12/13/2009

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

It started out with a full agenda at Morning Worship. The Kruft family took responsibility for the lighting of the advent candle. We had three baptisms and confirmations. It was then time for communion. My dad offered the pastoral prayer.

We had a good sized crowd with extended family of the baptism candidates it attendance. Two people who were from out of town and scheduled to assist with confirmations weren’t able to make it due to the snow so my dad took their place. One of our communion servers was ill so Ron graciously took on their responsibilities.

After the service, people stayed around for a while to visit. One of the kids who was baptized was quoted during that time as saying, “This is the best day of my life!”

After everyone cleared out I started draining the font. Normally, we wouldn’t worry about it and would drain it later in the week. With the choir concert that night, though, we needed the font out of the way. While it was draining I finished putting the legs on Charlotte’s keyboard that she’d lent us for the evening’s activities.

The kids were wound up when they came in to Kids’ Church that afternoon. They didn’t really settle down until they had some crayons in their hand. Surprisingly they did a really good job at their project. That is not usually the case when they’re wound up.

Between Kids’ Church and the concert, Sarah provided some tutorial help to Crystal for her biology class. It wasn’t too long after Kids’ Church ended that the first of the choir members arrived.

By 6:00 p.m. a good sized group of people had gathered at the church for the Christmas Concert by the Arundel Singers. We were joined by some people from neighboring congregations and by members of the neighborhood’s AME Church. Those gathered seemed to really enjoy the 75 minute concert.

One woman who dropped off her daughters for the concert told me that her oldest daughter had talked with her about wanting to be baptized. She said, “She [her daughter] talks about you guys and what happens at church all the time and I follow what’s going on in that newsletter you mail me so I know this is a good place.” We arranged to have the baptism on Sunday, December 20, during our monthly Celebration Service.

Once most people had left, Erin and Tamara surprised me with some snow brownies and ice cream in celebration of my 40th birthday (which was the previous Friday).

Torrential rains greeted us at the beginning of SonRisers. When we opened the door to the church we discovered a major leak in the ceiling in the entryway. The rain lessened throughout the SonRisers time but impacted out total number of kids (62 that morning).

When the mail came that afternoon we got a form from the city. Back on July 6 we had filed a request for a refund of city taxes paid to BGE during the multi-year tax exemption status problems. The city had updated the form necessary to be granted that refund and I now needed to file it. I was smart enough in July to make copies of all the supporting documentation needed for this new form. Unfortunately, I’m not smart enough to remember where I put them. I’ll keep looking.

That evening during the NA meeting I learned that Maurice had died after a battle with cancer. He had led the NA group for many years taking it from a group of about 9 people to one that sometimes had over 100 present. He will be greatly missed in the community.

Between the NA meeting and Mid-Week Service, Crystal and Chance brought over a Christmas tree and some other decorations for the church. Their neighbor was in the process of moving and they gave these items to the church. Tayvia and I were the only ones for the service that evening.

I had a meeting with Dave, our Mission Center President, for a couple of hours on Wednesday. That night Tamara and Crystal decorated the church for Christmas.

Friday night brought Pizza Church. The first two groups reviewed the account of the Christmas story in the Gospel of Matthew. The senior high group continued with its study of Matthew by reading and discussing chapter 15.

Solid Rock Café was this Saturday evening. Last month’s SRC was pretty rough so we were concerned when the kids who caused the most trouble last time were at the door 30 minutes in advance. However, we had great staffing and the kids were MUCH better behaved than last month. While this was happening at the church Vonceil was at home baking hundreds of cookies for Sunday’s activities.

Looking ahead to next week we have our full schedule of activities. In addition we have our annual Kids’ Church Christmas Celebration at 3:00 p.m. on Sunday. That evening is our monthly Priesthood Meeting. The Mission Center Leadership Team has a conference call on Monday evening. Maurice’s funeral is Wednesday morning and we’ll assemble teacher care packages on Wednesday evening. Throughout the week we’ll be putting together our Christmas Eve mailing and preparing for next weekend’s baptism and Christmas dinner.

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

The Church Family
The Battle Family
The Bishop Family
The Steward Family
The Stinchcomb Family
The Boone Family
The Houston Family
The Gerlack 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