7/2/2005

It's been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland. Utter chaos is perhaps
a better description.

It started out Sunday with the church burglar alarm being tripped at 6:45 a.m. There was
no apparent burglary but it was a jarring way to wake up.

When Danny arrived at the church ready to prepare it for the day he noted that the smell
of sewage in the building was too strong to hold services there. We moved the chairs to
a shady spot in the park for Morning Worship. Someone found a stray orange highway
construction barrel that I used for a pulpit and Vonceil held a portable CD player up in
the air so we could hear the music for our songs.

A few people who were in the park joined us for the service. I started a series on
stewardship by preaching on Genesis 2:15. Afterward, everyone carried their chairs back
to the church.

For Kids' Church we gathered inside for a few minutes and sang a couple of songs. We
needed to get out of the smell in the building so we took the kids outside and had them
use sidewalk chalk for their craft.

We didn't have an outdoor venue available for Evening Worship. Instead, we propped open
the door and had a shortened order of worship. It was a hot day so with the air
conditioning off and just the door open we were all pretty warm by the time things were
over.

On Monday the Quick family went to University Hospital. Jerry is in need of a bone
marrow transplant so they tested his brother Josh to see if he is a match. We'll know
the results in a couple of weeks.

The builders thought they had conquered the sewage smell but by Wednesday evening, though
weaker, it was still quite evident. The contractor came down between the Narcotics
Anonymous meeting and Adult Disciples to see if he could better isolate the problem. He
found what he thought was the source and made repairs. By Friday evening there was some
lingering smell but it seemed under control.

On Wednesday evening I got a phone call informing me that the bus company which had
donated its services to us for transporting kids to camp had had an emergency and was
canceling it's donation this year. Suddenly, we had 23 kids with no way to get to camp.
With such late notice we weren't sure what to do. We spent quite a bit of time between
Wednesday evening and Saturday morning firing out email, reserving minivans to rent (not
easy on a holiday weekend), and making phone calls to find people who could rearrange
their plans at the last minute to transport kids. By Friday evening we had
transportation secured to bring all the kids home but it wasn't until nearly noon on
Saturday that we had enough seats to get everyone there.

Theresa, our oldest member of the congregation, was hospitalized this week. We're still
not sure what the problem is. The hospital she's in is within walking distance of the
church so several of us were able to go up and visit.

The contractor continued to make good progress throughout the week on the building. The
foundation is finished and the walls are just starting to go up. The plan for next week
is (weather permitting) to have a truckload of cinderblocks delivered each day and to
have that load laid by the end of each day.

On Thursday evening we took the kids who had attended church on average of at least 2
times a week for the past 12 months to an Orioles game. Rick Bunch came up from DC to
join us. Though the game itself wasn't very good and the Orioles lost, I think the kids
had more fun this year than any other times we've gone.

As we were setting up for Pizza Church on Friday we noticed that the building didn't seem
to be cooling off very well. The air conditioning was acting a lot like it did about a
year ago when we had it repaired. We called Danny and he remembered what the repairman
had done so he came over after the first Pizza Church session and got the cool air
flowing again.

We've been especially blessed this week with people willing to help fund camp. Last week
at this time we didn't have enough money to even send half of the 23 kids we had
registered. As of right now, with the money we've received and a couple of phone calls
saying, "The check is in the mail" we should have enough to pay for all the
kids to go.

Looking ahead to next week we have almost all our regularly scheduled activities. We've
cancelled Kids' Church and Solid Rock Cafe due to staffing limitations. On Sunday
afternoon we'll take the kids to camp and will be picking them up next Saturday morning.
We'll also be putting together this year's Bible School program and writing the
curriculum for the next 6 months.

Along with the individuals and activities mentioned as well as continued progress on our
building project, please keep the following individuals in the forefront of your prayers:

Debbie
Marty
Karen
Theresa
Vickey
CJ
Joshua
Walter

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