3/12/2006

It's been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland, even by our standards. Get comfortable in your chair as this will take a while.

It started off Sunday with a celebration of the completion of our "40 Days of Community" campaign during Morning Worship. During the service we heard testimonies from people in the congregation, were commissioned to apply what we've learned throughout our lives, and shared in the Lord's Supper together.

Immediately after the service we began setting up the Peacemobile displays. Violet, Patricia, Tamara, Jenn, and I worked with Linda and John to get things assembled and arranged.

In place of our regular format for Evening Worship we had a hands-on experience for the congregation with the Peacemobile displays. Afterward, Ron and Carol took Linda, John, and me to dinner.

We gathered at the church Monday morning for the beginning of the Peacemobile tours. The first group that came was a busload of students from Catholic Community School. Tamara, Karen, Patricia, and Shirley were among the volunteer guides leading kids through the displays. Tamara provided lunch for the group. That afternoon we had two classes from our neighborhood elementary school (school 34) come through.

Durrell stopped by my house that afternoon. He needed what he called "church clothes" to wear to his upcoming court appearance. I was planning on taking him to the Salvation Army store to find some but discovered that one of my suits would be a close enough fit for him. We got him set up with a coat, pants, shirt, tie, and shoes. He said he had some "church socks" at home that he would wear.

Later the fire alarm company called to set up a time to come and finish its installation. They seemed upset that they couldn't come this week to do it because of the Peacemobile activities. It didn't seem to matter to them that they could have come any week since the end of September to do the installation or that I told them repeatedly in advance that this week was off limits. Somehow it seems that I'm now the one completely at fault for the installation not being complete.

That evening I took Linda and John to Washington, DC. Neither had been there before. We got to see the Capitol Building, the Lincoln, Vietnam, Korea, and WWII Memorials, and the Washington Monument all lit up after dark.

When we got back to Baltimore, Greg was at the house. He was volunteering at the Peacemobile the next morning so he stayed with us to not have to fight the traffic in the morning.

On Tuesday we had four classes from 34, three before lunch and one afterward. Greg, Patricia, Karen, Shirley, and Gloria were among the volunteer guides that day. Shirley and Patricia also provided that day's lunch. The school social worker talked with Linda about what it would take for him to build his own Peacemobile to use in the area and one of the teachers asked for a copy of the Young Peacemakers Club curriculum for her church's after school program.

While we were at the church the gas company came to install an automatic reader on our meter. He told us that he would be cutting off the gas. The telephone representative who set up the appointment said that service would not be interrupted. We needed the heat on with all the kids there so we had to reschedule the appointment. The man then asked to see the current meter. When he saw it was outside and I told him how it hadn't been read because the meter readers couldn't seem to find it, he said he would cancel the installation and tell the readers to do their job instead.

That evening we opened the Peacemobile to the public. We had just a few families come by, but those who did stayed for an extended period of time and had some real quality family time together. Along with those of us from the neighborhood, Trip and Rebecca came in to help with staffing.

Wednesday morning brought SonRisers. Over 100 kids participated in it. We had only 15 minutes from the end of SonRisers to the start of the Peacemobile activities. Our Mission Center President Rick Bunch came up and joined with Gloria, Tamara and Jenn in serving as guides that day. Gloria provided lunch for the group.

Several nursing students doing work through Open Gates, the neighborhood's nurse-run clinic, came to participate with the kids at the Peacemobile activities. Their director was so impressed that she told one of the directors of nursing a the University of Maryland about the experience. I got a call from the university asking if several of their nursing students could come on Thursday.

After the Narcotics Anonymous meeting I took John and Linda to the inner harbor for dinner that evening. We ate at the ESPN Zone then walked around the harbor area.

Thursday brought the last five classes from 34. Jenn, Tamara, and Patricia were among those serving as guides that day. Jenn provided lunch for the crew. The nursing students came and their director and I began discussing plans to have community health screening fairs in the church on a regular basis.

By the time the last group of kids left we were totally exhausted. In all, about 335 kids plus teachers, principals, teacher aids, parent volunteers, and nursing students attended. Jenn, John, Linda, and I all fell asleep shortly after getting home. One of us was even sitting at the computer when sleep overtook us.

Fortunately, we all woke in time to open the displays for the community on Thursday evening. Heidi joined us on staff that night. We had a few different families come and spend extended periods of time together working through the different displays.

During the day on Friday Linda and John packed up all the displays. We then stacked the items by the back door in the order they were to go in the trailer. Afterward we went to lunch at Cross Street Market and enjoyed the view of the city and 70 degree weather at Federal Hill Park.

That night we had two kids come to the first session of Pizza Church. We used one Peacemobile activity and connected it with some of Jesus' teachings. Then, for the first time that I can remember, no one showed up for either the middle school or high school sessions. We don't know why it happened but it just did. We were able to give some of the pizzas to some families on my street.

Violet met Linda, John, and me at the church shortly after 7:00 a.m. Saturday to load the trailer. It took about half an hour to do so. After our good-byes and a closing prayer the Peacemobile pulled out of Pigtown on its 12 hour trip back to Michigan.

After they left we started the work of catching up from other events of the week. There was some major graffiti on one of the murals this week and some minor graffiti that had happened in recent weeks. Since it was a warm spring day Jenn and Troy did repair work on two of them. Danny and I spent a couple of hours that afternoon scrubbing an amazing amount of dirt off the floors at the church. Tamara spent the day taking a Temple School class at the DC church.

With the lack of participation at Pizza Church we weren't sure if kids would come to Saturday's Solid Rock Cafe. We ended up having a good sized group of kids and an enjoyable evening together.

If I did my math right, we had about 550 different people come through the doors of the chuch this week. What a blessing to have the space to make this happen.

Looking ahead to next week we have our full schedule of activities. In addition, we'll be catching up on things that didn't get done (like paperwork) while the Peacemobile was here. Toward the end of the week I'll be participating in a retreat in Ohio.

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

Damon
Troy
Donsaygo
Jershell
Brittany
Jahiyah
O'Shea
Patrick

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