6/5/2010

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

It started out Sunday with a good crowd at Morning Worship. As a part of the service we celebrated Damon's graduation from high school and Tamara's graduation from graduate school. Afterward we had cake. We were quite surprised when we cut the chocolate cake we ordered and discovered that it was a white cake. That didn't seem to limit our enjoyment of it.

We had a little cake left over so we used it as our snack at Kids' Church. We finished our lessons from 2 Samuel and made baskets as the craft.

While we were distributing the pieces of cake at Kids' Church I talked about graduation and told the kids if they stayed in school and graduated from high school they would get a cake at church, too. One girl said, "You mean you have to stay in school in order to graduate? I didn't know that. THAT won't be happening for ME."

74 kids participated in Wednesday's SonRisers activities. We had expected our numbers to taper off a bit more quickly as the school year wound down. We have a staggered end to the school year in Baltimore so some kids are finished this weekend, some mid-week next week, and some not until June 16. We anticipate a noticeable drop-off in numbers these next two weeks.

I got a call later that morning from Sarah. She had just gotten notice that we were awarded half the money we'd asked for in a Baltimore Community Foundation grant that we (mostly she) had written several months ago. This will cover the camp fees for about half of the kids who will be attending from Pigtown this summer.

Later in the week we had another funding offer, this time for sponsoring the travel fees to Spectacular. Any monies we raise this point forward will have a dollar-to-dollar match. So, a $150 contribution to this fund is worth $300 in actual money received. We're currently about half way to our goal so this should help us reach it.

After opening for the NA Meeting Wednesday afternoon I headed over to Diggs-Johnson Middle School for their annual event in which they recognize individuals and groups who have partnered with them. During the event, the church was honored by receiving the Outstanding Service Award for its work with the school this year. We finished up at the school in time to have our last Mid-Week service for the summer.

Since our Staples store closed we've been getting to know the staff at another one of their locations. We've met all the managers and are working at getting on this store's list of organizations that receive donations. We have a good track record with this from the old store so we hope that will help.

I had a meeting with Bill, our Mission Center President, on Thursday. That evening I was able to get our front sign updated for summer and spend some quality time on the streets with the folks who were out and about.

Friday night brought Pizza Church. Quentin came to help out at the 7:00 session as a part of his preparation for being on staff at Junior High Camp this year. With many 8th grade graduations happening this week we were asking kids about them. Most were not going to attend. They said the fees were too high for them to participate.

Finally, with summer upon us, camps, vacations, and a variety of other activities will interrupt the regularity of the distribution of this newsletter. If you miss seeing "THIS WEEK at the POWER HOUSE" in your mail box, please know that we're stretched thin and are in need of extra prayer support from you to make it through whatever is happening that week.

Looking ahead to next week we have our full schedule of activities. In addition we have our monthly Priesthood Meeting on Sunday evening. Next Saturday is our monthly Solid Rock Cafe.

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

The Ferguson Family
The Shorter Family
The Carroll Family
The Burley Family
The Harrod Family
The Edwards Family
The Pettis Family
The Ceo 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/