It’s been a busy couple of weeks at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started out Sunday when we picked up Gloria and all headed out to the airport car rental center. Vonceil and I each rented a minivan and Gloria drove ours back to the church to be ready for camp.
When we pulled up to the church several people were at work there. Danny had done cleaning and hung the Bible School banner on the front of the building, Gary was folding bulletins, and John was getting rid of the weeds that had grown through the cracks in the sidewalk.
As we gathered for Morning Worship we learned that Josh had been offered a full-time job. He’d been working as a temp at the Under Armor warehouse and they liked his work so they’re taking him on full time.
By 11:15 a good group had gathered for the 11:00 service. The scripture focus was on Matthew 19:12-14 and its role in our mission here. We then reviewed and celebrated the youth ministry that had happened in the past 12 months, were challenged for the next year, and then had a blessing on those going to camp.
With this being the end of our youth ministry calendar year, let me give you some of the statistics we celebrated that morning. Since July 2008, 7 kids came to church 60 or more times and 61 kids came on an average of at least once a month to our teaching activities. 575 kids came to at least one activity this year, not counting Bible School, the Health Fairs, School Supply Distribution, or Family Bowling Nights. We had 4821 contacts with kids this year.
By 1:00 kids were starting to gather for their trip to camp. 15 of the 17 registered came. We packed up the three vans and were on the road by 2:00. With having to go through DC traffic, we arrived at the campgrounds around 3:45 p.m. Camp check-in and registration went very smoothly for our group. On our way back to Baltimore we stopped at the airport where Vonceil and I turned in our vans and then rode back home with Gloria.
On Monday evening Healthy Homes/Southwest Cares met at the church. A good crowd of people showed up to learn, share ideas, and enjoy some food together.
After over a year of us working with legal services at church headquarters, the State of Maryland, and Baltimore Gas and Electric, this week brought the return of tax exempt status to the church for its utility bills. We’ve been told by BGE that our next bill will reflect the tax-exempt status. We’re now filling out the required paperwork to get a refund from the state for all the erroneously collected tax money. I’m not anticipating this to be a fast or smooth process.
While working with the power company we switched over our account so that all the electricity purchased by the church will be from local wind generation. This both reduces our carbon footprint and guarantees our electricity rate for the next two years.
As I was driving over the Ostend Street Bridge on Wednesday morning several young men who were active in the church as teens were walking together up the street. They flagged me down and I stopped to visit. They had just been called in for job interviews and were in a hurry to get home and cleaned up to make their appointments on time. They hopped in the van and I dropped them off in front of their houses.
Throughout the week we worked on mid-range and long-range planning. We hammered out the basic plans for Bible School so we can order any additional necessary materials. We also planned out the curriculum for all the youth activities (Kids’ Church, the three Pizza Church groups) through Christmas.
Gloria, Vonceil, Onalee, Jenn Maser, and I headed back to the airport Friday morning to pick up rental vans for bringing kids home from camp. We continued from there down to the campgrounds in Virginia.
Upon arrival I brought the message at the camp’s baptism service. By 1:00 we were on the road with all the kids. Jenn Maser stayed to help clean up the campgrounds then rode back to Baltimore with Jenn Dubs.
As I was getting ready to go to the church to prepare the building for Pizza Church I got a call from Erin. She had hauled some things back from camp and needed into the building to drop them off. A few minutes after she left Tamara, Jenn Maser, Jenn Dubs, and Robert all arrived and unloaded their vehicles. We took the church items in and made a big pile to sort through and put away later.
Friday night’s Pizza Church sessions were all about camp. The first two groups had a mix of kids where exactly half and gone to camp and half hadn’t. The job of the group that had gone was to help those who hadn’t gone know what camp was about and to encourage them to earn their way to camp by next summer. All the kids at the senior high group had been to camp so we debriefed their experiences.
Looking ahead to next week we have our regular schedule of activities. In addition, Paul Davis will be with us on Sunday for Kids’ Church and Evening Worship. Between those activities we’ll be running him over to the church in Dundalk for a meeting he has there. We have a potluck after Evening Worship and will get him to the airport on Monday morning. We’ve got some kids who have earned a dinner at the Golden Corral so we’ll be taking them there on Monday evening. On Tuesday the youth programs from Paul’s Place are using our main room during the day. While that is happening I’m meeting with Donna and Marjorie to coordinate with the University of Maryland for community health care opportunities for the coming school year. Thursday is our monthly Priesthood Meeting. On Saturday some of us will be spending the day at our Mission Center Reunion in Springfield, Virginia. Saturday evening is our monthly Solid Rock Café.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned, please keep the following families in the forefront of your prayers:
The Carroll Family
The Pelsinski Family
The Starlipper Family
The Conley Family
The Miller Family
The Stallings Family
The Doggett Family
The Buchanan 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
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