12/10/2006

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

It started out Sunday with our mission center teleconference for the election of World Conference delegates. Four members of our congregation were on the ballot. We're anxious to see the results once the votes from all the congregations are tabulated.

Once the election was finished we began our Morning Worship. We had a good sized group this week to start the Advent season. Bryce read the scriptures while Tamara lit the first Advent candle. Our topic for the day was Hope. After the service, Nate asked to be baptized "as soon as possible" so we scheduled it for the next Sunday.

Also at Morning Worship we unveiled a new special cloth we'll be using in our worship centers. A few years ago the congregation raised funds to help a congregation in Bolivia acquire land and build a building. When Tony Charmaine Chvala-Smith were in Bolivia a few weeks ago teaching a class they bought us a cloth that was from the region where that congregation is. They mailed it to us once they got back home to Missouri and it arrived in time for Sunday's services.

At Kids' Church we made manger scene Christmas tree ornaments. It was a more complex craft than usual so we were a little concerned. The kids, however, really got into it, worked diligently, and did an extra-nice job.

We had a small group at Evening Worship. In it we shared together the things that give us hope.

We had our monthly Priesthood Meeting on Tuesday. We reviewed things we'd done recently, finalized details on things happening this month, and planned out our basic calendar through February.

85 kids participated in SonRisers on Wednesday morning. Afterward, I started distributing fliers for next Sunday's petting zoo and bake sale. I also gave Sister Vicki enough fliers to send one home with each student at the Catholic school.

Around lunch time I met with a student from the University of Maryland School of Social Work. She was working on a neighborhood needs assessment as a project for a class and was interviewing neighborhood leaders to get local perspectives.

That afternoon three people were hit by cars in the neighborhood. One of them, a teenage girl named Tiffany, was killed by the van that hit her while she was on her way home from school in the block the church is on. Because of that we cancelled our lesson at Adult Disciples and instead spent the time in prayer for the neighborhood.

On Thursday morning Tamara and I distributed more fliers. I had lunch with Nate and we discussed his baptism and things he wants to do in ministry through the congregation. That night after Men's CORE Group I saw many of our kids on the news as they were pictured and/or interviews at the candlelight vigil held in honor of Tiffany.

Bitter cold wind kept participation a bit lower at Friday's Pizza Church sessions. In them we studied the Christmas story as written in Matthew.

I learned this week that Joshua has received several awards for his work training to become an electrician at TESST College of Technology. This is proving to be a great environment in which he can thrive.

Jenn and I distributed fliers on several more blocks on Saturday morning. In all we distributed about 1300 fliers this week.

When I got home I got a call from Tamara. Some family member who live in Washington State were killed in a horrible wreck in Oregon. She and her parents are making travel arrangements to go out there.

Saturday night brought out monthly Solid Rock Cafe. The crowd was younger than the last couple of times so it had a little different feel to it.

Afterward, Danny came over to the church. We set up the font and started to get the room arranged for Sunday. The floor in the new building tends to be very cold in the winter and this is the first time we've tried to heat the water for a winter baptism. We have some back-up plans if it's still too cold in the morning but are hoping the heater can keep up.

Looking ahead to next week we'll have our full schedule of activities. In addition we have Nate's baptism during Morning Worship on Sunday. We've expanded the Kids' Church time to 2:30-4:00 for this year's Christmas petting zoo. The bake sale will happen at the same time as the petting zoo. On Monday the Women's Group will assemble our teacher Christmas packages and I'll take them over to the schools later in the week. I'm meeting with David, our Mission Center President, on Thursday. Our students at Graceland University will be coming home to start their Christmas break by the end of the week.

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

Ian
Shirley
Patricia
Karen
Dustin
James
Dajai
Forrest

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