2/14/2010

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

It started out Sunday when I got a call from Danny a couple hours before church started. He had slipped on the ice and hurt himself so he was not able to get the church ready in the morning. When Bryce, Gary, and I arrived at the church to get things set up we were greeted with the knowledge that a mouse had died somewhere near the entrance to the building. When we got to setting up the projector it refused to remain on for more than two minutes. Our backup projector worked, but with the glare off the snow it was too dim to see everything clearly.

Despite all those things the service was OK. 15 people braved the ice and snow to be there. We spent a part of the service in prayers for the situation regarding the ramifications of the snowstorm.

Afterward, Gloria, Tamara, Vonceil, and I met for just a couple of minutes to touch base on some of the planning for when the Michigan State students would be in town. We had planned to cover it and several other topics during the priesthood meeting that night, but we had to cancel the meeting due to the snow and ice.

Our curriculum at Kids’ Church was already off schedule a bit due to the series of blizzards. With this and the fact that the snow and ice had kept kids at home much of the week, we changed thing around and did a craft that took a lot of glue. That seemed to meet their need to break the monotony.

Kids returned to school on Wednesday with a two hour delay. With them being off school for so long, a two hour delay, and the alley between the school and the church being filled with snow, we had fewer than 10 kids participate in Wednesday’s SonRisers activities.

The nursing students parked at the old Safeway parking lot then came down to the church for their class. I spent a couple of hours with them sharing some thoughts and perspectives on the neighborhood and the impact of community nursing.

That afternoon the NA group celebrated an anniversary of one of its members. Many people came to the meeting which caused a problem with the continued parking situation. The streets are still a mess and parking is a very real issue.

That night a couple people came to Mid-Week Service. Again, snow, ice, and restricted participation.

We had a broader variety of odds and ends that took up much of our time and energy this week. We visited the middle school to coordinate plans with the principal, explored some grant opportunities, played telephone tag with the Census Bureau and with Paul’s Place Outreach, we worked on curriculum development, and a long list of other things. By the end of the week, we had done a lot of things but seemed to accomplish nothing.

Friday night brought Pizza Church. We had above average attendance throughout the evening.

Looking ahead to next week we have our full schedule of activities. In addition, Sunday night is our monthly Celebration Service. Afterward, we’ll be having a “Football Food” Dinner to eat up the items that we had planned to sell at the “Big Game” Party that was cancelled due to the weather. We’ll also be finalizing plans for the upcoming Health Fair and the visit from the Michigan State Campus Ministries group. This is the week we put together the next edition of “Kids’ Church News” so it can go in the mail March 1.

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

The Griffin Family
The Latham Family
The Smallwood Family
The Ayers Family
The Doggett Family
The Breyer Family
The Tucker Family
The Epps Family

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
http://thisweekatthepowerhouse.blogspot.com/