2/16/2008

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



It started out Sunday with Morning Worship. During this service we began a series on Joseph, with this week focusing on his response to the dreams he had as a teenager.



We experienced a strong windstorm that afternoon. While kids were waiting outside for Kids’ Church, some shingles blew off the roof and hit them. Our downspout, which is over 20 feet tall, disconnected from the building except at its highest point so it was blowing back and forth across the alley. Once inside, one girl let us know that her scooter had hit her in the belly and she had consequently vomited on the sidewalk before she came in. We went through the story of the Kingdom being like what happens with a mustard seed and began assembling herb gardens that we’d gotten as a donation from Home Depot. At this point Bryce got sick and had to be taken home by Vonceil. I cleaned up the bathroom after him while Tamara and Jenn helped the rest of the kids finish their projects.



With Bryce out sick I opened Evening Worship by seeing if there was anyone willing to manage the overhead projector for the night. Tayvia, who normally sits to the side by herself, jumped up and was very excited to take over that responsibility for the night.



On Monday I met with Wade Wallace. He’s the newly hired pastor for the Washington, DC, congregation. We were able to visit for a couple of hours and he was able to get a glimpse of things here.



Mayor Dixon was the guest at Tuesday’s Citizens of Pigtown meeting. Because she was coming we moved the meeting to the back room to accommodate the crowd. Over 80 people came out for the meeting. This all took place amid an ice storm. Before people arrived I put about 20 pounds of salt on the walkways into the building. When the mayor arrived mid-meeting the first thing she said was that she nearly broke her neck on the way in and ordered some of the firemen present to take care of the situation. Within minutes they had poured buckets of salt all over the sidewalk, the alley, and the streets.



With the ice and the Mayor’s meeting going over the scheduled time, we ended up postponing our Priesthood meeting that was planned for that night. We did have one urgent agenda item so we met for a little while after Adult Disciples on Wednesday to address it.



With the ice storm and temperatures right at freezing, we had a one hour delay in the start of school on Wednesday. That throws everyone and everything a bit off schedule. Further, many kids just don’t go to school when there’s a delay. Therefore, we only had 31 kids at SonRisers that morning. We put most of the extra donuts in the freezer to use them at future Solid Rock Cafes.



That afternoon I was able to finally put a down payment on the roof repairs. That evening before Adult Disciples while the NA meeting was going on I met for a few minutes with our Mission Center President Dave Anderson to discuss a couple of pending issues. The Adult Disciples class studied the story of Sampson.



I woke up sick on Thursday morning. I had whatever Bryce had earlier in the week. That evening Vonceil had the same experience. It was a 24 hour thing but drained us of all energy for a few days.



On Friday Tamara and Jenn headed to the Richmond, Virginia, area to help with part of the mission center’s youth ski retreat. Meanwhile here in Baltimore Dave Brock arrived from church headquarters in Independence, Missouri. We had question and answer sessions with him for all three Pizza Church sessions that evening.



On Saturday Dave did some training with Evangelists in the area at the Dundalk congregation. I spent a chunk of the day trying to catch up with things Vonceil and I would normally have done on Thursday.



Tamara and Jenn arrived back in town late that afternoon and Dave returned from Dundalk that evening. We all met together at Tamara and Jenn’s house and visited for a while that evening.



Looking ahead to next week we’ll have our regular schedule of activities. Dave Brock will bring the message during Morning Worship and participate in Kids’ Church and Evening Worship. In addition, we’ll have a potluck dinner after Evening Worship on Sunday. Dave flies home Monday morning. That evening we have a community development meeting at the church. Next Saturday is our monthly Sundae Church.



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



Neil

Larry

Edna

Kyle

Jean

Joshua

Troy

Mike



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