12/23/2007

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



It started out Sunday with Morning Worship. Tim and Sue lead the lighting of the Advent candle. The message was on the story of the shepherds. We also had a time during the service to introduce the city’s new recycling program. To encourage people to deepen their earth stewardship, we had sign up for recycling bins that the church will be distributing in the upcoming weeks. Interest in this project is very high.



We had a small group at Kids’ Church. There we reviewed the Christmas story and made nativity scene tree ornaments.



Once the football game was over and we had cleaned up after Evening Worship, Patricia, Tamara, Jenn, and I put together the teacher care packet for Christmas. We made about 150 of them. I took them to the schools on Thursday morning.



On Monday we prepared a mailing inviting people to participate in the upcoming Christmas Eve service. I had given people cards at church earlier in the month and they had addressed them to friends & family members and returned them to the church to go in the mailing. We then addressed cards to church members who have not been in church for a while and to the families of those who participate in youth activities but live outside the area where we were passing out fliers door-to-door. It wasn’t a giant mailing, but had close to 200 cards in it.



Each morning Tuesday through Saturday we went out and distributed Christmas Eve invitations to the houses in the neighborhood. Our coverage area was about double our normal flier distribution area. In all, with the mailing, the door-to-door fliers, and the business-sized “seed cards” we’ve gotten close to our goal of making 3000 invitations to the service.



Since Woody and I weren’t able to get a full supply of recycling bins last Saturday, I planned to pick some up on Monday at their main distribution center across town. I called to check their hours of operation and was informed that they were currently out of stock and would not have any available for about 3 weeks.



99 kids participated in Wednesday’s SonRisers activities. That night we had a big NA group and a small Adult Disciples group meet at the church.



We caught a good “Ding!” special on Southwest Airlines this week. We were able to book Danny and Shawna on a flight to Kansas City in January so Shawna can tour the church’s college, Graceland University, in Lamoni, Iowa, to see if it’s the right choice for her schooling.



We’ve received a variety of Christmas sponsorships for families and individuals in the community this year. Throughout the week I’ve been able to “play Santa Clause” to distribute these gifts to people.



Robert had a major interview this week. If he gets the job he’ll be working in a federal program for at-risk teens on Baltimore’s east side. So far he’s made it past the first two steps in the interview process.



Friday night brought Pizza Church. Each group played a game in which they had to put a list of the elements of the Christmas story in chronological order. Afterward, Tamara and I ran out to the mall to pick up some gift items for a person in the congregation on behalf of an anonymous donor.



On Saturday the local community center was distributing some recycling bins they had obtained from the city before that supply was depleted. Bryce and I were able to secure a few for the church and get a promise of several more after the holidays.



We had our monthly Sundae Church on Saturday evening. The kids behaved well and engaged in appropriate conversation.



Looking ahead to next week we’ll have an altered schedule of activities due to the holidays. We have our regular activities on Sunday. On Monday evening at 7:30 we have our Christmas Eve service. The only activities on Wednesday and Thursday are the NA meetings. We will resume our regular schedule on Friday. In addition, I’m meeting with Dave on Saturday for my annual performance review.



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



Lou

Jimmy

Carol

Stacy

Jordan

Darrell

Matthew

Aries



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