12/17/2005

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

It started out with Morning Worship. This was the first preaching service in our new building. Rick Bunch brought greetings from the Mission Center and Ron offered a congregational blessing. The members of the Towson Congregation joined us for the celebration as did three people who we first met at last Saturday's grand opening celebration. The topic for the hour was Hope.

At Kids' Church we took the kids on a tour of the building. Afterward, we reviewed the Christmas story then the kids nativity scene pictures.

We had a song service for Evening Worship. Afterward we brought out the leftovers from Saturday's open house and shared in a meal together. We still had a lot of things left over so most people took food home with them.

During the Women's Group meeting on Monday they assembled the teacher care packages for Christmas. I delivered them to the schools on Wednesday.

Tamara and Jenn took the high school girls to see the new Narnia movie on Tuesday evening. They had read the book together several months ago in their group.

Wednesday morning was bitter cold so our SonRisers group was smaller than usual. Out of habit, a lot of the kids went to the old entrance at first then came around to the new doors.

The Narcotics Anonymous group was thrilled with the new space for their meeting. Someone even donated a second coffee maker to the group to help them accommodate the potential increase in participation.

The Adult Disciples group studied 1 & 2 Corinthians. Our classes have met sporadically the last few weeks so starting to get back in the groove was a good thing.

Throughout the week we spent a lot of time trying to find things. Not all of our equipment and supplies have found new homes yet in the new building so sometimes finding a pair of scissors or a dustpan can add quite a bit of time to the simple task in front of us.

Jenn and I picked up Donald at the airport on Thursday night. He had just finished finals from his first semester at Graceland University and is now home for Christmas. At Thanksgiving time he said that he wouldn't be returning to Graceland after Christmas but he let us know that he'll be going back in late January to finish out his Freshman year there.

We ordered our materials for the upcoming "40 Days of Community" campaign. There are daily reading books and devotionals for all age groups, including coloring books for the preschoolers. This is shaping up to be a great plan for the winter months.

On Friday we received a gift of evergreen wreaths and cuttings for decorating the church for the holidays. That night we had Pizza Church. Attendance was below normal at all three groups.

On Saturday we distributed fliers for the bake sale. Later, Jenn decorated the wreaths that were donated then she and I hung them on the balcony railing. She later set up a worship center while Danny cleaned the church.

Looking ahead to next week we have our full schedule of activities. In addition, we have our annual bake sale this Sunday afternoon from 4:00 - 5:30. The Young Adult Group will be wrapping presents that were given to the church for distribution in the neighborhood. We'll deliver them later in the week. Robert is scheduled to come home from Graceland University for the holidays. We'll be handing out fliers throughout the week inviting people to participate in the Christmas Eve service next Saturday at 7:30 p.m.

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

Mary
Scott
Brian
Jami
Christine
Sonya
George
Jerry

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