9/23/2006

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

It started out Sunday with Morning Worship. Among the people there was a young woman who used to attend Pizza Church on occasion when she was in high school. She came with a friend brought her 14 month old daughter with her. When the service was over she scheduled a time to have her baby blessed.

Once we locked up from Morning Worship, Bryce, Onalee, and I headed out to the airport. Jenn and Tamara had arrived back from their training in Missouri about the same time as when the service had ended. We were able to get a brief overview of the training during the ride home.

For Kids' Church we learned the story of Noah. The kids each drew eight pictures to illustrate the story. As Kids' Church concluded Vonceil, Gloria, and Patricia arrived back in town from the Women's Retreat.

Patricia shared some of her experiences from Women's Retreat as a part of Evening Worship. She had really been convicted of some changes she needed to make in her life and was building resolve in making the changes happen.

104 kids participated in SonRisers this Wednesday morning. This was the first time we broke the 100 mark this school year. Later that morning I went to Ikea to pick up some permanent furniture to replace some things we'd borrowed and/or placed temporarily in the building when it first opened back in December. That evening the Adult Disciples group started their study of the Gospel of Mark.

Throughout the week I began meeting with some of the congregation's priesthood members. Everyone in the group has grown quite dramatically over the past couple of years so we're all spending time in discernment about our callings and how we can best live them out at this time and into the future.

On Thursday morning Danny moved all the chairs and tables in the church to the corner that already had two coats of paint on the floor. Afterward, I came over and put a second coat of paint on most of the rest of the floor. I then put primer on the one area that had not yet been touched. That evening I put the first coat of paint on it then finished the second coat on Friday. The whole place looks much cleaner and brighter with the fresh paint on the floor.

I ordered a new banner on Thursday evening. It will go on the back of the church along the parking pad. We don't currently have a sign along the Glyndon Avenue side of the church so this will meet that need.

Even with all the painting we've done over the past couple of weeks we still have some things that need to be painted. We got an estimate from a painter who lives in the neighborhood to complete a portion of exterior wall along the alley that we didn't finish when the building was under construction. He has a reputation for doing good work and he gave us a very good price so he'll be finishing that up for us in the coming weeks.

We had good groups at all three sessions of Pizza Church this Friday. The middle group took advantage of an incentive I'd given them. I told them that if they brought friends who hadn't been to the church before that we'd have dessert with the pizza. They seemed to enjoy that this week so I hope we'll seen new friends in the weeks to come as well.

We had a fun time with the kids Saturday night at Sundae Church. We got to hear all kinds of stories from camp that the staff didn't know about.

Looking ahead to next week we have our full schedule of activities. In addition we have a priesthood meeting on Tuesday. Tamara, Jenn, and I will be going to Philadelphia on Saturday for an afternoon of training for urban youth workers.

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

Elliott
Barbara
Beverly
Cecilia
Torin
Gary
Heather
Janet

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