12/2/2007

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



Before Morning Worship Danny, Robert, and Gary tidied up the church and set up for the service. This is normal procedure. However, Danny is still not able to be on his feet much so the dynamics of that activity have changed. They also swapped out the banner in front of the church so our Christmas banner is now up.



Next came Morning Worship. Some prophecies from the book of Isaiah were used as the focus for the message. Our new T-shirts had come in so during the announcements the congregation got its first look at them. We also gave fliers for the upcoming Petting Zoo to everyone present so they could use them to invite friends and neighbors.



Jenn was out of town so she had given us a link to download the craft project for Kids’ Church. When we went to retrieve it between services on Sunday the link wouldn’t work. We ended up surfing around the web in a bit of a panic looking for a replacement we could throw together in a short period of time. Eventually we found one and it ended up working quite well.



The Ravens were playing on the west coast on Sunday so their game overlapped Evening Worship rather than Kids’ Church. We had a small group at each of these activities.



On Monday the delivery person from Staples returned to swap out the bulletin board. We had ordered one to go in the front outdoor sign but it was severely damaged. After they left we tried out the new one. Its dimensions were larger than what was stated on line so it didn’t fit in the sign. We’re working on creative alternatives.



109 kids participated in Wednesday morning’s SonRisers activities. Patricia modeled our new T-shirt while staffing the registration table and encouraged kids to earn one for themselves.



That evening we had our annual business meeting in place of our Adult Disciples class. Dave Anderson, our Mission Center President, came up to join us for it. During the meeting we elected officers, sustained other officers, and approved the budget for 2008.



After that meeting we had our monthly priesthood meeting. Much of the meeting was devoted to updating and synchronizing our calendars for the Advent season. We’ve also been offered an opportunity to have a World Service Corps volunteer stationed in the neighborhood for the winter and so we worked on seeing if we could accommodate that happening.



Throughout the week we worked on and distributed our Advent packets. Each packet contained a letter from the pastor, a fold-out centerpiece, and a daily devotional booklet. We hand delivered them to those in the neighborhood who have a relationship with the congregation. We mailed out several more to people who don’t live nearby, especially people who have moved out of Pigtown in recent years. So far we’ve distributed over 80 of the packets.



Friday night brought Pizza Church. We had a mix of kids ranging from those who are new to the congregation to those we haven’t seen for some time to a few who are our most consistent in participation.



Jenn, Tamara, and I took off early Saturday morning for the Richmond, Virginia, area. Our fall Mission Center Conference was being held there. We missed one turn so we were a few minutes later than we initially expected. We left by 3:00 p.m. to get home for to take kids who had been to church at least 40 times since July to Friendly’s for ice cream.



Later that night Tamara and Jenn decorated the church for Christmas. They got things set up and left at about 11:30 p.m.



While they were doing that, I was working on several other things, including trying to find the source of a bad smell coming from the bathroom. It’s right by the front door so it’s the first thing that greets people upon arrival. We’ve been trying unsuccessfully to knock it out for a few weeks. We’ll see how it is in the morning.



Looking ahead to next week we’ll have our full schedule of activities. In addition, we’ll begin our Advent focus at services and in our daily devotional readings. On Thursday we’ll be distributing fliers for next Sunday’s Petting Zoo and the subsequent bake sale. Next Saturday evening is our monthly Solid Rock Café.



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



the Pestridge family

the Mandell family

the Stallings family

the Treuter family

the Meile family

the Conley family

the Kline family

the Jeffers 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