11/15/2009

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

It started out Sunday with Morning Worship. When it was time for the service to start, only a handful of people were there. By the end of the third song the place crowd had more than doubled. We continued our series on John the Baptist.

Two of the people who came in were Theresa and Harmony. Harmony was celebrating being 9 days old. After the service we all had a chance to meet her and congratulate Theresa.

Between the services the power went out for part of the neighborhood. This was the third time in two weeks. The church had power but my house didn’t. Fortunately, we’d printed off everything we needed from the house before that happened.

During Kids’ Church we learned the story of Joshua and Caleb. We made bookmarks for our craft of the week. Since this was the 10th week in our new format, three kids had earned their 10th star that day. As a result they each got to pick out a prize from the prize box. Now that we’ve crossed 10 weeks we should have kids getting to 10 stars most weeks.

Early in the week Vonceil’s school was in the news. Some kids from another school got into the building and attacked another kid. Six people were arrested and the kid who was attacked will be OK.

97 kids participated in Wednesday’s SonRisers activities. We had a neighbor come in to complain about the kids during this time.

The nursing students have just one more week at the church. These last couple of weeks they’ve been bringing in canned goods to help restock our food pantry.

That afternoon I met with the couple that was getting married at the church on Saturday. That evening after the NA meeting we had our Mid-Week service.

Throughout the week we worked on some longer-range plans. We outlined the Kids’ Church curriculum through June and downloaded the corresponding Jelly Telly videos. We also worked on initial plans for spring activities, including the 15th anniversary celebration of the congregation.

Thursday afternoon I got a knock on the door. A neighbor handed me a frozen turkey to give so someone who didn’t yet have one. Earlier in the day I had received donations from the Towson Congregation to sponsor some families for Thanksgiving. I was able to distribute the turkey and half of the gifts from Towson that evening.

Friday night brought Pizza church. When I got to the church that night I discovered that our recycling bin had been stolen. Robert and I were on staff that night. Some of the kids that began attending Pizza Church when school began earning extra slices of pizza through their participation. The new kids for the younger grades have been good. The new kids in the senior high group have been really tough.

On Saturday we had a wedding at the church. I officiated and Bryce managed some of the temporal needs of the service.

Saturday night was our monthly Solid Rock Café. It was a loud and mischievous group. It took a lot of crowd control and we had to kick a few kids out early on.

Later that night a young man who used to be very active in the church when he was a kid stopped by to visit for a few minutes. His kids had all come to Kids’ Church last Sunday for the first time. He was pleased that they liked it and is encouraging them to keep coming back.

Looking ahead to next week we have our full schedule of activities. In addition, we have a priesthood meeting Sunday night. I’m in training all day on Monday. We’re meeting with some folks from Americorps on Wednesday to discuss some of their project plans in the neighborhood. Next weekend we have several visitors coming from out of state in search of ideas for their home congregations.

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

The Wagner Family
The Conley Family
The Jones Family
The Smith Family
The Moore Family
The Heck Family
The Bryant 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