2/5/2006

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

It started out Sunday with our full three services. During Morning Worship we talked about elements of evangelism. The group at Kids' Church made cards to give to their friends when inviting them to church. Our prayer time at Evening Worship focused on praying for specific friends to come to know Christ and join with the community of the church.

During the day on Monday I met with Rick and Edith at the Laurel church. We discussed and tossed around some ideas about some situations in the mission center. Edith and I each had our annual review. Afterward we had lunch together.

I've been getting a lot of positive feedback from the CORE groups about the 40 Days of Community materials. Words and phrases like "energized" and "on a mission" keep coming up in the reports.

On Tuesday the Americorps volunteers were in the neighborhood. Gloria helped coordinate a group in the park. Onalee and I opened up the church for about 60 of people to access the restrooms and to have a place to eat lunch. The 150+ people from all around the United States spent the day cleaning throughout the neighborhood.

I visited for a few minutes with Kris Judd this week. She and Peter will be in the area this summer for our Mission Center reunion. We're going on vacation the next week and the two of them agreed to spend some of the time while we're gone providing ministry here in Pigtown. People here were excited to hear that news.

We had 70 kids participate in Wednesday's SonRisers activities. That night the Adult Disciples group practiced sharing testimonies in the "I was/Then God/Now I am" format. As they shared some powerful stories I encouraged them to think of people who need to hear them and to be open to God sending them people they don't yet know to share these stories with.

Throughout the week we worked on scheduling and planning for the upcoming Peacemobile visit. We've got our daily schedule blocked out and will be slotting in which grades for each time slot next week. We'll also be starting our volunteer sign-up for being guides, providing meals, setup and teardown, cleaning, marketing, and the like.

Friday brought Pizza Church. We had one new kid that came in part as a result of an invitation made in Kids' Church that was given to him. We also had the biggest senior high group we've ever had.

We learned this week that the police have requested that police cameras be installed on the corner of Carey and Glyndon. They've been being installed in various high crime areas in the city and have made a dent in the crime rates where they have been installed. There's been a lot of drug activity along both these streets over the years so we're hoping this will be a great improvement for the area.

On Saturday morning the Mission Center Leadership Team gathered at the church for its quarterly meeting. It was the first time that most of the group had been there since the new building opened and was the first time ever for several of the people. We provided a tour of the facilities as a part of the meeting.

We had two major house fires within a few blocks of the church this week. One was on Thursday morning and the other was late Saturday night. The fires were not in church members homes. It is a bit disconcerting to have two so close together.

Looking ahead to next week we have our full schedule of activities. In addition, we'll continue planning for the upcoming Peacemobile visit. A couple of our senior high girls will be going on the mission center ski retreat next weekend. We also have our monthly Solid Rock Cafe on Saturday.

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

Chris
Alice
Norman
Chester
Bob
Donald
Robert
Alicia

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