9/2/2006

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

We were greeted Sunday morning with a new banner on the outside of the church. All our banners had gotten old and faded so Danny installed a bright new one that arrived late last week.

After Morning Worship Jenn and I ran out to Staples for some last minute additions to our school supplies. We knew that we were short on a couple of things that happened to be on sale starting Sunday morning. Once getting back to the church we organized all the supplies in preparation for their distribution which was to begin at Kids' Church.

When Kids' Church began we were a little concerned. We had more supplies than any year so far but only about 10 kids showed up. However, throughout the next couple of hours we had a steady stream of kids come by ----- some on their own and some brought by parents, friends, or other church members. In the end we cleared out all of our supplies except for a few boxes of crayons (we started out with over 80 boxes). We lost count of the number of kids who were given supplies at 60.

One other bit of excitement happened at Kids' Church when one of the girls tried to put $1 in the offering jar. It slipped and crashed into a thousand pieces on the floor. She was wearing sandals but fortunately was not cut by any of the glass.

At Evening Worship our main prayer focus was on the start of school. We spent quite a while in a season of prayer for the kids, the teachers, safety, and a variety of other issues and concerns for our schools.

Wednesday brought our first SonRisers of the year. 66 kids came out for this first day. Patricia and Joshua joined the staff.

We had several things happen in/with the building on Wednesday. A couple of shingles blew off the roof of the old part of the building. Later, the air conditioner in the new part started acting oddly. That evening I opened the refrigerator to discover that a can of pop had exploded all over everything. Both the roofer and the HVAC people were available to come out on Friday.

Wednesday night had an extra-large group gather for the Narcotics Anonymous meeting. Afterward, the Adult Disciples group continued their study of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. We have one more week in that study then we will watch the movie together.

I visited on line with Robert this week. His senior year at Graceland University seems to have started well. He and Donald are doing their work-study in the same department right now.

Friday brought Pizza Church and the remnants of tropical storm Ernesto at the same time. The pouring rain had an effect on attendance. Even with that we had 6 kids who we hadn't seen since at least before the start of summer who came back.

On Saturday afternoon the phone rang. It was the alarm company saying that a motion sensor in the church was signaling a break-in. I went over to the building and found no sign of entry, at least of a person. Overnight, a large leak had developed between the old building and the new building. The drywall in the entry way was ruined. I have a call in to the builder to come out to find the source of the leak, repair it, and replace the drywall.

Earlier in the week I had placed a large copy order at Staples. I picked it up on Friday, but since it was raining I didn't take it over to the church until Saturday evening. When I opened up the box everything was inside except for Sunday's bulletins. The store had just closed. I had just had a "low ink warning" from my printer but Vonceil was able to squeeze out enough to get a second set printed from the computer.

As I hung up the phone from that panic I noticed a large brown spot on the floor in front of the refrigerator. Apparently, I hadn't cleaned up the entire can of exploding pop. It had mixed with a few donuts that were in the refrigerator and a paste of Diet Coke and chocolate frosting had oozed out onto the floor. This seemed like a fitting end to the mishaps of the week.

Looking ahead to next week we have our full schedule of activities. Next Saturday is the annual Pigtown Fest and we will have a booth at it again this year. In addition, the blues band "Old Man Brown" will give a free concert at the church next Saturday evening. I'm planning on meeting this week with our roofer, the HVAC people (both appointments on Friday were cancelled due to the rain), and our contractor to get the building repairs started.

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

Pat
Jean
Jenny
Elizabeth
Butch
Keith
Aaron
Brian
Johnathan

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