8/19/2006

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

It started out Sunday with Morning Worship. During it we talked about the need to call people from the neighborhood into becoming a blessing for the whole world.

During Kids' Church the kids made invitations for their friends to come to Bible School. Onalee made one for a friend from preschool who we had forgotten to invite. We were able to contact her mom and this friend was able to attend one day.

We had a rather quiet Evening Worship. At it was one kid who has been to almost every activity at church since camp ended. He's going to be living with relatives in West Virginia during the school year so he will only be around the neighborhood over the holidays. Because of this, he's been coming as often as he can so that he can earn as many credits toward next year's youth camp as possible so that he'll still be able to go.

On Monday Tamara and I distributed fliers inviting kids to Bible school. Along the way we were able to visit with several people we hadn't seen in a while. In all we handed out a little over 1000 fliers. That night she, Jenn, and I set up the church and finalized our plans for the start of Bible School.

Tuesday morning brought the launch of Bible School. Dave, our mission center president, came up to assist Jenn, Tamara, Karen, Patricia, Gloria, and me in staffing. Over the course of the week we had about 50 different kids with our biggest day having 36. On the last day we had a moon bounce, an inflatable obstacle course, blocks, and games for the kids to play.

This was the first year that we've been able to do a full-sized Bible School totally indoors. Our planning time was cut dramatically as we didn't need to have back-up plans in case of rain and we didn't need to figure out parallel activities so some kids were indoors and some outdoors at the same time. Of course, having the moon bounce and the like inside meant that everything was much cleaner and air-conditioned dispositions were much better.

While we were setting up on Tuesday evening for Wednesday's activities a bunch of police cars rushed to the alley by the church. The police captured and arrested two people. Unfortunately, the two were kids who were active in our programs at the church.

On Thursday Dave and I went to the bank to update our signature cards on the account. The bank, however, didn't have our current signature card or any record that it had ever been changed (we'd changed it twice since the original). It was messed up to the point that the person who has exclusively signed the checks for the past 15 months was not on the account and the bank had not yet caught it. It took nearly an hour to get things straightened out and our former financial officer had to stop by the bank after work to verify that what we had done was OK.

Friday brought Pizza Church. We had a small group of kids. We studied the book of Ruth together.

On Saturday evening Jenn and I took Damon to Friendly's for ice cream. We still have a couple of people who earned their trip to Friendly's during the 2005-06 year who haven't claimed it yet.

Looking ahead to next week we have our full schedule of activities. In addition we have our monthly Priesthood Meeting on Tuesday. Also on Tuesday evening the village center will be using the church facilities as they introduce a home improvement grant program for people living on Herkimer Street. We'll be assembling and distributing our back-to-school teacher care packages. A group of us will be attending an Orioles game Thursday evening.

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

George
Mary
Tim
Helen
Josh
Victoria
Quante
Durrell

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