11/27/2005

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

We woke up Sunday morning to some sad news. There was a house fire overnight in which 3 kids were killed. The family was not a part of the congregation but friends/relatives of many who are. It was a somber way to start our Thanksgiving services.

During the sermon at Morning Worship, several police cars (lights flashing) stopped in front of the church and the police took off running at full speed. We later learned of a drug bust that took place right next to the church during the service.

At Kids' Church the kids made Thanksgiving crafts. As they were finishing up, most of them decided to take their projects and place them at the makeshift memorial that was growing in front of the burned-out house.

Evening Worship brought a time of shared reflections on what we were thankful for this year. Afterward shared in our annual dessert potluck. We had some of the best tasting and widest variety of desserts we've had over the years at this event.

I had noticed during the day on Sunday that the new building seemed cooler than it should. We keep the heat quite low when it's not in use but it seemed even cooler than it should be. Upon further investigation, we discovered that the brand new furnace had quit working. I sent in a message to the builder as to procedures at getting it repaired.

On Monday morning the chairs arrived. We received them "tailgate delivery" which meant that we had to take them off the truck ourselves. Fortunately, George came along while I was unloading them and helped get them off the truck and into the church. At this point, we received money and/or pledges for 79 of the 100 chairs. Hopefully we'll get the rest paid in the next few weeks.

Once the chairs arrived the furnace repairman came. While he checked things out I got back to work on finishing laying the tile on the floor in the new bathroom. After about an hour he had to leave to get a part. We met back there after I picked up my kids from their schools. By suppertime, we had heat in the building and the bathroom floor was finished.

The final part of the candle order came on Tuesday. The rest had come a couple of weeks ago but one order form had fallen out of the drawer into the cupboard below and, therefore, had been placed later than the rest.

The builders also returned on Tuesday to install a drain outside. It will attach to a gutter that they will be installing soon and will help prevent ice build-up on our ramp to the new main entrance.

With Thanksgiving, many kids took an extra day off of school on Wednesday. It was the first time in quite a while that we didn't break the 100 mark in attendance (though we still had 88 kids come). With several adults either out of town or preparing meals for Thursday, we cancelled our Adult Disciples group that night. Instead, Danny and I unloaded all the chairs from their boxes then assembled the ping pong table.

I headed out to Staples on Friday morning. I was able to get the copies of the fliers for our December activities (Grand Opening, Bake Sale, Christmas Eve Service) all printed and get some of the "early bird specials" for some supplies we needed at the church.

After that I met with the people from the security/fire alarm company again. The first phase of that installation is scheduled for next Friday. Once he left I assembled a new computer desk that Shirley had given us while I watched the opening video in preparation for the upcoming "40 Days of Community" campaign. Meanwhile, some repairmen came to fix the leak around our back door.

With the holiday weekend we weren't surprised that we had a smaller crowd at Pizza Church. While that was going on, Danny was working in the bathroom trying to get the lights and the plumbing repaired so that we could have both bathrooms up to code. He would have finished but needed one more item from Home Depot so it had to wait.

On Saturday I did some touch-up paint in the bathroom. With the new lighting our paint job from a couple of weeks ago didn't look quite as good as it did when things were dim. That night Danny came over and finished the project so we are now officially up to date in both bathrooms. That night was our monthly Sundae Church with the senior high kids.

Looking ahead to next week we have our full schedule of activities. In addition, I'll be attending meetings out of town for a couple of days. We'll be getting the first phase of the security/fire alarm installed and be setting up the sound system by week's end. We'll continue to make preparations for the Grand Opening and our Christmas celebrations.

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

Troy
Forrest
Fred
Joshua
Kimberly
Dennis
Theresa
Durrell

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