued prayer support.

Jeff and everyone at
The Power House
“Building the Kingdom of God Here and Now”
PowerHouseMD@Juno.com
www.pigtownchurch.org
http://thisweekatthepowerhouse.blogspot.com/

10/31/2010

It’s been a busy couple of weeks at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.

It started out on Sunday, October 17, with Morning Worship. We had a good crowd that day, which included the return of a few people who hadn't been to church for some time. As a part of the service, we consecrated the balcony for the purposes of peace.

At Kids' Church that afternoon we learned about Nehemiah leading the people to build a wall around Jerusalem. The kids then had the challenge of using Legos to build a wall around me and the rug I was sitting on.

When Nick came in to the Celebration Service that night he shared some of his good news with me before sharing it with the congregation. Though he hadn't been trying to quit, he hadn't touched a cigarette since he'd gotten in the font to be baptized. He had tried unsuccessfully many times before but was now cigarette free for 5 weeks. To conclude the Celebration Service we shared in an especially good potluck dinner together.

88 kids participated in SonRisers that Wednesday morning. This despite the fact that the 6th and 7th grade classes, traditionally the core of our SonRisers participants, were on an overnight field trip.

We worked on the Peace Pavilion on and off throughout much of that day. This included a trip to IKEA to buy some area rugs (thanks to a contribution for that purpose), a visit with the principal at school 34 which concluded with setting up a schedule for her students' participation in the pavilion, and Joshua coming over at the end of the day to help move the last of the exercise equipment out of the way.

The Mid-Week Service started a little late that evening. This was because there was an anniversary party at the NA meeting. They had a buffet meal in celebration and were winding down just as the service was getting ready to start in the other room. We took a couple of minutes to help them clean up and get the back room shut down for the evening before starting our prayer time.

With the last of the equipment now downstairs, we took some time Thursday to put a fresh coat of paint on the steps to the balcony. Later that day I got cornered by a political candidate who was inappropriately seeking my endorsement for him to use in the community.

I was able to visit with the folks at the other school near the church on Friday. The teachers there had become disinterested in participating in the Peace Pavilion so I got some additional information in the principal's hands for their consideration.

That afternoon Patty from the Dundalk Congregation came by and we went to the airport. She and I were on the same flight to Cleveland together. We were going there for meetings with people throughout our mission field. We, along with several others from our area, spent the weekend in Ohio.

While I was out, Tamara and Robert were responsible for Pizza Church on Friday and Sundae Church on Saturday. Earl presided and Vonceil ran the AV equipment for a memorial service at the church on Saturday. Gloria presided and Earl brought the message for Morning Worship on Sunday while Bill Brian took the lead of the lesson and crafts at Kids' Church that afternoon.

Before leaving Ohio on Sunday, the Kramers from the Wadhams Grove Congregation in Michigan met up with us. They had filled their van with the Peacemobile items that were on loan to another congregation when we picked up the trailer there in August. Most of the supplies fit in Sarah's car and a couple bags of puppets went in Marian's back seat so that they could get reunited with the materials we had here in Pigtown. That night Sarah and I unloaded her car at the church.

I got a call from Marjorie on Tuesday. She said she was just a couple blocks from the church and had Halloween supplies for us. I met her at the church and received twelve dozen toothbrushes and nearly 100 tubes of toothpaste to hand out with our Halloween candy this weekend.

110 kids participated in SonRisers activities this Wednesday morning. Each week when kids come they are given a card with a scripture for the week on it. If they save them and bring in six different verses they can get a free T-shirt. We gave out our first T-shirt of the year this Wednesday.

Much of the rest of the morning and early afternoon was spent setting up the "Peace for Me" displays in the Peace Pavilion. Though a tight fit, we were able to set up 12 different learning centers focusing on the topic. I made a call to Michigan that night to make sure I had the right materials with each center. Though we have things generally arranged, we continue to make adjustments and organize some of the supplies. Pictures of the progress are posted at http://pigtownpeacepavilion.blogspot.com/.

That afternoon just before the NA meeting we had a major toilet malfunction in the men's room. Those who arrived to the meeting early had to walk through the puddles we were trying to mop up. Those who arrived late were greeted with a very strong smell of bleach.

Earl brought the Peacemobile puppets with him when he came to Mid-Week Service on Wednesday evening. He lives in the same retirement complex as Marian's mother so Marian had left them there with them.

We spent Thursday on paperwork. This included getting the newsletters for Kids' Church and Pizza Church written, printed, and ready to mail, as well as printing and distributing letters to the teachers for their preparation in bringing kids to the Peace Pavilion.

That evening we noticed quite a few more helicopters overhead than usual. We turned on the news and learned that there had been a shooting (which turned fatal) in front of a home where several members and friends live. We went by a little later to make sure everyone there was ok.

Since Halloween in on Sunday, the kids at school 34 had their annual Halloween parade through the neighborhood on Friday. This year, not only did I get to greet the school kids, I got to see Bryce play his trumpet as his school's marching band came to lead the parade.

While waiting for the parade to start I met up with a young adult who had been very active in church activities as a youth. He had just gotten out of jail on Thursday after a three month stay so he was getting his bearings and making plans to try to stay out of jail in the future.

Friday night brought Pizza Church. We had guests who were in town for the Medical Science and Healing Spirit workshop that Ron runs each year. They shared pictures and stories from some of the medical missions they'd been on in recent years.

Some folks used the church for a birthday party on Saturday afternoon. That evening we spent some time on detail work in the Peace Pavilion and preparing the front room of the church for Sunday night's trick-or-treat crowd.

Looking ahead to next week we have our full schedule of activities. In addition, Don Compier will be our guest speaker during Morning Worship on Sunday. We'll have some Peace Pavilion volunteer training after Morning Worship on Sunday. There'll be trick-or-treating at the church on Sunday evening. Newsletters go in Monday morning's mail. On Monday afternoon we're having a teacher in-service at school 34 in preparation for the teachers bringing children to the Peace Pavilion. First grade students will open the Peace Pavilion on Thursday morning. Next weekend Tamara will be participating in a Young Adult Retreat next weekend.

Along with the individuals and activities mentioned, please keep the following families in the forefront of your prayers:

The Meyers Family
The Squirrel Family
The Ruby Family
The Gray Family
The Lydick Family
The Graham Family
The Ayers Family
The Bonnett Family

Thank you for your continued prayer support.

Jeff and everyone at
The Power House
“Building the Kingdom of God Here and Now”
PowerHouseMD@Juno.com
www.pigtownchurch.org
http://thisweekatthepowerhouse.blogspot.com/

10/17/2010

It’s been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.

It started out with a Homecoming Breakfast early Sunday morning. We didn't have as many people come this year as we did last year but those who came seemed to enjoy the food and fellowship quite thoroughly.

More people joined the group for Morning Worship. This included a woman who is a part of the Wednesday services a the Dundalk Congregation. Someone had posted our Homecoming flier on their bulletin board so she'd hopped the bus across town to have a chance of pace for Sunday.

After the service we had a "game day" lunch. Tamara cooked hot dogs on the grill and we had bags of chips and cans of pop. After lunch a few people stayed to watch the Ravens game on the big screen in the front room.

We've been learning from the book of Ezra for a couple weeks at Kids' Church. Sunday's lesson was about the theme of remembering God's laws. We decided to review the 10 Commandments then have the kids do a corresponding sticker page craft. We had surplus copies of this craft from when we studied Exodus last year and were able to easily find it because of the organizing and categorizing that our World Service Corps volunteers did back in August.

I got a message that afternoon that the last of the Peacemobile materials. When we picked up the trailer in August, a few of the centers were on loan to another congregation in Michigan. The materials had now been returned to the Wadhams Grove Congregation in Michigan. We're now looking at ways to get these remaining items to Maryland.

Sunday night was our monthly priesthood meeting. Tamara shared about her experience at the African American Ministries Conference, we finalized the calendar through the end of the year, and we reviewed the status of some of the ministries, including our statistics on kid participation and the progress on the Peace Pavilion.

Our Mission Center President, our President of Seventy, and our Apostle all arrived in Pigtown Monday morning. We spent about 3 hours together touring the neighborhood, discussing ministry challenges, and having lunch together.

Not long after they left I got a knock on the door. A neighbor whose kids had come to church when they were in middle school came by to let me know that her uncle had died. They were wanting to have me lead a memorial service. I'm scheduled to be out of town the day they could have it so I got them connected with Earl. He was willing to take the lead in it.

We were in contact with Graceland University on Tuesday. Sarah had informed us of a new scholarship opportunity for kids who are members of our denomination. I got the further information I needed and got Fred and Crystal each on track to receive it. This scholarship is a super opportunity as it will cover about half of their tuition.

108 kids participated in Wednesday's SonRisers activities. After they left we put the finishing trim on the floor in the balcony and started to haul out the tools and scraps. The nursing class came a little late that morning as did the NA group that evening. After a very small Mid-Week Service that evening we spent some time cleaning up all the sawdust off the new floor. (We'd decided to use the power tools inside and deal with the mess rather than setting them up outside and risk having them stolen (again) mid-project.)

With Peace Pavilion's space now looking pretty good (you can see current and past pix at http://pigtownpeacepavilion.blogspot.com/) we started pulling the "Peace for Me" materials out on Thursday morning. This took a couple of calls to Michigan so we could make sure we understood what we were looking for. Further, we learned which "Peace for Me" materials are still in Michigan. It's only a couple small items so we should be able to work around it for now if necessary.

That evening was a public lecture at St. Mary's Seminary about Biblical perspectives on land use. I was able to attend it and came away with some ideas and opportunities for our congregation.

Friday night brought Pizza Church. The kids had been out of school the past two days for staff development and they were pretty chatty throughout the evening. Shortly after the last group left a couple of our neighbors came by to let us know that, shortly after leaving the church, several of the kids went over to the park an set things on fire. The fire department was packing up by the time we arrived. Naturally when confronted, the kids were totally unaware that there had even been a fire in the park.

While we were running errands on Saturday we found two high quality backpacks on clearance at 75% off. We bought them and stashed them away for next year's school supply drive. These were not the first donations for next fall, though, as Sally and George gave us a box of items when we were at Mission Center Conference last weekend.

Looking ahead to next week we have our full schedule of activities. In addition, we'll have our monthly Celebration Service on Sunday night at 6:00 p.m. This service will include a potluck dinner. We're planning on shopping for some additional supplies for the Peace Pavilion midweek. One of the leaders of the NA group is celebrating a milestone in being clean and sober this Wednesday so they'll be having a meal together after the meeting. I'll be out of town for meetings next weekend. Earl will be leading a memorial service at the church during the day on Saturday. Saturday night is our monthly Sundae Church.

Along with the individuals and activities mentioned, please keep the following families in the forefront of your prayers:

The Stewart Family
The Brown Family
The Jones Family
The Star Family
The Giraldo Family
The Leach Family
The Parker Family
The Taylor Family

Thank you for your continued prayer support.

Jeff and everyone at
The Power House
“Building the Kingdom of God Here and Now”
PowerHouseMD@Juno.com
www.pigtownchurch.org
http://thisweekatthepowerhouse.blogspot.com/

10/10/2010

It’s been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.

It started out Sunday with Morning Worship. We had scheduled baptisms, confirmations, and communion as a part of the worship experience. After Terry and Icee were baptized, their older sister asked to be baptized, too. She immediately got into the font.

Usually during the serving of communion we usually have some music playing. This week instead of just playing music, we included a professional video of the song being sung in another church. It was not distracting and actually helped people gain a more collective experience. Though the song was new and no lyrics were on screen, most people joined in singing with it by the end.

We also had a couple of neighbors come to church for the first time. They were especially interested in the Peace Pavilion and volunteered to help get it going.

At Kids' Church we learned about the Israelites rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem. We then broke up in groups and had "who can build the tallest" contest between a Tinker Toys team and a Legos team. Once they finished the groups switched blocks and worked to make the buildings even taller.

Afterward Bryce and I spent some time resetting the church. We drained the font, set up tables and chairs for SonRisers, recorded the day's attendance, and moved painting materials from the balcony back to the closet. That evening we spent some time putting together a mailing for next Sunday's Homecoming Celebration.

We were happy to see 98 kids at SonRisers on Wednesday morning. The nursing students were in and out of the building much of the rest of the day. While they were doing their work I spent some time working on installing the flooring for the Peace Pavilion. After the NA meeting and the Mid-Week Service, Josh came by to help carry some heavy and bulky things out of the balcony to their new homes on the main level.

Thursday included several errands and shopping. We needed to restock some Pizza Church supplies and also bought the non-perishable items for the breakfast and lunch at Homecoming. We were short of a couple of things for the floor so a Home Depot stop was required. That evening I thought I would finish the floor but had to quit with only about 4 pieces left to install.

Friday night brought Pizza Church. The first two groups reviewed the Ten Commandments. Then the third group arrived. It was the highest number of kids we've had in a senior high group. And we do mean high. Once they were seated we recognized that several of them were high. We made it through the lesson OK but as we started serving pizza one kid vomited all over the floor. He said that he felt much better and was now ready to eat his pizza.

Afterward I took a few minutes to install the last few floorboards in the balcony. We have a little trim work and clean-up to do, but it is otherwise done.

On Saturday, Tim, Earl, Tamara, and I all participated in our Mission Center Conference in Springfield, Virginia. While there we received a gift of 6 large beautiful baskets filled with gifts for mothers of newborns. These items were assembled as a part of the outreach of our mission center's women's retreat. Sally also brought a box of school supplies to start our collection for next August's distribution.

Meanwhile, Vonceil went shopping to get the hot dogs, buns, bagels, milk, and the like for Homecoming. Tamara will get the coffee and donuts in the morning.

That evening was our monthly Solid Rock Cafe. We had a good crowd that played well together.

The first week in October is also a time when we check on how we're doing in youth participation. So far since July 1 we've had over 450 different kids come to at least one of our regular activities at the church. Last year (which had the best participation levels of kids in our history) we were just short of 400 kids total by the first week of October.

Looking ahead to next week we have our full schedule of activities. In addition, we'll have breakfast before and lunch after Morning Worship as a part of our Homecoming Celebration. Some folks will probably stay and watch the Ravens game on the plasma TV afterward. Sunday night is our monthly Priesthood Meeting. On Monday our Apostle, our President of Seventy, and our Mission Center President are all scheduled to visit Pigtown. We're planning on installing the trim in the balcony then organizing our first round of Peace Pavilion materials throughout the week. I'm scheduled to meet with the public schools about the Peace Pavilion this week as well.

Along with the individuals and activities mentioned, please keep the following families in the forefront of your prayers:

The Ceo Family
The Pettis Family
The Houston Family
The Johnson Family
The Nelson Family
The Sanchez Family
The Bookhultz Family
The Moore Family

Thank you for your continued prayer support.

Jeff and everyone at
The Power House
“Building the Kingdom of God Here and Now”
PowerHouseMD@Juno.com
www.pigtownchurch.org
http://thisweekatthepowerhouse.blogspot.com/

10/3/2010

It’s been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.

It started Sunday with Morning Worship. We again had a small group at the service. The message was on Malachi 3.

At Kids' Church we learned a story from Ezra. The kids broke into groups and made different food items that, when combined, made a dessert treat. Afterward Tamara and I stayed at the church and finished up some overdue paperwork.

101 Kids participated in SonRisers on Wednesday morning. The theory that, because of the closing of the middle school and it's reopening as a charter school, we would have substantially fewer kids at SonRisers was disproven quite completely.

During the day on Wednesday we wrote the October newsletters for Kids' Church and Pizza Church. They are available on line at http://kidschurchnews.blogspot.com/ and http://pizzachurchpress.blogspot.com/.

After the NA meeting we had our Mid-Week service. Some of those who usually come couldn't be there but a couple others who hadn't been there for a while came by.

Once that group dismissed, Josh and I headed to The Home Depot. We purchased all the materials we needed to install the laminate floor in the balcony. The flooring is necessary as the current floor was basically a painted sub-floor which was not nearly sufficient for the Peace Pavilion which will be located there.

Early Thursday morning we met with folks to haul some construction garbage out of the attic. It was put there when we added onto the church and had never been removed. We wanted it hauled out before the new floor was installed so that the floor wouldn't be damaged during its removal and so that we could have the storage space available.

Once they left we started working on the floor. That afternoon we put together the newsletter mailings.

Tamara flew out to Kansas City on Friday morning. She's attending the church's African American Ministries event at church headquarters this weekend.

Sarah and I staffed Pizza Church on Friday evening. All three groups had lots of energy and not a lot of focus. Once all the kids left I spent some time working on the flooring. You can follow the progress with pictures posted at http://pigtownpeacepavilion.blogspot.com/.

We spent some time on Saturday searching for subject-appropriated video shorts to use as a part of the Morning Worship experience. The training I got in Chicago last week directed us to some resources to help make this happen.

That evening when I was finishing up the sermon preparation at the church I got a phone call from one of our high school kids. He said that he wanted to get baptized on his birthday and that his birthday was this Sunday (meaning tomorrow!). I said that I'd have to talk with his mom first. He said she was getting off work late so that she would call me when she got home.

When I hung up the phone, I called Vonceil so she could rework the music and order of worship. I got in touch with Sarah and she'll be able to come and assist with the confirmations. I called Robert to let him know about changes in the setup for the morning. I texted Tamara to let her know what was going on. I then filled the font and reworked the sermon.

He called me around 11:00 p.m. and put mom on the phone. Mom was so excited that he was doing this and wondered if his sister (who has attended regularly) could get baptized in the morning, too, if she wanted to.
Looking ahead to next week we have our full schedule of activities. In addition, we have the baptisms on Sunday morning. Tamara is scheduled to get back from her conference Sunday night. We'll be sending out a mailing about the 10/10/10 Homecoming Celebration and making preparations for it throughout the week. We plan on trying to finish up the flooring in the balcony. Saturday is our fall Mission Center Conference in Springfield, Virginia. Saturday is also our monthly Solid Rock Cafe.

Along with the individuals and activities mentioned, please keep the following families in the forefront of your prayers:

The Ratcliffe Family
The Sturgill Family
The Zerwonka Family
The Cox Family
The Bagley Family
The Riddick Family
The Stallings Family
The Boycheck Family

Thank you for your continued prayer support.

Jeff and everyone at
The Power House
“Building the Kingdom of God Here and Now”
PowerHouseMD@Juno.com
www.pigtownchurch.org
http://thisweekatthepowerhouse.blogspot.com/

9/26/2010

It’s been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.

It started out Sunday with Morning Worship. With so many women in Pennsylvania at the retreat we had a small gathering. That was really good because it was one of those days when I could hardly form a sentence much less a sermon. Though the notes were good, it completely fell apart. I'm hoping this goes down as the worst sermon I've ever given as I certainly don't want to imagine anything worse than that one.

With most of our Kids' Church staff away we scheduled an old Veggie Tales video for Kids' Church. It had been years since we'd shown that one so most of the kids had never seen it before.

Not long after Kids' Church ended the woman arrived back from the retreat. They all appeared quite tired but seemed to have had a good experience there.

That evening was our monthly Celebration Service. We heard reports from the women's retreat and from the Unity Walk. We then shared in a pizza supper together. The high school kids who came were thrilled that, unlike Pizza Church, they were not limited to only one slice of pizza.

We were delighted when nearly 80 kids participated in Wednesday's SonRisers activities. Of them, 30 were new to the church this year. With all the changes in school attendance patterns, each week this fall is a surprise.

After closing up after the nursing class Gloria took me to the airport. I needed to catch a flight to Chicago for a couple days of training in sharing the sacred story. After last Sunday's fiasco, it was quite timely.

Patricia opened and closed for the NA meeting Wednesday night. We had some last minute things come up so we had to call off our Mid-Week service Wednesday night.

The training I was at in Chicago was outstanding. It was probably the best training conference I've ever attended. It was pretty heady stuff, though, and will take me a while to unpack and implement.

Tamara and Robert lead Pizza Church on Friday. Kids were asking good and thoughtful questions throughout the evening, though in the end one of our 2-liter bottles of pop walked out the door with one of the kids.

With no warning Saturday afternoon, the motherboard on Vonceil's computer fritzed. Though she had her data backed up, the songs and videos for Sunday's service needed to be processed on that computer's software in order to be ready for morning. We dropped everything and spent a chunk of the afternoon at Staples finding a replacement for it. She was able to get things set up and ready for morning on the new machine.

Saturday night was our monthly Sundae Church. I don't usually take requests for particular flavors of ice cream, but several kids have been wanting a favorite flavor that we can only get at Safeway. We haven't had it since our Safeway closed this winter. Since we were out at Staples anyway, we found a Safeway in that area and brought in the treat for the group.

Looking ahead to next week we have our full schedule of activities. In addition, we'll be focusing on making some significant headway in transforming the balcony into the Peace Pavilion.

Along with the individuals and activities mentioned, please keep the following families in the forefront of your prayers:

The Brown Family
The Fleming Family
The Howe Family
The Spence Family
The Ghaffar Family
The Jackson Family
The Covington Family
The Barrett Family

Thank you for your continued prayer support.

Jeff and everyone at
The Power House
“Building the Kingdom of God Here and Now”
PowerHouseMD@Juno.com
www.pigtownchurch.org
http://thisweekatthepowerhouse.blogspot.com/

9/19/2010

It’s been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.

It started out Sunday with very hot water in the font. Robert went to the store and bought a bag of ice. We dumped it in and then left the lid off. It was at a much more appropriate temperature by the time the service started.

Family and friends of the four baptism candidates came to join in the celebration. We ended up with over 50 people at the service. Though a bit chaotic at times, the Spirit provided powerful blessings both to those in the water and those gathered to witness and celebrate.

As a part of the celebration, some folks brought cake and snack food to eat together after the service. Earl also brought a cake to mark is 79th birthday so we had plenty of sweets to eat. Most people stayed for quite a while to enjoy the food and fellowship.

A few people, though, needed to leave right away. Tamara took a some of our high school kids straight from the service to Washington, DC, to join in the unity walk. At this event, people from a variety of faith traditions walk Massachusetts Avenue showing understanding and respect for people of all faiths.

Since it was raining we gave a couple people rides home once people had cleared the building. The Paulsons were down from Pennsylvania for the day so we got lunch together then set up for Kids' Church.

The kids seemed to really get into the singing time at Kids' Church so we added a couple of songs to what we had originally planned. I took care of the lesson and the Paulsons lead the craft time.

Sunday evening brought our monthly Priesthood Meeting. We filled in much of the calendar through Christmas, did some planning for the October 10 Homecoming Celebration, and discussed some of the temporal concerns we're having as a congregation.

Last week at the Pigtown Festival, Tamara was invited to come over to Paul's Place, a local not-for-profit that provides services in the community, to visit with Shirley, the director of their after school program. Shirley had heard of Tamara's training in counseling and experience in working with kids in the neighborhood and was interested in seeing if it would help in their programming. As a result of the meeting, Tamara will be working with their program two afternoons each week.

About 45 kids participated in Wednesday's SonRisers activities. We've had a bit of a slow start to SonRisers this fall compared to recent years. Several factors are in play, including schools being closed on Tuesday for the primary election. However, with the charter school's replacing the middle school, we're expecting a significant drop-off in participation this year. We'd love to be proven wrong.

Gloria stayed after SonRisers to talk with the nursing students. They moved their start time to 8:30 so we now have a smoother transition from one activity to the next. We took some of the leftover donuts to the elementary school for their staff.

That afternoon the people who had borrowed a few chairs for a birthday party last week returned them to the church. After the NA meeting we had our Mid-Week Service.

For once, we spent time on Thursday getting a jump-start on some paperwork rather than using that time to play catch-up. We got the October newsletters outlined and took care of some arrangements for an upcoming training. We also worked on fliers for Homecoming and updated the "upcoming events" section of the web site.

Marjorie and I met for breakfast on Friday morning. We've both had a lot going on the last few months so it was a good chance to review what's been happening and look to future coordination between the School of Nursing and the church.

Women started gathering at the church in the late afternoon on Friday. Gloria, Sue, and Vonceil were the drivers of the caravan up to Deer Park Campgrounds for a women's retreat. This year 11 women went from our congregation. This included three women in their early 20s who went through our youth ministries programs a few years back.

Friday night brought Pizza Church. We had good numbers of kids throughout the evening. Since Vonceil was out of town, I had to leave right after the Senior High lesson to pick up Bryce after his first experience marching in the band at his high school's football game. Tamara and a few of the kids stayed at the church late so I was able to visit with them for a few minutes once I was back in the neighborhood.

We have a couple people trying to earn some court ordered community service hours. I met with one of them on Saturday morning to do some prep work for painting. This needs to get done in order to have the room ready for the Peace Pavilion. We (and hopefully some others) will be meeting next Wednesday to get some more of the work done.

Looking ahead to next week we have our full schedule of activities. In addition, we're expecting the women to get back in the neighborhood late in the afternoon on Sunday. We have our monthly Celebration Service (which this month includes a pizza supper) on Sunday evening. We've scheduled some painting time for Wednesday morning after SonRisers. I'll be out of town for training for a couple of days this week so Tamara and Robert will be in charge of Pizza Church on Friday. Next Saturday is our monthly Sundae Church.

Along with the individuals and activities mentioned, please keep the following families in the forefront of your prayers:

The Leslie Family
The Ruby Family
The Taylor Family
The Threet Family
The Burrs Family
The Jones Family
The Alexander Family
The Fisher Family

Thank you for your continued prayer support.

Jeff and everyone at
The Power House
“Building the Kingdom of God Here and Now”
PowerHouseMD@Juno.com
www.pigtownchurch.org
http://thisweekatthepowerhouse.blogspot.com/

9/12/2010

It’s been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.

It started with a small group gathered for Morning Worship. By the time we got a few songs into it a larger crowd had gathered. Since the weather was great and we had the doors open, this included a cat that we had to chase out of the building. We also had one young adult at church who hadn't been to a service since he was in high school 5+ years ago. Two families needed bags of food to take home with them after the service.

At Kids' Church we talked about remembering how God had blessed us and how people had responded to the Spirit to help provide for all the summer activities. We then made items to be included in some thank you packets.

Pastor Bob called on Tuesday to offer us some food for distribution in the neighborhood. We weren't as successful in getting things into people's hands as we were the last time he had a delivery for us.

About 50 kids participated in SonRisers on Wednesday morning. The kids who are at the new charter school gave good reviews of their experiences there thus far.

After SonRisers I spent some time in class with the nursing students sharing my perspective on the community. They'll have a series of guests doing likewise throughout the semester.

Bill, our Mission Center President, came down a little later that morning. He looked over what we've started doing with the Pigtown Peace Pavilion. We then had lunch together and discussed issues in the neighborhood, the mission center, and the denomination.

After the NA meeting we had our Mid-Week Service. The bulk of our time was spent in prayer.

On Thursday evening I was able to visit the households of our baptism candidates. In doing so I got the statistical information needed to record their baptisms. If all goes as planned, we'll have four baptisms during Morning Worship on Sunday.

We spent some time on Thursday and Friday preparing materials for our booth at Saturday's Pigtown Festival. We printed out banners and signs, prepared fliers, and determined which interactive centers we'd have at our booth.

I got a call this week from Tom, the manager of The Arundel Singers. They wanted to have a Christmas concert again at the church. We were able to schedule it for December 12 at 6:00 p.m.

When Onalee and I got in the van on Friday morning we noticed that it had been broken into the previous night. Nothing significant was missing but they had made quite a mess. The keys to the van were not recovered with my car so they are still out there.

Friday night brought Pizza Church. In learning about Solomon's wisdom, the first two groups both read the story in which he threatens to cut a baby in half in order to determine the baby's real mother. The kids had strong reactions throughout the story and ended up thinking Solomon was sneaky as well as wise. The senior high group continued its study of the Gospel of Luke. Before leaving they helped set up the church for Saturday's Solid Rock Cafe and got the font out of the closet in preparation for Sunday.

Tamara, Vonceil, and I set up our booth at the Pigtown Festival Saturday morning. Tamara and I staffed it throughout the day. We included two activities from the Peace Pavilion in it. You can see pictures and read more about it at http://pigtownpeacepavilion.blogspot.com/.

While there we were able to visit with the director of the after school program at Paul's Place. She was very interested in the Peace Pavilion until she saw the display. Once she did she got very excited and is anxious to bring the kids to it.

We had a small group of kids at our Solid Rock Cafe on Saturday evening. We were a little lean on staffing so it worked out just fine. I got the font filled when the kids weren't there.
Looking ahead to next week we have our full schedule of activities. In addition, we have baptisms scheduled for Morning Worship. After the service we're having cake in celebration of Earl's 79th birthday. Some young adults from the Mid-Atlantic Mission Center will be down on Sunday and will be leading the crafts at Kids' Church. Sunday night is our monthly Priesthood Meeting. I have a breakfast meeting on Friday with Marjorie from the University of Maryland School of Nursing. We have about a dozen women who are planning on going to the Women's Retreat next weekend at Deer Park campgrounds in Pennsylvania.

Along with the individuals and activities mentioned, please keep the following families in the forefront of your prayers:

The Simmons Family
The Bonnett Family
The King Family
The Magallanez Family
The Whitley Family
The Jeffers Family
The Johnson Family
The Alascio Family

Thank you for your continued prayer support.

Jeff and everyone at
The Power House
“Building the Kingdom of God Here and Now”
PowerHouseMD@Juno.com
www.pigtownchurch.org
http://thisweekatthepowerhouse.blogspot.com/

9/5/2010

It’s been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.

It started out with relief that our van was in the church parking lot in the morning. Since there had been several attempts at stealing it already that weekend and with our car already gone, it was nice to see it in the morning.

During Morning Worship we reviewed how God's Spirit had been moving among us over the summer. Hannah and Sam then shared about their time working with the congregation. This was followed by a congregational blessing for them and then a reception with cake.

Right after church we began setting up for the school supply distribution. A few of our high school kids joined Tamara, Sam, Hannah, and me in hauling everything out of the closet, organizing things, and setting up displays for the kids to make their choices. For all their help, the high school students were able to select from some backpacks that we'd received.

We had more supplies donated to us this year than ever before. People in the congregation continued to bring in bags of supplies right up through Morning Worship that day. Individuals and congregations around Maryland, Virginia, Missouri, and Michigan all gave generously to the cause. One woman decorated a box and set it out at work to collect donations from coworkers. This took a full and broad effort to make this all happen.

Vonceil, Patricia, and two of our neighbors got to the church shortly before opening to help staff the event. Kid and parents filled the space outside from the church doors to the street and then around the corner on the sidewalk in front of the church.

I stepped outside at 3:00 to assure people that we had plenty of supplies and that there was no need to rush. We then let people in to go to the registration table and choose their supplies. People moved quickly and in an orderly manner. While they waited in line they could watch a series of photos and announcements of youth ministries at the church that Vonceil had playing on the big screen.

In the first 45 minutes over 150 kids received school supplies. By the time we closed up a couple hours later 218 kids had bags of supplies. We went from six tables heaped with supplies and boxes of supplies stacked on the floor near them to one table about half full of leftover items.

Five years ago we helped 66 kids. It was gratifying to be able to help that many people and troublesome to recognize how much the need has grown.

By the time we got everything cleaned up and all the statistics run for the day it was 8:45 p.m. Though completely out of some supplies, we had some leftovers, too. The few boxes of "non perishable" items like notebooks and crayons will be saved for next year. Things that won't last (like glue sticks or markers) will be given to the teachers at our local schools.

Sam and Hannah's time in Baltimore came to an end on Monday. Tamara and I had lunch with them at Tamara's house then Tamara took them to the airport for their overnight flight back to the UK.

With the locks at the church changed last Saturday (due to my keys being gone) Tamara and I were the only key holders. We got copies made and distributed them to most people who needed them early in the week.

Our fall schedule resumed on Wednesday. It started with about 25 kids participating in SonRisers that morning. We anticipated a small group because the new charter school wasn't opening until next week. Also, the new 6th graders who would have traditionally gone to that building are taking busses out of the neighborhood now that the local middle school has closed. As we were setting up in the morning we realized that we were opening too late for those kids who now have to catch busses by 7:00 a.m. Next week we'll start opening at 6:45 in order to let them be a part of SonRisers each week.

Once SonRisers ended the nursing students began to arrive. They'll be using the church as a launch site for their work in the neighborhood again this year.

We put the September newsletters in the mail. You can see Kids' Church News at http://kidschurchnews.blogspot.com/ and Pizza Church Press at http://pizzachurchpress.blogspot.com/.

I stopped by a family's home to discuss baptism with them. Some have decided to get baptized on Sunday, September 12, and others are considering it.

That evening after the NA meeting we resumed Mid-Week service. Afterward we hung the new banner on the front of the church and changed out our sign to reflect the fall's schedule.

Part of the job on Thursday included finding the surface of my desk. All the remnants of the summer's projects were cleared off to make room for fall. We also prepared some fliers needed for next Saturday's Pigtown Festival.

Friday night brought Pizza Church. The kids looked good as many of them arrived in new school uniform shirts. A couple of the boys asked for help to change high schools because their school didn't have as many girls as some of the other schools. The first two groups learned about Solomon while the third group continued its study of the Gospel of Luke. Don was in town working on his house so he joined us for the third session.

The weather on Saturday was exceptionally beautiful all day. We were able to visit many people who were out enjoying the weather.

That afternoon an abandoned house on my street caught on fire. Some junkies had broken into the house and had caused the fire while they were in there. This is not an unusual occurrence.

Sometimes when the fire hoses are being used we get some brown water from our spigots for a little while. This happened today. Unfortunately, we running the washing machine and didn't notice it. All our white clothes came out covered with large, blotchy, brown stains. This includes the kids' and Vonceil's school uniform shirts. We'll see if Oxy Clean is as good as it claims to be. Fortunately, we had prepared the communion cloths earlier so they're unstained.

And just as I was getting ready to send this letter out at about 1:00 a.m. I had a loud knock on the door. It was the police. They had found our car several blocks away and wanted me to pick it up immediately. The car was missing its radio and hubcap, had some bumps and scrapes, and featured some graffiti inside. Though the steering was very much out of alignment it was still drivable. The van keys were not inside. The officers scolded me for letting my car get stolen then sent me on my way.

Looking ahead to next week we have our full schedule of activities. In addition, I'll be teaching the nursing students about the neighborhood during their class on Wednesday. I'm having lunch with Bill, our Mission Center President, on Wednesday as well. Next Saturday is the Pigtown Festival. Meanwhile, Violet will be attending the Mission Center meeting in Springfield, Virginia, that same day. Saturday evening is our monthly Solid Rock Cafe. After that we'll be setting up and filling the font for next Sunday's baptisms.

Along with the individuals and activities mentioned, please keep the following families in the forefront of your prayers:

The Lydick Family
The Handy Family
The Sykes Family
The Barrett Family
The Battle Family
The Brown Family
The Stintchcomb Family
The Burley Family

Thank you for your continued prayer support.

Jeff and everyone at
The Power House
“Building the Kingdom of God Here and Now”
PowerHouseMD@Juno.com
www.pigtownchurch.org
http://thisweekatthepowerhouse.blogspot.com/

8/29/2010

It’s been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.

It started out just as after I sent out the report last Saturday night. There was a shooting right around the corner from my house. I needed to scope out the scene and make sure I could account for people, especially our World Service Corps volunteers. I was also able to visit with some congregants who were at the scene. Wound up from the incident, I wasn't able to get to sleep until about 4 a.m. If you want to know where my head goes in those kinds of settings, you can read my blog entry written that night at http://davotionsfromdahood.blogspot.com/2010/08/scarey.html.

The next morning I shelved the original sermon for Morning Worship and had a message with prayers from the congregation interspersed in it. The new message revolved around why we do what we do and our long-term hope for the community.

Sam and Hannah took the lead during the lesson at Kids' Church. They shared some things about Wales and England with the kids. We then had coloring pages with the Welsh, English, and UK flags.

As Kids' Church wound down our kids who went to Spectacular began to gather in the building. They were going to Pennsylvania for an evening with Spec participants. The family who hosted it have a backyard pool so they all had a chance to play and had a good evening together.

We were on the road to Pennsylvania again on Monday. The kids who had come to church on average of more than twice a week for the last school year had earned a day at Hershey Park. We got there shortly after opening and stayed late enough to close the place.

Work continued on the mural on Tuesday. Sarah brought over another ladder so more people could work on it at the same time. Meanwhile, I got the supplies necessary for our teacher care packages and restocked the paper products at the church.

I met up with George on Wednesday morning. He brought donations of school supplies from folks in the Frederick, Maryland, congregation.

We also worked on producing the September newsletters for Pizza Church and Kids' Church. In trying to make things easier, I completely messed up our mailing student address data base. It took much of the afternoon to get things straightened out.

That afternoon the mural was declared finished. That portion of the Pigtown Peace Pavilion is now complete. You can see pictures of what will welcome kids to their B'more Peaceful experience at http://pigtownpeacepavilion.blogspot.com/.

Bryce and I spent Thursday morning shopping for school supplies. Hannah and Sam had kept a good inventory of what supplies we'd received so Bryce and I took the money and gift cards we'd been given for school supplies and went shopping. At the first Office Depot we were in the supervisor initiated a conversation with us about the unusual combination of things we were buying. When she heard what we were doing she got all teary-eyed and stared giving us lots of extra things for free. The manager at Staples, who we already know well and who has supported us generously over the last few years, also gave us additional items when we were at the checkout. By the end of our trip (which included buying the loss-leads at a variety of stores), we had purchased everything on our list and much, much more, and were only about $8 over our budget.

That afternoon we delivered the teacher care packages to the schools. The elementary school was expecting us and were all happy for the treats. The folks at the charter school were pleasantly surprised with the gesture of support.

With a touch of fall in the air, lots of folks were out on their steps on Thursday evening. I was able to catch up with many people, schedule a baptism for September 12, answer questions about Sunday's school supplies distribution, and collect school supply donations from people who hadn't yet dropped them off.

That evening I spent some extra time at the church making sure the mailing labels were correct as I assembled the newsletter mailings. One of our neighbors stopped by to see if she could volunteer to help with the school supply distribution on Sunday. While I was finishing up the work someone stole my car from the church parking lot. They had first gotten hold of my keys so it was easy for them to do.

We received a 51 lb. box of school supplies from the Hampton, VA, Congregation on Friday. They were delivered to my house so Tamara and Hannah came and took them to the church since I no longer had a key to the church (a fact I realized earlier in the day when I took 6 boxes of ice cream there to put in the freezer for Saturday but couldn't get in).

Friday night brought Pizza Church. The groups were a bit smaller than in recent weeks but very interactive. It was Hannah and Sam's last Pizza Church so the kids spent quite a bit of time after the lessons visiting with them and leaning a bit of British English. Hannah had given out pins with the Welsh flag on them last week and it was neat to see some kids wearing the pins to church. Between sessions, I visited with the mom of a couple of our kids. I think both of her kids kids are going to get baptized on September 12, too.

I got a call from Tamara at about 2 a.m. saying that some kids were in my van. She called the police and I met here there. She had scared the robbers off so we waited for the police. No one came so we went home at 4:00 a.m. By 4:30 they were trying to get in again and were chased off by some neighbors.

When Vonceil got in the van on Saturday morning she saw that they had been back again and had tried to cut through the steering wheel. They did enough damage to need to replace the wheel but didn't have a strong enough saw to get through the steel reinforcements. The police finally came on that call but could only write a report. In getting information from witnesses we learned that they had been in the van at least a 4th time as well.

During the day on Saturday Hannah and Sam worked on unpacking and sorting items from the Peacemobile items. Vonceil picked up a cake to have at a reception for Hannah and Sam after Morning Worship on Sunday. Tamara took the responsibility of getting a locksmith to come out and change the locks at the church. This was a necessary activity and expense because of the situation with my car and van. The robbers have a copy of all my keys and are still very much active in the area so getting the church secured was a priority.

That evening was our monthly Sundae Church. We don't usually get first-time visitors to this activity but today one kid brought four friends. They had a great time and seemed quite interested in Pizza Church. We started with six boxes of ice cream and had no leftovers.

Afterward I got a call from Jenn Maser. She had collected three more boxes of school supplies at work and wanted to drop them off at the church.

Looking ahead to next week we have our full schedule of activities. In addition, we'll have a reception after Morning Worship for Sam and Hannah. We'll distribute school supplies on Sunday starting at 3:00 p.m. On Monday Hannah and Sam fly back to the UK. Wednesday brings the return of SonRisers and Mid-Week Service. The University of Maryland School of Nursing will also begin using the buildings as their neighborhood base this Wednesday. We hope to get copies of the church keys made early in the week so that we will not be dependant on just two households to open and close the building.

Along with the individuals and activities mentioned, please keep the following families in the forefront of your prayers:

The Taylor Family
The Johnson Family
The Carson Family
The Riddick Family
The Pettis Family
The Bagley Family
The Ghaffar Family
The Bryant Family

Thank you for your continued prayer support.

Jeff and everyone at
The Power House
“Building the Kingdom of God Here and Now”
PowerHouseMD@Juno.com
www.pigtownchurch.org
http://thisweekatthepowerhouse.blogspot.com/

8/22/2010

It’s been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.

It started with pouring rain shortly before Morning Worship on Sunday. This kept many of the people who walk and all of the people who come on electric scooters at home. Fortunately, Bill & Wendy Brian and several young adults from their area were in town. We had guests from other congregations, too, so we still had a good-sized group. We started a preaching series that morning about living in peace.

We had some food left over from last week's distribution so we put it out for people to take home with them from church. In the end it was all gone.

Bill led the lesson at Kids' Church that afternoon. The kids were learning about the book of 1 Chronicles.

That evening was our monthly Celebration Service. Several of the people who went to Spectacular talked about their experiences as a part of the good news time. This included a video that Sarah had put together. Tamara cooked hot dogs on the grill and others brought "picnic potluck" food that we shared together afterward.

On Monday Hannah, Sam, and Tamara continued working on a couple of projects. One was the sorting and organizing of our craft project supplies and the other was the painting of the mural for the Peace Pavilion. I went to the store and picked up a few items for our school supply drive with money that had been given for that purpose.

Fred got a letter in the mail on Monday. In it was his acceptance letter to Graceland University for fall 2011. It also included a $4000 annual scholarship to get things started. With that, we now have two kids on track to attend Graceland next fall.

Fred, Tamara, Hannah, Sam and I piled in the van and hit the road at 6:45 a.m. Tuesday. We headed to Port Huron, Michigan, to pick up the Peacemobile. On our way there we took a side trip to Kirtland, Ohio, to tour the church's historic temple there. We got to Port Huron around 8:00 that evening.

We had some down time during the day on Wednesday so there was time for going to the beach, visiting family, watching the lake freighters, and playing mini-golf with the our host families' kids and their friends. Supper was a cookout at Tim and Becky's house.

That evening was a service at the Wadhams Grove congregation. It featured a history of the Peacemobile, a blessing of the congregation and its efforts, our group sharing about the ministry here, and a blessing of our future efforts with the Peace Pavilion.

Jenn was able to join us that evening as well. She moved from Pigtown to Michigan about a year ago and currently lives about an hour from Port Huron.

Thursday brought the long drive home. Pulling the trailer meant driving slower and more stops for gas. Therefore, it took us about the same amount of time to go straight home from Michigan as it did for us to get to Michigan via Kirtland.

While we were away, Gloria was able to visit Charles. She had just recently found him after we had lost track of him in the hospital systems. He's now living in a place where he'll get the assistance he needs.

On Friday I was able to visit with the principals at the two elementary schools closest to the church. Both schools were excited about the Pigtown Peace Pavilion and are looking forward to bringing their kids to participate in it this year.

Friday night brought Pizza Church. Hannah and Sam shared about the UK and about World Service Corps during all three sessions. One kid who we hadn't seen in quite a long time surprised us when he returned in a wheelchair. He had been in a car wreck and had lost the use of his legs and had limited mobility in his arms.

Gillilans took Hannah, Sam, and me out for lunch on Saturday. We had a good visit and afterward the Gillilans stopped by the church to see the progress on the mural and the materials that will become the Peace Pavilion. Later that afternoon, Tamara, Hannah, and Sam made a lot of progress toward completing the mural. You can see an "in-progress" picture of the mural at http://pigtownpeacepavilion.blogspot.com/.

Looking ahead to next week we have our full schedule of activities. In addition, those from around the area who went to Spectacular will have a reunion on Sunday evening in Pennsylvania. On Monday we're going to Hershey Park with kids who earned a trip there through their participation in church last year. On Wednesday we'll be assembling teacher care packages for the local schools. Throughout the week we'll be finishing up summer projects like the mural and the collection of school supplies for distribution August 29. Next Saturday evening is our monthly Sundae Church.

Along with the individuals and activities mentioned, please keep the following families in the forefront of your prayers:

The Pestridge Family
The Moore Family
The Quick Family
The St. Thomas Family
The Kruft Family
The Latham Family
The Jamison Family
The Collier Family

Thank you for your continued prayer support.

Jeff and everyone at
The Power House
“Building the Kingdom of God Here and Now”
PowerHouseMD@Juno.com
www.pigtownchurch.org
http://thisweekatthepowerhouse.blogspot.com/