1/13/2008

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



It started out Sunday with Morning Worship. Being the first Sunday of the year we laid out the theme for the year and celebrated the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper together. At Kids’ Church we made a banner reflecting this year’s theme. There were a few people at Evening Worship who we hadn’t seen at church for quite a long time.



Early Monday morning Danny took me to the airport. I had curriculum meetings at headquarters in Independence, Missouri, for much of the day on Monday. Instead of catching the flight back that night, I stayed over and met with several other people on Tuesday then flew home Tuesday night.



Meanwhile back in the neighborhood, the Citizens of Pigtown had their monthly meeting on Tuesday night while the exercise group was working out in the balcony. COP had about 50 people show up, an unusually large group for them.



There was quite a bit of violence over by Robert’s house on Monday and Tuesday as well. On Monday 4 people were shot and on Tuesday 2 more were shot in basically the same location. The police kept the street closed off the rest of the week as they didn’t believe this was the end of the situation that caused the violence. This kept Robert home after dark for many of the evening activities.



94 kids participated in Wednesday morning’s SonRisers activities. Bruce also hung out at the church during this time. That night the Adult Disciples group began their study of the book of Judges.



Throughout the day on Wednesday the city had police out of their cars and walking the beat in Pigtown. This was refreshing. We had the quietest day around here that we’ve had in years. Of course, when I was driving in and out of the neighborhood I saw all our local junkies, prostitutes, etc., all a few blocks away where there was no foot patrol that day.



I got an email this week from the Jamisons stating that Janet’s mother had died. We shared the news with the congregation and Gloria sent out a card from all of us.



As I was returning from taking my kids to school on Thursday morning I got a call from Tamara. As she came out of her house that morning she saw that the church had been tagged with red spray paint. I tracked down a kid who used to be active in church but is now more active in a local gang to translate it for us. Danny picked up the needed chemicals on his way home from work and then removed the paint before Men’s group started.



Two other exciting things happened on Thursday as well. First, when our middle school let out a high percentage of the kids ended up on my street to be a part of a fight. After I called 911, the police from the school came and broke it up. The other exciting thing was about participation at church that night. Charlie came to Men’s Group for the first time, some people who had talked about exercise group but hadn’t participated in a while came by, and there were some new people at the NA meeting.



On Friday I worked on setting up the Pizza Church and Kids’ Church curriculum for now through June. That night brought Pizza Church. The elementary group began an 8 week video curriculum while the other groups continued with their Bible study.



Since we now have firm dates for summer camp I spent some time looking for bargains in rental vans. I was able to lock in at the lowest prices we’ve ever had quoted for vans to get kids to and from camp.



Damon invited me to stop by his house on Saturday to share in his birthday celebrations. I was able to join him, three other kids from church, his dad, and his step-mom in enjoying some cake and ice cream. His older brother wasn’t able to participate because the police had taken him away earlier that day.



When Bryce and I went over to the church on Saturday night an hour ahead of time to set up for Solid Rock, there were already nearly a dozen kids waiting to get in. They spent the next hour misbehaving loudly in front of the church. Two in the group were way too young to participate in the night’s activities so we tried to get the older ones to take them home and come back with time to spare. They didn’t and were quite surprised that we were consistent with the rules regarding age. Even with that we had one of the bigger groups we’ve had in a while for this activity. A few kids were first time participants at this church.



Looking ahead to next week we’ll have our regular schedule of activities. In addition, we have our monthly priesthood meeting Tuesday evening. Glen Ashley will be with us next weekend. The Mission Center Young Adults have the building reserved for an activity next Saturday as well.



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



Darod

Roland

Denira

Raekwon

Amina

Jessica

Jennifer

Tyrone



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