2/1/2009

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



It started off Sunday with Morning Worship. During this service we started a preaching series on the Beatitudes. We’ll be focusing on one each week for the next 8 weeks.



With Tamara and Jenn out of town, Vonceil and I were the adults on staff at Kids’ Church. The group started out a little rough but once they each got a sticker page to work on they became quite well focused on the task at hand.



Damon, Crystal, Tamara, and Jenn arrived back in town from the ski retreat later that afternoon. Tamara and Jenn were able to be at Evening Worship. We had several kids come to the service who needed a little extra help staying focused. Afterward, Ron and I went out to dinner together to catch up on what is happening.



On Tuesday evening we had a knock on the door at our house. The man at the door had been directed there by a neighbor who thought I could help him with his need. What he wanted was for me to give him some hair for his daughter. Needless to say, I don’t keep any extra hair around my house for such occasions. He was quite disappointed.



We had sleet and freezing rain starting on Tuesday night resulting in no school on Wednesday. Therefore, we did not have SonRisers. When I went over to the church that afternoon to get the ice off the walks in preparation for the Narcotics Anonymous meeting, I was pleasantly surprised to find that someone had thoroughly cleared off all the ice for us.



Later that day I got a call from a church member who has moved out of the area. She was back in town because her uncle (who is a relative of many others who have been affiliated with the church over the years) was in a hospice center in Westminster. She was wondering if I could come up to the center to offer a blessing and also let me know that the family was hoping I would be available to do the funeral.



As things threatened to freeze that evening most people stayed home. Tamara, Tayvia, and I were the only ones at Adult Disciples class as a result.



On Thursday I did most of my usual Friday errands as I was scheduled for jury duty on Friday. We also put some fliers about the “Big Game” party in the mail that we had planned to give out on Wednesday but were unable to because of the ice. Around noon, Dave came up from Virginia and we had my annual performance review.



As soon as Vonceil got home from work that afternoon I headed up to Westminster to meet with family at the hospice center. She opened up for that night’s Narcotics Anonymous meeting and I arrived back in town just in time to lock up the building and make it to Bryce’s band concert.



I got a few emails this week from one kid who has recently become very active in church. They have virtually no background in Christianity so they’ve got lots of good questions that need to be answered. They really wanted to figure out how to read the Bible so we set them up with a Bible from the church and a reading guide that will take them through the New Testament this year.



Fortunately, my juror number was high enough that I didn’t need to report on Friday. I was able to get the call from the hospice center saying that Donald had died and was able to coordinate funeral plans with the family.



Friday night brought Pizza Church. We had several kids that evening who had earned a second slice of pizza so we went through more boxes than we normally would for a crowd the size it was. The first two groups learned about when Jesus chose Matthew while the senior high group continued its study of the Gospel of John.



On Saturday some of our neighbors hosted a baby shower at the church. The mother-to-be used to come to SonRisers and the dad was very active in church when he was in school from 3rd through 8th grade. Quite a lot of people came and had a good time. Unfortunately, they lost control of about a dozen helium balloons. We’ve been able to recover about half of them but some are still up in the rafters tonight. Because of this, we couldn’t set the alarm on the building because if they float down they’ll trigger the motion detectors on the burglar alarm.



That evening Tamara, Jenn, and I took Mike out to Friendlys for ice cream. He had earned the trip there by coming to church more than 40 times so far since camp last summer.



Looking ahead to next week we have our regular schedule of activities. In addition, we have our “Big Game” party on Sunday evening at 6:00 when we project the game onto the wall of the church and have a snack shop to raise funds to send kids to camp next summer. On Monday I’ll be visiting with the family at the funeral home then will have the funeral on Tuesday afternoon. Later in the week we’re scheduled to meet with some of the nursing students from the University of Maryland to help them design their health fair for March 8.



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



The Veeney Family

The Miles Family

The Shorter Family

The Swaggerty Family

The Johnson Family

The Norris Family

The Stewart Family

The Booklhutz 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