10/25/2009

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

It started out Sunday with a very cold building. The thermostat followed the old calendar for time change so the heat wasn’t on as it should have been. Once that was adjusted we discovered that the batteries for the wireless microphone wouldn’t hold a charge so we scrambled to solve that problem as well.

A small group of people gathered for Morning Worship. A couple of our teens were at the Washington, DC, congregation to participate with them and other religious organizations in the annual Unity Walk.

When we returned to set up for Kids’ Church we discovered that an area near the back door of the building had leaked rain water. It had soaked the large rug that was near it. Vonceil brought over our carpet shampooer so we could get most of the water out of it. When the kids arrived we had a lesson and craft about the parting of the Red Sea.

Sunday evening brought the monthly Celebration Service. Again, it was a small crowd but a different one than was around in the morning. As a part of the service we talked about some of the good things happening with kids and watched one of the new short JellyTelly videos the kids are using at Kids’ Church. Afterward we had at potluck dinner.

90 kids participated in Wednesday’s SonRisers activities. This was the first Wednesday that Gloria was able to be back on staff at this activity.

Once the kids left the plumber arrived. The men’s room had been closed since last Wednesday due to an inoperable toilet. He was able to repair it in one trip.

Once that was fixed and the nursing students were settled into their class I went home for a couple of meetings. One was with another local pastor and one was with our mission center president. Both were originally scheduled off site but Onalee needed one more day at home before returning to school after getting over an eye infection. Both people were able to move the meeting to my house to accommodate this.

I learned later that day that Nick, our baptism candidate for next Sunday, had been hospitalized. His fiancé said that he might be in for a while and requested postponing the baptism.

The current leader of Wednesday’s Narcotics Anonymous group celebrated his anniversary that night so they had an especially upbeat meeting and food afterward. Their former leader, who is in hospice care, was able to come to the celebration as well.

As usual, a handful of people gathered that evening for the Mid-Week Service. We had a good opportunity for reflection and prayer together.

Unseasonably warm temperatures brought a lot of people outside on Thursday evening. I had a chance to visit with several people, some of whom I hadn’t seen in over a year. I also learned that night that I would not need to report to jury duty on Friday.

I got a call from Marjorie on Friday. She let me know that she’s secured 200 toothbrushes for us to give out along with the candy on Halloween.

Friday night brought Pizza Church. The first session was the biggest group of the evening. Both the first and second group learned about the Ten Commandments while the third group continued its study of the Gospel of Matthew.

Earl and I spent the day on Saturday in training. Willow Creek offered a seminar on leading small groups. It was provided locally via satellite.

That night was our monthly Sundae Church. We had a good chance to get to know some of our newer high school kids a little better.

Looking ahead to next week we have our full schedule of activities. In addition, on Sunday evening we’ll be taking some kids who have come to church 40+ times so far since July out for ice cream at Friendly’s. The power company has a planned outage scheduled for the neighborhood on Friday so we’ll be preparing and adjusting for that during the week. Saturday evening we’ll welcome trick-or-treaters to the church for Halloween.

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

The Chamness Family
The Tucker Family
The Lee Family
The Torres Family
The Carter Family
The Clark Family
The Ghaffar Family
The Reese 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