9/11/2005

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

It started out Sunday with our three services. We celebrated the sacrament of the Lord's Supper during Morning Worship. Afterward we had a brief priesthood meeting to make some decisions regarding painting questions the builder needed resolved by Tuesday morning. With Jenn out of town and Shirley with a broken arm we decided to show a Veggie Tale during Kids' Church. We spent some of the time during Evening Worship in prayer and reflection over the situation around Hurricane Katrina.

The contractors made a lot of progress on the building this week. You can see a picture of it at:

http://www.pigtownchurch.org/ministries/building_project.htm

Since that picture was taken the builders added windows, doors, and gutters to the outside. They've also (among other things) finished painting the ceiling and trusses on the inside.

We had 85 kids participate in Wednesday's SonRisers activities. 55 of them came for the first time. We send out follow-up cards with the schedule of teen activities to all the new kids from this week and last.

I had a note on the door at SonRisers asking me to call one of our teens. I contacted him and he came right over to see me. He has a job on the other side of town and finds it scary to ride the bus home late at night. He told me that he had been praying about his fears when a man who he had never seen before came up to him. The man started sharing with the kid, told him things about this kid's life that there was no way another human could know, and then gave him specific instructions in answer to some prayers he'd been praying in recent weeks. The kid was totally freaked out by this so we got to spend some time processing it together. Even before we talked he had called in to work and told them he wouldn't be working on Sundays any more because he needed be in church.

I got a call from Donald this week. There had been a mix-up in his billing from Graceland University and he needed some help getting that straightened out.

The men's CORE group met for the first time in several months on Thursday. We had taken a break due to chaotic schedules and are now reforming as a group.

Thursday evening also brought our monthly priesthood meeting. We had a long agenda with so many things happening with the building and in the congregation. We plotted out many of the things that need to happen between now and when we move into the addition and began prioritizing some of the expenses that we'll have in that move. In this process we set the date of Saturday, October 1, as a painting day in the church. If anyone is interested in coming by to help with that, please let me know and I'll get you more information.

Bryce and I spent some time this week shopping for a sound system for the new building. The space is just the size that if a person uses a microphone people will wonder why they bothered with it but if they don't use a microphone they'll wish they would have. We got our first quote on a system and will go exploring again in the next week or so.

The young adults went on retreat this weekend. They left on Friday after work and should return mid-afternoon on Saturday.

We had good sessions at Pizza Church on Friday. We had several new kids and a few that had been to SonRisers but never to Pizza Church before.

Saturday brought the annual Pigtown Festival. Though we've had a booth at it every year we've never seemed to find it productive. This year, however, I was able to have several in-depth conversations with people that I wouldn't otherwise have had. I'm quite hopeful with regards to some of the contacts we made.

Saturday night brought our monthly Solid Rock Cafe. We had a good mix of kids and they seemed more open to playing games with a variety of people rather than just the ones they came with.

Looking ahead to next week we have our full schedule of activities. In addition, several women will head up to Deer Park campgrounds in New Hope, Pennsylvania, for the annual women's retreat next weekend. We'll also continue with making moving preparations.

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

Ginger
Dan
Derrick
Cricket
Derris
Melanie
Christine
Tripp

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