1/5/02
It's been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started Sunday with our Morning worship. During the service was Onalee's baby blessing. My dad brought the message and my mom read a poem written by Jimmie Radliff for Onalee . Amy and Dawn were baptized during the service. Afterward, we had a light luncheon.
At the last minute we decided to watch a "3-2-1 Penguins" video at Kids' Church. We were a little short staffed and I had hurt my back earlier in the week so doing a full craft project would have proven unwise. The kids seemed pretty captivated by the story which taught them that cheating is wrong.
During the evening service, we talked about describing our lives in "I was/Then God/Now I am" terms. Over the next couple of months, several different people will be sharing testimonies in this format during the service.
Wednesday morning brought SonRisers. It was the first day that kids were back at school so we weren't too surprised that we had 43 kids. We expect that the numbers will return to normal in the next couple of weeks.
Wednesday afternoon's Young Peacemakers Club actually had a couple more kids than usual. We spent some time in the "Peace for Me" category building self esteem.
The Adult Disciples group started a new unit on Wednesday night. Each week this winter we'll be studying the life of a different hero in the Kingdom of God. This week we studied the life of John the Baptist.
We were back to more normal sized groups at Friday's Pizza Church sessions. We had two kids request baptism and one inquire about it this week. After visiting with me, they were to talk with their parents about it. If they come back saying it's OK with their parents, I'll do a home visit and set up a time for the service.
When I came over to the church on Saturday night to write this report and print out the order of worship, I noticed quite a bit of condensation on the windows. My feet squished as I stepped inside to the flooded building. Apparently a pipe in the water fountain had broken sometime today. Danny, Don, and I cleaned up the mess. It won't be able to be fixed until next week so we'll be working without water until then.
Looking ahead to next week we'll have all our regularly scheduled activities. Next Saturday is our monthly Solid Rock Cafe. In addition, Bob Kyser, director of missionary ministries, will be visiting our congregation next weekend.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned, please keep the following people in the forefront of your prayers:
Harry
AJ
Charles
John John
LaCrea
Kayla
Ray
Kirsty
Thank you for your continued prayer support.
Jeff and everyone at
The Power House
"Building the KINGDOM of GOD Here & Now"
PowerHouseMD@juno.com
www.cochrist-cbmc.org/powerhouse
1/12/02
It's been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started out Sunday with our communion service during our Morning Worship. The message for the morning reflected on what God has done with us, to us, and through us during the past year. At Kids' Church we started a unit on the life of the Apostle Paul. The kids learned the story of Paul's conversion then created front pages of newspapers documenting the event. At the 6:00 service, we continued with our "I was/Then God/Now I Am" series. Shirley and I used this format to dialogue about what God had been doing in her life.
Sunday also brought freezing rain to Baltimore. While sliding home from the church I was hailed by a young girl who occasionally attends the church activities. She was standing on her front steps in this rain without wearing a coat. She was hoping I'd come by because she didn't have a coat and wondered if we had one she could have. We carefully walked back to the church together and found one for her that fit perfectly.
On Monday we learned the specific cause of last week's flood. It seems the thermostat in the water fountain malfunctioned and caused a pipe inside the fountain to freeze and burst. Fortunately, it is still under warranty and should be returned to us in the next week or so. In the mean time, the repair men capped off the pipes leading to the fountain so that we are able to turn the water to the rest of the building back on.
Monday night's CORE group started a new study series this week. Ed is leading the group through a series of discussion-starting videos that address commonly asked questions about Christianity and discipleship.
Tuesday night the Mission Center Healing Team met at the church. By them being here this week there were activities at the church eight days straight.
As usual, Wednesday was especially busy. The morning's SonRisers group had about 70 kids attend. After school, the Young Peacemakers Club worked on communications skills by learning to share messages in code. The leaders of the Narcotics Anonymous group asked me about the possibility of them cleaning the floor of the church mid-week. The Adult Disciples group learned about the prophet Jonah.
While Jason was running Thursday's computer lab, I ran out to the airport to pick up Bob Kyser. Bob is the head of missionary ministries for the denomination and came out to visit for the weekend. That evening we visited walked around the neighborhood and visited in a couple of homes.
Bob and I spent a portion of the day on Friday discussing some missionary training projects that are being developed at headquarters and how we can maximize what we've learned in Pigtown in that training. He got to visit with the kids at the three sessions of Pizza Church that night. We had 34 kids in attendance at the three sessions.
Bob had several meetings on Saturday, including one with our mission center president, one with the leadership of the Towson congregation, and one with the leadership team at the Power House. That evening was our monthly Solid Rock Cafe.
We've had some neighborhood complaints about the church this week. The spike in noisy and rough play activity by kids as some groups leave the church building has upset some folks enough to come in and complain to us.
Looking ahead to next week we'll have all our regularly scheduled activities. Bob will be speaking at the morning service and sharing an "I was/Then God/Now I Am" testimony during the evening service before heading back to Missouri first thing Monday morning. There will be a baptism at Kids' Church and a potluck after the evening service. We're also planning on taking a troop of kids who have been to church 40 or more times since camp out for ice cream sundaes next Saturday.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned, please keep the following people in the forefront of your prayers:
Don
Gloria
Woody
Darlene
Ed
Danny
Edna
Shawna
Thank you for your continued prayer support.
Jeff and everyone at
The Power House
"Building the KINGDOM of GOD Here & Now"
PowerHouseMD@juno.com
www.cochrist-cbmc.org/powerhouse
1/26/02
It's been a busy couple of weeks at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started out Sunday, January 13, with 34 people gathered for morning worship. Bob Kyser brought the message tieing the great promise to the great commission. At Kids' Church, we had a question and answer time with Bob during which the kids learned about him and his job. After that, Forest was baptize and confirmed. Forest's baptism was the 75th baptism at the Power House. 30 kids came to participate in the activities. Around 45 people came to the evening worship service. Bob shared a testimony in the "I was/Then God/Now I Am" style as a part of the service. After the service we shared together in a potluck dinner.
Since Don also had an early morning flight on Monday, he picked up Bob at around 5:00 a.m. to catch their planes.
Wednesday morning's SonRisers had 68 kids come by. During Young Peacemakers the kids played a game that helped them learn about group communication skills. The adult disciples group studied the life of Joseph.
Thursday brought Computer Lab and Friday night was Pizza Church. Before and after their lessons, each group at Pizza Church was reminded of ways to not annoy their neighbors on their way home from church. Behavior afterward was much better.
On Saturday night, Don and I took 5 kids who had earned at least 40 camp credits out for ice cream. There was one kid who couldn't go and there are several kids with credit numbers in the high 30s so we'll be going again soon.
Afterward we discovered that this computer had a virus. I didn't want to send out the report for fear of spreading it. I bought new anit-virus software on Sunday and got the problem resolved.
With the snow and ice, we had a slightly smaller group at last Sunday's Morning Worship. During it, I set out the theme for 2002 which is "Make It Happen!" At Kids' Church we finished our study of the life of Paul. During the evening service, those who had been attending our Adult Disciples class put the stories of John the Baptist, Joseph, and Jonah in the I Was/Then God/Now I Am format. After the service, one of our kids brought over some like-new board games the he and his mom had cleaned out of their cupboards for us to use during church activities.
Wednesday morning was our SonRisers activity. Don was in town so he was able to come over and help out with it. We again had 68 kids come through. That afternoon the Young Peacemakers Club continued working on their peacemaking communications skills. The Narcotics Anonymous group had its last session with Linda as its leader. Adult Disciples studied the life of Abraham.
Thursday afternoon was computer lab. That evening Don and I worked on his plan of service. At the same time, Gloria lead an extremely playground committee meeting at the church.
Friday's Pizza Church set a new attendance record for an evening that didn't have a baptism. We had 42 kids come to the activities. This does not include two kids who stopped by but didn't stay and four more who came in too late to get pizza.
There was a group of kids, most of whom we did not know, that gathered in front of the church during the junior high session who choose not to come in for the activities. As we were serving the pizza, the police came by to let us know they had been disbanded. With the recent complaints from a couple of our neighbors we were concerned as to how this would affect our neighborhood relations. Fortunately, the man who called the police was the father of two kids who are at the church several times a week and knew the activities of that other group didn't reflect what was happening inside the church.
Unseasonably high temperatures on Saturday brought a bunch of kids out to the playground construction site. Though the equipment isn't fully installed and the pour-in-place surface is not yet there, the kids were having a ball. While I was over there checking out the progress they were full of questions about what was going in some of the areas that were still empty. One kid exclaimed, "Of all the playgrounds I've even been to, this is really the best one, and it isn't even finished yet!"
Saturday night brought our monthly Sundae Church activities for the senior high kids. Roxie was the only kid who came so Don and I had a good visit with her.
Looking ahead to next week we'll have all our regularly scheduled activities. In addition, we have our monthly priesthood meeting after church on Sunday evening.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned, please keep the following families in the forefront of your prayers:
the Latham family
the Smead family
the Mueller family
the Pelsinski family
the Nardo family
the Williams family
the Gerber family
the Boycheck family
Thank you for your continued prayer support.
Jeff and everyone at
The Power House
"Building the KINGDOM of GOD Here & Now"
PowerHouseMD@juno.com
www.cochrist-cbmc.org/powerhouse
2/2/02
It's been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started out Sunday morning with a new preaching series on God's People. The group brainstormed for ideas on what the perfect flock, bride, family, community, army, and body would be like. We then recognized these terms as the ones used in the scriptures to describe God's people. After that we talked about what it means to be a flock. These topics will carry us through the first Sunday in March.
After the service, Patricia came up to me and said, "Next Sunday's my Sunday." That was her way of telling me she was ready for baptism. She'd been trying to decide when and if to get baptized for quite some time and now feels ready to make the commitment.
We had near record heat that weekend. When it came time for Kids' Church, we scrapped the indoor activity we had planned and instead took the kids outside to do sidewalk chalk for our craft. The kids usually enjoy this activity, but this week they had an especially good time. We had over 30 kids participating in the activity.
Sunday evening we continued with our "I Was/Then God/Now I Am" sharing. Don told part of his life story and how God is continuing to work in him.
After the services we had our monthly priesthood meeting. We spent the bulk of our time addressing issues surrounding the building project, job qualifications for the associate pastor position, the schedule of upcoming activities, and the growth both in numbers and in quality of the youth ministries.
With the heat wave still in full force, hot chocolate wasn't all that appealing for Wednesday morning's SonRisers activities. We still had 56 kids come, though. Don was again able to join us on staff since he was in town and Erin helped with the activities for the first time.
The Young Peacemakers Club has really enjoyed projects that involve using Tinkertoys lately so we did another one this week. They were instructed to build a car, but each person could only attach one piece then pass it to the next person. No one was allowed to communicate with each other. Afterward, we discussed what forms of communication would have better facilitated their work in the activity.
The Adult Disciples group finished their study of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We ended with understanding why Joseph was Jacob's favorite son.
In the time between the class and our prayer time, one member shared that she had gotten her tax return and used the money to finish paying off her credit cards. She said that several months ago, before she had started coming to church, she had decided that she wasn't going to pay those bills any more. Since she started on her discipleship path, the Spirit convicted her to return to making the payments and to pay them off as soon as she could. She and her son had fun cutting up the cards to celebrate their freedom from the debt.
After computer lab on Thursday I was able to run the youth attendance statistics for July through January. So far, we've had 444 different kids attend at least one activity. 79 of them are currently on track for camp (14 of whom are too young and will be going to Chuch-E-Cheeze instead).
This week's pizza church sessions were well attended. The first session alone had 19 kids come.
Afterward, I had a chance to visit with Robert's mother. Last weekend, Robert had told me that he was ready to accept his call to the office of Deacon. After visiting with his mom, she gladly gave her consent. We'll begin teaching the classes he needs in the next few weeks and will have a business meeting to gain congregational approval in mid-February.
I leaned Saturday afternoon that Billy Jo had her baby on Friday. She named her Connie after her grandmother.
Saturday evening, Patricia, Violet, and I got together and went through our adult pre-baptismal materials. We had a good discussion and were able to answer some questions. I also got to hear some of their personal testimonies of how God has been moving in their lives.
Looking ahead to next week we'll have all our regularly scheduled activities. In addition, we have Patricia's baptism on Sunday morning. Next Saturday is the Mission Center's Leadership meeting at Springfield, Virginia. We also have our monthly Solid Rock Cafe next Saturday night.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned, please keep the following families in the forefront of your prayers:
the Quick family
the Conley family
the King family
the Sykes family
the Cox family
the Banks family
the St.Thomas family
the Pompey family
Thank you for your continued prayer support.
Jeff and everyone at
The Power House
"Building the KINGDOM of GOD Here & Now"
PowerHouseMD@juno.com
www.cochrist-cbmc.org/powerhouse
2/10/02
It's been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore,Maryland.
It started out Sunday morning with our baptism and communion service. We had planned on Patricia getting baptized. We were delightfully surprised when Violet brought a change of clothes with her so that she could be baptized, too. Earl Jamison came up from Washington, D.C., to assist with the confirmations. Our topic for the morning was "The Family of God."
At Kids' Church the topic was prayer. We made some prayer guides using the "TOPS" pneumonic (T=thanksgiving, O=others, P=plans, S=self). During the evening service, Darlene shared her testimony.
Wednesday was busy as usual. We had 59 SonRisers. Interestingly, virtually none of our core kids participate in this activity right now. We currently have a group of kids we see on Wednesday and a different group we see on Friday with very little overlap of the two.
The Adult Disciples group continued with their study of Kingdom heros. This week was Elijah. Next week is Elisha.
Thursday afternoon Jason came up from Laurel to run the computer lab. We also learned that day that we had been awarded the "Excellence in Education and Ministry" award from the American Bible Society and St. Mary's Seminary and University. This annual award is given to a student at the school who is involved in a ministry in which the Scriptures are being used in transforming lives. Because of the award, the church will receive a free shipment of Bibles from ABS.
Pizza Church had a record crowd on Friday night. Fully 10% of the 4th and 5th graders in the neighborhood were at the first session. One of our junior high boys got beat up on his way to church. The police stopped by to get a statement from him at the beginning of the second session. The officers said to give them a call and they would be glad to come back after church and give him a ride home. They seemed especially sensitive to the situation probably in part because of the fact that two teens were shot (one fatally) a couple miles from here one night earlier this week as they were walking home from a church in their neighborhood.
Saturday evening brought our monthly Solid Rock Cafe. Mike and Bonnie Barber came up to staff the event. We had about 20 kids come out for the games.
Looking ahead to next week we'll have all our regularly scheduled activities. In addition, Mike Barber will be sharing a testimony during the evening service on Sunday. I'll be on the phone Sunday evening doing a question and answer session about developing a discipleship program with a group of people training in Florida. We'll also be submitting our order for our Bible award from the American Bible Society. Finally, Lent begins this Wednesday and we'll be gearing our sacrifices during the season toward our building program.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned, please keep the following families in the forefront of your prayers:
the Nelson family
the Wheelton family
the Lucas family
the Nguyen family
the Battle family
the Pokko family
the Johnson family
the Braxton family
Thank you for your continued prayer support.
Jeff and everyone at
The Power House
"Building the KINGDOM of GOD Here & Now"
PowerHouseMD@juno.com
www.cochrist-cbmc.org/powerhouse
2/16/02
Its been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started out Sunday with our full day of activities. 31 people attended Morning Worship. The topic was the Body of Christ. During Kids' Church, we talked about then drew pictures of thing the scriptures say we will find in heaven. Mike and Ed ran the evening service. During that time, I was on a conference call with a group of people in Florida who were preparing to plant churches. We had a Q & A session on discipleship training. The day ended with a variety of desserts that Ed and Darlene brought to the church with them. The sweets were left over from a wedding and we were glad to help them disappear.
Throughout the day on Sunday we began preparing for Lent. As a part of our sacrifice during this time, we will be giving sacrificially to our building fund. The kids have a jar in which they are to put money from now until Easter. The adults will be having a sacrificial offering as a part of our Palm Sunday services.
On Monday I took a trip up to St. Mary's Seminary & University to fill out the forms for Bibles and other resources that we were awarded through the school by the American Bible Society. The desired resources should arrive in the next few weeks. I also went to the YMCA to reserve the swimming pool for a party with the kids in March.
We were open for activities all seven days this week. On Monday was the CORE group that Ed leads. On Tuesday, Walt came down from the Towson congregation to teach a class on financial stewardship.
Wednesday brought SonRisers, Young Peacemakers, Narcotics Anonymous, and Adult Disciples. We had over 60 at SonRisers and could have had about a dozen more if we would have let kids in after school started. During Adult Disciples, we studied the life of Elisha.
Jason was unavailable for computer lab this week. Fortunately, Don was in town and able to take over that activity.
We had some competition on Friday night during Pizza Church. The Episcopal church was hosting a teen Valentine dance at the same time. We still had good attendance throughout the evening but we didn't break any records. Those who did come came with change in hand to put in the building fund jar. It was the best financial response we've ever had from the kids.
Saturday evening 6 kids gathered at the church. They had earned a trip to Friendly's for ice cream sundaes by attending church over 40 times since July. Don and I took them out for their treat.
Looking ahead to next week we'll have all our regularly scheduled activities. In addition, we will have a business meeting during the Sunday evening service. We've been made a branch by the denomination so we will need to elect officers. We will also be discussing the financial plans for the new building and be providing an opportunity for people to speak to Robert's call to the office of Deacon. Gloria and I have a park meeting on Thursday night. Linda Costello will be arriving from Florida next Saturday as she will be doing a preaching series the following Sunday, Monday, and Wednesday.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned, please keep the following people in the forefront of your prayers:
Bobby
Tammy
Stella
Charlie
Jeana
Justin
Carol
Karen
Thank you for your continued prayer support.
Jeff and everyone at
The Power House
"Building the KINGDOM of GOD Here & Now"
PowerHouseMD@juno.com
www.cochrist-cbmc.org/powerhouse
2/23/02
It's been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started out Sunday with our Morning Worship. The topic for the morning was the Community of God. Afterward we learned that Tom and Yvonne are expecting a baby this August.
Shirley's sister was in the hospital so I decided to hold off on the craft project for Kids' Church for a week and instead watch a video. We watched the VeggieTale "Dave and the Giant Pickle" and had a good question and answer session afterward.
During the evening service we had our first business meeting as the Power House Branch. The congregation elected me as pastor, sustained Gloria and Danny as counselors, sustained Danny as stewardship commissioner, and elected Don as the Mission Center Leadership Team representative. The group then had a discussion about the building project and took an official vote to get the mortgage. Finally, we discussed and approved Robert's call to the office of Deacon.
After the service we had our monthly priesthood meeting. A goodly portion of the time was spent on discussing the plans for this summer's activities and syncronizing our summer calendars. Mike Barber spent some time discussing this summer's camp, especially its staffing needs.
The first part of the week was full of activities. The CORE group met on Monday. Also on Monday evening Gloria represented the church at the Hearts of Pigtown meeting. On Tuesday night the mission center's Healing Team met at the building.
Wednesday morning brought 70+ kids to SonRisers. Afterward, Mike and I had a meeting to speculate on long-term youth ministry needs and programming for the congregation. The lesson at Young Peacemakers bombed but we all lived to tell about it. During Adult Disciples we studied the life of Esther. Also on Wednesday evening, Gloria had a community public safety meeting.
Thursday morning Gloria met with a group of people to tour the construction at the old Montgomery Ward building. She learned that they have pre-leased about 1/3 of the space and that the first tenants will move in sometime in June. Subway and Burger King are ready to move into the food court, they're building an athletic center and day care center, and the building will also have a 500 seat auditorium available for public use.
Jason was back in town to run the computer lab this week. As always, the kids were quite happy to see him.
That evening, Gloria and I and two others from the Junior League met with city officials to discuss progress on the park and request a reprioritization of some of the projects. The meeting was both productive and informative. They agreed with our desire to move the basket ball courts earlier than originally planned and our plans for the new fense. We also learned the the new skateboard park would be going out to bid in the next week or so and that they plan on beginning work on the new baseball diamonds this spring. Further, we discussed potential positive impact that the Montgomery Wards building project will have on the park.
Friday brought Pizza Church. Don's parents were in town visiting so they helped staff the meetings. This was especially good since Mike was running a ski retreat this weekend in Virginia (on kid from here went to it). I taught the first two groups and Don taught the third group. Terry earned her t-shirt for having come to church 20 times. She is the first of our Vietnameese kids to do so.
There's been an interesting shift in behavior during Pizza Church over the last couple of months. The kids seem to have gotten louder and a bit more restless. However, this has not been all bad. In all the noise there have been very few racial slurs and, though they have been pestering each other, it has not been near as cruel as it has been in the past.
Saturday brought Sundae Church. While we were eating ice cream, the kids and I brainstormed ideas for ways to help others come to church more often
Saturday night Linda Costello and Tony, a member of her congregation, rolled into town. Linda is here to do preach a series on the Army of God on Sunday morning at 11:00 a.m. and on Monday and Wednesday evenings at 7:00.
Looking ahead to next week we'll have all our regularly scheduled activities. In addition, have Linda speaking on Monday and Wednesday nights. Also, the pastors of the Towson, Dundalk, and the Power House congregations are meeting together this Thursday.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned, please keep the following people in the forefront of your prayers:
Theresa
Vicky
Donald
Michael
Melina
John
Less
Lindy
Thank you for your continued prayer support.
Jeff and everyone at
The Power House
"Building the KINGDOM of GOD Here & Now"
PowerHouseMD@juno.com
www.cochrist-cbmc.org/powerhouse
3/2/02
It's been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started out Sunday morning as Linda began her series on the Army of God. During Kids' Church we began a study of the life of Moses. The evening service was a time for healing and blessing. Over 30 people were in attendance at each of the services.
Monday evening, 18 of us gathered again for the continuation of Linda's series. Then on Tuesday evening, the Mission Center Healing Team met in the building.
Wednesday morning brought SonRisers. That afternoon we had catastrophic power surges on my block which destroyed many electronic items in each of our homes. With having my lessons on a now-dead computer and trying to get the rest of the household in order (several major items besides the computer were damaged), we cancelled Young Peacemakers. That evening, Linda finished her preaching series and then headed straight back to Florida.
Jason came up on Thursday to run the computer lab. The meeting I had for that evening was postponed for a week.
With the end of the month came an update on our attendance statistics. As of the end of the month we had well over 70 kids on track to go to camp. In addition, we have 13 kids who aren't yet old enough for camp but are meeting all other requirements. They'll get a trip to Chuch-E-Cheeze this summer instead.
Friday night brought Pizza Church. Mike taught the first two sessions and Don taught the third. We're in an attendance pattern in the first group that they usually go through in October. We've had a substantial influx of new kids who have yet to learn the behavioral norms and the standard procedures of the group. This always makes for a draining hour of activity but we know the long-term payoff will be worth it.
We didn't have anything scheduled in the building on Saturday. I believe that this was the first day the church hasn't been open for at least one activity since February 5.
Looking ahead to next week we'll have all our regularly scheduled activities. In addition, we'll be taking 25 kids with the highest attendance credits to the YMCA for a swimming party on Saturday afternoon. Saturday evening is our monthly Solid Rock Cafe. Also, the pastors of the Towson, Dundalk, and the Power House congregations are meeting together this Thursday.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned, please keep the following people in the forefront of your prayers:
John
Melissa
Joanne
Joe
Gerard
Shaquanna
Sitara
Trevonne
Thank you for your continued prayer support.
Jeff and everyone at
The Power House
"Building the KINGDOM of GOD Here & Now"
PowerHouseMD@juno.com
www.cochrist-cbmc.org/powerhouse
3/10/02
It's been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started out Sunday morning with our communion service. During that service, we finished our series on the People of God by talking about the bride of Christ. During Kids' Church we continued our study of the life of Moses. We returned to our I Was/Then God/Now I Am format at the evening service.
We had a new thing happen at SonRisers this week. For the first time in the 19 months since we started this activity we had no first-time visitors. Every kid who came had been to the church at least one time before. At Young Peacemakers, we continued with learning about the need for good communication and planning in making peace. The Adult Disciples group studied some scriptural commands and guidelines for worship.
Jason wasn't available for Computer Lab this week so Don worked his schedule so that it could still be open. While that was happening, I met with the other local Community of Christ pastors to discuss each congregation's 5-year plan and how the plans relate to each other.
Bryce had the day off of school on Friday. Since we had unseasonably warm temperatures, he, Onalee, and I visited the new playground together for the first time. The new equipment received his enthusiastic approval.
Friday night's Pizza Church sessions usually have high-quality lessons. This week's just seemed to be especially good. We had a total of 26 kids in attendance.
On Saturday we had our outing to the YMCA swimming pool for the 25 kids with the highest number of credits. We were scheduled to leave the church at 3:30 p.m. When I arrived at the building to do some work shortly after noon there were already kids waiting at the door ready to go with their towel and swimsuit clutched in hand. They claimed they had been there for a 3 hours already.
A couple of kids couldn't participate so we ended up with 21 kids and 5 adults at the pool. Everyone had a great time playing in the water for 2 hours.
We got home in time to go home and have a quick bite to eat before coming back to the church for our monthly Solid Rock Cafe. Again, we had excellent fellowship as the kids played games together for an hour.
Throughout the week Miles' dad and I kept trying to contact each other about Miles' desire to get baptized yet seemed to miss each other by a couple of minutes each day. We finally made contact on Saturday. Miles will be baptized a week from Sunday during Kids' Church.
Looking ahead to next week we'll have all our regularly scheduled activities. Earl Jamison will be here for the evening service on Sunday. In addition, we'll be making final preparations for our Holy Week activities.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned, please keep the following people in the forefront of your prayers:
Chris
Melissa
AJ
Theresa
Ciarra
Quinten
George
Less
Thank you for your continued prayer support.
Jeff and everyone at
The Power House
"Building the KINGDOM of GOD Here & Now"
PowerHouseMD@juno.com
www.cochrist-cbmc.org/powerhouse
6/16/02
It's been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started out Sunday with our three services. I spoke in the morning on God's kingdom. During Kids' Church we continued with our study of Moses, this time focusing on the plagues sent in an attempt to get Pharaoh to let the people go. Earl Jamison joined us and brought the message during the evening service.
The number of people attending activities was down slightly at all activities on Wednesday. We still had lots of good things happening all day, though, especially our study of Peter during Adult Disciples.
After computer lab on Thursday the church was open for a meeting of the playground subcommittee. Gloria ran the meeting during which we discussed the upcoming final inspection of the new equipment, the status of the fence, and the need for concept drawings for the next construction phases.
We had 30 kids total at Friday's three Pizza Church sessions. The youngest group learned about Jesus washing the disciples' feet. The junior high group discussed the need for treating each other with kindness as it continued with its study of the fruits of the Spirit. The senior high group neared its completion of the Gospel of Matthew as they learned about the crucifixion.
Two years ago I put out a challenge to the kids saying that anyone who earned 55 or more attendance credits could go to camp for free instead of paying the $15 fee. No one did. A year ago I raised the bar to 60 credits and we had 8 kids make it (the highest number of credits earned by a kid last year was 76). For this camp year I put forth another challenge. I left "free camp" at 60 credits but included a trip to an Orioles game at 90 credits an a trip to Six Flags for anyone who got at least 120 credits. This Friday at Pizza Church, with 3.5 months to go, Robert crossed over the 120 credit mark. We also already have 6 kids with 60+ credits with one kid sitting at 59.
Saturday night I filled the font in preparation for Miles' baptism on Sunday. It will take place during Kids' Church.
I had a chance to visit with our architect and get an update on the progress of the addition. The final technical drawings are being completed. He needed a new survey of the lot since there hasn't been one since our current building was finished. That should be happening in the very near future.
Looking ahead to next week we'll have all our regularly scheduled activities. In addition we have a baptism during Kids' Church. I also have a church leadership training event in Philadelphia next Saturday.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned, please keep the following people in the forefront of your prayers:
Robert
Jerel
Roxie
Michael
Justin
Tom
Yvonne
Julia
Thank you for your continued prayer support.
Jeff and everyone at
The Power House
"Building the KINGDOM of GOD Here & Now"
PowerHouseMD@juno.com
www.cochrist-cbmc.org/powerhouse
3/24/02
It's been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started out Sunday with our three services. During the morning worship, I continued with our modern parable that started with "The Kingdom of God is like what happens when a person puts a bag of popcorn in a microwave oven." Miles was baptized and confirmed during Kids' Church. During the evening service, Karen and I dialogued about how God called her out of debt in the "I was/Then God/Now I am" format.
Pouring rain made the dynamics of SonRisers a little different this week. Kids were in less of a hurry to leave and wait outside their school. Many more than usual stayed and visited with us for a while. That afternoon was our Young Peacemakers Club and Narcotics Anonymous. The Adult Disciples group continued with their study of Kingdom heros with a review of the life of Paul. Also on Wednesday, Gloria, Darlene, and a couple of women from nearby congregations headed to North Carolina for a worship workshop.
We crossed an attendance milestone mid-week. We keep track of the number of kids that have attended at least one activity at the church since last summer's camp. We added our 500th name to the list after Wednesday morning's SonRisers activities.
The new playground at the park moved much closer to completion this week as the workers hung the new swings. They also continued with building a new playground at the elementary school. We've gone from famine to feast when it comes to play equipment in the neighborhood.
Jason ran the computer lab on Thursday afternoon. The kids are really in love with him and check with me throughout the week to make sure he's going to be here.
Friday night brought Pizza Church. I taught the first two sessions about Jesus' entry into Jerusalem. Don taught the senior high group as they continued their study of the book of Matthew. They will finish the book next week.
After Pizza Church I headed up to Philadelphia. I spent the day on Saturday in the INJOY Group's "Reality Leadership" conference. After this excellent conference, I headed back down I-95 to make it to the church in time for Sundae Church. Don picked out the ice cream this time and the kids gladly approved of his selection.
Looking ahead to next week we'll have all our regularly scheduled activities. In addition, we have our sacrificial offering as a part of the morning worship. Our monthly priesthood meeting is scheduled for Sunday evening after the service. We'll be distributing fliers to advertise our Easter activities. We will have as Last Supper service on Thursday evening at 7:00 and the church will be open for prayer, reflection, study, and meditation between noon and 3:00 p.m. on Friday.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned, please keep the following people in the forefront of your prayers:
Less
John
Bonnie
Chester
Diane
Jackie
Jerry
James
Thank you for your continued prayer support.
Jeff and everyone at
The Power House
"Building the KINGDOM of GOD Here & Now"
PowerHouseMD@juno.com
www.cochrist-cbmc.org/powerhouse
3/30/02
It's been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started out Sunday morning with our Palm Sunday services. As a part of the Morning Worship, the people brought sacrificial offerings for our building expansion project. During Kids' Church we made a 24 foot long picture of the people welcoming Jesus with palms. During the evening service, we discussed pondered the question "What if the donkey Jesus was riding thought all the cheering was for him instead of for Jesus?"
After the services we had our monthly priesthood meeting. During it, we finalized our schedule and assignments during the week of World Conference and firmed up most of the dates for our summer activities. Gloria brought us up to date on things happening in the neighborhood and Danny updated the group on our finances. We began a process of critically examining each scheduled activity with the thought in mind, "If this ministry were not currently on our schedule, would we launch it today?" We're going through this process to see if we are achieving our mission in the best way possible.
On Monday afternoon, Joshua, AJ, and I began distributing fliers for our Easter services. Joshua and I handed out more of them on Wednesday while he, Don, and John worked on Thursday. Shirley, Billy, and Patricia took a stack of fliers for their block and I handed out a few more on Friday afternoon. By week's end we had distributed around 2000 fliers.
We had 64 kids come to SonRisers Wednesday morning. 6 kids came to our Young Peacemakers Club and Narcotics Anonymous had a full house. During Adult Disciples we studied the life of Mary, Jesus' mother.
Thursday afternoon brought the computer lab. That evening we had our Last Supper service. During that time, we gathered around the table and read the scriptures from the Gospels starting with the Passover meal through Peter's denial of Jesus.
Between noon and 3:00 p.m. on Friday the church was open for prayer, reflection, and meditation on the events of Good Friday. People were free to come and go during this time. We had Bibles with the crucifixion accounts marked. We also had a variety of devotional readings available and a worship center that featured candles, a cross, bread & wine, olive oil, and a towel.
Friday evening brought Pizza Church. The the first two groups studied the Good Friday texts. The senior high group finished its study of the book of Matthew.
Saturday brought additional preparations for Easter. I spent part of the afternoon rearranging the furniture in the church trying to find a way to squeeze in a few more seats. That evening Nanette and I made buttons for the morning service.
Looking ahead to next week we'll have a different schedule of activities due to spring break. We will not have SonRisers, Young Peacemakers, or Computer Lab. I'll be heading out to Missouri for World Conference next weekend so "THIS WEEK at the POWER HOUSE" will not be sent to you for a couple of weeks.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned, please keep the following people in the forefront of your prayers:
Michael
Donald
Robert
Billy
Amy
Brittany
Karen
Debbie
Thank you for your continued prayer support.
Jeff and everyone at
The Power House
"Building the KINGDOM of GOD Here & Now"
PowerHouseMD@juno.com
www.cochrist-cbmc.org/powerhouse
4/20/02
It's been a busy few weeks at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started out Easter Sunday with our three services. We pushed up against the fire marshal's occupancy limits during our Morning Worship, had a smaller than usual group at Kids' Church, and had a slightly larger than normal gathering in the evening.
Throughout the rest of that week, our schedule was different because the kids were on spring break from school. Therefore, we didn't have SonRisers, Young Peacemakers, or Computer Lab. We postponed April's Solid Rock Cafe for a week. The rest of our activities, however, continued as normal with good attendance throughout that week.
That Saturday, Don and I headed out (on different flights) to Independence, Missouri, for our denomination's World Conference. We were able to shuffle staffing to cover most of the activities that week. We ended up closing down Young Peacemakers and all three sessions of Pizza Church, though. My parents were here to help take care of Onalee and Bryce while I was gone so my Dad preached on Sunday morning, helped staff SonRisers, and taught the Adult Disciples group on Wednesday evening. He received rave reviews, especially for Wednesday's class. I had good reports about all the activities upon my return.
For the first time since the end of March, we had a full week of regularly scheduled activities this week. Sunday morning we called for a new commitment to intentional discipleship. At Kids' Church, we learned about the parting of the Red Sea. During the Evening Worship, I reported on the events of World Conference and Gloria shared part of her testimony in the "I Was/Then God/Now I Am" format.
47 kids came to SonRisers on Wednesday. In the evening at Adult Disciples we assembled Discipleship Tool Boxes and got people started in filling them.
Jason came up from Laurel to run the computer lab on Thursday. Part way through an electrical storm hit Baltimore so he shut down early.
There was a phone message on the machine on Thursday from a man in Chicago. In preparing to move to Baltimore, he had clicked the link from the Live Baltimore web site to ours and became intrigued. He called to get more information about the church and the neighborhood. I called back and visited with him for a while. I hope to meet him and his family when they move here this summer.
Friday brought the return of Pizza Church. During that time we had two kids cross over the 90 credit mark in their attendance. Each has now earned a trip to an Orioles game that we'll be attending together this summer.
While setting up for Saturday evening's Solid Rock Cafe, a man I didn't know stopped by the church wondering if he could share a testimony with me. He told me that he had fallen off his roof breaking his legs and back. While at University of Maryland Hospitals, the drugs didn't make a dent in the pain. He started quietly singing hymns and offering prayers. The pain began to subsided and he had a full recovery. He said, "I don't know why I'm here to tell you this, I just knew in the hospital that I had to come to this church and one on the other side of town to share this testimony." We talked for another minute or two then he headed off.
We had some sad news this week as one of our group lost his battle with drug addiction this week. They found his body Wednesday morning after an overdose sometime in the night. Please love someone enough this week to remind them of the dangers of drugs or confront someone about their addiction.
Looking ahead to next week we'll have our full schedule of activities. We also have our Sundae Church on Saturday evening. Wednesday night's Adult Disciples will begin the Temple School course in Aaronic Ministries while the senior high Pizza Church group will start the course "Introduction to Ministry" on Friday. In addition, our Mission Center conference is next weekend in Springfield, Virginia.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned, please keep the following people in the forefront of your prayers:
Jamie
Theresa
Brenda
Kirsty
Jim
Joshua
Shirley
Patricia
Thank you for your continued prayer support.
Jeff and everyone at
The Power House
"Building the KINGDOM of GOD Here & Now"
PowerHouseMD@juno.com
www.cochrist-cbmc.org/powerhouse
4/28/02
It's been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started out Sunday morning with 27 at our Morning Worship. The topic for the morning was "Grace." During Kids' Church, the 34+ who gathered finished out the unit on Moses by making newspapers featuring headlines from events in his life. Among those headlines were "Frogs Take Over City," "Baby Floats Down River," "Sea Opens Out Of Thin Air," and "Bush Burns. Bush DOESN'T Burn." During the evening service I talked about obedience to the Spirit.
Over 50 kids stopped by the church for SonRisers on Wednesday morning. Young Peacemakers, which usually has 3-5 kids, had 11 this week. The Narcotics Anonymous group filled the building that evening. Nine people began the Aaronic Ministries Temple School course during Adult Disciples class.
There has been a rash of windows being broken in the neighborhood. Some of the people who live around the church are blaming us for this problem because we have so many kids coming to activities here. We've spent some time fielding complaints.
Thursday afternoon Jason came up and ran the computer lab. When I was walking home that night, I hear the sound of a plate glass window breaking coming from the alley behind where I was walking. I went after the kids (ones I didn't know) who had done it. I chased them for a couple of blocks, but, my being encumbered by age and books on the theology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer let them get away.
Friday night brought Pizza Church. The kids came in wound up all night and never totally settled down. I taught the youngest group while Mike taught the junior high kids. During the senior high session we began the Temple School course "Introduction to Ministry."
Saturday was our Mission Center conference in Springfield, Virginia. Don and I were the ones from our congregation who were able to participate in it. That night we had our monthly Sundae Church with our senior high kids.
Looking ahead to next week we'll have our full schedule of activities. We'll also begin the process of awarding camperships and getting the paperwork back from the kids.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned, please keep the following families in the forefront of your prayers:
the Battle family
the Barrett family
the Pestridge family
the Sykes family
the Smead family
the Hansel family
the Saffran family
the Stinchcomb family
Thank you for your continued prayer support.
Jeff and everyone at
The Power House
"Building the KINGDOM of GOD Here & Now"
PowerHouseMD@juno.com
www.cochrist-cbmc.org/powerhouse
5/5/02
It's been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started out Sunday with around 25 people gathered for our Morning Worship. During Kids' Church we read a letter from Aleksanda, the boy in Africa who we sponsor through Compassion International, and watched a Veggie Tale. Ed shared part of his testimony during the 6:00 p.m. service. Between the services I had some emergency marriage counseling with a couple in the congregation.
After these activities we had our priesthood meeting. A main objective of the meeting was to critically analyze each activity we have on our schedule. There are some new things we are feeling a need to do and, in order to do any of them, we need to quit doing some things we currently do, primarily because our building is booked every day. This process will take a while but we are off to a good start.
As usual, we were kept running all day Wednesday. There were 50 kids at SonRisers and most of our core crew were at Young Peacemakers Club. The Narcotics Anonymous group had a full house at their meeting, too.
That night we had our second session in the Aaronic Ministries Temple School class. Three people joined the group bringing the total number taking the class to 12. How priesthood ministry is structured and each office's responsibilities is brand new information to the majority of people taking the class. It's been really fun to teach.
We began distribution of invitations for camp this week. It's quite fun to see how excited kids get when the find out they have the opportunity to go to camp for the first time.
We had some major storms come through the city right at the start of Computer Lab on Thursday. Fortunately, the thunder, lightening, and hail only lasted about 10 minutes so Jason was able to keep the activity going.
Friday night brought Pizza Church. Our numbers down as kids were in the park practicing for Saturday's opening of little league season. Between sessions Jean stopped by to let me know that her daughter Brenda had died in the night. While Mike and Don ran things, I spent part of the time during the junior high session contacting people on the phone to get some of the necessary ministries for their family in action.
On Saturday afternoon I presided over a brief memorial service. The man who had died had been cremated and the family wanted his ashes blessed before they spread them on the finish line at Pimlico prior to the first horse race tomorrow morning.
Looking ahead to next week, we'll have our full schedule of activities. In addition, on Saturday we're having a meeting for parents whose kids are going to camp. Next Saturday night is this month's Solid Rock Cafe.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned, please keep the following families in the forefront of your prayers:
the King family
the Kerler family
the Quick family
the Epifanio family
the Conley family
the Latham family
the Boycheck family
the Banton family
Thank you for your continued prayer support.
Jeff and everyone at
The Power House
"Building the KINGDOM of GOD Here & Now"
PowerHouseMD@juno.com
www.cochrist-cbmc.org/powerhouse
5/18/02
It's been a busy couple of weeks at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
During our Morning Worship on the first Sunday in May we learned about how we get to bring glory to God. At Kids Church we learned the story of the good Samaritan. During the evening we focused on prayers for the needs of those gathered there that night. Last Sunday morning we started off on a mission to love someone enough to share the Gospel with them. At Kids Church we made flowers for our mothers. During the evening service, Danny shared some of his I was/then God/now I am testimony.
This year for Mother's Day, Danny bought 100 carnations for the church. We gave them out at each of our services and had the kids use them to complete their bouquets. Between services, we gave them to some of the women on James Street who were sitting out on their front steps. There were about a dozen left at the end of the day so Vonceil took them to her school to brighten some of the teachers' days.
We had over 60 kids at each of the SonRisers activities the last two Wednesdays. Due to a funeral, I cancelled Young Peacemakers the first week, but this week the group made peace flags. During Adult Disciples we continued through our course on Aaronic ministries, one week learning about the office of Deacon and the next week learning about the office of Teacher.
Jason was out of town last week so we didn't have computer lab. He was back this week and had quite a crew here.
The local little league teams had a game a week ago Friday so our numbers were dramatically down. This week, however, we made up for it with higher than usual attendance.
Kip Parker, an urban minister from Buffalo, New York, came down for a visit this week. He came in Wednesday evening and flew out early Saturday morning.
We started gathering signatures on camp forms this week. As of right now, we have 21 kids registered for camp. Next week we'll be gathering another stack to get sent in.
Last Saturday we had an informational meeting for parents wanting to know more about camp. No one came. That evening we had our monthly Solid Rock Cafe. It had a slow start but a good turn out by the end.
This Saturday the Friends of Carroll Park hosted a playground clean-up. To help boost participation in the activity, I told the kids and adults that if they wore a Power House t-shirt while they worked at the clean-up I would give them a prize. The vast majority of folks there wore prize-winning attire. Also, construction began this week in the park on the new baseball diamonds.
Saturday evening I took 5 kids to Friendly's for ice cream sundaes. They had earned the trip by coming to church at least 40 times in the past 10 months. Their eyes were bigger than their stomachs but their delight brought cheer to those sitting in nearby booths.
Looking ahead to next week, we'll have our full schedule of activities. In addition, Stephen Hatch from Pittsburgh is planning to stop by Sunday evening for a visit. There's a picnic on Sunday afternoon and a ribbon cutting on Wednesday evening at the new playground. We'll also be spending quite a bit of time hunting signatures for camp forms and getting them faxed in.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned, please keep the following families in the forefront of your prayers:
the Moore family
the Mueller family
the Wheeler family
the Epifanio family
the Burrs family
the Pelsinski family
the Brannon family
the Lynn family
Thank you for your continued prayer support.
Jeff and everyone at
The Power House
"Building the KINGDOM of GOD Here & Now"
PowerHouseMD@juno.com
www.cochrist-cbmc.org/powerhouse
5/26/02
It's been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started out Sunday with good attendance at our services all day long. Between the morning service and Kids' Church there was a picnic celebration in the park over the new playground. Stephen Hatch from Pittsburgh and Susan Cochren from Chicago stopped by during Kids' Church and then visited with me about issues in urban ministries until shortly before the evening service. During the evening worship, Ed and Darlene told the congregation that they had both accepted jobs in central Florida and would be moving there in the next few weeks.
Berny, our architect, called on Monday to bring me up to date on the progress of the technical drawings for our addition. We will be using the foundation of the old glass factory building that used to stand on this site as a part of our foundation and they will be needing to dig a hole along one section of it to determine its total depth.
Wednesday morning's SonRisers had over 50 kids come through. That afternoon we had our final Young Peacemakers Club for the school year. The group set forth some personal peacemaking goals for the summer, including having a daily quiet time, treating others nicely, being honest, and not littering. The official ribbon cutting ceremony for the playground was at 6:30 Wednesday evening. The Adult Disciples group's lesson was on the role of the Priest in the congregation.
Jason came up from Laurel to run the computer lab on Thursday. We have one more week with the lab until we close it down for the summer.
Friday's Pizza Church had about 30 kids total for the three sessions. We've been having a hard time with some of the behavior the last month or so. However, this week the kids got their acts together and cruised through the lessons.
Saturday evening brought our monthly Sundae Church for our Senior High kids. Don and Melissa walked up to Safeway so she could pick out this month's flavors.
Looking ahead to next week, we'll have our full schedule of activities. In addition, we will have a potluck after the evening worship this Sunday evening. I'll be taking some kids who have earned ice cream sundaes to Friendly's on Saturday evening. We'll also be working all week on getting signatures on camp forms.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned, please keep the following families in the forefront of your prayers:
the Smallwood family
the Mandell family
the Pailer family
the Pokko family
the Braxton family
the Lucas family
the Allen family
the Ott family
Thank you for your continued prayer support.
Jeff and everyone at
The Power House
"Building the KINGDOM of GOD Here & Now"
PowerHouseMD@juno.com
www.cochrist-cbmc.org/powerhouse
6/2/02
It's been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started out Sunday morning where we talked about miracles in the context of the story of David and Goliath. During Kids' Church we made cards for people who had risked their lives for us. We took some time during the evening service to express thanks and say goodbye to Ed and Darlene. Afterward we had a pot luck dinner.
Throughout the week we spent a lot of time trying to track down signatures on camp forms. It always takes longer to get them from parents whose kids have never gone to camp before. So far, we're at 30 kids registered.
Wednesday brought SonRisers. We had fewer kids than usual (40-something) but they came earlier, stayed longer, and ate more donuts. The Narcotics Anonymous meeting went longer than usual but we were still able to get in and set up for Adult Disciples. This week the adults divided into three groups and discussed the roles of the different Aaronic priesthood offices in various hypothetical situations.
We had the last computer lab of the school year on Thursday. We're beginning now to look for someone who would be interested in running it once school starts in September.
Friday brought our weekly Pizza Church sessions. The local little league had a game that night so many of our kids were participating in it. Therefore, our numbers were slightly below normal.
Looking ahead to next week, we'll have our full schedule of activities. In addition, we will have our monthly Solid Rock Cafe on Saturday evening. We'll also be working all week on getting signatures on camp forms.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned, please keep the following families in the forefront of your prayers:
the Alascio family
the Teller family
the Williams family
the Quick family
the Latham family
the Guthrie family
the Pounds family
the Rottham family
Thank you for your continued prayer support.
Jeff and everyone at
The Power House
"Building the KINGDOM of GOD Here & Now"
PowerHouseMD@juno.com
www.cochrist-cbmc.org/powerhouse
6/16/02
It's been a busy couple of weeks at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started out June 2 with an intense communion service. During Kids' Church the kids made "Jesus Loves Me" posters with their photographs on them. The evening service's topic focused on the victory in Jesus. On Wednesday our SonRisers activities had over 50 kids participate. That evening at Adult Disciples we learned about legal and ethical issues regarding priesthood ministry. We had slightly higher than average attendance at Friday night's Pizza Church sessions. Saturday evening was our monthly Solid Rock Cafe.
I got a call from Dawn toward the end of the week. She had been baptized in December. Her son Justin turned 8 a month or so ago and had been bugging her to let him get baptized. We set it up so that he could be baptized and both of them be confirmed on Father's Day.
Last Sunday we had our three services. During the morning worship we talked about the different spiritual seasons of the congregation. In the afternoon we used the sidewalk chalk. The evening service focused on prayer for a powerful encounter with God during our summer events of camp, Promise Keepers, Bible School, and the women's retreat.
After the service we had our monthly priesthood meeting. We spent the bulk of the evening focused on ministry restructuring. We charted out the ministries we currently have to more clearly see where we are strongest, where we are redundant, where we are weak, and where we have some holes in our programming. After healthy discussion, we came away focusing on three primary areas and several secondary items that need adjusting. We'll be prayerfully seeking solutions for these issues in the upcoming months. We set a goal of having these things taken care of by January and agreed to a congregational "40 Days of Purpose" campaign for preparation this fall .
This Wednesday was our last SonRisers for the school year. Eighth grade had graduated on Tuesday and we were in the middle of a heat wave so we knew our numbers would be down. Even with that we still had nearly 30 at the activities.
The Adult Disciples group finished its Temple School course on Aaronic Ministries. 10 people earned credit for the course.
We had an interesting Pizza Church on Friday. There was an end-of-school party at the PAL center so almost none of our regular attenders came to the first two sessions. However, we had a bunch of new kids at those sessions. During the senior high session we had a discussion on rules, procedures, and content for the new year which starts in July. As for rules and procedures, they decided that the biggest change should be that they will vote each week on what toppings will be on the next week's pizzas. As for content, the group really wanted to study the book of Luke line by line, the same way we studied Matthew this year. They also wanted a deeper study of Old Testament stories.
Saturday afternoon Edith Gallaher, the spiritual formations director for the mission center, stopped by for a couple of hours. She was in town this weekend working with the Towson congregation but was able to come by for a visit. We spent the time visiting in the neighborhood.
Saturday evening Don and I took some kids to Friendly's for their "40 Credit" award. Meanwhile, the mission center healing team held a meeting at the church building with Edith.
The last couple of weeks we spent a lot of time hunting down parent signatures for camp forms. As of this email, we have 47 kids registered for camp. We will also have 4 adults on camp staff.
And, with summer upon us, please know that "THIS WEEK at the POWER HOUSE" will come a bit more sporadically than usual. Camps, reunions, family vacations, and just plain random chaos during the summer sometimes keeps me away from the computer on Saturday nights. If you don't get a report for a couple of weeks, please say a few extra prayers for us knowing that things have gotten a bit crazier than normal.
Looking ahead to next week, we'll have our full summer schedule of activities. We have a baptism and confirmations scheduled for the Morning Worship on Sunday. Sunday afternoon, Jen Dubs will arrive from Michigan. She's volunteered to come here to spend the summer working in the ministry.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned, please keep the following people in the forefront of your prayers:
Marie
Bryce
Karen
Shirley
Onalee
Todd
Billy
Jackie
Thank you for your continued prayer support.
Jeff and everyone at
The Power House
"Building the KINGDOM of GOD Here & Now"
PowerHouseMD@juno.com
www.cochrist-cbmc.org/powerhouse
6/29/02
It's been a busy couple of weeks at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started out Sunday, June 15, with 40 people packed into the building for Morning Worship. During that service Justin was baptized and he and his mother were confirmed. After that, Tom and Yvonne were set apart as Godparents for Justin and his sister Hope. Gloria brought candy bars for all the dads since it was Father's Day. During Kids' Church we took pictures of the kids and made them into buttons as gifts for their dads.
Also during Kids' Church, Jen Dubs arrived in Pigtown to begin her stay here for the summer. She'll be leading Kids' Church and Bible School as well as helping with many other activities and helping clear the backlog of paperwork.
On Wednesday evening, Mike Barber came up and taught the class on protecting children from abuse. There was a heightened interest in the class due to the current news headlines.
On Thursday my family and I headed out on a quick trip to visit Vonceil's parents. Jen and Mike ran Pizza Church and Kids' Church that weekend. Earl Jamison came to bring the message on Sunday morning while Danny, Gloria, and Robert planned and presided over the evening service.
This last Wednesday during Adult Disciples I taught a scripture lesson on following the Holy Spirit. On Thursday evening Danny, Robert, Jen, and I hung a new banner on the front of the church. Friday evening, Jen and I ran Pizza Church.
Jen has been especially busy since she arrived. Besides the things mentioned already, changed the sign to reflect our summer schedule, began planning Bible School (which included getting the Home Depot to sponsor a project), prepped crafts for several weeks of Kids' Church, helped organize items for camp, cleaned out and reorganized the supply cupboards, and even cleaned my desk. We may not let her go back to Michigan.
During the past few weeks the needs in the neighborhood seem to be more pressing than usual. We've had an unusually high number of people needing emergency assistance for food, clothing, housing, and prescriptions. We've been especially blessed temporally lately and have been able to help in most of these cases.
Of course, the overriding theme for the last few weeks has been camp. At this printing, with only 16 hours until our departure time, I honestly don't know how many kids will be going to camp from Pigtown. I do know that I've invited over 90 kids to go and have processed 50 applications. I know of one person who cancelled today and there are rumors about several more. I also know that each of the last three years saw at least one kid show up at the bus who wasn't registered and we were able to find them beds. I'm guessing we'll have 40something going and I'll know for sure once the bus turns onto the freeway.
Looking ahead to next week, we'll have a shortened schedule of activities in the neighborhood due to so many people being at camp. We'll have only one service, Morning Worship, on Sunday. During the week we will have our Narcotics Anonymous meeting and our prayer circle on Wednesday. The bus will return from camp on Saturday afternoon.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned, please keep the following people in the forefront of your prayers:
Amber
Angelique
Melissa
Melina
Tavon
Ravon
Scott
Dustin
Thank you for your continued prayer support.
Jeff and everyone at
The Power House
"Building the KINGDOM of GOD Here & Now"
PowerHouseMD@juno.com
www.cochrist-cbmc.org/powerhouse
7/13/02
It's been a busy couple of weeks at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started out Sunday, June 30, with our morning worship. This was our only scheduled service for the day and we had a full house.
The bus to camp was slated to leave the church at 3:00 p.m. Kids began arriving about 75 minutes before then. We pulled out at 3:15 with 37 kids on the bus. 12 kids who had registered for camp did not show up. Though we've always had people drop out at the last minute, we've never had that large of number not go. That said, it was still 7 more kids from the Power House attending camp than last year.
Camp this year was hot. Literally. Temperatures most days were in the high 90s and some days crossed the 100 mark. We had extremely high humidity and no wind. This was the complete opposite of last year when kids didn't have enough covers and jackets to keep warm.
Shirley, Karen, and I were on staff at Junior camp while Jen was on staff at with the Junior High/Senior High group. One of the most memorable camp moments for me came when some kids were acting out the story of the good Samaritan. One of the kids stole the show when he approached the man who was left on the side of the road and said, "I's'll take care of you, homey. I'll takes you to the hospital and gives you Bandaids and everything. Let's go!"
The bus arrived on time to pick us up at the camps on Saturday. We got back into Pigtown around 2:30 p.m. The kids were happy to be back on concrete and quickly grabbed their things for the short walk home. Jen and I shuttled a couple of kids home who lived too far away to carry all their luggage.
Between having many kids and most of the staff for our kids programming at camp and with the mid-week 4th of July holiday, we had an abbreviated schedule of activities during camp week. Gloria and Danny provided the bulk of the ministry leadership during that time.
With Sunday came a return to our full schedule of activities. Usually right after camp all the kids who went take some time off for a week or two. This year, we had several kids show up at ready to start earning camp credits on Sunday morning. During the morning communion service, I brought the congregation up to date on our progress toward our youth outreach goals and challenged them to "let their light shine," both individually and collectively, in the lives of the kids in our neighborhood. During Kids' Church Jen taught during the craft time which the kids absolutely loved. During the evening, adults and kids alike told how they had encountered God at camp.
Wednesday evening was the Narcotics Anonymous meeting and our Adult Disciples class. We've been doing several lessons lately that involve looking up a couple dozen different scriptures during the lesson. The group has gotten quite quick at finding verses and this week got through the entire lesson in only a little over half the allotted time.
This week our new T-shirts came in. We were down to only having XXL and larger available in our old sizes. We'll be selling some to help raise funds for camp and kids can earn one for free by coming to church 20 times. Jen took an afternoon and counted, sorted, folded, and organized them.
Thursday morning, Ed, Darlene, and family pulled out of town in their U-Haul. They've been in the process of moving to Florida the past several weeks and said their final good-byes with folks throughout the week. They will be greatly missed in the congregation.
On Thursday evening, Don, Jen, and I took 4 kids to the Orioles game. The kids had earned their way there by getting 90+ camp credits. Last year, the person with the highest number of credits had 76 credits so having 4 kids have 90+ was a real delight. We walked to the game (Oriole Park at Camden Yards is only about 7 blocks from the church) and had a great evening of fun and fellowship.
On Friday afternoon Danny and I headed to the Washington area for this year's Promise Keepers convention. We met up with Mike there. We had a great time of praise, worship, and preaching Friday evening and all day Saturday.
Don, Jen, and Bonnie, and Erin taught the three sessions of Pizza Church Friday evening. We have a lot of kids that are beginning high school this fall and it was their first time that they could attend the senior high session. In part because of their excitement over the opportunity to "move up," the senior high group was the largest one of the night. That is the first time it's been the biggest session.
Saturday evening was our monthly Solid Rock Cafe. We had around 30 kids participate. Several young adults who had been cabin counselors at camp came up to help staff the evening. That kind of follow-up connection with the kids really makes a difference in their lives.
Looking ahead to next week, we'll have our full schedule of activities. In addition, our Mission Center Reunion is this Thursday evening through Sunday in Springfield, Virginia. We'll also be taking those kids who would have earned a trip to camp had they been old enough for an afternoon of fun at Chuck-E-Cheeze on Thursday. Sunday evening is our monthly priesthood meeting.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned, please keep the following families in the forefront of your prayers:
the Moore family
the Holmes family
the King family
the Pestridge family
the Jeffers family
the Cox family
the Conley family
the Smead family
Thank you for your continued prayer support.
Jeff and everyone at
The Power House
"Building the KINGDOM of GOD Here & Now"
PowerHouseMD@juno.com
www.cochrist-cbmc.org/powerhouse
7/20/02
It's been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started out Sunday with our 3 services. During the morning service we talked about being people of both Matthew 5:16 and Matthew 6:1-4. During Kids' Church, we learned about our need to stay joined with Jesus then did a craft project with magnets that Jen led. Don shared some testimonies from his recent trip to Tahiti about how he had encountered God there.
After the services we had our monthly priesthood meeting. We spent the bulk of out meeting time looking at long-term programming needs for the congregation and began to make some decisions regarding it.
This week Don set up the new computer data base for tracking each kid's attendance at church activities. With a look at the statistics from our year that ended July 1, you can see why:
Total number of kids that attended at least 1 activity July '01 - June '02 = 599
Number of kids with 120+ credits = 3
Number of kids with 90+ credits = 4 (The person with the highest number of credits the previous year had 76)
Number of kids with 60+ credits = 16 (up from 8 the previous year)
Number of kids with 40+ credits = 24
Number of kids with 20+ credits = 51
Number of kids with 10+ credits = 74
We had 6198 programmatic contacts with kids during the year. No wonder we feel so tired ;-)
Wednesday evening was our weekly Narcotics Anonymous meeting followed by our Adult Disciples class. During the class we began a general study of the book of Ephesians.
Thursday afternoon Jen and I took 7 kids to Chuck-E-Cheese. These were kids who had earned their way to camp but were not old enough to attend.
We saw on Thursday evening's television news that a girl who occasionally comes to church had been seriously attacked in her home by a pit bull. I was able to wind my way through the maze at Johns Hopkins and visit and pray with her on Friday. Her face had been sewn back together and they had several additional surgeries scheduled for both her face and her arm so she'll be there a couple of weeks.
Friday night brought our three Pizza Church sessions. We were able to dive into our summer/fall curriculum with each group. The 6:00 group will be studying the parables of Jesus. The 7:00 group will be learning about Christian lifestyle virtues. The 8:00 group is studying the book of Luke. Mike also brought up a few kids from Mission Center Reunion to participate in the activities.
On Saturday a few of us were able to participate in some of the activities at Mission Center Reunion. It was held at the Springfield, Virginia congregation. Dave and Carolyn Brock were the guest ministers. They along with Rick & Kay Bunch and Vonceil & I will be taking in an Orioles game on Monday.
Looking ahead to next week, we'll have our full schedule of activities. In addition, Tony and Charmaine Chvala-Smith will be stopping by on their way through town on Wednesday and will lead a discussion during our Adult Disciples class. We'll also be finalizing plans for our upcoming Bible School.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned, please keep the following individuals in the forefront of your prayers:
Danny
Gary
George
Stella
Charlie
Neil
Melissa
Angelique
Thank you for your continued prayer support.
Jeff and everyone at
The Power House
"Building the KINGDOM of GOD Here & Now"
PowerHouseMD@juno.com
www.cochrist-cbmc.org/powerhouse
8/10/02
It's been a busy couple of weeks at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland. Here are some of the highlights since the July 20 newsletter:
-Tony and Charmaine Chvala-Smith spent a good portion of the day in Pigtown as they were traveling home from an East Coast ministry assignment. They were here on a Wednesday so we turned our Adult Disciples class into a time where they shared stories from some of their summer travels and we talked with them about how God has been working in our lives, our church, and our neighborhood.
-My family and I took a trip to Michigan to visit family. While we were gone, Don, Gloria, Danny, Jen, and Robert did an excellent job of managing the activities. They ended up doing a few more things than they expected to do because while we were away my Grandmother died and I wasn't sure if I would get back to Baltimore as scheduled. They put together another Sunday's services in a short time period and provided a powerful ministry throughout.
-We had one baptism scheduled during Kids' Church the first Sunday in August. As the service was ready to begin, though, Betsy, a 21 year old woman who has relatives who are active in the congregation, came to her first service at The Power House with a towel and change of clothes in hand. She said she and her mother had been studying the scriptures for a couple of years and she recognized that getting baptized was something she wanted to do to be obedient to God. She then asked if she could be baptized that day. So, Tykia was baptized and confirmed then Betsy was baptized. She and I will be setting up some time of study together prior to confirmation.
-Jen has put a lot of energy into getting ready for Bible School. As a part of the activities we'll be building bird houses and bird feeders, tie-dying T-shirts, painting a mural on the side of a house, and having a moon bounce. We ran off 2000 fliers to be distributed on Monday and have bought lots of prizes like markers and crayons that will help supplement the kids' much needed school supplies.
-Traditionally, kid attendance at church slips off between camp and the start of school. This year we've had solid and growing attendance. Kids' Church, which in the past has dwindled into single digits during this time period, has been averaging 30+. We have about a dozen kids who have started coming to the Sunday evening service every week. The senior high Pizza Church group has more than doubled in size. We've had about 90 different kids come to at least one activity since camp with 10 kids having come 10+ times and 2 kids having come 20+ times in the last 5 weeks.
-This last Thursday - Saturday I attended the Leadership Summit hosted by the Willow Creek Association. It took place in Chicago but had live satellite links at 50 sites in North America, including one in the Baltimore area. 28,000 church leaders gathered to develop skills in leading their church in the Kingdom-building process.
-In preparing for fall, we find yourself short on staff for our computer lab. If you are in the area and interested in helping with this part of the ministry, please contact me.
Looking ahead to next week, we'll have an amended schedule of activities. We'll have our 3 services on Sunday then on Monday we'll distribute fliers for Bible School and will put the finishing touches on our plans for that activity. Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. - noon will be our Bible School activities. Because of them and the need for preparation each evening, we've cancelled Adult Disciples on Wednesday evening. We'll be sending out follow-up letters to parents on Thursday afternoon and have our full Pizza Church schedule on Friday evening. On Saturday, Jen, Don, and I will be taking the kids who earned 120+ credits last year to Six Flags.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned, please keep the following individuals in the forefront of your prayers:
John
Jim
George
Shirley
Patricia
Violet
Cole
Becky
Thank you for your continued prayer support.
Jeff and everyone at
The Power House
"Building the KINGDOM of GOD Here & Now"
PowerHouseMD@juno.com
www.cochrist-cbmc.org/powerhouse
8/18/02
It's been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started out with our three services on Sunday. Each service had an at or above capacity crowd. By the end of the day, Danny said he'd be spending some time this week trying to find a way to arrange the chairs so we could get a few more in, especially during the morning service.
After the evening service, Don, Jenn, and I began preparing the wall for the mural. People out on the street that night were curious as to what we were doing and if we had permission from the homeowner to do so. We got the background chalked and primed that night.
People worked on the mural nearly every evening this week, usually until 11 or 12 at night. Jenn and Don worked every night and some other folks, like Tamara and me, joined in some of the time. Throughout the project we got lots of positive feedback about it and the ministries from the church. For example, one older woman who lives on Bayard street stopped to tell me how beautiful the mural was and how even though she didn't attend church she and everyone on her block of Bayard really appreciated our efforts to help keep the kids off the streets. We had this kind of thing going on while prostitutes were being picked up and dropped off about 10 feet from where we were working and a person was beat up in the streets about 100 yards away.
On Monday morning, Jenn, Gloria, Robert, Anne, Sieda, Joshua, and I distributed about 1700 fliers to promote Bible School. This was followed by lunch at Subway. One of our core kid's glasses broke towards the end of summer and the family didn't have the funds to replace them before the start of school in a couple of weeks so we took her for an eye exam and ordered the glasses on Monday afternoon. That evening, Jenn and I finalized the plans for Tuesday's launch.
Tuesday morning brought the start of Bible School. Jenn, Mike, Patricia, Gloria, Tamara, and I staffed the event. We had a good mix of both core kids and new kids. Mr. Lee from the American Store provided ice for the drinking water each day. The word for the day was "Compassion" so the children learned about God's compassion for us from Matthew 6 then made birdhouses to both remember the scripture and show compassion toward nature. Unfortunately, we misjudged the time it would take to do the project and class went overtime by about 45 minutes. But we also had a couple of parents who came to drop off their kids see that we could use a little help and stayed for the day. They ended up coming each day all week.
One memorable moment that day came at the end of the activities when one of the new kids came up to me, pulled the wadded up Bible School ad out of his pocket, and said, "It says on here 'Games!' and we didn't play any games today." I explained to him that we would do different things that were on the card each day so he left happy and ready to come back.
Wednesday's word was "Hope." We learned the story of Noah's ark and how the rainbow is a symbol of hope. We then tie-dyed T-shirts in rainbow colors. There were over 60 people participating in the activities. We cleaned up the church enough for the Narcotics Anonymous meeting but cancelled Adult Disciples and Prayer Circle for the night so we could have the place ready for Thursday.
On Thursday our word was "Peace." Peace is the theme for the mural so all the kids got to paint on it. The younger kids had a large part of the background to paint while older kids filled in words and began painting the continents, the oceans, and the hands of God. It was immediately labeled "the coolest Bible School project ever" by all the kids. That night the adults painted areas that were out of reach of the kids, began outlining, and spray painted 91 stars onto the background.
Friday's word was "Joy." Each kid got to choose a prize for their prize bag then we added candies, pencils, a pen, and a schedule of church activities. They then went out and had their names painted on one of the stars on the mural. After that, they played in the moon bounce and got wet in the fun flush. Gloria and Jen supervised at the wall, Don ran the fun flush, Tamara ran the moon bounce, Patricia held down the fort inside, and I floated from station to station. Upon seeing the commotion outside, one man who lives across the street called me over to his door. He stuck $100 in my hand and said, "Keep up the good work." Things broke up around 12:45.
The church looked like a hurricane had gone through it. Paint, marker, and crayon stains were everywhere. All kinds of dirt had been tracked in. The tables, which had been well-worn prior to Bible school, now need to be replaced. Remnants of projects and lessons were strewn throughout the building. We got things under control enough to allow people in for the weekend activities, but just barely. Patricia and Gloria have organized a clean-up day for next week.
Friday night brought Pizza Church. Jenn taught the elementary group, Don taught the Junior High, and I taught the Senor Highs. Once again, our senior high group was the largest group that night.
On Saturday morning, Don and Jenn put the finishing touches on the mural and declared it complete. The three of us took Robert and John to Six Flags for the day. The kids had earned the trip there by coming to church 120+ times last year. (Bryce also had 120 credits but we're providing an alternative prize for him as he's a little young for the roller coaster set.) We met up with Tamara there and stayed at the park until closing.
Looking ahead to next week, we'll be back to our regular schedule of activities. In addition, we'll be having a potluck after the morning service on Sunday as it will be our last day this summer that Jenn will be here. She's heading home to Michigan Sunday afternoon. Gloria will be leading Adult Disciples on Wednesday as the group will be preparing care packages for the teachers and staff at our two neighborhood schools. This Saturday evening is our monthly Sundae Church.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned, please keep the following individuals in the forefront of your prayers:
Bob
Walter
Jane
Janet
Tomarra
Sunnie
John
Melissa
Thank you for your continued prayer support.
Jeff and everyone at
The Power House
"Building the KINGDOM of GOD Here & Now"
PowerHouseMD@juno.com
www.cochrist-cbmc.org/powerhouse
8/24/02
It's been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
When I rounded the corner on my walk to the church in the morning I noticed that a couple of the stars on the mural looked like the paint had run. As I got closer I could see that someone had chosen to add blue spray paint to our work. Fortunately, the damage is minimal and we will be able to fix it with some touch-up work.
At 11:00 we had our Morning Worship. This was Jenn's last service with us after a very busy summer internship. After the service we had a potluck as a sort of going away party for her. We've been working with the kids the last year or so in encouraging them to bring something to the potlucks. Usually they do a great job in providing the pop and chips for the meal. This time, however, one of our girls who is going into high school got up early in the morning and fixed a Jello salad. The bar has now been raised for the whole group.
During kids church we had about 36 kids. Kara, who was the Graceland University representative at camp, and a friend of hers came down from Pennsylvania to join us. This made a great connection with the kids who had been at camp. They along with Tamara, who had come up just before Jenn left, stayed through the evening service.
Tuesday morning several people gathered to scrape the layers of Bible School dirt out of the building and to get rid of the clutter that had built up over the summer. They did a thorough job leaving the place looking and smelling great. While that was happening, I took the kid we bought glasses for to the optical to pick them up.
Bryce and I went back to Michigan for a couple of days this week so Gloria ran Wednesday's activities and Don ran Friday's Pizza Church sessions. During Adult Disciples on Wednesday, the group assembled 80 care packages for the faculty at the local elementary and middle schools. We'll take them to the schools the first of the week. Don reported really good sessions all night at Pizza Church which included a couple of inquiries about baptism.
Saturday evening was our monthly Sundae Church for our senior high kids. Tamara came up to help. We had a great time of fellowship with the kids over some good ice cream.
Looking ahead to next week, we'll have our regular full schedule of activities. In addition, we'll have this month's priesthood meeting after the evening service. Our Adult Disciples group will start the Network spiritual giftedness assessment and training. This will be the last week of the summer schedule as we'll begin our school year programming immediately after Labor Day.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned, please keep the following families in the forefront of your prayers:
the Wheelton family
the Sykes family
the Battle family
the Boycheck family
the Williams family
the Epifanio family
the Erbe family
the Fleming family
Thank you for your continued prayer support.
Jeff and everyone at
The Power House
"Building the KINGDOM of GOD Here & Now"
PowerHouseMD@juno.com
www.cochrist-cbmc.org/powerhouse
8/31/02
It's been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started out Sunday with our three services. Over the course of the day, 4 kids were awarded T-shirts for coming to church 20 times in the last 8 weeks. That evening we had our priesthood meeting. Since we've all been running fairly ragged the last few months, we refocused on our relationships and spiritual conditions by spending a goodly portion of the meeting answering the question "How ya doin'?----Really."
On Monday, Vonceil, Onalee, and I delivered the teacher care packages to the local elementary and middle schools. Teachers in the city schools started this week and the kids will start school this coming Tuesday.
The women in the congregation are getting geared up for the upcoming women's retreat at Deer Park campgrounds near Philadelphia. It looks as though we'll have about 8 women going there September 23-25.
The Narcotics Anonymous group that meets here has a new person responsible for setting up the building for the meetings. I got to meet him on Wednesday and go over procedures.
The Adult Disciples group began their work in the "Network" course. We started the discovery process for each person's God given passion in order to help them better understand where God wants them to serve in the Kingdom-building process. This course will take about seven weeks to complete.
Friday night's Pizza Church sessions had unusually small groups all evening long. Mike taught the first session and I taught the other two and Tamara helped throughout the evening. We've had several baptism inquiries from the Pizza Church crowd over the past few weeks so I'm hoping we'll have a baptismal service some Friday evening later this month.
Much of Saturday was spent doing odds and ends in getting ready for the upcoming week. Getting copies made of the new schedule, organizing the school supplies provided by the Towson congregation's women's group, and designing the new scripture cards were among the day's activities.
Looking ahead to next week, we'll begin easing into our fall activity schedule. This week we'll be adding SonRisers before school on Wednesday. After Kids' Church on Sunday we'll be handing out school supplies to the kids. We'll also be finalizing plans for the "40 Days of Purpose" campaign which starts in early October.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned, please keep the following people in the forefront of your prayers:
Robert
Damon
Woody
Patricia
Karen
Shirley
Kirsty
Jamie
Thank you for your continued prayer support.
Jeff and everyone at
The Power House
"Building the KINGDOM of GOD Here & Now"
PowerHouseMD@juno.com
www.cochrist-cbmc.org/powerhouse
9/6/02
It's been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started out with our communion service during Morning Worship. In the fellowship time that followed, Roger asked to be baptized. When I ask about when he wanted to do it, he said, "Today." I said we could have the font filled for the evening service and he and his family found that acceptable.
During Kids' Church we talked about Jesus being the light of the world and how following His light would help us through new and scary situations like starting in a new school. After the service we began handing out school supplies provided by the Towson Congregation's women's group. By the end, about 70 kids received supplies to help start the school year.
During the evening service Roger was baptized. We've had a dramatic shift in the demographics of this service over the last few months. There were 34 people present on Sunday. Only 11 of them were over the age of 18. This is fast becoming the norm for the service. This shift has and will continue to reshape how things are done.
I ran across some interesting statistics this week. On Easter Sunday 2001, traditionally one of the best attended Sundays of the year, we had 80 people attend over the course of the day. Over the last two months, we've averaged 90-100 each Sunday. If we had a Sunday now with the Easter attendance 18 months ago we would wonder where everyone was.
While driving down the street on Monday, Bryce and I came across Theresa and her mom walking home from the store. Theresa had been wanting to get baptized for a while and I hadn't been able to cross paths with her mom to get permission. I rolled down the window and called to Theresa. She and her mom came over and we set up her baptism for Friday, September 20, during Pizza Church.
Mid-week, Don added pictures to the web page of the mural painted during Bible School under Jenn's leadership. You can view these by clicking on www.cochrist-cbmc.org/powerhouse then linking to the Bible School Mural page.
Wednesday morning brought the return of SonRisers. It was the coolest SonRisers ever. At 6:45 a.m. we had kids waiting at the door for us to open up. We got to see and catch up with many kids who we hadn't seen all summer. We had several kids come to the church for the first time. We also had many of our core kids come and visit for a while. There were 40 kids total ---- nearly double that of last year's opening. Everyone seemed to really enjoy being back in the groove of going to church before school on Wednesday.
Wednesday night's Adult Disciples group continued with their Network course. We spent some time exploring those things each person in the group have a passion for then began talking about spiritual gifts.
Pizza Church had good sessions all evening long. The youngest group has had consistently low attendance the last couple of months so we set forth a challenge for them to bring friends next week. The middle school group was especially heavy to 6th graders which showed us some of the maturity challenges we'll have over the next couple of months. The senior high group celebrated wildly at the announcement of Theresa's upcoming baptism and engaged in a heated discussion on the practical application of Jesus' call to "turn the other cheek."
Robert has nearly completed his Temple School classes in preparation for his ordination to the office of Deacon. We've set the ordination date for Sunday, September 29, during the 11:00 a.m. service.
We didn't have scheduled activities for Saturday but spent the day running errands and visiting. Also, there was a family in the neighborhood who used the church facilities for a baby shower on Saturday afternoon.
This year we've started teaching kids about stewardship and planning ahead through their camp credits. They are able to check each month and tell what kind of total they will have at the end of the fiscal year if they continue coming at their present attendance rate. I've gotten lots of thoughtful questions from kids publicly and privately about how to better manage their credits.
Looking ahead to next week, we'll continue easing into our fall activity schedule. This week we'll be adding Kingdom Builders, a replacement for our Young Peacemakers Club, to our Wednesday afternoon schedule at 4:00. We'll be preparing and staffing a booth at this Saturday's Pigtown Festival. Saturday is also our monthly Solid Rock Cafe.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned, please keep the following families in the forefront of your prayers:
the Wheelton family
the Smallwood family
the Sykes family
the Evans family
the Roberson family
the Rottham family
the Banton family
the King family
Thank you for your continued prayer support.
Jeff and everyone at
The Power House
"Building the KINGDOM of GOD Here & Now"
PowerHouseMD@juno.com
www.cochrist-cbmc.org/powerhouse
9/14/02
It's been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started out with our three services on Sunday. During the morning service the group recognized Shirley as a person who "Makes It Happen" through her volunteer service at the church. The messages at both the morning and evening services dealt with preparing for and finding God in the midst of the 9-11 anniversary. During Kids' Church we played a quiz game.
After the services on Sunday I was able to meet up with the mother of a kid who has been wanting to get baptized. She said the two of them had been talking about it and was pleasantly surprised that her daughter had talked about it with me. Though it probably won't be right away, she was pleased to be able to begin more formal plans for this sacrament.
With Robert's ordination coming up he and I started a little bit of planning for the service. He decided to have me be the spokesperson for the ordination and his first choice for assisting was Mike Hoffman, the director of youth ministries for the denomination. I said it was a long shot on such short notice but that I would contact him. In talking with Mike this week, we learned that he was willing and available to come so we've made arrangements for him to be here the last weekend of the month for Pizza Church, Sundae Church, the ordination on Sunday morning, and the two other Sunday services.
We had 49 kids at this Wednesday's SonRisers activities. Wednesday afternoon brought the launch of our new Kingdom Builders activity for kids in grades 3-5. We used legos to make 9-11 memorials. The hot topic of conversation while they were building was how they could get more friends to come with them to Pizza Church. During Adult Disciples the group studied the different gifts of the Spirit then took home a personal giftedness assessment.
I visited with Bernie this week as to the status on our building project. He was able to save us a couple thousand dollars by personally inspecting the soil last time he was at the site rather than having us hire someone to do it. Our timetable was pushed back earlier this year so we won't be able to obtain building permits before our zoning variances expire. Therefore, we'll be working with the city to try to get an extension on them. If that doesn't happen, we'll have to go through the whole zoning process again which would delay us nearly another year.
We had our three Pizza Church sessions on Friday night. Especially noteworthy was that attendance at the early session more than doubled when compared with the previous few weeks as the kids made a real effort to bring friends with them.
On Saturday Gloria, Tamara, and I staffed the church's booth at the Pigtown Festival. We'd made a couple of display boards earlier in the week and had copies of our schedules available for all who came by. We had a lot of good interaction with people and got to meet the parents of some of our kids.
Saturday night was our monthly Solid Rock Cafe. I arrived at the church about an hour before we were scheduled to start and was greeted by about 8 or 9 kids ready to come in. We ended up with 30 kids at the activities and two who were too young to attend hanging out on the steps the entire time.
Looking ahead to next week, we'll continue easing into our fall activity schedule. This week we'll be adding the computer lab activities to our Thursday afternoon schedule at 4:00 and 5:00. On Friday evening, the women's group will go to Deer Park for their annual Women's Retreat. Also that evening we'll be combining all three sections of Pizza Church for Theresa's baptism. On Saturday Danny, Robert, Don, and I will attend the TEAM Leadership simulcast featuring John Maxwell, Bill Hybels, and Max Lucado. We'll also be solidifying our preparations for our upcoming "40 Days of Purpose" campaign.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned, please keep the following families in the forefront of your prayers:
the Stintchcomb family
the Moore family
the Teller family
the Boycheck family
the Sigafoose family
the Williams family
the Conley family
the Smead family
Thank you for your continued prayer support.
Jeff and everyone at
The Power House
"Building the KINGDOM of GOD Here & Now"
PowerHouseMD@juno.com
www.cochrist-cbmc.org/powerhouse
9/20/02
It's been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started out Sunday with a surprise for Danny when he came over to clean and set up the church at 7:30 a.m. John and Robert, two of our core teen boys, came to help him.
We had 42 people attend the Morning Worship. We would have had a few more, but when they looked in the window and saw how full it was they decided not to come in. Afterward, we had 2 baptism requests.
We had a full house at Kids' Church. The kids learned about Jesus being the good shepherd then did some worksheets that featured activities to help them remember the concept.
We had an unusual mix of people during the evening service. Among the 25 or so present were about a dozen teenage boys. None of the teen girls were there, so the boys all behaved. It was really neat to look out and see all these guys singing and praying together. We also had a man who we met at Saturday's festival come.
On Monday I reserved the pool at the YMCA for the last Saturday of the month. The kids have been begging to do this since the first time we did this last March. We'll take our kids who have the highest number of camp credits out for a couple of hours of fun and fellowship.
Also on Monday, Gloria did some groundwork in learning how to get an extension on our zoning variances. She called mid-day with what I needed to do to begin the process and by 1:00 a.m. the next morning our fax machine was humming getting paperwork in.
Bryce was sick on Wednesday so Gloria and Don ran SonRisers. There were 66 in attendance, over 20 of whom were new to the church or new since July.
While we were working on our projects during Kingdom Builders, we were visiting about where the kids' fantasy vacations were. The first girl jumped right in to let us know that what she wanted to do most was go to New York City to make sure people were all doing OK.
During Adult Disciples we analyzed our spiritual giftedness inventories. Next week we'll begin looking at our personality styles. We'll then combine our passion, our gifts, and our personality style to get a better picture as to how we can better glorify God and edify others.
Thursday brought the return of the Computer Lab. Jason came up from Laurel to host it and had a good number of kids for a re-opening day.
Friday afternoon 8 women from the Power House plus Linda Costello and Darlene Huntley piled in the 15 passenger van Danny was able to borrow from another church and headed up to Pennsylvania. This was the first women's retreat for most of them. They will return on Sunday afternoon.
We combined the three Pizza Church sessions on Friday evening for Theresa's baptism. We had 40 people attend and, afterward, had two additional requests for baptism. As the kids cleared out, Bonnie and Tamara headed up to Deer Park to join the other women at the retreat.
Saturday morning Don, Danny, Robert, and I headed over to Dundalk Presbyterian Church for the TEAM Leadership simulcast. This training session was sponsored by InJoy and featured John Maxwell, Max Lucado, and Bill Hybels. It ran from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Looking ahead to next week, we'll have our full schedule of activities. In addition, the women will be returning from the Women's Retreat Sunday afternoon. Thursday night Mike Hoffman will arrive from Missouri to be here for the weekend and to assist with Robert's ordination next Sunday at 11:00 a.m. (potluck following). On Saturday the women are having a baby shower for Yvonne and the kids with the highest number of credits will be going swimming. Saturday night is also our monthly Sundae Church.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned, please keep the following families in the forefront of your prayers:
the St. Thomas family
the King family
the Smith family
the Saffran family
the Cain family
the Cox family
the Mueller family
the Burrs family
Thank you for your continued prayer support.
Jeff and everyone at
The Power House
"Building the KINGDOM of GOD Here & Now"
PowerHouseMD@juno.com
www.cochrist-cbmc.org/powerhouse
9/28/02
It's been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started out Sunday morning with 25 people at church. Considering the number of people at the Women's Retreat, this number was excellent. Vicky, who normally always comes to church with the women who were at the retreat came to church by herself for the first time. We also started the sign-up process for our new core groups for the upcoming. "Forty Days of Purpose" campaign. Additionally, we solidified October 6 as the date for Brandon and Courtney's baptisms.
We had 30+ at Kids' Church. Since half our staff was at the retreat we decided to show a Veggie Tale video.
Shortly after Kids' Church the women returned from Pennsylvania. They had all an incredible experience up there. Many saw for the first time that God would use them just as they are for powerful ministry to others.
During the evening service the women who went to the retreat and the men who had attend the Team Leadership Simulcast on Saturday shared about their experiences. We ended up going over time by about 30 minutes.
Wednesday morning's SonRisers activities had 86 kids. That afternoon, the Kingdom Builders group learned about the size of God's love through building with Tinker Toys. The Adult Disciples group brainstormed about ministries that might fit the passions and gifts of each person in the group.
Pouring rain slowed traffic and therefore delayed the start of Thursday's Computer Lab time. The kids were a little soggy at the start but it didn't seem to bother them too much.
Mike Hoffman arrived from church headquarters in Missouri Thursday night. He came in for the weekend to take part in Robert's ordination.
Friday evening brought Pizza Church. We had a total of 40 people come to at the activities. Mike Barber taught the first group, Mike Hoffman the middle school group, and I the senior highs.
We got a phone call Saturday morning saying that Tom and Yvonne had their baby. It's a boy and they named him Tyler. Their baby shower was scheduled for Saturday afternoon and, just like the last one we had, baby came before the shower so Tom came and opened the presents.
Late Saturday afternoon we took about 20 kids to the YMCA for swimming. This was a reward day for the kids with the highest number of attendance credits since camp.
Saturday evening was our monthly Sundae Church fellowship time for our Senior High kids. 10 kids attended.
Looking ahead to next week, we'll have our full schedule of activities. In addition, we'll have Robert's ordination during the Morning Worship on Sunday followed by a potluck. The church will be used for a Friends of Carroll Park meeting on Tuesday evening. We'll also be getting our satellite dish installed and getting ready for next Sunday's baptisms.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned, please keep the following people in the forefront of your prayers:
George
Joshua
Tavon
Ciara
Brenda
Courntey
Woody
Danny
Thank you for your continued prayer support.
Jeff and everyone at
The Power House
"Building the KINGDOM of GOD Here & Now"
PowerHouseMD@juno.com
www.cochrist-cbmc.org/powerhouse
10/4/02
It's been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started out Sunday when we opened the morning paper. Karen, one of our members, had been interviewed for an article about people who spend their evenings sitting out on their front steps ---- a very Baltimore thing to do. The article included a picture of her with a couple of our kids in front of the mural we painted at Bible School and some positive comments about the church.
Robert's ordination to the office of Deacon was during the morning worship. We had 53 people present for the service which I believe is the second highest attended indoor service at this building. It also meant that some people had to sit on the floor to make room for everyone. Afterward, nearly everyone stayed for the potluck dinner. That time of fellowship lasted for a couple of hours.
During Kids' Church we had a Q & A time with Mike Hoffman. During the evening service he shared his testimony as a part of the message. After the evening service we had our monthly priesthood meeting. A good portion of the agenda focused on the status of our restructuring plan and its implementation.
I took Mike to the airport first thing on Monday morning. We all hope he will come back soon.
Also on Monday Gloria found out what would be involved in getting the street in front of the church closed for a couple of hours on Christmas Eve. We are exploring a variety of options for the Christmas Eve service as we will not have room in the building for it this year. One of those options is to have it outside in front of the building.
During the day on Tuesday Danny had the satellite dish installed. We'll be using it for the first time on Saturday for the "40 Days of Purpose" kickoff simulcast. That evening Gloria was elected President of the Friends of Carroll Park.
On Wednesday we learned that we have been granted a 6 month extension on our zoning approval. We were required to have all our building permits by November 1 on the original plan. With all the delays, though, we couldn't make it. This will save us from having another hearing as long as we can get things moving before April 1.
We had 67 kids at SonRisers Wednesday morning. During that afternoon's Kingdom Builders session we build a fort out of Lincoln Logs to help us get a concept of God being our fortress. During Adult Disciples we began to look at our individual personality styles to help us better see how we can best serve God.
We had smaller groups at Pizza Church all evenings. A fifth grade girl who attended the first session told us that she's scheduled to get her tonsils removed this coming Thursday. We asked her if she wanted Mike and me to anoint and pray for her and she eagerly said, "Yes!" We stopped eating and joined in prayer together for her.
On Saturday Danny filled the font for Sunday's baptisms. As he was finishing up 6 kids gathered at the church. I took those 6 kids to Friendly's for ice cream sundaes because each had been to church 40+ times in the past three months.
Not everything this week was upbeat. We had neighbors mad at us, people who came to church high, and a couple of shootings to deal with. All in a week's work in the Kingdom building process.
Looking ahead to next week, we'll have our full schedule of activities. In addition, we'll begin selling this fall's sweatshirts on Sunday morning. During the day we have two baptisms scheduled with a couple more people considering doing so. On Monday evening we'll be picking up a test broadcast from Saddleback Church in preparation for the simulcast. Later in the week we'll be distributing "40 Days of Purpose" fliers in the area. On Saturday from 1:00-3:00 p.m. will be the simulcast. That evening is our monthly Solid Rock Cafe.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned, please keep the following people in the forefront of your prayers:
PJ
Kyle
Mark
Chester
Bob
Mary
Edna
Theresa
Thank you for your continued prayer support.
Jeff and everyone at
The Power House
"Building the KINGDOM of GOD Here & Now"
PowerHouseMD@juno.com
www.cochrist-cbmc.org/powerhouse
10/12/02
It's been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started out Sunday with our Morning Worship. Instead of two baptisms we had three. Tom, the father of Brandon and Courtney, joined them in baptism. At one point we had all three of them in the font. Mike Barber assisted with the confirmations. We had 43 in attendance at the service. Normally, that would be an above capacity crowd. With the font and the communion table set up it caused a tighter squeeze than the week before.
At Kids' Church we learned that the Kingdom of God starts in our heart then spreads to our home and then to our 'hood. We then made pictures of our houses out of construction paper and taped them together in rows like houses are here.
Right after Kids' Church Ron Gillilan stopped by. He met up with several other folks who had attended the weekend's Health and Healing Ministries conference in Towson so they could have the opportunity to see the neighborhood and the church facilities.
We had a smaller than usual group during the evening service. We spent some time in prayerful preparation for the "40 Days of Purpose" campaign.
Monday evening Danny and I went to the church for the test broadcast to make sure our satellite dish was working properly for Saturday's simulcast. I was the first one to arrive and was quite shocked that I figured out how to hook everything up. We emailed in our confirmation and cleared the equipment out of the way for Monday night's CORE group meeting.
We broke our all-time attendance record at SonRisers this week with 98 kids attending. October has traditionally been our busiest month in this ministry and so far this year it's continued to be true. During Kingdom Builders the kids wanted to continue building forts so we did. The Adult Disciples group finished their "Network" course on learning how God wired them.
Jason came up from Laurel to run the computer lab on Thursday. During that time, Robert and I began distributing fliers about Saturday's simulcast. Due to time limitations we only printed 500 fliers and got about half of them handed out on Thursday. Robert recruited a couple of other kids and finished distributing them on Friday afternoon.
Many of our core kids were not in attendance this Friday at Pizza Church. Even so, we still had 35 kids attend the sessions. This fall we're running on average about 20% larger than last year's groups. After the sessions Don, Tamara, and I went out to the Honey Bee Diner and discussed plans for the teenage CORE groups for the "40 Days of Purpose" campaign.
Saturday afternoon brought the "40 Days" simulcast from Saddleback Church in California. We had 25 people come for it including one person who came in response to the fliers. The simulcast was a powerful event for those who attended. At the close of the event, we introduced the CORE group leaders and distributed the book we'll be reading together. The CORE group leaders met for a few minutes for questions and clarification before the launch of their groups.
Saturday night was our monthly Solid Rock Cafe. Though it didn't start until 8:00 p.m., kids had been waiting a while to get in when I arrived at 7:15. When one of our high school kids arrived he was anxious to let us know that he had already read the first 75 pages of the book he got after the simulcast. He started successfully encouraging others to get the book and read it, too. Another of our teens brought money to buy a copy of the book for his girlfriend (who attends a different church) so they could read and discuss it together.
Our total attendance for the week was a little higher than usual. Even without counting the simulcast, the sum total of attendance at all our regularly scheduled activities from Sunday through Saturday was over 300, adding another 25 for the simulcast. That group was made up of nearly 160 different people.
Looking ahead to next week, we'll have our full schedule of activities. Almost all of those activities will be themed around the "40 Days of Purpose" campaign. The Friends of Carroll Park will use the building for a meeting early Tuesday evening. Our CORE groups will launch this week with young adults meeting at Don's house Sunday night, women meeting at the church on Monday evening, teen boys at the church on Tuesday evening, teen girls at the church on Thursday evening, and men meeting at Don's house Thursday evening.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned, please keep the following people in the forefront of your prayers:
Don
Tamara
Gloria
Danny
Tavon
Shane
Melissa
Melina
Thank you for your continued prayer support.
Jeff and everyone at
The Power House
"Building the KINGDOM of GOD Here & Now"
PowerHouseMD@juno.com
www.cochrist-cbmc.org/powerhouse
10/19/02
It's been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started out Sunday with our new 4 activity schedule. During Morning Worship we officially began the "40 Days of Purpose" campaign. We received our scripture verse key rings and our first verse to memorize. Many people had read the first chapter in the book "The Purpose Driven Life" before coming to the service. As usual on the second Sunday of the month, we recognized a church member for his or her volunteer service to the congregation. This month we let Theresa know how much we appreciate her.
During Kids' Church we reviewed several Bible stories in which God used a 40 day time period to prepare people. The kids then made large posters of these events. We'll hang one poster in the church each week during the campaign.
The evening service revolved around what people needed to be successful in their efforts over the next 40 days. As people raised issues (such as fear of not being able to keep up with the daily readings) we had every person with that same concern stand and receive a blessing of God's help for that particular task. Also during the service, Tamara announced that she had accepted a call to the office of Deacon through her home congregation of Washington, DC.
Sunday night brought the first of the new CORE groups. The young adults met at Don's house after the evening service. On Monday evening Gloria led the women's group and on Tuesday evening Don led the senior high boys. Both of these groups met at the church. The leaders' reports all indicated a high level of excitement and quality discussions at the meetings.
Our web site came back on line on Monday. It had been down for a couple of weeks. Our new address is listed at the end of this letter.
On Tuesday I visited with our architect. The blueprints are scheduled to go in for structural review the end of this week and should be back by the first week in November. At that point we can begin the bidding process. Also on Tuesday, the leadership team of the Friends of Carroll Park met at the church.
We had pouring rain Wednesday morning. When this happens we usually have a smaller group at SonRisers. We were consistent with past patterns as we had 55 kids this week. During Kingdom Builders we tried to build out of decks of cards. We then talked about what people try to build God's kingdom out of and compared it to what it says in scriptures. The Adult Disciples class took a look at the sacraments of the church.
Thursday afternoon Jason came up to run the computer lab. Afterward, Tamara hosted the senior high girls' CORE group at the church while I hosted the men's CORE group at Don's house.
Friday's Pizza Church sessions focused on different aspects of worship. That's the theme for next week's 40 Days of Purpose study.
This Saturday, the 3rd Saturday of the month, is currently the only day of the month that we don't have activities scheduled at the church. While I put the final touches on things for Sunday morning and wrote this report, Robert came over to the church and addressed postcards that we're sending to the kids who attended Bible School but haven't been around in a while and Don came by to update our attendance cards.
Looking ahead to next week, we'll have our full schedule of activities. In addition, we'll have a priesthood meeting after the morning service on Sunday. Saturday evening is our monthly Sundae Church for the Senior High kids. The Friends of Carroll Park wanted to use the building but we had no evenings available for them.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned, please keep the following people in the forefront of your prayers:
Ashley
Jeana
Shane
Troy
Amber
Alicia
Brittany
Cody
Thank you for your continued prayer support.
Jeff and everyone at
The Power House
"Building the KINGDOM of GOD Here & Now"
PowerHouseMD@juno.com
www.chesapeakebaymc.org/powerhouse
10/26/02
It's been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started out Sunday with our Morning Worship. People came in excited and ready to celebrate. During it we focused on Purpose #1, worshipping God without ceasing. We had a full house for the service.
Afterward we had our monthly priesthood meeting. The bulk of the meeting was taken up with plans for upcoming events and a review/progress report on the first week of the 40 Days of Purpose campaign.
During Kid's Church we concentrated on the importance of attending church and the need to invite our friends to come with us. We then thought of a friend who doesn't normally attend church then made giant invitation cards to give them.
We had a full house again at the evening service. After our time of praise we spent time in prayer about the violence in our area then shared testimonies about how God had been working in our lives this week.
On Monday we made arrangements with Jake to bring the petting zoo to the neighborhood during the Christmas season. They will be here on Sunday, December 8, from 3:00 - 4:30 p.m. He let me know that he just got a new llama and will be bringing it with him.
Our CORE groups met throughout the week. We had around 30 different people meet in the 6 groups. Reports from the group leaders said the people really opened up this week and shared freely with each other.
Wednesday morning's SonRisers activities had 77 kids participate. During Kingdom Builders the kids began building mansions out of Legos. The Adult Disciples group did a scripture study on the nature and purpose of temptation and sin.
Jason came up from Laurel on Thursday to run the computer lab. Since next Thursday is Halloween, the computer lab will be closed.
Friday's Pizza Church sessions were a little smaller than usual. Tamara taught the fourth and fifth graders, Don the middle school, and I the high school group. The quote of the week came during the middle session as one kid, while describing his experience with the Holy Spirit during his confirmation, said, "When they pray on you it be tickley."
At the end of each session we began handing out the new Power House "Credit" Cards to kids who have been to church 10 or more times so far this year. They will now be able to scan their cards each time they come to church and bypass the line of kids signing in manually.
On Saturday we purchased all the supplies for Thursday's trick-or-treating. The Adult Disciples group will assemble the packages of candy during class time on Wednesday. We had Sundae Church for the senior high kids on Saturday night.
Looking ahead to next week, we'll have our full schedule of activities. Instead of Computer Lab on Thursday we'll be open for the trick-or-treaters in the neighborhood.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned, please keep the following families in the forefront of your prayers:
the Smith family
the Sykes family
the Barrett family
the Williams family
the Braxton family
the St. Thomas family
the Pestridge family
the Sigafoose family
Thank you for your continued prayer support.
Jeff and everyone at
The Power House
"Building the KINGDOM of GOD Here & Now"
PowerHouseMD@juno.com
www.chesapeakebaymc.org/powerhouse
11/2/02
It's been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started out Sunday with Morning Worship. We had over 40 people gather for the service. The topic for the week was fellowship. We learned about different levels of fellowship within the body of Christ and the need not only to be there for others but having a willingness to receive help and support from others. During Kids' Church we learned the pumpkin prayer and then made paper Jack-o-lanterns with Christian symbology. During the evening service we shared experiences we've had in watching the Holy Spirit work in our lives the past few weeks.
The kids were quite excited about getting their Power House credit cards. Those who have earned them now can use the scan gun rather than sign in manually each time they come. The kids were quite proud of them and have been showing them off all week.
The first CORE group of the week was on Sunday night. All groups seem to be going quite well. The high school girl's group moved its meeting from Thursday to Saturday this week because of Halloween.
After my class at the seminary on Tuesday I went over to Georgia's house. The women from the Towson congregation had brought cookies to her house so I could pick them up there then take them back to Pigtown for us to give out at Halloween.
All attendance records were broken for SonRisers this week. 113 kids came in for a donut and hot chocolate on the way to school. We were able to keep up, but just barely. During Kingdom Builders the kids finished the Lego mansions they began last week. The Adult Disciples group assembled 400 candy packets to pass out during Trick-or-treating.
Throughout the week people talked about some neat things that are happening with the "Purpose Driven Life" book we're reading together. Shirley took a couple more home to give to family members who wanted to read it after she was telling them about it. Pat is sharing her book with two neighbors. She didn't want additional copies to give them because the ones she's sharing them with are feuding and passing the book between them is forcing them to talk. Karen's daughter was complaining to her that she hears about the book at home from her then hears it at work because the women she works with are reading it at their church, too.
Thursday brought Halloween. We had around 150 kids come by. That's down from over 400 just a couple of years ago.
We had good experiences and attendance at all three Pizza Church sessions on Friday. While there Tavon crossed over 60 camp credits earning free camp next summer. He's averaged coming to church more than 3 times a week since last summer's camp to get that many credits.
After Pizza Church I went to visit with Tavon's mother. She gave permission for him to be baptized. We will celebrate that sacrament during Morning Worship on November 10.
On Saturday evening, Josh and I went to Friendly's for ice cream. He had earned it by crossing 40 credits during the last month.
Looking ahead to next week, we'll have our full schedule of activities. In addition, we have the Mission Center Leadership Team meeting next Saturday in Springfield, Virginia.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned, please keep the people in the forefront of your prayers:
Violet
Lindy
PJ
Patricia
Tom
Yvonne
Jeana
Melina
Thank you for your continued prayer support.
Jeff and everyone at
The Power House
"Building the KINGDOM of GOD Here & Now"
PowerHouseMD@juno.com
www.chesapeakebaymc.org/powerhouse
11/10/02
It's been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started out Sunday with our Morning Worship service. On his way in, Shane told me that he had decided to get baptized next week. Our sermon topic was on discipleship which continued the 40 Days of Purpose campaign . We had 3 administrations after the service. During Kids' Church we learned about when Jesus told his disciples to cast their nets on the other side of the boat. We then made a wall-sized picture of the event. At the evening service we talked about how voting is a way of being a good steward over God's blessings.
The crowd at Wednesday's SonRisers was a little more manageable as we had 92 come this week. With our current staffing we can just get by. Having the computer and scan gun running for the kids with credit cards makes a real difference in the process and, as more kids earn their cards, things should run a bit more smoothly.
During Adult Disciples on Wednesday night, we studied the book of Ruth together. Some people whose current participation has been limited to the CORE groups attended the class.
Between some after school activities and some scheduling mix-ups, we ended up not having a couple of our regular activities this week. At the last minute, we canceled Kingdom Builders on Wednesday and Computer Lab on Thursday. They should both be back on schedule next week.
People have really gotten into their mid-week CORE groups. Several of the groups are planning fellowship activities to do together. Most are looking at what they might want to study together after Thanksgiving.
Thursday afternoon Gloria and I got together to update our address lists. We compared addresses and updated each other's lists
Friday night's three Pizza Church sessions had a total of 40 kids. They came in really wound up all evening long. Once people got in and settled thing went quite well. Several kids crossed over 10 credits during Pizza Church and were awarded their credit cards.
On Saturday Don and I attended the Mission Center Leadership Team meeting in Springfield, Virginia. That evening we had our monthly Solid Rock Cafe. Kids were waiting at the door nearly 2 hours in advance. Among the kids' discussions on the steps before hand were the nature of forgiveness and Jesus' role in salvation.
Looking ahead to next week, we'll have our full schedule of activities. We'll be having two baptisms during Morning Worship on Sunday. On Wednesday evening we'll be having our ministry fair. We are also anticipating getting updated information from the architect on our building project.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned, please keep the people in the forefront of your prayers:
Lindy
Pat
Chester
Norman
Donald
Justin
Elizabeth
Bob
Thank you for your continued prayer support.
Jeff and everyone at
The Power House
"Building the KINGDOM of GOD Here & Now"
PowerHouseMD@juno.com
www.chesapeakebaymc.org/powerhouse
11/17/02
It's been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
We had two people get baptized during our Morning Worship on Sunday. One of them was a kid who has been active in the congregation for more than 4 years and had been thinking and talking about getting baptized for the past 3 years. The other was a 17 year old who in the last year has become one of the most active teens in the congregation. We had 50 people gather to celebrate with them.
Among the fifty was a family of 4 who had moved to Baltimore this week. They are already members of the denomination and are jumping into the ministry here with both feet. Family members participated in CORE groups, Kingdom Builders, and Adult Disciples this week and seem anxious to both grow and serve.
Also among the 50 were two first-timers from the neighborhood. One was the mom of the teen who was baptized. The other was the adult son of another member of the church.
The kids at 3:00 discussed one of Jesus' stories in which he described the Kingdom of God as being like a great banquet. We then unrolled some wrapping paper, gathered around this "table," and drew what we would like to see at our place setting at this banquet.
While all this was happening, Yvonne brought a friend by. The two had been discussing the "Purpose Driven Life" book the congregation has been reading together and asked if this friend could get a copy. We had ordered 64 copies of the book and she received the last one.
There were some divine appointments during the Evening Worship. For example, two men who hadn't been to this service in several months both felt the need to be there that night. Because of it, an important blessing was able to take place.
There seemed to be a real need for forgiveness and absolution this week. After the Narcotics Anonymous meeting I had some people come up to me for confession time. Later in the week a young girl who I had baptized earlier this year caught me on the street and said she hated to tell me this but she needed to be baptized again. We talked for a few minutes about why she felt that way and then she learned how to repent. She left with a big grin on her face.
We had our ministry fair during Adult Disciples. We opened the group to high school students who were active in their CORE groups and five of them came. The quote of the event came from one woman when she said, "Before I started coming to church I thought all my friends who did just went and sat for an hour a week. But THAT'S not what it's like AT ALL!" By the time we left the building people were talking with each other about new ways they were going to serve God by though empowering the ministry programs at the church.
Since the parents of our "move-in" family were at Adult Disciples for the first time, we spent some time getting to know each other. Once they told a little bit about themselves to the group, we went around the table and each person shared something about their our own story. People thoroughly, passionately, and concisely told of what God was doing in their lives and what the church meant to them. One woman described the congregation as "The best thing that's ever happened in Baltimore City." No one there disagreed.
Our architect worked overtime on our building project this week. He and I talked several times. Danny contacted him to get technical information about our choices in exterior materials. Onalee and I made a trip to city offices to begin chopping at the red tape and to get information about the next step in getting our building permits.
As the weekend neared I got an excited phone call. A couple of the people who had participated in the ministry fair had come up with a plan to help raise some funds. We met together on Saturday afternoon and set out a plan together. I'll be running it by the leadership team on Sunday and, if we all agree with it, we'll begin our fundraiser on Monday.
This weekend's focus in the "40 Days of Purpose" campaign is evangelism. The three sessions of Pizza Church each took a slightly different angle to encouraging kids to share the good news. The two consistent elements from the three sessions were the need to share stories from our personal relationship with Jesus Christ and to make sure our lifestyles allowed our witness to be credible.
Looking ahead to next week, we'll have our full schedule of activities. In addition, we'll have our monthly priesthood meeting between Morning Worship and Kids' Church on Sunday. I'll be in Cleveland for a couple of days this week for administrative meetings. All activities except Kingdom Builders will be fully staffed while I'm gone. By the end of the week we will have finished reading our "Purpose Driven Life" books and we'll conclude the campaign next weekend.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned, please keep the people in the forefront of your prayers:
Jerry
Florance
Janet
Melissa
Calvin
Jamie
Chris
Joshua
Thank you for your continued prayer support.
Jeff and everyone at
The Power House
"Building the KINGDOM of GOD Here & Now"
PowerHouseMD@juno.com
www.chesapeakebaymc.org/powerhouse
11/24/02
It's been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
Both the Morning Worship and the Evening Worship used the topic of evangelism. This is the fifth purpose in the "40 Days of Purpose" campaign.
After the service we had our monthly priesthood meeting. We had an extra long agenda. We made many decisions, including not adding an additional service on Sundays due to overcrowding at Morning Worship, having two candlelight services on Christmas Eve this year, choosing thin brick instead of stucco for the exterior of the current building once the addition is complete, and offering our "Boundaries" seminar on January 4.
We used a Veggie Tales video during Kids' Church. Based on the Q & A time afterward, the kids seemed to get a solid grasp on the video's lesson.
Monday afternoon I flew to the Cleveland, Ohio, for a staff meeting held in nearby Kirtland. The meetings lasted from Monday evening through noon on Thursday. I arrived back home in time for Thursday night's CORE group meetings.
According to all the reports I got, everything went smoothly while I was gone. The CORE group meetings went well. We had over 80 kids and several new staff volunteers at SonRisers. We canceled Kingdom Builders. My dad taught the Adult Disciples class. Also while I was out Mr. Lee from the corner store came around and made a Thanksgiving donation of supplies for the church. This included a couple of cases of pop, a box full of single-serving potato chips, and a frozen turkey.
Violet and Patricia started a fundraiser for our building project this week. People are taking orders for candles through the fundraising division of Home Interiors for the next couple of weeks. This will help us make our funding goal.
Thursday was day number 40 in our "40 Days of Purpose" campaign. On Sunday we'll be celebrating what God has done with us, to us, and through us over the 40 day time period.
We had good sized groups and good lessons at all three Pizza Church sessions on Friday night. Unfortunately, things were not so good between the sessions. When the kids were outside they were louder and rowdier than normal. One kid got beat up on his way home. We spent some of our time between sessions calming kids, parents, and neighbors.
Our CORE groups have been planning fellowship activities together. The men's group and the women's group each have dates when they will be going out to dinner together. Don and Jason took the senior high boys group bowling after Pizza Church on Friday evening. Tamara took her senior high girls out Saturday night after Sundae church.
We had about a dozen kids come to Sundae Church. This is especially encouraging since a year ago we were averaging 2-4 kids at this activity.
Looking ahead to next week, we'll have a different schedule due to Thanksgiving. After Evening Worship on Sunday we'll be having our annual dessert potluck. We're canceling Kingdom Builders, Adult Disciples, Prayer Circle, Computer Lab, and Thursday's CORE groups. All other activities will go on as scheduled.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned, please keep the people in the forefront of your prayers:
Daniel
Robert
Chris
Tammy
George
Carol
James
Kristin
Thank you for your continued prayer support.
Jeff and everyone at
The Power House
"Building the KINGDOM of GOD Here & Now"
PowerHouseMD@juno.com
www.chesapeakebaymc.org/powerhouse
11/30/02
It's been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started out Sunday with our Morning Worship. The focus for this service was to celebrate what God had done with us, to us, and through us during the "40 Days of Purpose" campaign. We recognized that God will use a 40 day focus as beginning of things rather than an ends unto itself so we looked at how we should now live as people transformed for God's purposes.
At Kids' Church we talked about Thanksgiving. Afterward, each kid made two thank you cards, one for a person in their life and one for God.
Over 60 people wedged themselves into the building for Evening Worship this week. We used the time to let people publicly share what God had done in their lived during the last 40 days. Afterward, we had our annual dessert potluck. We had a wide variety of tasty desserts, several of which were made by the kids. We actually had more than dessert because Mr. Lee from the American Food Store had given us a turkey and Don cooked it for us. (FYI --- We had 28 people attend this potluck last Thanksgiving.)
On Monday I spent some time down at city offices trying to get more paperwork figured out for the building project. I left with papers in hand but very confused not knowing for sure if I'd gotten the right things or not. On Monday evening the women's CORE group went out to dinner together.
Our Bibles at the church have been well used and were really getting ratty looking. Over the years we've also given a lot away. So, on Tuesday I picked up 48 new hardback Bibles from the Maryland Bible Society. They were out of stock of the paperback ones we use at Pizza Church so I'll be picking them up in a couple of weeks.
I stopped by Georgia Stewart's house after class at the seminary on Tuesday evening. The Towson congregation's women's group was sponsoring a family for Thanksgiving and the mountain of food they had purchased was at her house. I packed it in the van and dropped it off at Gloria's house. She took it to the family in time for Thanksgiving.
With the Thanksgiving holidays we had a little different schedule on Wednesday and Thursday. We had over 70 kids at SonRisers, the highest it's been the week of Thanksgiving. It went extra smoothly with more adults volunteering as staff. The only other activity on Wednesday was Narcotics Anonymous.
All Thursday activities were cancelled. However, Danny came over and replaced the fall banner with our new Christmas banner on the outside of the building.
As expected, attendance was down at Pizza Church due to Thanksgiving. However, we still had over 20 kids. During one of the sessions we were quizzing the kids about the meaning of Christmas. One kid who has just started coming said, "I heard someone say once that it's something about Jesus' birthday, yo." A couple other kids new to the church this fall thought he might be onto something. We were able to introduce them to the true meaning of Christmas and are hopeful that they will return for the next couple of sessions when we will cover it in depth.
I also got a sneak peek at our new web site. Don's been completely redesigning it. It looks great and will be a lot more useful than the current one. There's still some work to do so I'll let you know when it's up and running.
On Saturday we had 2000 fliers printed for the upcoming live nativity. We will distribute them throughout the week next week as the date for it is coming up quickly.
Looking ahead to next week, we'll have our full schedule of activities. At Wednesday night's Adult Disciples group we'll be putting together Christmas care packages for the teachers at our local schools. The men's CORE group is going out to dinner together on Thursday evenings and we'll be taking the kids who have crossed over 40 camp credits to Friendly's for ice cream sundaes on Saturday evening. Next weekend we'll be compiling the orders from our candle sales fundraiser. In addition, we'll be distributing fliers in preparation for next Sunday's live nativity.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned, please keep the people in the forefront of your prayers:
Corey
Andre
Stephen
Ravon
Darryl
Ashley
Amanda
Sabrina
Thank you for your continued prayer support.
Jeff and everyone at
The Power House
"Building the KINGDOM of GOD Here & Now"
PowerHouseMD@juno.com
www.chesapeakebaymc.org/powerhouse
12/7/02
It's been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started out Sunday with our Morning Worship. The topic for the service was "Peace." During Kids' Church we reviewed the Christmas story then made mural-sized pictures to illustrate the event. Several of our adults were sick this day so we ended up with lots of kids and just a few adults at the evening service where we looked at Isaiah 11.
Also on Sunday we learned that the 19 year old sister of one of our kids had died Thanksgiving morning. She had been heavily involved with drugs. With her lifestyle the family had long feared that she would experience a violent, lingering, painful death but were relieved that she passed peacefully in her sleep.
With so many people sick, the women's CORE group was canceled this week. The senior high boys CORE group met on Tuesday night, but only half the people came. The ones that were here, though, had signed up for responsibilities in the church at the ministry fair. They've worked it out so that Don will hang around the church for a little while after CORE group so that they can do their jobs then.
We've been having a problem with mice in the building the past few months. This week, we started to see insulation and shredded plastic around our register vents. Apparently, the critters have chewed through the duct work in our crawl space. Danny and Robert will be going underneath to assess the damages on Sunday afternoon.
Our architect and I played telephone tag all week. We never did make contact and will try again next week.
89 kids came to SonRisers on Wednesday morning. We had a "free time" day with the Tinker Toys for the kids at Kingdom Builders. Several people were still sick on Wednesday evening so there was a smaller group for Adult Disciples. The group that gathered put together the Christmas care packages for the teachers in our local schools.
We were hit with a snowstorm overnight so there was no school on Thursday. With school closed we rearranged our schedule as well. Computer lab and CORE groups were cancelled. For a couple of hours during Thursday's continued snowfall, Robert and I got a head start on distributing fliers about Sunday's live nativity. We handed out about 1000 fliers before heading home. I also too some of this "found time" to work on my term paper/final exam which is due on Tuesday. I thought it would be a 10-12 page project but it's looking like it will be closer to 30 pages.
There was no school again on Friday. Robert and I handed out a couple hundred more fliers. We had lower numbers at Pizza Church this week due to school being closed. During the first two sessions we studied the Christmas story as found in Matthew. The senior high group continued with its study of the book of Luke.
On Saturday afternoon, Robert, Joshua, Don, and I finished distributing the fliers. While I was waiting for the group to meet me at a mid-point, the police stopped me for questioning. The officer warned me to be careful and took a flier saying that he thought the petting zoo was cool idea.
Looking ahead to next week, we'll have our full schedule of activities. On Sunday afternoon from 3:00 - 4:30 we'll have the animals here for our live nativity. We have a baby blessing scheduled for Sunday evening. Wednesday evening is our branch business meeting. Afterwards we'll have our monthly priesthood meeting. The men's CORE group has rescheduled its dinner out for this Thursday evening. And, on Saturday, we'll have our monthly Solid Rock Cafe.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned, please keep the people in the forefront of your prayers:
Jeana
Tracey
Shane
Patricia
Karen
Chris
Justin
Donald
Thank you for your continued prayer support.
Jeff and everyone at
The Power House
"Building the KINGDOM of GOD Here & Now"
PowerHouseMD@juno.com
www.chesapeakebaymc.org/powerhouse
12/14/02
It's been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started out Sunday with our Morning Worship. Don brought the message on the topic of Love. Kids lined up early for Kids' Church because of the live animals coming. With the cold, the farmer brought about a half dozen of his larger animals instead of about a dozen of his small ones. We had over 100 people come out to see them. The baby blessing scheduled for the evening service was postponed at the last minute because the baby's grandmother had a heart attack.
On Monday evening the women in charge of our candle sale got together and submitted the order to the sales rep. It ended up being a real win-win situation. The church's building fund made $271.40 off the sale. The rep's husband has been out of work so with her profits from this sale she was able to get Christmas presents for her kids. Our orders should be in the first of next week.
We had an ice storm Wednesday morning which caused a 2 hour delay to the start of school. Whenever that happens, a lot of kids just stay home all day. Those who did go to school weren't expecting us to be open for SonRisers but, since we had the donuts before the storm hit, we were most definitely open. We ended up with 21 kids and several dozen leftover donuts.
That afternoon we had our Kingdom Builders group (yes, we ate donuts during it) and Narcotics Anonymous meeting. I also discovered that mice had gotten into the chocolate candies in some of our teacher Christmas packages which hadn't been delivered yet due to the weather. The exterminator will be here on Monday.
Wednesday evening we had our business meeting. We elected the following officers for 2003:
Pastor: Jeff
Secretary: Gloria
Mission Center Rep: Danny
Auditors: Don and Robert
We also sustained the appointment of Danny as our Stewardship Commissioner and Gloria and Danny as counselors to the pastor. After the business meeting we had our monthly priesthood meeting.
On Thursday afternoon Jason came up from Laurel to run the computer lab. That evening the men's CORE group went out to dinner together.
The neighborhood PAL Center had a Christmas party on Friday night so many of our kids went to it instead of Pizza Church. After the lesson in the senior high group, Theresa came up to us saying she'd read some story in the Bible this week about young girls and lamps and she just didn't understand it. I got to walk her through the meaning of the text. After Pizza Church, Tamara took the Senior High girls from the CORE group to the Laurel church for a lock-in.
On Saturday we made copies of fliers and invitations to upcoming events. This included 1000 fliers that we'll take door to door inviting people to our Christmas Eve services at 6:00 and 7:30 December 24 and the invitations to our Christmas Caroling Party for the 30 kids with the highest number of attendance credits.
Saturday night was our monthly Solid Rock Cafe. Several members of the young adult CORE group came to staff the event.
Looking ahead to next week, we'll have our full schedule of activities. We plan on having a baby blessing during the evening service. We should get our candle order and begin distributing them sometime early this week. I have an appointment with the architect to pick up the finalized technical blueprints Tuesday morning. On Tuesday night those who have faithfully given their time this year in keeping the programming of the church running smoothly are coming over to our house for dinner. Later in the week I'll be attempting to slice through more of the city's red tape to get our building permits in process. Our Christmas Caroling Party is on Saturday evening.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned, please keep the families in the forefront of your prayers:
the Bozeman family
the Marsh family
the Quick family
the Handy family
the Teller family
the Conley family
the Fleming family
the Kerler family
Thank you for your continued prayer support.
Jeff and everyone at
The Power House
"Building the KINGDOM of GOD Here & Now"
PowerHouseMD@juno.com
www.chesapeakebaymc.org/powerhouse
12/21/02
It's been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started out Sunday with our Morning Worship. The topic for the day was "Hope." We did a little experiment while I was speaking. Don recorded the message in MP3 format on his computer. We're going to see if it's feasible to record the messages this way and then post them on the web. That way, those who weren't able to be here could download them and listen to them later in the week.
During Kids' Church church the children made Christmas cards. I mailed them out to some of the friends of the congregation who live outside the immediate area.
Tom and Yvonne brought their baby Tyler for his sacramental blessing during Evening Worship. Later in the service we watched at 10 minute video clip from the upcoming "Boundaries" seminar during which Dr. Cloud taught on hope within even the most challenging relationships.
The events of the holidays along with a couple of people being ill kept attendance down at our CORE groups throughout the week. All the groups are taking next week off and many will be starting new study topics the first of the year.
The exterminators came on Monday morning. I haven't seen a mouse since. Once they left Onalee and I took the Christmas Care Packages to the schools for the teachers.
Tuesday morning Onalee and I drove down to our architect's house near Annapolis to pick up the final technical drawings of our building. These were needed in order to get the building permit process started. We went down to city offices on Thursday to present them. Unfortunately, they gave us erroneous information the last time I was down there so I wasn't able to complete the process. I called Berny and he made the additional 8 copies of the site plan. I ran down to his house on Saturday to pick them up and will try the city again on Monday.
On Tuesday evening we had a Christmas party at our house for the people who have faithfully staffed the programmed activities of the church during 2002. Afterward, Tamara spent the night up here so she could help staff SonRisers in the morning.
About 80 kids came to SonRisers on Wednesday morning. During Kingdom Builders the kids made cards inviting an adult in their lives to come to the candlelight service with them. After the Narcotics Anonymous meeting, I met with their leadership team to discuss how to best inform the community of the meeting while still allowing for personal anonymity. The adult disciples group studied the Christmas story in Matthew and Luke.
The computer lab had its last session for 2002 on Thursday afternoon. It will be closed until school resumes.
Also on Thursday our candle orders came in. Violet and Joshua distributed them to peoples homes that evening.
Gloria has been working the last couple of weeks in coordinating families in need with people and groups wanting to sponsor families for Christmas. Most of the items provided will be distributed the first of next week.
Friday night brought Pizza Church. We were back up to more typical attendance numbers after having small turnouts the past few weeks. All the sessions went well, but the experiment we did during the high school group went especially well. We took 21 different things that happened in the story of Jesus' birth and put them on individual strips of paper. The kids were divided into groups of two then each group was given a packed of the 21 strips. With help from the Bible they had to put the events in chronological order before they could have their pizza. Most of the kids were intense and focused and took 15-20 minutes to complete the task.
Saturday night was our caroling party for the kids with the best attendance records. About 20 of them came. Don and I took them to about a half-dozen different sites in the neighborhood. It was especially fun on Carey Street when people in cars waiting at the stoplight rolled down their windows to listen. After the caroling we had our party. A friend from the congregation where I grew up sent money that we used to buy two 3-foot long subs from SubWay. Mr. Lee at the American Store sent over a couple cases of Pepsi and a box of single-serve bags of chips.
Looking ahead to next week, we'll have an amended schedule of activities. Sunday's schedule should be as normal. Monday we'll be putting the finishing touches on the Christmas Eve Candlelight services, distributing filers about it, and hopefully making the last trip to city offices for a while. Tuesday evening we'll have "Christmas Eve by Candlelight" at 6:00 and 7:30 p.m. Everything except the Narcotics Anonymous meeting is canceled on Wednesday and the computer lab is closed on Thursday. We'll resume our regular schedule on Friday. Saturday is our monthly Sundae Church for the senior high kids. All CORE groups are canceled this week.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned, please keep the families in the forefront of your prayers:
the Banton family
the Stinchcomb family
the Meile family
the Vick family
the King family
the Smallwood family
the Moore family
the Quick family
Thank you for your continued prayer support.
Jeff and everyone at
The Power House
"Building the KINGDOM of GOD Here & Now"
PowerHouseMD@juno.com
www.chesapeakebaymc.org/powerhouse
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