5/14/2006

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

It started with our celebration of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper at Morning Worship. We learned the story of Thomas at Kids' Church then had worksheets (crosswords and coloring pages) to reinforce the learning. After evening worship, Tamara requested communion since she had been at work on Sunday morning. A couple others joined her in this.

Over the course of the weekend Danny moved to his new house. It's just up the street from me. I stopped by after church and saw that everything was moved in and stacked in overwhelming piles ready for the long, hard job of sorting and putting away.

I was able to catch up with Damon after the service as well. We walked together over to his house and I visited with his dad for a few minutes about Damon's desire to be baptized. He gave his approval so we set the date of Friday, May 19, at 7:00 p.m. This will be the first baptism in the new building.

I met with the builder on Monday morning to discuss a couple of building settling issues. He showed me what to do to locate the source of a leak around the back door. Once we find that out he'll come back to fix it and will also patch a crack that has formed in the floor.

I spent a good portion of the day on Tuesday fighting with City Hall about a massive pile of garbage on the street between my house and the church. It had gotten to the point that the sidewalks were impassable and one could barely fit a car down the street. After calling several places (311 call center, the village center, the our city council member, the department of sanitation) I found myself on the phone with the mayor's secretary. She accused me of filing a false complaint saying that it couldn't be that bad and that I just wanted it removed for my convenience. When work crews eventually arrived, it took 8 people, a garbage truck, a dup truck, a pickup truck, a large dumpster and a Bobcat 3 full hours to get our street cleared.

We had a request this week from the village center to use our building for a community meeting. They'll meet in the main room next Monday evening to discuss home improvement grants for people living on Bayard street.

Our camp forms came this week so we spent some time getting information on them and inviting kids to camp. We're inviting a few more kids than we currently have money for in anticipation of people giving to the cause in the next few weeks. I'll start going around to homes to get parent signatures in the next few days.

The fire alarm company came out to do some final work on the system on Tuesday. At this point they only need a couple of cover plates to have the job completely finished.

We had about 85 kids participate in SonRisers this Wednesday morning. That evening the Adult Disciples group finished its study of the pastoral writings from the past 30 years as recorded in the Doctrine and Covenants.

A few of us met up with Josh on Thursday evening. He and Biz were going to his prom so we gathered around and took pictures. One kid who came by thought they had gotten married.

I got a call later that night from the fire alarm company saying that the fire alarm at the church was going off. I had just gotten home from the church and we were in the middle of a downpour so I wasn't too worried and told them not to send the fire trucks. I walked over to the church a couple minutes later and turned off the alarm. The next day, though, I learned from the neighbors that in the few minute gap two fire trucks had come and the firemen appeared ready to break the doors to get in. Fortunately, they didn't.

We learned this week that a local band will be performing at the church this September. They're a blues band that likes to do free concerts in the community along with their regular gigues. They add in gospel songs when they perform at churches.

Friday night brought Pizza Church. Part of our fellowship time was spent on getting information from kids for their camp forms. We also repeatedly reminded the crew that all three groups will meet at 7:00 next Friday for the baptism.

When our Solid Rock Cafe started on Saturday evening only one kids showed up. After about 10 minutes kids started coming and there was a steady stream throughout the evening. Everyone got along well together and seemed to have a good time. When it was over and Jenn and I were cleaning up, though, we discovered that one regular deck of cards and our Uno cards had walked out the door. I think this is the first time something's vanished from a Solid Rock since we started them back in 2000.

Looking ahead to next week we have our regular schedule of activities. In addition we have a community meeting at the church on Monday evening. On Saturday I'll be on a panel at the healing workshop that Ron Gillilan has put together again this year. We have a baptism on Friday evening. Donald should get back in town from Graceland University late next Saturday night. The young adult group is going on a retreat next weekend. We'll also spend some time this week hunting down parent signatures for camp forms.

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

Tammy
Francis
Jerry
Jimmy
Elizabeth
Linda
Lavon
Tom

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