6/8/2008

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



It started out Sunday with Morning Worship. We celebrated communion at this service. Violet, who normally walks just a block to get to church, had driven several miles out of town to pick up a friend and drive here in for church. The sermon revolved around expectantly looking for God at work in our world.



We were a little short on staff at Kids’ Church again this week. Even so, we dared to try a craft that involved glue. The kids did OK, though we’ll be scraping glue off of the tables for some time to come.



We had just a handful of people at Evening Worship. With that, though, I had more fun at that service than I’ve had in a long time. As a result of that time together, we may end up with another kid attending Spectacular at Graceland University this July.



86 kids participated in SonRisers on Wednesday. Next week, some kids will be finished with school while others will still be attending so we’re expecting a dramatically smaller crowd.



That afternoon I participated in a meeting about university involvement in our neighborhood with both the University of Maryland and Morgan State University. Both have programming plans and needed to make sure that they are working in cooperation rather than in competition with one another.



Both the Narcotics Anonymous group and the Adult Disciples group had crowds that were smaller than usual on Wednesday night. A rainstorm hit during Adult Disciples so I gave some of the participants rides home afterward.



Marjorie and her teaching assistant came to my house Thursday afternoon. We met to start firming up our discussions on ministry/community service partnering between the church and the University of Maryland School of Nursing. As a result of the meeting, we’re working on three projects for the 2008-09 school year. In the fall we’re developing an event to provide food (a hot meal and healthy snack packs to go) and health care (vaccines, STD testing, wound care, etc.) for those who are out on the streets late at night, like the hard-core drug addicts and prostitutes. In the spring the church will host a neighborhood health fair. Throughout the year church members and nurses will be paired up for home health care visits.



Men’s group finished its study of a book a couple of weeks ago. As is our tradition, we went out to a restaurant this week to celebrate. This time we got dessert instead of an entire meal.



Since we had a baby blessing scheduled for Sunday I stopped by Troy’s house to ask about having his baby blessed, too. Troy, who was baptized when he was a kid, didn’t seem too interested in it so he had me talk to his girlfriend (who I met only a few weeks ago). I talked with her about it offering to have the blessing this Sunday or at another time at their convenience. She got really excited and wanted to have it right away. By Saturday when I stopped by to make sure that they were coming, she was still excited and was anxious to have me see the baby in the new outfit she bought him for the occasion. Troy was still a bit ambivalent.



The banners I ordered last week were delivered on Friday. One is to replace the one on the back of the building which was damaged in a storm. The other is a new one promoting Bible School. Hopefully we’ll get both of them up next week.



Darris and his girlfriend stopped by the church on Friday. They had reserved the building for a baby shower next weekend. He hadn’t been in the church since we added on and she had never been in the building before. Darris seemed interested in the Ravens games and the virtual bowling this fall while his girlfriend was surprised that he used to be active in church and encouraged him to start coming again. Both of them were surprised that their other son had been getting donuts at the church on his way to school each Wednesday.



I got a call from Tamara mid afternoon on Friday saying that she’d been injured at work and wouldn’t be able to help lead Pizza Church that night. Fortunately, Robert was available to step in and help.



We had small sessions throughout the night Friday for Pizza Church. This was due in part to the fact that the 5th graders graduated from elementary school and the 8th graders graduated from middle school earlier in the day. Though there were just a few kids, most of them had earned a second slice of pizza this week so we didn’t have as much left over as one might expect.



The end of Pizza Church was busy. Tamara came in from the hospital just as things were winding down. She’ll be OK with a little rest and some pain medication. Marjorie also stopped by to drop off a packet of materials for me to review to see if any of the grant proposals she’d run across would fit any projects we’re doing.



After Pizza Church, Johnathan and I walked to Burger King to get him the milkshake he’d earned. His scratch-off game piece that came on his cup yielded a “please try again.” Just as he lost the game, Pat walked by. She had a game piece and gave it to him. He won a Whopper. He cashed in his ticket so he could take the sandwich back home to his cousin. On his way home he found $2 on the sidewalk.



Once back from Burger King I met up with Tamara again. She was not supposed to drive and needed to get her prescriptions filled. I drove her to a pharmacy that’s open all night so she could get her pain managed and a good night’s sleep.



I picked up Gloria early Saturday morning. We had a “Celebrate Recovery” training seminar near Annapolis for the whole day. We got some EXCELLENT materials and seeds for some ideas we’ll use in planning the months to come. The drive there and back provided a chance to catch up and address some critical concerns.



Looking ahead to next week we’ll have our regular schedule of activities. We have some baby blessings scheduled for Sunday during Morning Worship. In addition, we have our monthly priesthood meeting on Tuesday. The Citizens of Pigtown will be using the building that day for their meeting as well. Wednesday is the final SonRisers for the school year and next Saturday is our monthly Solid Rock Café. The church will be used for a baby shower next Saturday, too. We’re also hoping to finish up the paperwork for kids from the neighborhood who will be attending camp and/or Spectacular.



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



The Lucas Family

The Gray Family

The Shorter Family

The Ghaffar Family

The Banton Family

The Ayers Family

The Dicus Family

The Ceo Family

The St. Thomas 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