6/14/2009

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



It started out Sunday with Morning Worship. After the communion service a young woman who had talked about baptism in the past decided to get baptized at next Sunday’s service. I was also warned after the service by the woman who sends out birthday cards to members of the church that she missed the postage increase and that June’s cards will be returned.



Since we were a little lean on staffing and we already had the front room set up with the chairs in rows for a meeting later in the week, we decided to move Kids’ Church to that room to watch a Veggie Tale. The big screen and the more confined space kept things under control for the session.



We had lots of heavy hearts at Evening Worship. We had a lot of people to remember who were very ill. We also learned that a friend of Crystal who just this week graduated from Mervo High School (where she goes to school and where Vonceil teaches) had drowned shortly after graduation. This was the fourth death of a student at the school this year. This student’s dad taught at the school as well.



On Monday morning Bryce, Onalee, and I were touring Fort Washington when Marjorie called. She had gone to visit Theresa in the hospital that morning and learned that she had died the night before. This was the first any of us in the church had heard of her passing. I called Gloria and she started making contacts in the neighborhood. I called others whose numbers I had on my phone. We cut our tour a little short and returned back to the neighborhood.



That afternoon amid the many phone calls Gloria called to tell me she heard that Homer had died. Homer’s wife Elizabeth is active in Morning Worship and lives just a few doors down from me. I went down to her house to visit right away.



Theresa had no family and the person who was responsible for her final arrangements was not returning our phone calls. At that point, we decided that the church would hold a memorial service for her on Thursday evening. We thought that if we later learned of other plans about which we were unaware then we’d do both.



We opened the church for the Citizens of Pigtown meeting on Tuesday evening. Several members of the group showed up but none of the group’s leadership. We called around and learned that they had moved their meeting location to the village center but had forgotten to tell us at the church and, for that matter, several of their members. On man there decided to walk to where the meeting was and the rest just went home disgusted.



Meanwhile, Tamara, Jenn, and Sarah met together to finalize plans for camp. In talking with them afterward it sounds like things are shaping up nicely.



36 kids, one of whom was new to the church, participated in Wednesday’s SonRisers activities. It was the final SonRisers until school resumes in the fall.



We wanted to use the video projector to show pictures of Theresa as a part of the memorial service. However, the room is normally too light that time of day with the sun coming directly in our floor-to-ceiling windows. Vonceil and I devised a plan to make it work that required a trip to IKEA to get supplies. We set them up and tested them on Wednesday afternoon and were pleased with the results.



That evening after the NA meeting we had our final Adult Disciples class of the season. Meanwhile, neighbors from the 1300 block of James Street (the same block the church is on) met in the main room with an official from the city and a building contractor. They had received a grant for homeowners on that block to get up to $5000 worth of work done to the exterior of each of their houses. People were thrilled about the opportunity and began the paperwork that night. The contractor also did a quick walk by each of the properties and helped the owners prioritize what projects they needed that would be included in the grant.



We learned on Thursday afternoon that a man who lives in the neighborhood and is closely related to several member of the congregation died overnight. Some of the people planning to attend Theresa’s memorial service now had other critical priorities to deal with.



When we got to the church to set up for the service we immediately encountered problems. First, someone had dumped several kinds of breakfast cereal on the sidewalk leading from the street to the front door. Fortunately, Robert was able to come over and get it cleaned up. We also found that one of our speaker wires had been pulled from its socket. I spent quite a bit of time splicing and reconstructing it (I only got shocked once). Even with those and a couple other unexpected things we got it together just a couple of minutes before people began to arrive.



That evening over 30 people came to the church for Theresa’s memorial service. We shared together in scripture, story, song, and photos. We had an “open mike” time where people could share “snapshots” of favorite memories of her. She will be missed.



After the service we had our monthly priesthood meeting. Along with our continued discussions of summer activities, we spent some time talking about the spiritual and emotional condition people in the neighborhood are finding themselves in after these last couple of weeks.



As people were leaving from the meeting I got a phone call from Jason’s friend. He repairs speakers and was interested in what is wrong with our system. From my description on the phone he thought that they could be repaired for much less money than replacing them. He’s coming by on Sunday to get a look at them.



Friday night brought Pizza Church. All three sessions went well. We’ve been learning stories from Acts in the first two sessions. This week we read Acts 5:1-11. When it was time for blessing the food, the girl started her prayer by saying, “Thanks you God that you don’t have us drop dead each and every time we tell a lie.”



With only about 5 minutes left in the first session and the kids taking their last bites of pizza a woman who we know fairly well came by to drop off her grandson. Our very longstanding policy is that if you come after the lesson (which in this case had been over for quite some time) you can’t come in. Because he couldn’t come in, the woman started hurling racial accusations at me (saying that I wouldn’t let her grandson in because he’s white) and went down the street hollering racial slurs at us that cold not be broadcast without fines from the FCC.



I logged onto our Baltimore Gas and Electric account on Saturday and was stunned to discover that they had actually corrected the name on the account. We’ve been working with Legal Services at church headquarters for over a year to get this seemingly simple thing straightened out. Now we can finally apply to stop paying sales taxes on our utilities.



Also while on line that morning I found that the tickets we’d bought to get the kids and staff home from Graceland Spectacular this summer had gone on sale. I cashed in the tickets that we already had and rebooked saving us nearly $150.



I went down to the hospital Saturday morning to see Rayvon. His bullet wounds seem to be healing well. He doesn’t have much feeling in one foot, though, so once the infection is cleared up he’ll be going to physical therapy to learn to walk again. Though he’s feeling much better he’s still experiencing a lot of pain.



While Bryce started setting up for Solid Rock Café on Saturday night, Danny and I hauled the font outside and gave it a good scrubbing. We were able to get it cleaned, put in place, and filled before the kids arrived for Solid Rock. Sarah brought a kid from Dundalk with her and everyone who was there played games and had fun together.



Looking ahead to next week we have our regular schedule of activities. I addition, we have some baptisms scheduled for Morning Worship. Sunday is the annual bicycle tour through city parks so Gloria will be staffing a station in Carroll Park. We also have a man coming to check out the damages on our sound system on Sunday afternoon.



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



The Saffran Family

The Doggett Family

The Smallwood Family

The Banks Family

The Brown Family

The Taylor Family

The Carroll Family

The Purnell 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