4/7/2007

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

It started out on Sunday (March 18) with our three services. During Morning Worship we finished our series on "Adding Value to People." After the service we scheduled Timothy's baptism and confirmation for Palm Sunday. The kids had a coloring sheet for their project at Kids' Church then Carlo, Juanita, and Jeff from the Towson congregation joined us for Evening Worship.

Violet had gone to hear "Oasis of Peace," the singing group from the Ukraine, earlier in the weekend. She realized that she had a client at work who was Ukrainian so she took the CD with her to play it for him. When he heard it he got so excited he started crying. She was so happy for him that she gave him the CD.

Later that week I began coordinating travel with Robert's parents. Robert is scheduled to graduate from Graceland University in May so it made sense to do some of the traveling together.

We learned in the news this week that Baltimore is the #3 city in the United States in terms of HIV/AIDS cases. Our ZIP code was among the top listed in the city.

Before dawn on Friday, Gloria took Damon, Karen, and me to the airport to fly out to World Conference in Independence, Missouri. This was their first trip to Missouri and their first flight on an airplane. While there we toured the church headquarters facilities, met with church leaders, worked at a quorum gathering, and attended meetings and worship services. Damon was the flag barer for the United States during the conference's opening ceremonies.

On Monday of World Conference, Jenn took Damon and Karen back to the airport to fly back to Baltimore. She, Tamara, and I spent the rest of the week at the conference. Tamara and Jenn stayed an extra day to attend the Young Adult Temple Event which followed conference.

While at conference we learned that Anne had her baby. Mother and baby girl are doing fine.

Danny and Gloria presided over the congregation while I was at conference. Earl Jamison brought the message on Sunday Morning while Vonceil took the lead at Kids' Church and Pizza Church.

When I got back in the neighborhood after 11 p.m. on Saturday night I had two messages. One was that the fire department had been at the church earlier in the evening. While Danny was repairing the wall enough dust was kicked up to set off the alarm. There was also a message that one of Tamara and Jenn's neighbors had water coming into the basement and it appeared to be coming from their house. I have a key so I checked it out but, fortunately, their basement was dry.

St. Paul's Episcopal church, a long standing institution in Pigtown, merged with St. Luke's a few weeks ago and moved their operations to the St. Luke's facilities, which are about 3/4 of a mile away. Charley, one of the members of St. Paul's, has been coming to the Power House on Sundays since it is within walking distance for him.

On April 1 we had a full service at Morning Worship. We had our Palm Sunday celebrations, a baptism and confirmation, and communion. During Kids' Church we made pictures with candy. Damon shared almost every detail about his trip to World Conference as a part of Evening Worship. I cut him off at 40 minutes.

It took until Wednesday of this week to catch up with all the paperwork generated while I was gone. We also had roofers come on Tuesday to repair the roof.

On Wednesday we had a smaller group at SonRisers due to pouring rain. After the Narcotic Anonymous meeting, I met with some of the members who are a part of another NA group that needs a new place to meet. We've been comparing schedules and may soon have NA meetings two nights a week instead of one. At Adult Disciples we read through and discussed the words of counsel given at World Conference.

As a part of our Holy Week activities, we had our Last Supper service on Thursday evening. Between Noon and 3:00 p.m. on Friday the church was open for reading, prayer, reflection, and meditation.

We had good sessions throughout the evening at Pizza Church. In between sessions we worked on plans for some mission center youth worker training in preparation for camp.

We had lots of odds and ends happening throughout the day on Saturday. This included helping a person get her prescriptions, visiting in homes, administrations, and encouraging participation in Easter worship services. On Saturday night Danny cleaned the church and got things set up for Easter.

Looking ahead to next week we'll have our regular schedule of activities. Because of spring break, though, we will not have SonRisers. Saturday is our monthly Solid Rock Cafe.

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

Chester
Timothy
Alice
Al
Bob
Beverly
Scott
Bert

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