1/22/2006

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

It started out Sunday with our Consecration services. Several of the members of the Towson congregation joined us for this celebration. We were also joined by the Jamisons and the Bunches. Four of our high school girls who moved out of the neighborhood walked 3 miles to come and be a part of the celebration. Paul Davis brought the message during Morning Worship and Len Young offered the prayer of consecration.

As a part of the service, we reflected on the use of rocks and olive oil in the Old Testament to signify consecration. Each person was given 12 small rocks. At the designated time in the service, we each took these rocks and put them in a glass vessel located by the pulpit. We then poured olive oil over them to immerse them. This is now a permanent feature of our worship center in the new building.

During Kids' Church Paul and Len shared stories from their experiences of sharing the gospel in distant lands. Immediately afterward, Len took Paul to the airport to catch his plane back to Kansas City.

We had a second preaching service for Evening Worship this week. The Jamisons and some of the folks from Towson returned to the neighborhood to join us in worship for a second time that day. Len Young brought the message during that service.

After the service we shared in a time of fellowship together. Several people brought desserts for us to enjoy. Among the treats were two desserts sent by people who couldn't be there themselves and some made or bought by our high school girls.

One of our older teenage boys had been taken to the hospital a few weeks ago for heart problems. In visiting with him about it during our fellowship time I knew he was needing some more information as to what to do about the problem. Fortunately, Ron was there and able to give him some guidance and reduce the kid's anxiety.

With dessert finished I drove the girls who had walked to church home. Once I parked my van at home and began walking back to the church to finish cleaning up, the police pulled up. They jumped out of the car and hollered at me to get my hands where they could see them. I had to prove to them that I lived on this block and that I wasn't doing anything illegal.

While at Taco Bell on Monday night we ran into Bev. She was walking by the restaurant when she saw us inside and came in to visit for a few minutes. She told us she was looking for work but that he daughter Brittany had just been promoted to shift manager at Cluck-U Chicken. We hadn't seen her in several months and it was good to catch up with her.

Pouring rain and high school semester break contributed to us having one of the smallest SonRisers groups this year. We were able to freeze most of the leftover donuts to use at the next Solid Rock Cafe. That night the Adult Disciples group learned about the books of Hebrews and James.

Even with the small numbers at SonRisers we had a few new kids. That pushed us over the 500 mark in number of kids who have attended at least one scheduled activity at the church since last July.

Friday's Pizza Church sessions were all over the place. The grades 4-5 group watched their 40 Days of Community preview video which leads to 8-weeks of lessons on video. The middle school group was fairly typical for their session. We had 17 kids come to the high school session. Most were wound up and brought large chips on their shoulders. During the pizza time they got out of control and made quite a mess of the church. Afterward, two of the kids we would least expect to help volunteered to stay afterward to sweep, mop, and wipe down tables. They did a great job and we're still a little shocked that they took care of things like they did.

I had to run out to the store afterward. I had thought that our video game consol played DVDs but was quite wrong when I went to use it Friday night (Tamara saved the day by running home and bringing her DVD player over for Pizza Church). I was able to find an inexpensive one to use for all the media sent to us by Saddleback Church.

Saturday evening brought the launch of our 40 Days of Community campaign. About 25 of us gathered at the church for a potluck dinner then watched a video presentation by Rick Warren from Saddleback Church. He provided an overview of what we would be doing and what to expect during the campaign and challenged the group to participate fully and invite friends to join with them on the journey. The 40 Days begins this Sunday.

Looking ahead to next week we have our full schedule of activities. In addition, we begin our 40 Days of Community campaign. With that we'll be launching at least two and perhaps 4 new CORE groups in addition to the ones already meeting regularly. I'll be on a teleconference with a class at our church's seminary on Monday to discuss church planting. Saturday is our monthly Sundae Church.

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

the Hayes family
the Williams family
the Pailer family
the Holmes family
the Livingston family
the Harris family
the Banks family
the Riddick 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