5/10/2009

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



It started out Sunday with our communion service at Morning Worship. With the rain we had a slightly smaller group than usual. We had one first-time visitor in the congregation. The topic for the morning was “Hope amid Doubt.”



Between services when I was trying to print out the scripture cards for SonRisers, the printer decided to be the problem appliance of the week. With ink all over my hands and frustration all over the rest of me I got the thing to work. It’s nearly 12 years old and the computer it’s hooked up to will turn 11 soon. So, if one quits working both will need to be replaced.



Though the rain had let up, we still had a small group for Kids’ Church. There we learned the story of Doubting Thomas.



In place of Evening Worship we hosted The Arundel Singers for their spring concert. Members of the congregation, friends from the AME church on the boulevard, Community of Christ members from other congregations, and several friends from the neighborhood joined together for the event. Patty Ballinger from the Dundalk Congregation brought a keyboard in for the group to use.



Suzy, a member of the Arundel Singers, used to be a key leader in The Power House before she moved out of the neighborhood. She and Josh, one of our young adults who she knew when he was little, were able to renew their friendship and get up to date on information about others.



Dave and Gail Anderson brought Richard James, our President of Seventy who is visiting the area from Wales, to the concert. Afterward, Tamara, Erin, Jenn Dubs, Jenn Maser, and I joined them at Friendly’s for ice cream.



Monday was my final class for the semester at St. Mary’s Seminary. The class, Theology and Sociology of the City, was among the best classes I’ve taken at that school.



I ran into Brian at the new Walmart around 8:00 a.m. on Tuesday. They were having open interviews at 9:00 and he’d gotten an early bus to make sure he would be at the front of the line.



Much of the rest of the day I continued to sort through the web sites that I’d gotten at the Catalyst conference a few weeks ago. Most of them had free or substantially discounted resources available to those who attended the conference. We were able to save hundreds of dollars and countless hours through these discounted resources.



We spent some time this week coordinating health care with Marjorie. She and Gloria paired up to do a nurse/minister home visit with one elderly member who has been ill. Through that visit Marjorie was able to give her some immediate care, arrange for a doctor visit, and is working on coordinating come continued home health care.



About 80 kids participated in Wednesday’s SonRisers activities. Half the staff called in that day so Gloria and I juggled things around a bit to make it all work.



Later that day I was able to track down some parents to find out if their kids could go to camp. One said yes and signed the forms while the other said no. Overall, we’ve invited fewer kids to camp this year and still need some additional funding to make sure the ones we’ve invited can all go. Danny is working right now on soliciting some businesses for sponsorships.



That night Maurice was at the NA meeting. He had chaired the meeting for several years but has been out the last few months because of his cancer treatments. He’s got a long way to go but was thrilled to be out of the house and back in his home group. Afterward, the Adult Disciples group studied 2 Peter and Titus.



Bobbie and Loretha, some friends from Michigan, were in town as a part of their vacation. They wanted to see an Orioles game while they were here so we took advantage of the situation and invited some kids to go with us. We were able to take kids with us because we had been given some free tickets for games that will expire at the end of May. Since it was last minute, only one kid was able to go. I’ll be going again next week to use up more of the tickets so hopefully some others will be able to go, too.



Friday night brought Pizza Church. All three groups were relatively calm and focused. I don’t recall the last time that happened. Tamara’s group did an especially good job with their oil and water object lesson.



Throughout the week Vonceil and I worked on a format and presentation experiment for Morning Worship. We went over to the church for a couple of hours on Saturday morning to set things up and see how things worked. We went home and made adjustments to our plans then ran it again later that afternoon.



Saturday night brought our monthly Solid Rock Café. Usually, the crowd is predominantly middle school kids. When we opened up the group was almost exclusively high school aged. As the evening progressed, more middle school kids came and balanced out the group. The main focus of attention for the group that night was Wii Baseball.



Looking ahead to next week we have our regular schedule of activities. In addition, we’ll be trying out a new format on Sunday morning. Tuesday night the Citizens of Pigtown will use the church for its monthly meeting. That same evening we’re taking a group of kids to the Orioles game. The community service project group from Diggs-Johnson Middle School will use the building for lunch and debriefing during the day Wednesday. On Thursday evening I’ll be attending an end of year dinner for the community partners of Diggs-Johnson Middle School. Afterward we have our monthly Priesthood Meeting. Throughout the week we’ll be trying to finalize the last of our camp registrations.



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



The Cedilla Family

The James Family

The Covington Family

The Banton Family

The Howe Family

The Epifanio Family

The Doggett Family

The Cox 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