9/25/2005

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

It started out Sunday with our three services. With the women's retreat in progress we had a smaller group for Morning Worship. At Kids' Church we learned the story of the great banquet an then made and ate cookies that looked like hamburgers. The women arrived back in Baltimore just as Kids' Church was letting out. About half of them were able to come back for Evening Worship to share some of the profound things they had experienced there.

The builders continued to make progress on the addition throughout the week. The building was completely insulated and caulked. The cabinets arrived and some of the interior doors were installed. One of the inspectors came out and decided that we would need to add two railings to the building, one by the front door and one on the roof, in order for us to pass inspection.

For our part of working on the building, we met with and signed contracts with a fire alarm company. We thought we would simply be able to add to our current system but, because of the size of the addition, we had to upgrade nearly every component of the old system as well which cost us quite a bit more than we had budgeted. We also were able to buy the painting supplies this week in anticipation of next weekend's painting party.

123 kids participated in this Wednesday's SonRisers activities. We did not have even one donut to spare.

That evening the Adult disciples group began their study of the New Testament. After spending so many weeks in the books of the prophets the Gospel of Matthew was quite refreshing.

Through a series of unpredictable circumstances nearly every activity was short-staffed this week. We had some people sick and others with last minute changes to work schedules. We were able to get everything covered but we were in a constant state of shuffling staff and programming throughout the week.

Danny and I met prior to men's group on Thursday to clean out the font. We hadn't used it since camp and it was still covered with caked-on mud. We took it outside and scrubbed it inside and out then let it start to dry there during group. It's looking shinier than it has in quite some time.

Gloria and I were able to visit Theresa in the hospital on Friday. She'd had cancer surgery earlier in the week and, since she has no family and some difficulty in communicating, we'd had a hard time getting a clear picture of her condition. The medical staff was very helpful and glad to have us as contacts for her. She's doing well for her condition and should be in the hospital for a couple of weeks.

Friday night brought Pizza Church. We had good sessions throughout the evening. The high school group came in a bit wound up but were able to settle down and actually cover more material than they usually do.

Edith was in town to give an Evangelist's Blessing on Saturday morning. While she was using the church Tamara and I went into the construction zone and began some of the preliminary work in preparation for next Saturday's painting day.

Jenn and I attended a mission center youth ministries meeting in Laurel Saturday afternoon. Afterward was that congregation's annual Pig Pickin' celebration. Vonceil brought the rest of our family and two kids from the congregation who had earned an outing down for it.

After our monthly Sundae Church on Saturday night, Jenn and I began to fill the font. Once we turned on the water we had a leak in the hose which sprayed water all over the wall, the cabinets, and the floor before we could get it shut off. We ended up having to cut off one end of the hose in order to get it filled without flooding the church.

Looking ahead to next week we have our full schedule of activities. In addition, we have a baptism scheduled during Morning Worship. We'll be doing some painting preparations throughout the week around the builder's schedule in order to have things ready for next Saturday's painting party. Our annual fall candle sale starts next weekend as well.

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

Robert
Donsaygo
Troy
Davon
Jennifer
Suzy
Shakira
Tanisha

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