12/30/2007

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



It started out Sunday with Morning Worship. While we were gathering, a long time friend of the congregation stopped by. We were able to help his family with some Christmas needs this year so he came by to pick them up.



Janet and Robert were responsible for lighting the Advent candles during the service. The main theme for the message was about joy and celebration.



After the service several of the folks gathered around to discuss what happened overnight. Apparently a neighbor’s house was broken into while she was sleeping. The burglars awakened her in the process. She was physically OK but notably shaken and upset. The crooks made off with several things.



Some of our neighbors heard that we had recycling bins available. A couple of them stopped by in the morning to sign up for some bins.



While all of this was going on we had a bit of a fashion show. Someone had provided funds to buy some new clothes for Christmas for one of our young women in the congregation. She opened them and tried them on.



After the service I got a call from Jenn. She was at her parents’ in Michigan and had done her first baby blessing while she was at church that morning. She called to let me know that it had gone well.



Just before Kids’ Church it started pouring rain. This limited our crowd. Further, a few of them had a mishap on the way there and had almost been hit by a car. They were upset so they went home early. At this service we reviewed the Christmas story and made nativity scene ornaments for the kids to put on their Christmas trees.



With the weather and the holidays we had a tiny group for Evening Worship. Because of the small size it was finished early and even got done before the Ravens game that the people were watching in the front room. As the game finished some of the folks there did the folding and stapling of bulletins for the Christmas Eve service.



There was quite a bit of activity throughout the day on Monday at the church. We set up for the Christmas Eve service. During that time people came over to practice their parts in the service. Danny came by and mopped the floor.



That night over 70 people attended the Christmas Eve service. We had a nice mix of people including our regular participants, people we haven’t seen for a long time, and people on their first visit to the congregation. Several different people shared in reading portions of the Christmas story as recorded in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. Between most of the readings we sang old Christmas songs. We also had some music ministry provided by Bryce playing his trumpet and by Vonceil and me singing a duet.



As a part of the service we had our “Christmas gift for Jesus” offering. Through it we raised over $750 to send to the Ukraine to help the church’s kids music group “Oasis of Peace.” This will help them get a sound system to use while they’re providing ministry and evangelism on the streets.



With the holidays many of our mid-week activities were cancelled this week. Tuesday-Thursday the only activities we had were NA meetings. We resumed our regular activity schedule on Friday with Pizza Church.



We had lots of odds and ends to do on Saturday. We had a few visits with people at their homes following up from Christmas and other activities from the week. We prepared the recycling bins for distribution on Sunday morning. We also received some bags of clothing for distribution. (We aren’t usually able to accommodate this kind of contribution but were able to this time.)



Looking ahead to next week we’ll have our regular schedule of activities. In addition, we’ll begin distributing recycling bins after church on Sunday morning. I’m meeting with Dave on Sunday for my annual performance review.



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



Ida

Tom

Theresa

Juwaun

Joshua

Durrell

Damon

Forrest

Troy



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