8/17/2008

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



It started out Sunday with Morning Worship. With the Olympics having just started, we used 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 as the scripture theme.



Usually, Kids’ Church has 12-20 kids each week. We were quite surprised when 40 showed up for the activity. Even more surprising was that 26 of the 40 were kids we didn’t know. Tamara was at drill and Jenn was out of town so it was just Vonceil and me for staff. Fortunately, the project that went with the lesson didn’t involve glue or paint.



During Evening Worship Damon, Scott, and Tamara shared some stories and answered questions about their participation in Spectacular at Graceland University. During the “Good News” portion of the service we learned of two members who had new jobs. Part of our prayer time was focused on Bible School.



After the service we had a brief priesthood meeting. We had just a couple of things to touch base on between now and the start of school.



Throughout the day people brought in bags of school supplies for our annual distribution which will take place in a couple of weeks. We’re anticipating a heavy need this year so we’re glad to see people coming together to equip the kids.



When I got home, several police cars were filling the street between my house and the corner. The scene was winding down when I got there so a few police officers were standing in front of my window and sitting on my steps. With the windows open, we had to listen to them for quite some time as they degraded people in the neighborhood and used excessively foul language both about and to the residents of our street.



Sarah, Damon, and I distributed fliers for Bible School on Monday morning. Tamara joined us later and the four of us set up the church and finalized lessons for Bible School.



Later that day I met up with Tabitha. She had moved back to the neighborhood a few days earlier. We were surprised to learn that she now has a second child and would like to schedule a baby blessing.



We had the biggest turnout we’ve ever had for Bible School in our congregation. The day with the fewest in attendance had 51 kids while our biggest day had 84. We had a significantly younger crowd than in recent years, too. Over the course of the week, 103 different kids participated in at least one day’s activities.



Vonceil, Tamara, Kathy, Vonceil, Sarah, Gloria, Patricia, Damon, Joshua, and Robert all worked on staff this year, most of them for all four days. Another thing that helped shape Bible School this year was our continued relationship with Charlotte’s Day Care, which again brought several kids this year. The local AME Church accepted our invitation to bring its kids over to our festival time on Friday.



Each evening of the four days of Bible School featured additional activities so we kept rearranging furniture throughout the week. On Tuesday the church hosted the monthly Citizens of Pigtown meeting. (They had put the wrong date in their newsletter so some people showed up on Thursday for it, too.) Wednesday and Thursday had our regular NA meetings. The floor was looking pretty bad by Thursday so one of the women at the NA meeting mopped some of the most critical areas. We cancelled Adult Disciples on Wednesday night.



I got a call on Friday from a church member who had to make an emergency move out of the place where he was living. He loaded a few garbage bags filled with everything he owns into my van and stashed them in a corner of the balcony of the church. Within a few hours he had a place to sleep for the night lined up. He plans on getting his things from the church on Sunday.



Friday night brought Pizza Church. We had good participation at all three sessions. Tamara was feeling better, Jenn was back in town, and Sarah was able to join the last two sessions so we had more than sufficient staffing.



On Saturday morning we met up with George Walton. Sally had purchased a whole carload of school supplies for the kids and we were able to transfer them to our van and get them to the church.



Looking ahead to next week we have our full schedule of activities. In addition, we have a meeting with the University of Maryland School of Nursing in preparation for the upcoming joint activities. The Adult Disciples group will be making our teacher care packages on Wednesday evening and we’ll be distributing them on Thursday.



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



The Harris Family

The Carroll Family

The Iman Family

The Allen Family

The Doyle Family

The Curtis Family

The Elliott Family

The Pompey 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