It’s been an extra-busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland. You might want to get a snack or a cup of coffee because it’ll take a while to read through the report this week.
Vonceil woke up sick on Sunday morning so she went off to an urgent care center while I took the kids to church. We only had one major meltdown before church and they were able to sit with some other people during the service.
During Morning Worship, Janet and Earl were responsible for the lighting of the advent candle. We continued our Advent message series by focusing on Joy.
My kids and I were back at the church after a quick lunch to get things set up for the Kids’ Church Christmas Celebration. To better comprehend the story that follows, let me give you a little background. Several months ago we spent significant time at our priesthood meetings discussing Advent activities. With inconsistency in our petting zoo being able to come and the expense involved in our more lean budget, we decided to forgo having animals at Christmas this year. That also put a crimp in our fundraising, though, as that is the most successful time for us to hold a bake sale (the proceeds of which usually help fund sending kids to camp). In the end we got excited about the new design for the time slot.
Throughout the building we set up stations. Tamara staffed the “decorate and eat Christmas cookies” station while Sarah directed the craft table. I floated around keeping an eye on the Lego table, the coloring table, the Uno and Yahtzee table, and the checkers area. Jenn was paired up outside with Diane and her friends. Not only did Diane volunteer to bring two beautiful show horses for the kids to ride, she brought hats and bandannas for each of them to keep and carrots that the kids could put in bowls to feed the horses. Mid-way through the activities, Diane’s friend who runs a Domino’s Pizza delivered/donated 5 pizzas for the kids.
The kids’ responses to the event were off the chart. One pre-school girl came in from her horse ride and said, “I had a lot of fun, and I didn’t even cry!” The kids and the adults had a blast with the horses (Diane asked if she could PLEASE come and do this again (we’re talking having her back for Bible School)). The kids got into the coloring and games, worked hard on their crafts, and delighted in decorating and eating their own cookies. Over fifty kids and a few parents and grandparents came for the celebration. A couple of days later, a person whose participation in the celebration was their first time at the church gave me a check for nearly the amount we had raised at the bake sale last year.
As soon as we could get all the kids out of the church, we began cleaning and setting up the main for the concert with the Arundel Singers while, at the same time, the young adults began watching the Ravens game in the front room. Earl and Janet arrived with Charlotte’s keyboard which she let us borrow since we don’t have one. Some of the choir members arrived early and took those extra few minutes to watch the game with the young adults.
Through a bit of a mix-up, the choir brought a keyboard that they had borrowed, too. I was feeling bad that the Jamisons had spent the day going to and from Germantown to get Charlotte’s keyboard when, during warm-ups, the choir’s keyboard died. We were able to quickly switch out keyboards and the show was back on.
By 6:00 we had a crowd gathered for the concert. Several church members brought their neighbors. A few women from the local AME church came. A couple of the kids who were at the afternoon activities came back for the program. People from the Towson and Dundalk congregations drove in for it, too. The audience ranged in age from 7 months to 84 years old.
The choir’s performance was outstanding. Afterward, several choir members and their director approached me to say how much fun it was to sing to such an engaged audience and asked if they could please be invited back. We also learned that the AME church isn’t having a Christmas Eve service this year so the ladies from that church who were at the concert took a stack of fliers to encourage their fellow parishioners to come celebrate Christmas Eve with us.
As we were winding down the day, I remembered that this weekend marked three years since we moved into the expanded building. Most of what happened this day could not have physically happened in either of our old building arrangements. It was great to pause and reflect on how the congregation and the opportunities to serve the community had expanded with the building.
We took lots of pictures throughout the day on Sunday. Along with general pictures of all the activities, Jenn made sure we got pictures of each kid on a horse. Diane asked to get copies of the pictures of the kids so she could autograph each one with the horse’s name. We got them printed out for her and will get them to her soon.
77 kids participated at SonRisers on Wednesday morning. Afterward, I had a visit with a member who is looking to expand his work in the church. In response to the training I received on Saturday at the Urban Youth Workers Institute, I sent him out to work on establishing a presence for the congregation on MySpace and Facebook.
Gloria called that afternoon saying that the people who run the mansion in the park had several bags of freshly cut holly that they would be willing to give to a good home. I was able to go up and get a couple of bags for families in the neighborhood to use for decorating.
We put about 200 invitations to the Christmas Eve service in Wednesday’s mail. We have about 1600 more we’ll be distributing door-to-door in the days leading up to Christmas.
That evening we assembled the teacher care packages. This year, instead of putting the treats in Ziploc bags, we disguised them as work by putting them in inter-office envelopes. We had received hundreds of these envelopes in the donation we received from Staples a few weeks ago so we put them to good use.
Afterward I had some productive time out on the streets. I ran into a young adult who used to be active in church and learned that he had a job at a mall and had just started trade school to learn about refrigeration. I ran into a friend who we were able to help get some food to his house. I then got a phone call letting me know that hospice had given the neighbor of some church members only a few hours to live. I was able to run over there and offer a blessing for him and his family.
I then stopped by Jenn and Tamara’s house to determine the distribution of Christmas assistance. Last weekend we received some money and gift cards to help some families. We talked about different families in the neighborhood who had relationships with the church and set out a plan to deliver gifts and food.
We had originally had two babies scheduled for blessings at the Christmas Eve Service. One cancelled last week and the other cancelled this week. We’re reworking the plans for the service.
On Thursday morning Tamara and I delivered the care packages to the schools. Not only were the principals glad to see the gifts, they were excited to be getting all the new interdepartmental envelopes as the schools were in short supply of them.
That evening I stopped by to find out what the status was with the person who was in hospice care. He had come out of his coma in the morning, his color had returned, he was up, eating, and visiting with everyone.
Even with the cold and damp weather a lot of people seemed to be out and about this week. Throughout the week I was able to get some quality visiting time in with kids who were playing in the park and a parking lot as well as with adults who were out of their houses.
During the afternoon on Friday, Bryce, Onalee, and I spent some time shopping for a family that was being sponsored for Christmas. For all the news reports about slow sales at stores, the toy shelves seemed especially picked-over. In the end we were able to gather a cart full of nice presents for the kids in the family.
Friday night brought Pizza Church. Each of the three groups had slightly different projects all of which revolved around putting the elements of the Christmas story in chronological order. All the groups seemed to focus on this task quiet well and all were successful in the end.
We had lots of odds and ends to take care of on Saturday. We checked with some families to make sure they had what they needed for Christmas. We distributed fliers to a couple of sections of the neighborhood. People had sent us some monies to sponsor Christmas dinner for families so we went to the neighborhood Safeway and purchased gift cards for them. We arranged to take another family we’re sponsoring to Target to use the gift cards that they had been given. While running these errands we also got to see two of our young adults get arrested.
Meanwhile, back at the church, Steve Gillilan was using the building for auditions for a show he’s producing. Later that afternoon we were able to distribute some of the gifts and grocery cards to local families.
While out on Saturday I ran into another young adult who used to go to church with us during his middle school and high school years. I hadn’t seen him in quite a while and he said that it was because he was at college at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore studying criminal justice. He’d just finished his first semester there and his lowest grade was a B.
The Ravens game was on Saturday night this weekend instead of on Sunday. The young adults only gather at the church to watch the games together if they are on Sunday. However, three of them forgot and showed up anyway. We were doing other things in the building so they went back home to watch it.
Looking ahead to next week we have an amended schedule of activities. We will not have SonRisers on Wednesday and the church will be closed on Thursday for Christmas. Instead, we have our Christmas Eve Service at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday. After Sunday’s services, Vonceil and Tamara will be taking a family the church is sponsoring to Target to use the gift cards they were provided. We’ll be handing out fliers about the Christmas Eve Service on Monday and Tuesday. In addition, we hope to rewards some kids with prizes they’ve earned through church attendance. Next Saturday evening is our monthly Sundae Church for the high school students. We’ll also get to fill the font next Saturday in anticipation of a baptism on December 28 at Morning Worship.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned, please keep the following families in the forefront of your prayers:
The Walker Family
The Bonnet Family
The Mabe Family
The Jeffers Family
The Epifanio Family
The Hayes Family
The Harris Family
The Carroll 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
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