It’s been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started out Easter Sunday with several things happening even before people gathered for church. I got a phone call at home from a former church member who had long ago moved away checking the time of church and letting us know she was coming. At the church we got several calls to see if we would give people candy to put in kids Easter baskets.
Then, at about 9:20, the electricity went out. A good portion on the neighborhood was without power. About half of the church building was out. We had lights in the main room and bathrooms but nowhere else. Some outlets worked and some didn’t. We had no heat. As people arrived for the service, some had electricity at home while others didn’t.
In the end, we had about a normal sized group for Morning Worship rather than the Easter sized group we had planned for. Earl and Janet shared the scripture story for the day and I preached a message on realigning hope. This kicks off a series on hope which goes through Pentecost.
The woman who called my house earlier in the day to say she’d be at Morning Worship showed up at the church around 2:30 p.m. while we were setting up for Kids’ Church. We did have a couple of new kids show up for Easter at Kids’ Church this week. During the service we told the story of Easter using the Resurrection Eggs kit then made a stained glass style cross for the craft.
With the sun setting and the temperature dropping (the church never got above 61 degrees inside all day) we planned on a shortened Evening Worship. At about 6:15, though, all the power went out across the whole neighborhood. At that point we knew it was time to throw in the towel. We had a couple of quick prayers, sang a short song, and headed home.
The power came back on after 11:00 p.m. I went back over to the church to find which lights were on and to set the alarm.
Overnight that night some of us were awakened by fire engines. By morning’s light we saw that one of the historic buildings in Carroll Park had burned. The building housed an office, restrooms, storage, and a snack bar. It was a total loss. The cause is still under investigation.
Part of the plan for Easter was to send a follow-up note and gift to each person who filled out the information card and put it in the offering box. With the electricity off, we couldn’t do that Sunday night as we had planned. We were able to get it done on Monday evening putting them in Tuesday’s mail.
The Citizens of Pigtown held their monthly meeting at the church on Tuesday. Afterward, Marjorie and I met for about an hour to discuss and arrange some home visits with nursing students.
Wednesday was the first day back to school for kids in our public schools. That, coupled with heavy rains, brought only 30 kids to SonRisers that morning. In the 8 years we’ve been doing this, this was the first week that no one took hot chocolate to drink.
That afternoon we learned that Julia died. She was in her late 80s had been in a nursing home for the last several months. She had been a friend of the congregation since its beginning though unable to participate for the last several years due to her poor health. Her daughter, Stella, was the first person baptized at the Power House and is still active in the church today.
Later that afternoon the nursing students made their first home visit. (The next day I talked with the young woman they visited who was thrilled with the help she received and looked forward to the future visits they had scheduled.) Some other nursing students dropped off some community health survey forms for people in the congregation to fill out. The results from this survey will help guide them into future projects.
With the rain still coming down hard we had smaller groups both at NA and Adult Disciples on Wednesday evening. The Adult Disciples group finished the Gospel of John then looked at the books of Jude and Philemon. That night we caught up our Sunday attendance data on the computer.
Thursday brought the final Family Bowling night of the season. About a dozen people came out for the festivities. This is the end of this activity because, with the change of seasons, it will soon be too light in the building to project on the wall at that time of night.
On Friday we started an experiment on line. We opened up a private social networking site for people in the congregation. It is open only to people we invite so it provides a safer environment than other sites. We’ll try this for a while and see if it is helpful to people.
I got a call this week from the youth director at Paul’s Place. They were putting together their summer calendar of activities for kids and were looking for some space to use for lunch on days when the group is in Carroll Park. They were also interested in the availability of space if some of their outdoor activities get rained out. They were still coordinating their activities and field trips so once they have specific dates in mind we’ll see if we can accommodate them.
Friday night brought Pizza Church. The first and third groups had very low attendance while the middle school group had good participation.
On Saturday we spent some time working on inviting kids to camp and getting camp forms signed and collected from those we invited last week.
Looking ahead to next week we have our regular schedule of activities. In addition, we’ll be paying our respects for Julia at the funeral home on Monday. Sarah will be offering Youth Worker Training here on Wednesday evening. Later in the week I’ll be participating in some training through InJOY. Next Saturday evening is our monthly Sundae Church.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned, please keep the following families in the forefront of your prayers:
The Lockwood Family
The Kline Family
The King Family
The Hayes Family
The Johnson Family
The Whitfield Family
The Shorter Family
The Stallings 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
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