10/8/2005

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

It started out with small groups at all three services on Sunday. We celebrated communion at Morning Worship. At Kids' Church we learned about the parable of the talents then made really cool crafts out of cookies (which we ate before going home) to remind us not to bury the things God has trusted us with. We continued our review of the letters to the churches in the book of Revelation at Evening Worship.

We had our priesthood meeting on Monday evening. Among other things, we selected the chairs we'll be buying for our new building. They're $20 each so if anyone wants to buy a chair (or a row of them) for us please let me know. We also made some calendar plans to make sure the that parts of the construction the congregation is responsible for are completed in a timely manner.

For the second week in a row 115 kids participated in Wednesday's SonRisers activities. That evening the Adult Disciples group discussed their reading of the Gospel of Mark. The group had some especially insightful observations.

On Thursday the builders broke through from the new building to the old one. What used to be the back area will now be tied in to the addition and become the lobby.

At this point we are 1/4 of the way through our attendance year. Since July we've had 322 different kids come to at least one activity at the church. This is up by over 100 when compared with 3 years ago.

We had our first graffiti on the new building this week. Someone wrote with permanent marker on the PVC downspouts from the gutters. We were able to lighten it some but not get it completely off yet. At least the profanity was spelled correctly this time.

I got an email from Donald this week. He seems to be thoroughly enjoying his time at Graceland University. He's studying hard, joined the basketball team, and is already registered for next semester's classes.

When we arrived at the church on Friday for Pizza Church we walked into a total mess. Appearantly the builders had been sanding and, since there is now no barrier between the old and the new building, a thick layer of dust covered the entire church. All of the floors, the books, the desk and computer, the water fountain, the counter tops, the pulpit ---- all of them thick with white dust. We cleaned enough out to get through Pizza Church but will have some serious work to do to get things clean enough for Sunday activities.

We spent a couple of hours cleaning up more dust and dirt at the church on Saturday. We got the next layer of dust off of things. However, we have a lot of it in our books and each book will need some individual attention.

That night brought this month's Solid Rock Cafe. It had poured rain all day and we could tell that the kids who came had been couped up in their houses all day.

Looking ahead to next week we have our full schedule of activities. In addition, we'll be continuing to coordinate work on the building so we can get it finished. If all goes well we may try to get some additional painting done this week as well.

Along with the individuals and activities mentioned as well as the continued progress on our building project, please keep the following persons in the forefront of your prayers:

Scott
Brian
Ray
Carlo
Forrest
Troy
Fred
Sarah

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