1/12/03
It's been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland
It started out Sunday with Morning Worship where we set forth personal and corporate goals for 2003. During Kids' Church we began helping the kids learn about and memorize the Lord's Prayer. We had a surprise snowstorm Sunday afternoon. Because of it, several people from outside of the neighborhood who were planning on attending the baptisms that night were not able to come. Several did make it though, including Greg Ardito and Bill Greet who came down from Pennsylvania. Tammy and Jen were each baptized and confirmed. This was the first time that Don baptized anyone.
After several weeks off we started up our Wednesday schedule again. The Narcotics Anonymous group was the only one who met since mid-DeIt's been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland
It started out Sunday with Morning Worship where we set forth personal and corporate goals for 2003. During Kids' Church we began helping the kids learn about and memorize the Lord's Prayer. We had a surprise snowstorm Sunday afternoon. Because of it, several people from outside of the neighborhood who were planning on attending the baptisms that night were not able to come. Several did make it though, including Greg Ardito and Bill Greet who came down from Pennsylvania. Tammy and Jen were each baptized and confirmed. This was the first time that Don baptized anyone.
After several weeks off we started up our Wednesday schedule again. The Narcotics Anonymous group was the only one who met since mid-December. We had over 60 people at SonRisers to start the day. During Kingdom Builders, the kids started a project that will take them a few weeks. 11 people began the Temple School course "Introduction to Studying Scripture" during the Adult Disciples time.
Jason reopened the computer lab on Thursday. He will soon be unavailable to run the lab. If anyone out there is interested in helping keep the lab going please give reply to this email and we can talk.
Friday brought Pizza Church. We had good sized groups of kids most of whom were quite into the lessons all evening long.
Saturday evening was our monthly Solid Rock Cafe. The kids seemed especially calm and happy to enjoy the game time together.
Looking ahead to next week, we'll be back to our full schedule of activities. In addition, we're hosting a Mission Center youth ministry training event from noon-2:30 on Saturday. This will be taught via satellite by the youth ministry leaders at Saddleback and Willow Creek churches.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned and the continued progress on our building project, please keep the following individuals in the forefront of your prayers:
Susanna
Troy
Terry
Jeana
Chester
Arthur
Forest
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.chesapeakebaymc.org/powerhousecember. We had over 60 people at SonRisers to start the day. During Kingdom Builders, the kids started a project that will take them a few weeks. 11 people began the Temple School course "Introduction to Studying Scripture" during the Adult Disciples time.
Jason reopened the computer lab on Thursday. He will soon be unavailable to run the lab. If anyone out there is interested in helping keep the lab going please give reply to this email and we can talk.
Friday brought Pizza Church. We had good sized groups of kids most of whom were quite into the lessons all evening long.
Saturday evening was our monthly Solid Rock Cafe. The kids seemed especially calm and happy to enjoy the game time together.
Looking ahead to next week, we'll be back to our full schedule of activities. In addition, we're hosting a Mission Center youth ministry training event from noon-2:30 on Saturday. This will be taught via satellite by the youth ministry leaders at Saddleback and Willow Creek churches.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned and the continued progress on our building project, please keep the following individuals in the forefront of your prayers:
Susanna
Troy
Terry
Jeana
Chester
Arthur
Forest
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.chesapeakebaymc.org/powerhouse
1/18/03
It's been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started out Sunday with a full agenda. During Morning Worship we learned the parable of the Great Banquet. The group at Kids' Church continued their study of The Lord's Prayer lea ring about the phrase "Hallowed be Thy name." Evening Worship's theme centered around a passage from the book of Romans.
Also during the day on Sunday I visited with Diane McNeil at the campus ministries center at Michigan State University. She contacted me the week before to see if their group could come here on a mission trip this March. By Sunday, all the people involved at this end had given a green light to the project so I let her know that all systems are go.
After the women's CORE group on Monday night, Gloria and I met together. I showed her how some of the satellite equipment works so that she can record programming if Don and I are not available. Afterward we were to update the address and birthday list but the server at headquarters was down so we caught that up later in the week.
Don put in a lot of work on our new web site this week. Though it's not totally complete and there are still a few things we're figuring out, it is up and running. You will now find us on the web at
www.pigtownchurch.org
You'll want to update your links and bookmarks to reflect this change.
Eighty-four kids participated in the SonRisers activities this Wednesday. Some of our staff were out with injuries but we were able to make it with only a few harried moments. The Adult Disciples class compared about a dozen different translations of the Bible as a part of this week's studies. After our prayer time that night, several people commented on their experience of single-mindedness as a group during the prayers.
We had good sized groups of kids at each of our Pizza Church groups on Friday. The lessons a the first two sessions went well but it was a little rough during the senior high group. I stepped outside during the middle school session to ask a kid to stop banging on the windows. This is not unusual. I didn't know the kid and he decided to question my right to ask him to stop and to try to pick a fight with me. After about 10 minutes he'd used up every trick in his book so he gave up and walked away a little confused about what had just happened.
On Saturday morning 8 people came to the church to participate in the youth worker training via satellite. Unfortunately, they had transmission problems from California and the broadcast did not come through correctly. They are sending us a free video cassette copy of the seminar due to the technical difficulties.
Looking ahead to next week, we'll have our full schedule of activities. In addition, we'll have our monthly priesthood meeting on Thursday night and Sundae Church on Saturday night.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned and the continued progress on our building project, please keep the following individuals in the forefront of your prayers:
Derris
Jerel
Michael
Kenny
Theresa
Diamond
Amber
Ciara
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.pigtownchurch.org
1/25/03
It's been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started out Sunday with our three services. One of our senior high girls was baby sitting a toddler and brought him to Morning Worship. He and I had a good contest to see who could talk the loudest during the entire message. At Kids' Church we continued working on The Lord's Prayer and focused on the line "Thy Kingdom Come." For the second week in a row Evening Worship had a slightly larger crowd than Morning Worship. We learned about the need to both live in the Light and being safe people where people could confess their darkness.
As usual, our CORE groups met throughout the week. Right now, the women's group is watching excerpts from Joyce Meyer's teachings then discussing how it applies in their lives. The men's group is studying Gary Chapman's "Love Languages" book. The young adult group is studying "Boundaries." The teen girls are learning about women in the Bible while the teen boys are having guided topical discussions as guided by talk sheets.
Right around 80 kids participated in SonRisers on a bitter cold Wednesday morning. The Adult Disciples group continued with its study of the Temple School course "Introduction to Understanding Scripture." Only three of us stayed for our midweek prayer time afterward but we had an especially powerful session.
On Thursday we had Computer Lab. That evening was our monthly priesthood meeting. The bulk of the meeting time was spent on scheduling events, planning out the time that the Michigan State group will be here, and addressing some conflict issues within the congregation.
Mike taught the kids the story of Cain and Abel at the first session of Pizza Church on Friday. Don lead the Middle School through the scriptures describing Jesus' baptism. I worked with the Senior Highs on their study of the book of Luke.
On Saturday morning, the young adult CORE group cleaned out and painted my basement. We're in the process of finishing that space so it can be used for people who want to live in Pigtown and volunteer at the church on a long-term yet temporary basis, such as someone doing a summer internship. They got the bulk of the work done so we should be able to finish it soon.
Saturday night brought Sundae Church. We had 8 senior high kids come out in the freezing cold for ice cream and fellowship. Don, Tamara, and I staffed the activity.
Looking ahead to next week, we'll have our full schedule of activities. In addition, we'll be working with Diane McNeil to start pinning down plans for the people from Michigan State. We'll also be taking kids who have earned 40 credits out for ice cream on Saturday.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned and the continued progress on our building project, please keep the following individuals in the forefront of your prayers:
Tom
Don
Chris
James
Alicia
Bethany
Brittany
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.pigtownchurch.org
2/9/03
It's been a busy couple of weeks at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started out Sunday, February 23, with our three services. With the snowstorm behind us we returned to more normal attendance numbers throughout the day. The weather did not completely leave us alone, though, as we had excessive winds during the day. We lost a few shingles off the back of our roof because of them.
I had a knock on the door that week from some people who wanted me to marry them right then. They didn't have a license or divorce papers from a previous marriage and were therefore disappointed when I couldn't perform the ceremony. They plan to come back once these things are taken care of.
I received a postcard from the city saying that I could pick up our building permit. They've streamlined the process so I only had to go to seven different counters and pay nearly $2000 in fees to get the permit in hand. Our architect is making construction copies of the plans to have available for those who want to bid the project.
In addition to all our regular activities that week we had our monthly priesthood meeting. The main topic for discussion was the upcoming visit from the Michigan State University group. Each of us left with assignments to complete prior to the group's arrival, including getting building materials, preparing homes to host them, organizing meals, buying supplies, and making final plans for coordinating activities.
From 11:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Saturday was the "Becoming a Contagious Christian" satellite simulcast. Eight people participated in this training. This was especially good since six others had completed this course here when I taught it two years ago. Giving people tools to help them naturally share the Gospel with their friends and relatives makes all the difference in empowering evangelism throughout the congregation.
On Saturday evening the MSU group arrived in town. We gathered in the church for introductions and to talk about the week. They then took their luggage to where they were staying then went out for dinner.
While the group was here they participated in the bulk of the church activities. They were also responsible for teaching Kids' Church, sharing testimonies during the evening service, building birdhouses with the kids at Kingdom Builders, assisting teachers at the local middle school, and adding insulation and drywall to the attic. By week's end, they had also spent a day in Washington, DC, and had toured parts of Baltimore's Inner Harbor.
Instead of their regular meetings, our CORE groups hosted meals for the MSU group. Monday night the women's group took charge while Tuesday evening's meal was hosted by the young adult group with help from our senior high boys and girls groups. On Wednesday evening, the men's group hosted the meal in place of our Adult Disciples class then we circled our chairs for prayer time.
After Pizza Church, we gathered together for a final review of the week and a sending forth blessing. Many of the folks from MSU talked of profound experiences they had this week. They packed up Saturday morning and headed back to Michigan for their final couple months of the semester.
On Wednesday we learned that Betsy had had her baby 3.5 months early. They requested having the baby blessed and we kept missing each other at the hospital. We were finally able to meet together at the hospital Saturday afternoon and, after disinfecting our hands and donning scrubs, share in the sacrament together. Unfortunately, her husband and other family members had to wait in the hall during the blessing because of a "two visitors at a time" limit in pediatric intensive care.
Saturday night was our monthly Solid Rock Cafe. We had a larger group of people than we had the last couple of times, in part because of several new kids. Some of the new kids were ones that had made contact with the MSU group while they were working in the schools.
Looking ahead to next week, we'll return to our full schedule of activities. In addition, Don will be starting a series of messages during the evening services to guide us through lent. We'll also be coordinating with Phil to get the necessary supplies and then schedule the completion of the attic project.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned and the continued progress on our building project, please keep the following individuals in the forefront of your prayers:
Betsy
James
Karen
Gloria
Danny
Roger
Patricia
Violet
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.pigtownchurch.org
2/15/03
It's been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started out Sunday with a full day of activities. During Morning Worship, we had message 3 of 4 in our stewardship series. "Give us this day our daily bread" was the theme at Kids' Church. For the message during Evening Worship I read the book "The Voice."
Over the last couple of weeks the CORE groups have done some extra activities. A week ago Monday the women's group went out to eat together. This Sunday the young adult group met at Jen's house for a change of venue. The high school boys group moved their starting time later to coincide with the end of basketball practice so that more could attend. The men's group went out to eat together this Thursday. And, the high school girls group had an overnight lock-in at the Laurel church.
For the first time since Christmas we had a full 5-day week in the public schools. This showed up in our attendance at SonRisers as we had 20 more kids come this week than last week. At Kingdom Builders we completed a project we'd been working on for several weeks. The Adult Disciples group continued with the Temple School course "Introduction to Understanding Scripture."
Berny, our architect, called this week. He had talked with the city and learned that our plans had been approved by all departments except electrical. They were confused about a couple of things. He clarified what they needed to know over the phone. They indicated that we would receive our electrical approval by the end of the week. Once that is in hand we can begin getting bids from contractors.
Tamara ran the computer lab on Thursday. I also spent some time visiting with Diane and Jenn from Michigan State as we further solidified our plans for their upcoming visit.
We mailed out letters this Friday to the parents of the kids who come to church most often. The letters invited them to the "Parenting Teens" satellite seminar this coming Thursday.
Our T-Shirt order for the 2003-04 year arrived this week. By ordering them during the slow season we saved nearly $3 per shirt. Vonceil organized them so they'll be ready come July.
We had an unusual Pizza Church. During the third session a young man who lives a few houses down came in asking if any of us had a car. He was in a bit of a panic as a friend who was visiting had gone into labor. No one there had a car. Don took over the lesson while I got my van and took very quick trip to the hospital.
At 4:55 a.m. Saturday the phone woke us up. ADT called to say that the alarm at the church had tripped and that I needed to reset it. There was a fresh coat of snow so I could tell that no one had gotten in the building so I went in and reset the alarm. We'll blame this one on the mice.
Looking ahead to next week, we'll have our full schedule of activities. In addition we have our "Parenting Teens" seminar on Friday. On Saturday, Danny and I will travel to Chester, Virginia, for our Mission Center Leadership Team meeting and Mission Center Conference. We will hopefully begin our work in getting contractors lined up for construction, too.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned and the continued progress on our building project, please keep the following individuals in the forefront of your prayers:
Shirley
Jamie
Ashley
Melissa
Reginald
Raymond
Cheryl
Bonnie
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.pigtownchurch.org
2/22/03
It's been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started out Sunday with the beginnings of the snowiest storm in the history of Baltimore. Most churches in the area closed for the day but we were open for all three services. Danny, Don, Robert, and I took turns shoveling the church steps and sidewalk over the course of the day, each shoveling at least 3 times. Between services, kids used the building to thaw out from their playing and shoveling. Naturally, our attendance was way down throughout the day. By the time we trudged home through knee-deep snow at the end of the day, though, we had served a crowd comparable in size to a normal Sunday 4 years ago.
With continued weather issues throughout the week we adjusted our schedule. Most CORE groups didn't meet this week. Those activities that don't meet when school is closed (SonRisers, Kingdom Builders, and Computer Lab) were also shut down. Since many people would not be able to make it to our Temple School class during Adult Disciples on Wednesday, we postponed it and simply had our prayer time together.
By later in the week some city offices had reopened. The Department of Taxation called us to let us know that they had straightened out their errors. This means the church is no longer listed for sale by the city for unpaid taxes. By Friday we learned from the building permits office that everything had been approved for our construction project but that they don't yet have all their paperwork done.
Thursday night was our "Parenting Teens" simulcast seminar. With the weather we only had 4 people present. The information presented, however, was excellent. We recorded it and plan to offer it again in the future.
The storm brought some serious damage to some places in the neighborhood. The most dramatic damage came when the roof on the round house of the B&O Railroad Museum collapsed. The only report I have so far of serious damage at church members' homes was at my house where a 12'X12' aluminum awning that was over our deck collapsed, taking down some vinyl siding with it. Fortunately, I've not heard of anyone being seriously hurt due to the weather.
Friday night brought Pizza Church. The first and third groups had normal attendance while the middle group had only a handful of kids. Considering the weather and the mixed up schedule this week I thought the turnout was pretty good. Many of the kids came in that night worried about camp. Because of the number of snow days we've had so far this year, the kids are scheduled to be in school for the first couple of days of camp. We'll be coming up with a plan for this problem in the next couple of weeks.
On Saturday morning, Danny dug out the last few shovels full of snow around my car then he and I headed out to Chester, Virginia, for our Mission Center Leadership Team meeting. Saturday evening was our monthly Sundae Church.
Looking ahead to next week, we'll have our full schedule of activities. In addition we'll be making up for lost time in getting ready for Saturday evening's arrival of the group from Michigan State. This month's priesthood meeting is Thursday evening. We also have our "Becoming a Contagious Christian" training session from 11:00 - 5:30 on Saturday.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned and the continued progress on our building project, please keep the following individuals in the forefront of your prayers:
Forest
Miles
Troy
Chris
John
Corey
Vaness
William
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.pigtownchurch.org
2/23/03
It's been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started out Sunday with our three services. During Morning Worship we focused on the event where Jesus raised Lazarus. At Kids' Church we learned about how the people of the church are to work together like the parts of a body. At Evening Worship Don continued his series for this Lenten season. Darlene was back in town for her spring break and joined with us during Evening Worship.
Some people had been dumping bulk garbage in the alley behind the church. Gloria had been working with the city for over a month to get it removed. They finally came on Monday and cleaned up the mess.
On Monday afternoon I went down to Annapolis to Berny's house and picked up the blueprints for the addition. I dropped copies off with Woody and Danny so they could give them to the contractors who want to bid on the project.
I also got a call this week from Betsy regarding baby Faith, the congregation's premature baby who is at University of Maryland Hospitals. They had been treating her heart with medication but it was not working as well as they had hoped so they had schedule surgery for Tuesday. I found out on Tuesday that all went well and they expect her to soon be more healthy than she was before the surgery.
We had over 70 kids at SonRisers on Wednesday morning. Wednesday was Bryce's 7th birthday so Don taught Kingdom Builders to let us have his birthday celebrations that afternoon at home. The Adult Disciples began their study of the Gospel of John.
Throughout the week Phil continued to work on the attic. He got a good portion of the spackling done by week's end.
Late Thursday night Jared, Rachel, and Miranda arrived in town. They were here a few weeks ago with the Michigan State crew. They had a free weekend and chose to spend it in Pigtown.
We had our regular sessions of Pizza Church on Friday. The senior high group has only one more week of study to complete the Gospel of Luke which they have been working on for nearly 8 months.
On Saturday we participated via satellite with Beachfest 2003. We extended our Sundae Church time from 1 hour to 2 hours so that the kids could hear the music and message. This was only open to senior high students but we actually had more than twice as many middle-school kids come by who wanted to get in than we had high school students inside.
This was an especially hard report to write tonight as the bulk of what happened this week had nothing to do with the above activities. We spent a lot of time in one-on-one ministry and on issues that aren't appropriate for public posting. Though we're engaged in this all the time, it was truly the crux of what happened here this week. It's just frustrating to send this out knowing that those of you reading this will have no idea about what this week was really like.
Looking ahead to next week, we'll have our full schedule of activities. In addition, we have our monthly priesthood meeting after CORE groups on Thursday evening.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned and the continued progress on our building project, please keep the following individuals in the forefront of your prayers:
Stella
Gloria
Shirley
Yvonne
Heidi
George
Phil
Don
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.pigtownchurch.org
3/30/03
It's been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started out Sunday with our three services. During Morning Worship we learned about Jesus' encounter with Zacchaeus. Afterward, one woman asked about a kid who was there that I had met earlier in the weekend. She believed it was the same kid who had chased her child down the street with a knife the night before and she wanted us to keep our eye on him. At Kids' Church we watched a Larry Boy video. During Evening Worship Don continued his series in preparation for Easter by talking about Peter's betrayal.
We learned on Monday that Heidi's bid on a house in Pigtown was accepted. She spent time this week wrestling the paper tiger that accompanies buying a house. She hopes to close in about a month.
The local high school was in the news several times this week. There's been over a dozen fires set in the building lately. About 9 kids were arrested this week but the fires continued. This had a real effect on the high school kids.
Over 80 kids participated in Wednesday's SonRisers activities. We've had steady increases in participation over the last few weeks as is normal this time of year. At Adult Disciples we studied John 3 & 4.
Tamara ran the computer lab on Thursday. Don revived one of the sick computers but proclaimed the other one deceased. He went out later in the week to buy parts to see if he could rebuild it and do some more permanent repairs on the other. Tamara also took the girls in her CORE group to the National Aquarium.
Thursday night brought this month's priesthood meeting. A large portion of our time was spent on looking at the summer calendar and trying to fit everything in. Summer is short for us this year with school getting out June 25 and resuming September 2 so the calendar is quite a challenge.
Friday night brought Pizza Church. After nearly 8 months, the senior high group completed its study of the book of Luke. Another highlight of the night came during the middle school session when one of our longtime attenders came in with a long list of questions on his mind like "Where did God come from?" and "Do some people really go to heaven while others go to hell?" After some dialogue he asked the question "But who is gonna die for me?!?!" I pointed at the cross and 5 years of Kids' Church and Pizza Church made sense to him in a new way.
Looking ahead to next week, we'll have our full schedule of activities. In addition, we have our "Spirituality for Real People" satellite simulcast from 11:30 - 5:00 on Saturday. We'll also be taking the kids who have crossed over 40 attendance credits in the last couple of months out to Friendly's for ice cream.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned and the continued progress on our building project, please keep the following individuals in the forefront of your prayers:
Elizabeth
Marty
George
Edna
Jerry
Vicky
Jackie
Roxie
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.pigtownchurch.org
4/5/03
It's been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started out Sunday with our three services. The story during Morning Worship was that of Jesus' healing Blind Bartimaeus. During Kids' Church we remembered some of the favorite things we remembered Jesus saying as recorded in the Bible then thought about what he might say to us today. During Evening Worship Don continued his series on the betrayals of Jesus.
On woman who has become very active in the church over the last 18 months was out of town Sunday morning attending church with her son's girlfriend. She came home very excited to share about her experience there. Though the setting for church was much more formal than what she was used to here, she was thrilled to have already studied the scriptures used throughout that morning's service. She was able to reflect on how much she had learned over the last year and was empowered that she could hold her own just fine in the different environment.
Don started a fundraiser for the building project. He said that people who contributed to the building fund this week could help give him a buzz cut after church next Sunday. He's raised over $100 so far.
It snowed on Sunday and Monday but was warm and sunny by Wednesday. With the change in weather the Kingdom Builders kids went outside and illustrated elements of the Kingdom with sidewalk chalk. We also had over 70 kids participate in SonRisers. That evening the Narcotics Anonymous group reserved some extra time so they could celebrate a sobriety anniversary. During Adult Disciples we studied John 5 & 6.
Don spent some time this week trying to resurrect and/or resuscitate some of the sick computers. He was moderately successful with one but not at all successful with the other. Tamara was still able to run the computer lab on Thursday even with a couple of machines out of commission.
When I picked up the newspaper Friday morning, I saw in the legal notices that the church property was again being listed in the city tax sale even though we are tax exempt. After talking with several people on the phone I think I've got it straightened out. This is the second time this year that this has happened.
Friday night brought Pizza Church. The senior high group, having finished the book of Luke last week, read and discussed an article written by Jared Munson. We also had several middle school kids this week who we hadn't seen in a couple of months.
We hooked up the satellite and participated in the "Spiritual Growth for Real People" simulcast on Saturday. During the sessions there were times we could email in questions for the teachers. Patricia suggested one so I sent it in. The second Q&A time started out with "Our first question is from the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland." That was cool.
Saturday night Don and I took a couple of kids who had earned 40+ credits to Friendly's for ice cream sundaes. Neither one had ever been there before and both were delighted with the opportunity.
Looking ahead to next week, we'll have our full schedule of activities. In addition, Don will be getting his hair cut after Morning Worship. Saturday will also bring our monthly Solid Rock Cafe.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned and the continued progress on our building project, please keep the following individuals in the forefront of your prayers:
Chester
Al
Bob
Less
Bill
Phil
Shirley
Pat
Janie
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.pigtownchurch.org
4/12/03
It's been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started out Sunday with our three services. Because of the time change, at least one person arrived an hour late to each of the services. At Morning Worship we focused on the story of Jesus blessing the little children. During Kids' Church he kids worked on making pictures of disciples and food that we hung on the wall to commemorate the Last Supper. Don brought a message on Pilate's role in the betrayal of Jesus during evening worship.
After the 11:00 a.m. service Don got his hair cut. People gave money to the building fund to either see it cut or cut it themselves. People had a fun time cutting and watching it be cut and he raised over $250 for the addition.
A rainy Wednesday brought about 70 kids indoors for SonRisers. At Kingdom Builders, we only had one kid show up. He was having a miserable day so we scrapped the lesson and visited with him for a while. Some of the other kids who regularly come watched Don's new stove being delivered to his house instead. The Adult Disciples class continued its study of the book of John.
Friday night brought our three sessions of Pizza Church. One girl who has been coming to SonRisers nearly every Wednesday for three years came to Pizza Church for the first time. A highlight in one of the lessons came when the teacher asked why the disciples put clothes on the back of the donkey that Jesus was to ride. One kid conjectured that it was to disguise it so no one would know that it was stolen.
On Saturday we made 2200 fliers for our Easter Sunday activities. That evening we had our monthly Solid Rock Cafe.
Looking ahead to next week, we'll have an adjusted schedule of activities due to spring break and Easter. SonRisers, Kingdom Builders, and Computer Lab are all canceled this week In their place we'll be adding a Maundy Thursday and a Good Friday service.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned and the continued progress on our building project, please keep the following individuals in the forefront of your prayers:
Billy
Patricia
Karen
Theresa
Bobby
John
Jennifer
Tamara
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.pigtownchurch.org
4/20/03
It's been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started out with our three Sunday services. During Morning Worship we focused on Jesus' entry into Jerusalem. Since one in four Americans say that they would attend church with a friend if invited them, each bulletin contained 4 invitations to the Easter services to help our members in this process. At Kids' Church the kids made cards to invite their parents to the Easter services. Don finished his six-week series during the evening service. Also during that service we learned that a woman who lived across the street from the church had died earlier that week and that a family who had recently moved out of Pigtown had all been killed in a house fire.
Robert's mom was in the hospital so I gave him a ride there after church on Sunday. He was planning on spending the night there with her. He had talked with her during the week about having me come up to pray over her. She initially didn't want it but over the weekend she asked him to have me come and do just that.
With this being both Holy Week and spring break we cancelled several activities and added some others. Since there was no school we didn't have SonRisers, Kingdom Builders, or Computer Lab. On Thursday evening we had our annual Maundy Thursday service. On Friday afternoon from noon to 3:00 the church was open for prayer, scripture reading, and refection on Jesus' crucifixion.
This week we distributed about 2000 invitations to our Easter services. Don and I handed out about half of them on Thursday while Robert and I finished the job on Saturday. Since houses are so close together here it only took about 3.5 hours total to get the job done. We got more phone calls from this distribution than we usually do so we'll see how this plays out come Sunday.
Friday night's Pizza Church sessions were different from usual. Most of our regular crowd didn't come. Instead, the church filled up with kids who we hadn't seen in months.
Looking ahead to next week, we'll be back to our regular schedule of activities. In addition, we have our monthly priesthood meeting on Thursday evening and Sundae Church on Saturday evening. Also, next weekend is our Mission Center Conference and Mission Center Leadership Team meeting in Springfield, Virginia.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned and the continued progress on our building project, please keep the following individuals in the forefront of your prayers:
Mercy
Alan
Michael
Stella
Debbie
George
Less
Junior
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.pigtownchurch.org
5/3/03
It's been a busy couple of weeks at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started with our Easter celebrations. The young adult CORE group gathered in Carroll Park for a sunrise service. We had good attendance all day long. The combined total from our three main services was 99. Over 10% of those who came were first-time visitors. In between services Don and I went to University Hospital and visited the mother of a member who'd had a heart attack that weekend. After Evening worship Robert and I visited his mom who was at Harbor Hospital.
We've had a drop off in attendance in our middle school Pizza Church sessions over the past month or so. We learned this week about why this is happening. The local Police Athletic League center has, for the first time in years, started having activities on Friday nights. We're not sure if this is a permanent or temporary move on their part so we'll see what happens from here.
We had our monthly priesthood meeting on April 24. We covered a lot of information at the meeting, but we spent the bulk of the time reviewing concepts of our new discipleship plan. We'll be implementing this new system in late summer or early fall.
I got a letter from Michael, one of our kids who is at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds in a program through the National Guard designed to help kids get through high school. He says he now has plans for his life and doesn't want to mess up again. If he passes his tests in the next few weeks he'll graduate in June.
Last Saturday we had our Mission Center Conference in Springfield, Virginia. I was able to attend the morning Leadership Team meeting while Don and Heidi attended the afternoon sessions.
We had over 50 kids each Wednesday for SonRisers. The Narcotics Anonymous meetings have had over 30 people in attendance each week. The Adult Disciples group has continued its study of the book of John and will complete it in the next week or two.
On Saturday afternoon I had a knock on my door. A woman who lives directly behind the church had just come from the hospital. Her nine year old niece, who had been hit by a car yesterday, had just died and she didn't know what to do. He biggest concern was what she should say to her four little children. We sat on the front steps for a while talking and praying together.
Saturday night Don and I took Aries out to Friendly's for ice cream. He had earned the trip there by attending church 40 times since July. He was especially excited to be the only kid going. While we were eating we remembered that we met each other and he first came to church right about a year ago. I was out taking pictures of kids one Sunday afternoon with the digital camera. He rode by on his bike and wanted a picture of himself riding it. I took one and told him I would print it out for him at Kids' Church that afternoon. He's attended regularly ever since.
We've been reviewing attendance statistics the last week or so to help determine who will be invited to camp this year. I started printing out the forms this week and Don and I will begin distributing them Sunday morning.
Looking ahead to next week, we'll have our regular schedule of activities. In addition, we'll begin the process of hunting down signatures on camp forms. Saturday evening is our monthly Solid Rock Cafe.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned and the continued progress on our building project, please keep the following individuals in the forefront of your prayers:
Freida
James
Jerry
Desmond
John
Melissa
Stella
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.pigtownchurch.org
5/10/03
It's been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started out Sunday with our three services. During Morning Worship we had our monthly communion celebration. At Kids' Church we continued our study of the fruit of the Spirit focusing on self control. We talked about running the race to win during Evening Worship. Also during that service Don announced he will be starting studies at Princeton Theological Seminary and will, therefore, be moving to New Jersey in September.
During the services on Sunday I learned that several members of the congregation had received calls from headquarters. They were doing a survey of growing congregations and had chosen several of our members to be included in the survey. Everyone who was called was excited to be able to tell their stories.
I met with one of the contractors who is bidding our construction project on Tuesday. He wanted to double check his drawings against the actual structure to make sure he was figuring things correctly.
Tuesday afternoon Don got hit by a car. He had been sitting on his steps when a kid by. While Don was down on the sidewalk petting the kid's dog, a man who was parallel parking nearby hit the gas instead of the brakes. Both Don and the kid dived out of the way but both were hit. The paramedics bandaged up Don's arm but took the kid to the hospital. He came home later that night. The car also damaged Don's railing and door and his neighbor's steps.
Heather arrived late Tuesday night. She got a job which she started training for on Wednesday. She's going to be living in Heidi's house but, since the closing was delayed, she stayed at our house most of the week. She went back home to North Carolina this weekend for her ordination but will be here for most of the rest of the summer.
Kids were ready for SonRisers on Wednesday even before we opened. We had over 70 participate, 10 of whom were new. At Kingdom Builders we made get well soon cards for Don. The Adult Disciples group continued with their study of the Gospel of John. They will conclude that study next week.
While I was out walking around one afternoon this week several of the newer drug dealers drove by in a car. As they were driving off one rolled down the window and yelled to me, "Take your f***ing Bible and get the hell out of here." I guess I have a new project to work on.
On Thursday Heidi closed on her house. It's right across the street from mine. She and Heather began working on fixing it up on Friday.
Friday night brought Pizza Church. As kids gathered at each session, we took some time to brainstorm about the attendance incentive prizes for next year.
Saturday was our monthly Solid Rock Cafe. We had a good turn out, including a few kids who had never participated in Solid Rock before.
I spent much of the week writing a term paper for my "Modern Church History" class at St. Mary's Seminary. It's due on Monday. I'm very much looking forward to a summer off from my studies.
Looking ahead to next week, we'll have our regular schedule of activities. In addition we'll be continuing with our process of getting signatures on camp forms.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned and the continued progress on our building project, please keep the following individuals in the forefront of your prayers:
Bobby
James
Michael
Kirsty
Brittany
Bethany
Meagan
Aries
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.pigtownchurch.org
5/17/03
Its been a busy week at the POWER HOUSE in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started out Sunday with our three services. During Morning Worship we were reminded of God's desire for us to celebrate. In keeping with our "Fruit of the Spirit" themes at Kids' Church we made flowers for our mothers as an act of kindness. We continued with our "Crowd of Witnesses" series during Evening Worship.
We had a surprise visit from Michael on Sunday. He was given a few hours away from the academy to come back and see his grandmother this Mother's Day. He let us know that he will graduate in a few weeks, is getting a job for this summer and fall, has joined the Army Reserves beginning in January, and plans on attending community college beginning in fall 2004. This is a whole different outlook than he had six months ago.
We again had over 70 kids at SonRisers this Wednesday morning. The kids at Kingdom Builders built a windmill together and talked about how we are to respond to the Spirit. The Adult Disciples group finished their study of the Gospel of John.
I've gotten a lot of good reports out of our CORE groups the past few weeks. Most of them are a bit smaller than they were initially but each has a good nucleus of people who find the group a blessing in their lives.
I spent some time working the phones with our contractors and architect this week. We're hoping to get the last of the bids in within the next two weeks.
Friday night brought Pizza Church. We had good sized group of kids gathered in front of the church about 10 minutes before hand. Then, there was a police incident across the street and the kids scattered. We were concerned that they wouldn't make it back, but they all came back in time and several others joined them.
Looking ahead to next week, we'll have our regular schedule of activities. In addition we have a potluck supper after the service Sunday night. We'll be continuing with our process of getting signatures on camp forms throughout the week. Thursday evening is our monthly priesthood meeting and Saturday night is our monthly Sundae Church.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned and the continued progress on our building project, please keep the following individuals in the forefront of your prayers:
Walter
Desmond
Peggy
Brooke
Stella
Jamie
Ricky
Tavon
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.pigtownchurch.org
6/1/03
It's been a busy couple of weeks at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started Sunday with our three services. Attendance was good throughout the day and we ended up having the same number of people attend as we had on Easter. After Evening Worship we had a potluck dinner.
I missed SonRisers that Wednesday because Bryce was sick and I needed to stay home with him. Fortunately, the staffing at SonRisers has grown this year and I was barley missed. That evening the Adult Disciples class started their study of the book of Daniel.
Thursday afternoon brought the last Computer Lab for the school year. That evening was our monthly priesthood meeting. We spent the bulk of the meeting time solidifying our summer schedule and looking to fall activities.
I got a call this week from Betsy, baby Faith's mom. The baby had come home from the hospital nearly 8 weeks earlier than expected. She is healthy and doing well. The only expected long-term ramification of her extremely premature birth is a slight hearing loss in one ear.
By Friday I was sick and Mike was away so Don taught the first two sessions of Pizza Church and I taught the third group. We tried something different for us with this group. We gave each kid a section of Genesis in the story of Joseph. The kids then each had to teach the group what they had read. It went extremely well.
Saturday brought Sundae Church. Tamara picked out the ice cream flavors this month and hosted the event.
Last Sunday my parents were in town. My dad brought the message at Morning Worship and the two of them ran Kids' Church. Joseph was the subject of the message at Evening Worship.
We had over 80 kids at SonRisers this week. That afternoon I was out visiting with a kid about camp when his dog jumped out of his house and bit me. Don ended up running Community Prayer Circle and we canceled Adult Disciples since I was at the doctor's office. The doctor made the profound observation that I had been bitten by a dog, prescribed antibiotics, and ordered a tetanus shot. I'm ok and I learned that I need to be more observant of Philippians 3:2 ;-) (Look it up ).
Friday began Promise Keepers. Don and Tamara ran Pizza Church while Mike, Robert, Danny, and I walked downtown to the arena for the event. Robert, Danny, and I returned on Saturday for the rest of the festivities.
Don has spent a lot of time these last couple of weeks hunting down signatures on camp forms. As of this printing we have 23 kids registered for camp.
Looking ahead to next week, we'll have our regular schedule of activities. In addition, we'll continue hunting signatures for camp forms. I'll also be officiating at a wedding Saturday afternoon.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned and the continued progress on our building project, please keep the following individuals in the forefront of your prayers:
Pop
Reggie
Dustin
Jerry
Shirley
Patricia
Gloria
Darius
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.pigtownchurch.org
6/7/03
It's been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started out Sunday with our three services. During Morning Worship we focused on Jesus' commandment to love one another. At Kids' Church we continued with the same theme and watched a Veggie Tale video about loving our neighbors. We also began learning the motions that the senior high girls' CORE group developed for our "Fruit of the Spirit" song. During Evening Worship we learned the story of the servant girl who encouraged Naaman to go to Elisha for healing.
The young adult CORE group had some visitors on Sunday night. Some of the group participated in some activities at McLean Bible Church in Virginia a couple of weeks ago, while there, told them about the CORE group. They accepted the invitation and shared with the group for the evening.
Gloria was out of town so Heidi lead the women's CORE group on Monday evening. The women who were there sought me out the rest of the week to share with me how excited they were about she lead the group.
Wednesday brought SonRisers, Kingdom Builders, Narcotics Anonymous, and Adult Disciples. It was our final Kingdom Builders meeting for the year. We only have a couple more weeks of SonRisers until it goes on summer vacation.
Hunting season continued throughout the week. Don has been especially efficient at getting parent signatures on the camp forms for this year. As of this printing, we have 41 kids registered for camp.
The men's CORE group finished their study on Christian Financial Concepts last week so, as has been our pattern, we went out to eat together this Thursday. All but one of us is out of town this Thursday so we'll begin our new study on the book "Prophetic Etiquette" in a couple of weeks.
We received and recorded two different satellite broadcasts this week from CCN. The first one was on Thursday night teaching on CORE group leadership. On Saturday we had a broadcast on the Willow Creek model of children's ministries. Both broadcasts were excellent and we'll be sharing them in the congregation soon.
We had good attendance at all three Pizza Church sessions on Friday night. I taught the junior and the senior high groups while Don taught the middle school students. As is common at the end of the school year, behavior was a little rough around the edges but we all lived to tell about it.
On Saturday evening Don and I took Anne out for ice cream at Friendly's. There were a couple of others who qualified to go but they didn't get their permission slips in.
Looking ahead to next week, we'll have our regular schedule of activities. In addition, we'll continue hunting signatures for camp forms. Robert will graduate from high school Sunday afternoon so Erin and Heidi will be attending the ceremonies. His debate team at school is also scheduled to be on "60 Minutes" on Sunday night. I'll spend part of the week in Missouri at a conference at church headquarters. Don is officiating at his first wedding this Friday.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned and the continued progress on our building project, please keep the following individuals in the forefront of your prayers:
Damon
Aries
Phil
Pat
Jerry
Janet
Katelin
Sharon
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.pigtownchurch.org
6/15/03
It's been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started out Sunday with our three services. We celebrated Pentecost throughout the day and learned about it during Morning Worship and Kids' Church. Four people left Morning Worship early so that they could attend Robert's graduation ceremonies. Heather and Eric brought a bunch of kids to Kids' Church for the first time.
Robert came to Evening Worship in his cap and gown. We ended the service a few minutes early so that we could all go home and watch "60 Minutes." Robert's debate team was featured in one of the stories. We all saw him on national TV wearing a Power House t-shirt. I live about 4 houses down from Robert and when the segment ended I could hear the excited screams of his family in my living room. I went over and joined them for cake.
Don took me to the airport on Monday morning so I could participate in "Mission 2003: Launch Out" conference at church headquarters near Kansas City, Missouri. The guy I sat next to on the plane was on headed for an audition for job in the Kansas City Symphony. He had started attending church for the first time just a few weeks earlier and was on this plane because his alarm didn't go off when it was supposed to so he missed his flight. He didn't realize how far the airport was from his hotel so Tony and Charmaine Chvala-Smith, the friends who were picking me up at the airport, were able to give him a ride into downtown Kansas City on our way to headquarters.
On Wednesday SonRisers had nearly 70 kids participate. Don taught a couple of chapters in the book of Daniel during Adult Disciples.
Mike and Vonceil ran Pizza Church this week. They had a good turnout at the first and third sessions, but it started pouring rain just a few minutes before the second session so most of those kids stayed home this week.
On Friday evening Don officiated at his first wedding. Gloria is the one who referred the couple to him and both the couple and she were very pleased with how well it went.
Saturday evening brought Solid Rock Cafe. We had a good group of kids there and were especially glad to see a couple of girls who used to be active in the church but had moved away.
Don continued to get camp forms signed throughout the week. At this writing, we have 49 kids registered to go to camp. Add in the 5 staffers and the bus is almost full. I'll load my van full and drive kids down that way, too, if it is necessary.
Looking ahead to next week, we'll have our regular schedule of activities. In addition, we'll have our monthly priesthood meeting on Thursday evening.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned and the continued progress on our building project, please keep the following individuals in the forefront of your prayers:
Buddy
Joshua
Shane
Patricia
Phil
Mary
Della
Donna
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.pigtownchurch.org
6/22/03
It's been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started out Sunday with our three services. During Morning Worship I let the congregation know that I had accepted a call to the priesthood office of Seventy and that we would soon begin exploring what that would mean for us as a congregation during upcoming Adult Disciples classes. We got out the digital camera at Kids' Church and had the kids make photo cards for their dads for Father's Day. We finished our series on words of encouragement from the "multitude of witnesses" with wisdom from King David.
Also during the day on Sunday a section of a new bike trail the ends in Carroll Park opened. Gloria was one of the organizers and staff at the grand opening celebrations.
On Monday evening Don and I went to Six Flags. Since we had a both a large number and a broad age range of kids who earned a trip there this year he and I got season passes so that we could make several trips down. We had to go this week to get the passes activated so we would be able to use some of our "Free Guest Passes" for the kids going on the first trip.
On Wednesday morning at SonRisers we polled the kids to see who would still be in school next Wednesday. The last day for 8th grade was June 20 but the 6th and 7th graders will still be in school through next Wednesday. We'll still have SonRisers but won't get quite as many donuts as we usually do.
Also on Wednesday, the Adult Disciples group finished their study of the book of Daniel. Next week we'll begin exploring the office of Seventy.
Thursday night brought our monthly priesthood meeting. Some of the main topics discussed were the summer calendar, progress on the building addition (or lack thereof), and programming plans for fall.
During the senior high session of Friday's Pizza Church, several small children ranging in age from about 3 to 7 banged and kicked the door hard, yelled, screamed, and did everything they could to disturb the lesson in an attempt to get a slice of pizza. Even with Mike and Don outside trying to get them to calm down the distraction made things challenging. In the middle of the lesson, though, some of the senior highs changed the topic to "Were we ever like that?" Without my assistance, they decided that they had been like that and perhaps even a little worse when they were younger.
After Pizza Church, Tamara and Heidi took the senior high girls CORE group to the church in Laurel for an overnight lock-in. Don and I hung around the church to experiment with rearranging furniture. We're anticipating a large crowd for Tamara's ordination on Sunday morning so we found a way to squeeze 72 chairs in the room. (Those of you who have been here know that this is a miracle.) We'll be literally on top of each other and, it's a good thing we're not having communion because if we did no one would be able to kneel.
On Saturday morning Don and I drove up to the Aberdeen Proving Grounds to attend Michael's graduation ceremonies. Afterward, Don drove down to Springfield, Virginia, to attend a camp planning meeting.
Speaking of camp, we currently have 52 kids registered to go this year. I'm putting together prayer requests for each of the 52 kids attending camp and am looking for people willing to commit to praying specifically for 1 or 2 of the kids each day during the week of camp. If you are interested in doing this, please reply to this email and I'll get back with you later in the week.
Looking ahead to next week, we'll have our regular schedule of activities. Tamara will be ordained to the office of Deacon during Morning Worship on Sunday. At Evening Worship we'll have our graduation celebration for our two high school graduates. In addition, Don will be touching base with each of the kids going to camp. We'll be taking our first group of kids to Six Flags on Monday. Next Saturday evening is our monthly Sundae Church.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned and the continued progress on our building project, please keep the following individuals in the forefront of your prayers:
Phil
Pat
Buddy
Aries
Duvall
Chris
Trisha
Tammy
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.pigtownchurch.org
6/29/03
It's been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started out with Tamara's ordination at Morning Worship. Sixty people attended the celebration and she served a light luncheon afterward.
Between services I ran out to Sam's Club to pick up the graduation cake. In transporting it the top of the box gently touched the frosting right in the middle of the design. Fortunately, Gloria was able to do some repairs on it.
We watched a "3-2-1 Penguins" video at Kids' Church. Then, at Evening Worship, we had our graduation celebration. After a short message, each of the graduates shared their plans for the future. We then set up two chairs up front. They sat down and the congregation gathered around them and offered a prayer of blessing upon them. Afterward we had a good time of fellowship as we ate cake together.
Our total attendance for the day was 134. This is the highest Sunday attendance when all our activities were indoors. (We had more people attend one time when the petting zoo was here).
On Monday Don, Robert, Bryce, and I spent the day at Six Flags. This was the first of several trips we'll be making there this year since we had several kids earn a trip there.
During teen boy's CORE group time on Tuesday Don and I helped Robert get the last of his paperwork in for Graceland University, the church's college in Lamoni, Iowa. He made his final decision that Graceland would be his school last week.
Wednesday brought our final SonRisers for the school year. We had about 25 kids come. During Adult Disciples we began learning about the responsibilities of those called to the office Seventy. We will continue with that course of study for a couple more weeks.
On Thursday evening Jenn Dubs arrived from Michigan. As you recall, she spent the summer here last year and has since decided to attend the University of Maryland for graduate school. She'll be living in Pigtown as her classes are held about a mile from here.
Friday brought Pizza Church. We had progressively larger groups as the evening progressed. During the Middle School session, Don posed the question, "Who is a disciple?" After talking about the answer one of the kids said, "You mean I'M a DISCIPLE?" and seem quite surprised at that prospect and its ramifications.
Saturday was our monthly Sundae Church. This was the last time this group of kids would be together at the church since Robert graduates to adult activities and our eighth graders will join this group after camp.
Speaking of camp, we currently have 56 kids registered. We also have 6 adults from Pigtown on staff. It's normal to have a few kids not show up at the bus so we'll know a final count once the bus rolls out of town at 3:00 tomorrow afternoon. This is especially good since the bus only seats 55 people. I'm driving my van down so we do have some overflow seating there if it is necessary.
Looking ahead to next week, we'll have a different schedule of activities. Morning and Evening Worship are at their normal times on Sunday. Kids' Church is cancelled because that is when the bus is leaving for camp. The women's and men's CORE groups will continue as scheduled but the young adult and teen groups are cancelled. We'll have our normal summer schedule on Wednesday but will cancel Pizza Church on Friday due to the 4th of July holiday. We pick up the kids from camp next Saturday.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned and the continued progress on our building project, please keep the following families in the forefront of your prayers:
the Fitzpatrick family
the Moore family
the Saffran family
the Conley family
the Handy family
the Fleming family
the Quick family
the Cox 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.pigtownchurch.org
7/6/03
It's been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland. I know this report is longer than usual but I think you'll be glad if you read all the way to the end.
It started out Sunday with Morning Worship. As a part of the service we celebrated how much God had done through youth ministry in our congregation. We noted that two years ago 325 kids attended at least one activity at the church over the course of the year while this year the number was 627. There were a lot of bumps along this road and we celebrated the fact that we all lived to tell about it.
By about 1:30 in the afternoon kids started bringing their supplies and waiting out in front of the church in the blazing hot sun for the camp bus. It arrived shortly before 3:00. When we rolled out of Pigtown we had 43 kids and 6 staff ---- 14 more kids than last year. The bus ride went smoothly and we got the kids there and checked in before supper.
Danny and Gloria were in charge of the evening service. This is the first year we've had Evening Worship the first Sunday of camp. We had 4 people gather for it. Also that afternoon Danny hung our new banner advertising Bible School.
On Monday afternoon I power washed the front sidewalk and some of the exterior walls of the church. We like to do that every year but couldn't last year due to the drought. That night the women's CORE group met.
On Tuesday we did some switching at camp. I learned that one of our kids needed to come home. I also learned that another had left his prescription medications at home and needed them. Mike and I met in Laurel and swapped the kid for the meds.
The Narcotics Anonymous group met Wednesday afternoon. We had scheduled Adult Disciples and Prayer Circle for Wednesday evening. Shortly before it started, however, I got a call from Mike saying that 4 more kids had to go home. We postponed this week's lesson and instead had our prayer time together so that I could hit the road and try to get the kids back before midnight. After a really intense prayer session, I picked up the kids and had them all home by about 11:15.
I was really proud of the kids who got sent home this year. I know that sounds strange. But, at least by the time I got them, all of them handled it very maturely. They understood that they had done something wrong and that consequences were necessary. Normally, kids who are sent home are defeated and deflated. This year every one of them talked on the way home about what they needed to do differently next year to be able to stay for the whole week. One boy, after I dropped him off at his house at 11:00 p.m. Wednesday in the pouring rain said to me, "I'll see you next Friday at Pizza Church and I'll have the money I still owe you for camp with me then."
I spent a lot of time this week getting the basic plans for Bible School in place. Even though Bible School isn't scheduled until mid-August, the entire Bible School team can't meet together in one room until the Saturday afternoon before Bible school starts due to camps, school, seminars, and vacations. Therefore I had to get the basic structure in place so that everyone can work independently and have it all fall together as the event is happening.
Thursday was dedicated to getting our new fliers ready. The summer youth schedule fliers, Bible School fliers, and each grade level's new school year schedule are ready to go to the printer on Monday. The men's CORE group met that evening.
I also spent some time Thursday in conversation with our architect regarding the latest bids from contractors. He said we could save a little money if I coordinated the contractors and supervised the process. We figured, though, that we would actually spend more on psychotherapy if I tried.
I was awakened Friday morning with another phone call from camp. This time it was because one of our kids had decided to get baptized. The rest of the morning was a telephone tag game as they gained parental consent, decided who would officiate, where and when it would be, and how to make it happen on a campground without a pool or lake. In the end he decided to have Don baptize him at the camp's worship service on Friday evening. Mike and I would officiate at the confirmation at the camp's closing session on Saturday morning.
We didn't have Pizza Church on Friday night even though many of our kids were still in town because it was July 4th. By that time in the week, too, parents were getting lonesome and anxious to have their kids back. I couldn't walk down the street very fast as I was constantly being flagged down by people wanting information about camp and how their kids were doing.
On Saturday morning I headed back down to Virginia to participate in Donald's confirmation and to coordinate the travel home. The bus was on time in picking up the kids. As the bus pulled out of camp I talked with the kid about this year's changes in the attendance credit system, revealed the new prizes, and showed them the new Power House t-shirts.
We had purchased chips, pop, and cookies earlier in the week then placed an order at the McDonald's near the campground for 45 double cheeseburgers. We brought the food on the bus and distributed it for them to eat on the way home. Soon afterward many of the kids fell asleep for the duration of the trip.
Once we got back into Baltimore and got all the kids home, Don and I took in the disposable cameras we'd given the staff to Sam's club for processing. We ordered triple prints so that one copy can stay with the church records, each staff member can have a copy of the pictures they took, and the kids could get copies of pictures from camp.
After a quick trip to the laundromat, Tamara was on her way again. She's on staff at a camp at Deer Park in Pennsylvania next week. Later that evening Jenn and I sat down and did a quick overview of the plan for Bible School. She's in charge of crafts and she seemed pleased with the themes and the corresponding craft projects.
Don's sisters arrived in town on their way to New York. It was good to meet them and visit for a few minutes. They are staying at Don's tonight and will be heading out tomorrow after Morning Worship.
Looking ahead to next week, we'll have our full summer schedule of activities. Jenn will be leading the crafts at Kids' Church on Sunday afternoon. On Tuesday we'll be taking the middle school and senior high kids who attended church more than twice a week last year to Six Flags for the day. We'll also be getting the momentum rolling on Bible School preparations.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned and the continued progress on our building project, please keep the following people in the forefront of your prayers:
Justin
PJ
Damon
Aries
Lamont
Forrest
Peggy
Jeana
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.pigtownchurch.org
7/13/03
It's been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started out Sunday with Morning Worship. Faith, the baby who was born several months premature back in March and who the congregation has been praying for diligently ever since, made her first trip to church. She's a healthy 7.5 lbs, up from 1lb 11oz when she was born. We also had a lot of other kids at the morning service, too. Usually we don't have as many there the weekend that camp ends but that was clearly not the case this year.
We also had a good number of kids out for Kids' Church. Some of that was due to the fact that they heard that Miss Jenn was doing the crafts this week. We're expecting generally lower numbers of kids at kids church for a while because we've tightened the attendance parameters for Kids' Church. But, again, that wasn't the case this week.
At Evening Worship we took the time that is normally allotted for the message and had the campers and staff share how they had encountered God at camp this year. Many kids and adults eagerly and freely testified of how God had moved in their lives or how they had witnessed the Holy Spirit in the actions of others. The kids also took the lead later in the service during several of the prayer requests. One kids prayed out loud for the first time here and when he was finished, the kid sitting next to him exclaimed, "Wow! You pray gooder than me!"
At the end of the day we totalled our attendance numbers. We had only nine fewer this Sunday than we had on Easter.
The young adult CORE group, which meets after Evening Worship, had a fellowship night scheduled. This was especially good as it was Michael and Robert's first time to go to that group. The people who had been their teachers and camp counselors just hours before were able to welcome them into the peer group and make the transition from youth ministry to adult ministry a bit smoother.
I had met with Jenn and Don last weekend to discuss some of the Bible School plans. On Monday, Jenn organized a supply order for the craft materials that were not available locally. We ordered enough for 100 kids. Hopefully, we'll run short on materials.
On Tuesday morning Don, Jenn, and I took 8 senior high kids to Six Flags. The kids had earned the trip by coming to church at least 120 times last year. The park was virtually empty so the kids got to go on all the rides as often as they wanted. In fact, one of the boys rode the same roller coaster 7 times in a row. They behaved well and had a great time all day.
Jenn headed back to Michigan for a week or so on Wednesday morning. We got a call from her mid-day saying that her car broke down on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. She was stranded for the night. Fortunately, she was able to get the car fixed and get home on Thursday.
The Adult Disciples group finished their investigation into the priesthood office of Seventy on Wednesday night. We have one more week of class before taking our summer break.
Before leaving town on Thursday, Don got estimates on the equipment we would need to rent for the mural painting project. We didn't need much equipment last year as the mural covered only the bottom 1/3 of the wall. This year, though, we'll be painting the entire side of a beauty shop so we'll need a way to reach all the way up to the roof.
I accidentally overbooked the church on Thursday evening. I had heard that teen girls' group was cancelled so I moved men's group there. I also was meeting with a couple for marriage counseling so we were starting men's group 30 minutes later than usual. I found out too late that the Heidi was holding the girls' group. Heidi and the girls visited on the steps for 30 minutes while I finished up the counseling then I ran home and got the keys to Don's house so the men's group could meet there.
Friday brought our new year of Pizza Church. We knew this was going to be a building year for the youngest group and that was hammered home when no one showed up for it this week. The other two groups, though, had a total of 28 kids.
We had our monthly Solid Rock Cafe on Saturday. With several people out of town and others at work I ended up being the only one on staff. The 22 kids who were especially well-behaved so things turned out fine.
Looking ahead to next week, we'll have our full summer schedule of activities. In addition, we'll be making one more trip to Six Flags this Tuesday, this time with our elementary school kids. Next weekend is Mission Center Reunion in Springfield Virginia. We'll also had our Mission Center Leadership Team meeting on the Saturday of reunion.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned and the continued progress on our building project, please keep the following families in the forefront of your prayers:
the Jones family
the Boycheck family
the Pestridge family
the Barrett family
the Sykes family
the Lydik family
the Latham family
the Banks 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.pigtownchurch.org
7/19/03
It's been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started out Sunday with our three worship services. Turning Morning Worship we continued with our series on God's vision for this neighborhood and congregation. This week we focused on ministry with young children. Before Kids' Church several of the senior high aged kids who used to attend this service hung around the building saying that "no one would come" now that high school students aren't allowed to attend. Much to their chagrin, we had one of the largest Kids' Church gatherings we've had in months. We started a series on the gifts of the Spirit during Evening Worship focusing this week on the gift of prophecy.
On Monday evening I had to run over to the church to get some things I'd left there. On my way there I came across several kids starting fires in our parking lot then spraying the fires with an aerosol can to make miniature explosions. I got them to leave but they were back within minutes. I planted myself on the parking lot until they left for good. They weren't too happy with my ruining their fun and they pitched their aerosol can at me when they left. Needless to say, it wasn't the positive, welcoming experience that we like to extend to a person on their first visit to our church.
I got a message this week from the Hampton, Virginia, congregation. They'd had a business meeting on Sunday and voted to provide money towards Robert's tuition at Graceland University. The money they gave will be matched through Graceland's congregational matching grant program. That money, in conjunction with an additional scholarship (which we're still waiting on for a final answer) and a couple of extremely generous private contributions have filled in the gap between his financial aid package and the cost of tuition.
On Tuesday Robert, Damon, Chris, and I headed out to Six Flags. They had earned a trip there by coming to church at least 120 times last year. We got there when the park opened and left shortly after closing. They both can't wait to go again next year.
Wednesday brought our last Adult Disciples/Prayer Circle for the summer. With people in and out on vacations and activities like Bible School which monopolize the building we've decided to take the next 5 weeks off. We'll resume right before the start of school when we come together to make care packages for our local teachers.
Robert and I got out and about on Thursday morning to distribute fliers updating people on our summer schedule of kids' activities. We worked for about 90 minutes and distributed several hundred fliers. We'll finish distribute several hundred more in the next week or so.
I got a call from Rhonda Radliff this week. She's chaperoning a group of high school kids from Houston, Texas, on a tour of Washington, DC, and New York City. She wanted to see if there was a time when she could bring her kids to Pigtown for some fellowship with our kids. It worked out that they'll be able to attend next Saturday's Sundae Church.
On Friday afternoon I had the opportunity to present the Mission Center's new Gospel Wagon Suitcase to a class at our Mission Center Reunion in Springfield, Virginia. We're planning to use it at a Bible School in a year or two and possibly at upcoming community events.
We had small but good groups at Pizza Church on Friday night. The kids were especially focused during the lessons. We also had two new kids come who had received fliers earlier in the week.
Looking ahead to next week, we'll have our summer schedule of activities. I'll be in and out of town for the next several weeks so this newsletter will be sporadic at best between now and September. Though you won't be getting reminders as often, please continue to cover this ministry with your prayers. Please be especially mindful of our upcoming Bible School.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned and the continued progress on our building project, please keep the following families in the forefront of your prayers:
the King family
the Gerber family
the Stintchcomb family
the Calhoun family
the Gray family
the Meile family
the Brown family
the Burley 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.pigtownchurch.org
8/10/03
It's been a busy couple of weeks at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
The thing that has kept people the busiest has been preparation for Bible School. Jenn made samples of the crafts while Tamara recruited several people to staff the event and developed the visuals for the lessons. Heidi took charge of preparing the mailings. Don planned the music and even wrote a song just for the kids.
On top of all of this, they and others spent countless hours working on the mural. The top 2/3 of the building had to be painted and ready so that the kids could work on it once Bible School arrives. It was a daunting task. So far, the wall looks great. We've gotten great feedback from neighbors and have had two more people request that we paint murals on their houses, too.
I was out of town on vacation for two weeks during this time. This was the first time since I moved here five years ago that I was gone a full 15 days and missed two Sundays in a row. Don took charge of Pizza Church and spoke at a couple of the Sunday services and presided over other services. Gloria presided and lead some of the worship services. Tamara and Jenn ran Kids' Church. The list goes on and on.
Shortly before my vacation Robert and I distributed fliers to an area of the city just outside of Pigtown that is still in our local schools' attendance zones. Since that time we've had about a half-dozen kids from that area begin active participation in Pizza Church and Kids' Church. With those kind of instant results we'll most definitely be marketing Bible School there, too.
Also right before I left 18 people from the church walked to Camden Yards to watch an Orioles game together. Nine were kids who had earned a trip there by attending church at least 90 times last year. The other nine were adults who bought tickets to go and enjoy the game and fellowship. Though the stadium is only 7 blocks from the church, 4 of the nine kids had never been to a game there before.
This last week we had our monthly Priesthood meeting. We spent the bulk of the time checking on progress on our plans and implementation of our reformatted Kids' Church, the new discipleship plan, and our more aggressive follow-up ministries. All of these things are set to be up and running in September.
The last three days I attended the Willow Creek Church Leadership Summit. This was held in Chicago but I was able to participate in Timonium, Maryland, through a satellite link. 38,000 people participated in this training. This is the third year I've gone to this and it simple keeps getting better and better. I highly recommend next year's sessions for anyone in or interested in any kind of church leadership.
On Friday Robert learned that he had been accepted into the Community of Christ Leadership Program at Graceland University. He'll be able to develop his leadership and ministry skills as a part of his college education. Acceptance into the program also came with a $2000 scholarship.
Saturday evening was our monthly Solid Rock Cafe. Troy, Kara, and Bret, all counselors from camp, came to help staff the event.
Of course, not everything has been sunshine and roses the last couple of weeks either. For starters, we had a family break up. A person we'd been working with who had really made progress in turning his life around ended up back on heroin. An especially cruel drug dealer who had been away for a while came back. And, the sink in the church's bathroom came off the wall. The adventure never ends.
Looking ahead to next week, we will be following a different schedule than usual. Sunday we'll have our services at our normal times. All activities normally held on Monday through Thursday at in the church building, except the Narcotics Anonymous meeting, are cancelled. This is because the building will be monopolized by Bible School. We'll do our marketing and final set-up on Monday with the kids coming Tuesday through Friday. Our regular schedule resumes Friday evening with Pizza Church .
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned and the continued progress on our building project, please keep the following families in the individuals of your prayers:
Buddy
Phil
Damon
Aries
Melissa
Gloria
Violet
Jerry
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.pigtownchurch.org
9/6/03
It's been a busy few weeks at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland. Where do I even begin?
Bible School. We had the most incredible Bible School I've ever had the privilege to work at. 67 different kids attended at least one day. 36 of those kids were either brand new to the congregation or ones we hadn't seen in at least a year. 7 more kids were ones who used to attend regularly but had not attended church in several months. An additional 8 kids were new to the congregation earlier this summer. The lessons, crafts, music, games, and administration of the event were solid and smooth. The kids were really into all the activities and we had only minimal behavior problems.
What was especially neat for those of us who have been around here a while was the real change in how staffing worked at Bible School. In years past, we've had one or two people in charge of the event with a handful more handling tasks. This year we had many more people on staff. Each one of them stepped up to the plate and took over their respective areas of work with little need for direct instruction or supervision.
Along with Bible School was the completion of the mural. On two of the afternoons during Bible School week we invited the kids to come over and help with the painting. During the evenings we finished the things the kids were working on and then prepared the wall for the next thing they would do. By that Saturday it was finished. We continue to get lots of positive feedback from the community about it.
Since Bible School our attendance at Kids' Church has risen dramatically. Our average weekly attendance has nearly doubled when compared to the last couple of months before Bible School. We've also started some new programming for Kids' Church. Tamara is teaching the lessons, I'm leading the music and prayers, and Jenn is responsible for crafts. We've put together the curriculum through New Years.
Our Adult Disciples group started back up the last week of August. The first week back we assembled 140 care packages for the staff at our local elementary and middle schools. Jenn, Onalee, and I delivered them to the principals' offices the next day. Once they heard we were in the office, both principals dropped everything and came to greet and thank us for encouragement. With the dramatic cuts in funding this year the staff needs all the encouragement they can get.
That Thursday night Robert and I flew to Kansas City. He spent the day on Friday touring the Temple and the Auditorium, visiting with Apostle Luffman, Bob Kyser, and Tony & Charmaine Chvala-Smith. We also shopped for things he needed in his dorm room that don't fly well. Then on Saturday we headed up to Graceland University in Lamoni, Iowa. We got him moved in and settled in his room, paid his bill, met his roommate, found our way around campus, had his picture taken for his I.D., and had lunch together. Around 2:00 I headed back to the airport in Kansas City and he began his adventure as a college freshman.
We handled our distribution of school supplies to kids a little differently this year. Many of the supplies were a part of the prizes at Bible School. Then, last Sunday, we finished by handing out the remaining supplies at the end of Kids' Church.
This Wednesday brought the return of SonRisers. Even with rain and virtually no advertising we had 59 kids participate. That's up from 40 on the first day last year. Many of the kids were ones we hadn't seen all summer. They returned to church and brought friends with them. In addition, one boy had kept his scripture cards all summer so that he could get his T-Shirt to start the year.
That night the adults started with their new discipleship curriculum. We'll spend the next 8 weeks on the "Footings" portion of the plan answering questions like "Who is God?" "What is the Bible?" "How do I Pray?" and "What is the Church?" We're following the same topics of study during our Middle School sessions of Pizza Church.
It doesn't seem like I've even scratched the surface of what has been happening here. But, it will have to do for now. I've got to stop typing before the next activity arrives.
Looking ahead to next week, we will have our regular schedule of actives. In addition, this is Don's last weekend in Pigtown so we're having a potluck after the service Sunday night. This Thursday evening is our monthly priesthood meeting. Next weekend is "Pigtown Fest." We have a booth there on Saturday afternoon.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned and the continued progress on our building project, please keep the following individuals in the forefront of your prayers:
John
Less
Junior
Jerry
Cheryl
Jackie
Sharon
Ray
Andre
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.pigtownchurch.org
9/13/03
It's been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started out Sunday with our three services. We had our monthly communion service during Morning Worship. At Kids' Church we made sheep puppets. We said goodbye to Don during Evening Worship and had a potluck afterward. He left Pigtown after SonRisers on Wednesday.
Speaking of SonRisers, we had 90 kids participate in it this week. We've never before had such a large group so early in the year. As a result, we have now had over 250 different kids attend at least one activity at the church since July.
Wednesday evening brought week two our new adult discipleship curriculum. We received a tremendous amount of positive feedback from the previous session and people came in ready to learn. As a result of the class, several people in the congregation are reading the book "Understanding the Way" by Tony Chvala-Smith. They've really liked it a lot and have found it thought provoking.
Robert gave me a call this week from Graceland University. He seems to be doing quite well. He's on a retreat this weekend as a part of the church leadership program he's in.
On Thursday we had our monthly priesthood meeting. We really noticed having both Don and Robert gone. Part of our agenda was to look toward 2004 and begin developing goals for the year.
Mike was back at Pizza Church this Friday. We had good sessions throughout the evening and the kids were especially attentive. We're working now on some ways to get the kids we're meeting at SonRisers to start participating in Pizza Church.
Saturday brought the annual Pigtown Fest. Tamara, Heidi, and I staffed the church's booth. At it we gave away helium-filled balloons and information tracts. Gloria ran the booth for the Friends of Carroll Park. Unfortunately it rained quite a bit of the time. We have lots of leftover balloons and helium so we'll pass them out tomorrow after Kids' Church.
Saturday evening brought our monthly Solid Rock Cafe. The kids were outside and ready to come in about 15 minutes early. They were especially loud tonight but were otherwise fine.
Looking ahead to next week, we will have our regular schedule of actives. In addition, about 10 women from the congregation will head up to Deer Park Campground in New Hope, Pennsylvania, on Friday evening for their annual Women's Retreat.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned and the continued progress on our building project, please keep the following ongoing programs in the forefront of your prayers:
Pizza Church
SonRisers
Kids' Church
Adult Disciples
Morning Worship
Evening Worship
our 5 CORE groups
Solid Rock Cafe
Sundae Church
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.pigtownchurch.org
9/28/03
Its been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started out Sunday with our three services. Mike Barber brought the message during morning worship. With all the women on their way home from the women's retreat I was the only one of the regular staff at Kids' Church. Danny came over to help out. We watched a Veggie Tale.
The women got home from the women's retreat around 4:30. During Evening Worship they shared their experiences from the weekend. They were more than excited about what they had experienced and had lots to share with the group. Afterward, the only one of them who hadn't yet been baptized asked about it.
Open Gates, the nurse run health care service in the neighborhood, moved into its new facilities on Washington Blvd. Gloria has been asked to address the staff of the center as to some of the health care needs in the community and how they can better meet them.
95 kids participated in Wednesday morning's SonRisers activities. That doesn't include the kids who came after we were closed. 5 came about 10 minutes too late and 2 more came almost an hour late. When Gloria met the last two at the door to let them know that they were too late one of the kids said, "You must be new here" and then proceeded to try to con a donut out of her. I didn't work. That evening at Adult Disciples the class learned the basic answer to the question "What Is the Bible?"
Friday brought Pizza Church. Mike taught the first session and I taught the second two groups. The kids in all three sessions have started opening up a lot more with Tamara, Heidi, and Jenn. That makes the pizza time a lot more fun for everyone there.
Saturday evening brought our monthly Sundae Church. For the first time in recent memory the group was made up totally of girls.
Looking ahead to next week, we will have our regular schedule of actives. In addition, the neighborhood's new skateboard park will have its grand opening next Saturday. Gloria will be staffing the "Friends of Carroll Park" booth.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned and the continued progress on our building project, please keep the following people in the forefront of you prayers:
Tammy
Molly
Bernice
Tayvia
Brenda
Anthony
Julia
Troy
Rayvon
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.pigtownchurch.org
10/5/03
It's been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started out Sunday with our three services. Though a couple of families we would normally attend were gone this week, several people we hadn't seen since spring came to worship. After the service we had several administrations.
During Kids' Church we began a unit covering the scriptures from Ephesians in which we are instructed to "Put on the full armor of God." The kids especially liked the call and response march Tamara came up with for the unit. Also, one of the girl's from Shawna's CORE group wanted to come so Danny accompanied her. She loved it and is planning on coming back so long as Danny brings her.
After Evening Worship I visited with Pat about setting a date for her baptism. She wanted to do it the next Sunday at 6:00 p.m. We got everyone's attention and announced it to the group. When we did, Molly raised her hand and said, "Make that two baptisms next week."
Several of our CORE groups are transitioning into new materials right now. Tamara has new materials for the senior high girls. The women's group is starting the book "The Five Love Languages." The men's group is starting the "Every Man's Battle" series of books.
89 kids participated in SonRisers on Wednesday morning. That evening the Adult Disciples group worked on answering the question, "What is the Church?" We had a couple attend the church for the first time on Wednesday night. They had just moved to Baltimore from Mississippi. Before moving here they had found www.pigtownchurch.org and had called me asking me about the church. We're hoping they will call this place home while they are living here.
Friday night brought Pizza Church. It was neat to look back over the evening as it was exactly what our teen evangelism/discipleship strategy is supposed to look like. Though we had a few long term kids at the first two sessions, most of those kids were relatively new to the congregation. The lessons in those sessions were introductory. When the senior high group came in, all the kids there had been active in the church for at least 2 years, some as many as 5 years. All but two of them had been baptized. The lesson was a continuation of our verse by verse study of the Gospel of Mark. This was one of the clearest pictures of the plan we put on paper a few years ago.
The skateboard park was scheduled to open on Saturday. Since the mayor was to be there, massive numbers of city crews spent much of the week making significant progress on the projects throughout the park. Further, the entire park was mowed and trimmed. They even brought out inmates to clean garbage up off the streets to make the neighborhood look better. I haven't seen so much work done by the City of Baltimore in the 5+ years I've lived here. Rain caused the opening to be delayed for two weeks. Hopefully, the workers will make more progress on the projects in the days prior to the mayor's next scheduled event here.
On Saturday evening Danny came over to the church to get the font set up for Sunday. We haven't had a baptism for several months, so all the Bible School supplies and other remnants of the summer were stacked on top of it. He spent some time cleaning it off and getting it set up. Meanwhile, over the course of the evening, a bunch of kids came by asking what time Solid Rock Cafe would start. That's not until next week.
Looking ahead to next week, we will have our regular schedule of actives. In addition, we have a baptismal service at 6:00 Sunday night. From 7:00 - 9:00 on Sunday night we'll join churches around North America for a satellite linked worship service featuring author and speaker Max Lucado and musical guests Third Day. Thursday afternoon apostle Linda Booth will arrive in Pigtown for a visit that lasts through the following Monday morning. Saturday is our monthly Solid Rock Cafe.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned and the continued progress on our building project, please keep the following people in the forefront of you prayers:
Donna
Lamont
Emillio
Karen
Corin
CJ
Heidi
Chris
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.pigtownchurch.org
10/12/03
It's been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started out Sunday with four services instead of our usual three. We had 43 people at Morning Worship. Normally this would be more than a full house. However, we had the font set up for baptisms at a later service so that made our already limited space an even more prized commodity. To save space, we set up the communion emblems on top of the lid on the font.
At Kids' Church we continued with our study of the armor of God by learning about letting the truth be like a belt. Afterward, one relatively new kid who had not seen a baptism here lingered to ask me, "Can I bring a change of clothes with me to church tonight?" In talking with him a little further I learned he was under the impression that everyone who came to church that evening would be baptized and that he thought it would be strange for all of us to sit around at the church all wet. Once he knew that only a few were being baptized and that he could just witness it for now he was quite relieved.
Ten minutes prior to the start of Evening Worship, Brenda came into the church saying that her aunt had given her permission to get baptized. I went over to their house, verified the information, and had her get a change of clothes and a towel. Pat, Molly, and Brenda were all baptized and confirmed during the service. Earl Jamison and Mike Barber assisted with the confirmations.
At 7:00 p.m. we linked via satellite with churches throughout North America for a two hour service during which Max Lucado spoke. Some people from the Washington, D.C., and the Laurel, Maryland, congregations joined us for it.
On Wednesday morning we again had around 95 kids participate in SonRisers. For bout 14 of them this was the first activity they've attended at the church. We had a smaller than usual group at Adult Disciples that evening. During the class we reviewed some basic elements of prayer.
On Thursday Apostle Linda Booth arrived from church headquarters in Independence, Missouri. That afternoon, she and I took a walking tour of the area. That evening she had dinner and fellowship time with the priesthood team, participated in high school girls group, and visited with Jenn, Heidi, and Tamara. Between 11 p.m. and Midnight she and I walked around the neighborhood again.
Last fall we had a highly successful fundraiser for our building program by selling candles. We decided to do it again this year and received the materials for doing so on Thursday. We'll be doing this through the end of October so that we'll have the candles in hand before Thanksgiving.
On Friday Linda and I visited about some of the programming of the congregation. We then went on some home visits and drove through some of the surrounding neighborhoods. She participated in all three sessions of Pizza Church.
Saturday morning brought breakfast for Linda at Woody and Gloira's house. I picked her up there and we went on several visits that afternoon. One place we stopped during that time Molly's house. She was so very excited as she had just gotten a letter from church headquarters with her baptismal certificate in it. Molly is in her 60s, but she was giddy like a five year old, and even more so once Linda told her that the letter was signed by the president of the church. Molly said, "I just feel so proud and happy." So did we.
Saturday evening brought our monthly Solid Rock Cafe. We had a smaller crowd than usual. Still, the kids seemed to have a really good time.
Looking ahead to next week, we will have our regular schedule of actives. Linda will be speaking at both Morning Worship and Evening Worship. We'll have a potluck after Evening Worship. In addition, we have our monthly priesthood meeting on Thursday evening. The grand opening of the skateboard park is scheduled for Saturday.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned and the continued progress on our building project, please keep the following people in the forefront of you prayers:
Walter
Bob
Bernice
Betty
Richard
Billy
Less
Quentin
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.pigtownchurch.org
10/18/03
It's been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started out Sunday with Morning Worship. The church was well over fire capacity and about 10% of the crowd consisted of first-time visitors to the congregation. Apostle Linda Booth, who was visiting Pigtown from church headquarters in Independence, Missouri, brought a timely and powerful message to the congregation.
After the service, Linda and I stopped by Stella's house. She and her mother were both sick and we had prayer with them. From there we went to the hospital to visit Bobby. Bobby is Shirley's grandson and he had been admitted with viral meningitis the night before.
We got back from the hospital in time for Kids' Church. For the lesson that day, Linda talked a little about the role of an apostle and some of the places she's traveled in spreading the Gospel. The kids were then allowed to ask her questions. Though she'd mentioned about traveling to places such as Africa and Australia, the kids mostly asked about Missouri.
Sunday night's service brought an even larger crowd than in the morning. Linda noted, "I thought the place was packed [on Sunday morning] until that evening when all the available chairs were used and wooden chairs were crammed in and some people stood up during the service." Included in the group were at least 6 people who hadn't been to church in over a year and a few more we hadn't seen since spring. Linda spoke again that evening.
After the service we had a potluck dinner. Theresa, one of our teens, made and brought four dishes to pass. Among them was a lasagna with the name "Don" spelled out on top in cheese. She said she made it in memory of him since Don always brought lasagna to potluck when he lived here.
By the end of the day about 125 people had come to church. Once everyone had left, Linda and I sat down and had a long discussion about the weekend and her thoughts on the ministry here. I took her to the airport at the crack of dawn on Monday.
I talked with Robert a couple of times this week. He's at the midpoint of his first semester at Graceland University in Lamoni, Iowa. He reports that at this point he's passing all his classes and seems to continue to be thrilled to be there.
Danny usually buys about 150 donuts for SonRisers each Wednesday. When we closed the doors this week we had only 4 left. He's increasing his purchase to 200 next Wednesday.
On Wednesday evening the Adult Disciples group worked on the question "How Do I Worship?" Next week is the last of our eight week "Footings" materials during which we'll answer the question "What are the Sacraments?" After that we will begin our "Foundation" course which includes a 52 week Bible study.
Thursday night we had our monthly priesthood meeting. We spent the first half of the meeting with progress reports on our fall activities. We spent the last half of the meeting focused on finalizing details of the many and varied events coming up in the next three months including Halloween, a "Boundaries" satellite seminar, the business meeting, and Thanksgiving & Christmas baskets. We put the most effort into deciding what to do about Christmas Eve. Last year we had two services, both of which were full. We easily decided to go to three services this year. We then wrestled with what the best time frame would be for them.
Friday brought Pizza Church. All three sessions went well. In about a week the Senior High group will finish its line-by-line study of the book of Mark. Those kids who have attended this group faithfully for the last three years will have now studied the entire texts of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. We're planning on studying Acts after Christmas and John next fall.
The new skateboard park in Carroll park opened on Saturday. As president of the Friends of Carroll Park, Gloria opened the event. Patricia also started her new job that day. She's been hired to run the front desk and manage registrations & admission when the skate park is open.
That afternoon I had a wedding. It was for a couple who lives down the street from the church. The wedding party, family, and guests all arrived ahead of time so we started the ceremony about ten minutes early. With big smiles on their faces many of the neighbors watched out their windows as the couple came out of the church and the guests threw rice.
Looking ahead to next week, we will have our regular schedule of actives. In addition, we'll be winding down our candle sale to raise money for our new building (the orders must be in next Sunday). Next Saturday we'll be handing out fliers. Saturday night is our monthly Sundae Church for high school students.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned and the continued progress on our building project, please keep the following families in the forefront of you prayers:
the Oneill family
the Wagner family
the Smallwood family
the Kerler family
the Moore family
the Jamison family
the Yancey 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.pigtownchurch.org
10/25/03
It's been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started out Sunday with our three services. Even with several of our most faithful attendees ill or out of town we still had an overcapacity crowd at Morning Worship. During Kids' Church, we learned about the "shoes like peace" component of God's armor. Among the worshippers at Evening Worship was Faith, the baby who was born prematurely (only 1.5 pounds) back in March. She was a happy, healthy 13.5 pounds.
Wednesday morning brought SonRisers. Gloria had hurt her back earlier in the week so I got there before opening to finish setting up. Over 100 kids participated this week. Plus, there were about a dozen more that came after we closed.
The Adult Disciples group finished their 8-week "Footings" course this week with a unit on the sacraments. We'll be starting our "Foundation" Bible study next Wednesday and will be repeating our "Footings" course for new people at the start of the year.
One of our members checked into the hospital this week in trying to get help in breaking his addiction to heroin. Since he has no insurance he is only allowed the most basic care. As they were getting ready to release him at the end of a minimal stay, they discovered that he had a rather serious infection. Because of it, they could not release him and have, in the meantime, gotten him much needed counseling and put him on a better addiction recovery program.
As part of the Carrol Park redevelopment plan, the city has been installing pedestrian lighting along the sidewalks that surround the park. They turned on the electricity to those lights this week. The park and the streets surrounding it look totally different at night now.
Friday night brought Pizza Church. We had several kids who we hadn't seen in a long time return this week. At the same time, some of our most faithful in attendance didn't come so our overall numbers were pretty normal. The senior high group completed its study of the Gospel of Mark.
On Saturday morning several of us distributed fliers to invite people to church. We hit several blocks outside of the immediate area but still within walking distance of the church. We selected areas where kids live who participate in SonRisers but no other activities.
Don was down from Princeton for the weekend. He participated in the scheduled activities throughout the weekend. He also had a paper he's working on that required an analysis of a congregation and its surrounding neighborhood. We spent a good portion of Saturday afternoon helping him sort through data about the Power House and Pigtown.
Saturday night brought this month's Sundae Church. We had about a half dozen senior high kids participate.
Looking ahead to next week, we will have our regular schedule of actives. In addition, we'll be collecting the sales fliers from our candle fundraiser. Friday night is Halloween so we've cancelled the first session of Pizza Church because we'll still be handing out candy at that time. On Saturday we'll be taking the first few kids who reached 40 credits this year out to Friendly's for ice cream sundaes.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned and the continued progress on our building project, please keep the following people in the forefront of you prayers:
Molly
Kurt
Larry
Stella
Frank
Julia
Marshall
Markia
Corin
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.pigtownchurch.org
11/9/03
It's been a busy couple of weeks at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
Two weeks ago in Morning Worship we learned from the story in which Jesus casts demons out of a man and into a heard of pigs. This is an especially favorite story here in Pigtown. Last Sunday was communion. I had injured my hand on Saturday (which is why you didn't get a report last weekend) so Vonceil served communion by herself.
At Kids' Church we continued with our study of the Armor of God. Last Sunday was especially fun as the kids each made a "Shield of Faith" out a paper plate. We then took pieces of paper with words like "lies" and "stealing" on them, wadded them up, and threw them at the kids so they could use their shield to defend themselves.
The message during last Sunday's Evening Worship was especially powerful. Danny shared about making a phone call to his son this week. That doesn't sound all that spectacular until you realize that the two of them hadn't had contact in about 20 years. He told of how God had been moving in both of their lives which allowed this to happen.
SonRisers was especially busy the last couple of weeks. We had 101 kids one week and 94 the next. Last week Danny brought marshmallow cream filled donuts for the 6 people who staff this ministry.
The Adult Disciples group began their "Foundation" curriculum. This is a 52 week study of Bible essentials. So far they've learned about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
We had about 150 kids come trick-or-treating on Halloween. The women from the Towson Congregation provided cookies for them and we provided the candy. While the kids were coming by, Mrs. Lee from one of the corner stores came by with a bucket full of candy bars that she and her husband wanted to donate the church.
The number of kids participating in Pizza Church has been down the last couple of weeks. The first week was Halloween so we expected low numbers. This Friday the neighborhood PAL Center held a dance during Pizza Church so many of the kids attended it instead. We've been pleased, though, that many of the kids who have been coming have been coming are new to Pizza Church.
One of our girls wasn't at Pizza Church because her high school was having its homecoming dance. When I turned on the 11:00 news the reporters were standing in front of the school stating that 3 people had been stabbed during that dance. Fortunately, our girl had sensed that something bad was going to happen and left the dance 30 minutes before it happened.
We crossed an attendance milestone this week. We've had over 400 different kids attend at least one activity at the church since July 1.
We learned this week that World Church has put together a financial package to help us get construction started on our addition. It's a combination of funding from several sources, including the World Church, the Chesapeake Bay Mission Center, and the local congregation. We're in the process of putting together fundraising plans to complete the congregation's up-front cash commitment.
Quite accidentally this weekend we started putting together next summer's Bible School. A flier with a unique craft idea came in the mail. We started talking about it and we ended up with a rough sketch for what we'll be doing next August.
On Saturday we had our monthly Solid Rock Cafe. Tamara, Jenn, Heidi, Trip, and I staffed the event. It was one of the smoothest functioning Cafe's we've ever had.
Looking ahead to next week, we will have our regular schedule of actives. In addition, we'll have our monthly priesthood meeting on Thursday evening. On Saturday Danny and I will go to Laurel to participate in our quarterly Mission Center Leadership Teem meeting.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned and the continued progress on our building project, please keep the following people in the forefront of you prayers:
Quentin
Decarlo
Jordan
Bryant
Mike
Chad
O'Shea
Quante
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.pigtownchurch.org
11/22/03
It's been a busy couple of weeks at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
Last Sunday night we had our annual business meeting. In it we reviewed the minutes from previous meetings, elected officers, and discussed the building project and its fundraising plans. The Towson congregation had its business meeting earlier that day and voted to have a dollar-for-dollar challenge grant to help our raise funds for the new building.
At Kids' Church we finished up our study of the armor of God over the last two weeks. One week we made hats to remind us of the helmet of salvation. Last Sunday we learned of the Word being like a sword then made small swords out of foam.
I traveled this week to Kirtland, Ohio. We had the Northeast Mission Field's annual employee meeting there.
We spent a lot of time working on our building project. There were lots of phone calls, faxes, email, snail mail, voice mail, and meetings to communicate with the builder, architect, and denominational leaders. I was able to meet up with Larry Norris while in Kirtland and passed along our building contract to him. He's having the legal department review it and, if all goes well, it should be signed and into the builder by Thanksgiving.
Around 90 kids participated in SonRisers each of the last two weeks. While I was out of town my dad came to help staff the event.
Our candle orders came in before I left for Kirtland. We had earned $200 toward our building fund through this sale. We still have 2 candles on back order which we hope will be in this week.
The Adult Disciples group studied the life of Joseph two weeks ago. Last week my dad taught the first of three lessons on the life of David.
We've had good Pizza Church sessions the last couple of weeks. Though many of our traditionally consistent attendees have not come we've had bunches of new kids, either new to the church or on their first visit to Pizza Church, each week.
Last Saturday morning Danny and I went to the church in Laurel together to participate in the Mission Center Leadership Team meeting. This Saturday we had our "Boundaries" satellite seminar. That same evening we had our monthly Sundae Church.
We had our monthly priesthood meeting a week ago Thursday. During it we learned some suicide prevention and intervention strategies. We also made several decisions about the upcoming Christmas season, including having Candlelight services at 6:00, 7:30, and 9:00 p.m. this year to accommodate the anticipated crowds.
Looking ahead to next week, we will have our regular schedule of actives. In addition we'll have our annual dessert potluck after Evening worship this Sunday. We'll also be distributing Thanksgiving baskets and preparing for our groundbreaking celebration scheduled for Sunday, November 30.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned and the continued progress on our building project, please keep the following people in the forefront of you prayers:
Pat
Jenn
Heidi
Tamara
James
Robert
Damon
George
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.pigtownchurch.org
11/29/03
It's been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started out Sunday with our three services. We has several administrations as a part of Morning Worship. We also had a dog come into the service just before it started. That caused some excitement. The kids made turkeys as a part of the Thanksgiving lesson at Kids' Church. Evening Worship included a time for people to share what they were most thankful for this year. This was followed by our annual dessert potluck. People outdid themselves this year in making an incredible variety of sweet treats to share together.
After my seminary classes on Tuesday evening, I stopped by Georgia's house. There I loaded up a literal carload of food that the Towson congregation had gathered to sponsor a family for Thanksgiving. I delivered it to Gloria's house and she and Woody took it to the family after SonRisers on Wednesday morning.
The holidays brought travels for several folks in the congregation. Heidi, Jenn, and Tamara all spent time away with their families. Don stopped by the neighborhood to fix a couple of things at his house while he was on his way from Princeton to North Carolina.
Not surprisingly, we only had 70+ kids at SonRisers this week as many started their vacations a little early. We had a couple dozen extra donuts left over so I surprised a few neighbors that afternoon with treats for their Thanksgiving breakfasts.
The adult disciples group continued its study of the life of David. They read and discussed the time period between his killing Goliath and becoming king. We'll finish our study of him next Wednesday.
On Thursday, Danny came over to the church and changed out our banner we have on the front of the building. It's the first step in getting the building ready for Christmas and promoting Christmas activities in the neighborhood.
Usually holidays or days with hard rain cuts down on Pizza Church attendance. We had a strong downpour this Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, so we weren't sure if kids would come. Happily, we had pleasant crowds at all three sessions. We began our Christmas studies by learning of the birth of John the Baptist.
Looking ahead to next week, we will have our regular schedule of actives. In addition we'll have groundbreaking celebration on Sunday morning. Gloria and I will be getting together this Wednesday to update our congregation directory for 2004 and Violet will be submitting the orders for our Christmas ornament fundraiser. On Saturday we'll be taking several kids who have been to church at least 40 times since July to Friendly's for ice cream sundaes.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned and the continued progress on our building project, please keep the following people in the forefront of you prayers:
Kayla
Shirley
Patricia
Violet
Jimmy
Rayvon
Troy
Darius
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.pigtownchurch.org
12/6/03
Its been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started out Sunday morning with our ground breaking celebration. The Towson Congregation joined us for Morning Worship. The scripture text was the story of the wise men and we reviewed how theirs was a journey of hope. We related to the journey of hope the Towson group has had which has resulted in this congregation and shared photos of hope carrying events from our past such as the first service here in Pigtown, ground breaking of the current building, the last service at the old building, etc. We each had a yellow ribbon and, during a time of meditation and reflection, we wrote on that ribbon what our hopes were regarding what God would do in the addition. We took those ribbons outside and tied them to a rope that surrounded the area where the rostrum will be in the new room. Ron offered a blessing on the project, the people, the neighborhood, and our hopes. We all posed for a group picture.
At Kids' Church we started our Christmas celebrations. We took pictures of each of the kids who came and put them on Christmas cards. The kids colored in the other graphics on the cards and signed them. Then during Evening Worship we focused on the topic of hope.
The women's CORE group finished their study of the five love languages on Monday evening. They are the third CORE group to complete the course.
A bitter cold greeted us Wednesday morning. With this we nearly drained all the water for our hot chocolate at SonRisers. Also, many more of the 94 kids who participated took advantage of the opportunity to sit inside a warm church rather than stand outside he doors of the school.
After SonRisers Gloria and I got together to synchronize our addresses and phone numbers. It's time to update the directory and we had quite a number of people move this year. We also discovered a couple of people who have moved whose address neither of us has. We're seeking that information this week.
That night the Adult Disciples group finished their study of David. We'll start next week on our study of the life of Jesus.
We had the fist snow storm of the season on Friday. Schools closed but we still had a good group out for Pizza Church. We studied Luke's account of the birth of Jesus.
On Saturday, I got the fliers for the upcoming Christmas events printed and ready for distribution. That evening, Jenn and I took 4 kids who had 40+ attendance credits out for ice cream sundaes at Friendly's.
Looking ahead to next week, we will have our regular schedule of actives. I have jury duty on Friday so the Pizza Church folks will be ready in case the judge keeps us late. In addition, we have our monthly Solid Rock Cafe on Saturday.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned and the continued progress on our building project, please keep the following people in the forefront of you prayers:
Pat
Jimmy
Melissa
Tavon
Brandon
Dashonn
Jeana
Brenda
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.pigtownchurch.org
12/14/03
It's been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started Sunday with our three services. The topic for Morning Worship was Love. We celebrated the sacrament of the Lord's Supper as a part of the service. We watched the Veggie Tale "The Toy that Saved Christmas" during Kids' Church. We continued with the theme of Love during Evening Worship. We had a lot of prayer requests as a part of that service.
The young adult CORE group started a new plan this week. They now rotate the duties of the discussion leader each week instead of having one person responsible for it. Karin took the lead for the first time Sunday night.
The women's CORE group brought snacks to their meeting on Monday and watched a movie on the life of Mary. They enjoyed the movie and spent some time discussing which parts of it were from the Bible and which parts were not.
We had about 85 kids at Wednesday's SonRisers activities. That evening at Adult Disciples we began our study of the life of Jesus. In this week's lesson we looked at Old Testament prophecies of his life.
We learned this week that Karen had been voted by her peers as "Volunteer of the Month" at Paul's Place. Paul's Place is a soup kitchen/homeless shelter type ministry in Pigtown that is sponsored by St. Paul's Episcopal Church. She's been volunteering there since she lost her job.
Fortunately, I was not selected for a jury this Friday so I made it to Pizza Church on time. Though very loud during the fellowship time, the kids did an extra good job during the lessons. We also had several new kids who were relatives, friends, and neighbors of some of our kids who have become active at the church this fall.
We had about 20 kids at Saturday's Solid Rock Cafe. During this event I started passing out invitations for next Saturday's Christmas Caroling Party. The 21 kids who have 20+ credits so far this year will carol in the neighborhood then come back to the church for Subway sandwiches and fellowship together.
We've had lots of surprise donations this week. On Tuesday a friend of a friend of a friend of Danny's who heard about the ministry stopped by the church with a check. We had a woman down the street from the church bring in an artificial Christmas tree for us to get to someone who doesn't have one. These and several other surprises have made the week a bit more delightful.
Looking ahead to next week, we will have our regular schedule of actives. In addition, the women's CORE group will be assembling Christmas care packages for the local teachers on Monday night. On Tuesday we'll deliver them to the schools. We have our monthly priesthood meeting Thursday evening. We'll be finishing up some mailings early in the week and will distribute fliers for our Christmas activities on Saturday. Saturday night is our Christmas Caroling Party. We'll also be putting the final touches on our bake sale and our live nativity, both of which are next Sunday (12/21) in the afternoon. Finally, Robert will fly home from is first semester at Graceland University this Friday.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned and the continued progress on our building project, please keep the following people in the forefront of you prayers:
Joshua
John
Nancy
Bob
James
Ella
Theresa
Vicky
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.pigtownchurch.org
12/20/03
It's been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
The topic for Sunday was peace. During Morning Worship, we talked about external peace, internal peace, and eternal peace. At Kids' Church we painted Christmas sun catchers to help reinforce the lesson. Evening Worship brought a challenge to pray for our enemies as a part of our call to peace.
On Monday evening the women's CORE group put together 140 Christmas care packages for our local teachers. The packets included some chocolates, a candy cane, a pen, some stickers, and words of encouragement. This is an especially tough time in Baltimore schools as 700 people were laid off this fall and plans 1000 more layoffs were announced in recent weeks. I packed Onalee and the packets into her wagon on Tuesday morning so we could take them to the schools.
We spent quite a bit of energy this week in marketing the upcoming Christmas celebrations. On Sunday we have the live nativity petting zoo and a Christmas bake sale. On Christmas Eve we have our three candlelight services. We traditionally promote these events heavily but this year we did even more than usual.
We put together a mailing to members who have moved out of the neighborhood and to everyone in the metropolitan area who has visited the congregation in the past two years. On Wednesday the Catholic school Bryce attends sent fliers home with each student. I distributed about 600 fliers on Friday then Jenn, Don, Robert, Shane, Joshua, and I distributed an additional 1100 fliers on Saturday. JRay's, a local corner bar, gave out Christmas gift packages to hundreds of kids in the neighborhood on Saturday. They do this each year. This year, each gift pack included invitations for the kids to come to the live nativity petting zoo.
We had a smaller group of kids at SonRisers this week. The Adult Disciples group studied the accounts of Jesus' birth as found in Matthew and Luke.
We had our monthly priesthood meeting on Thursday evening. It had a relatively short agenda as most of it focused on putting the finishing touches on the Christmas activities. We had only a few long-range planning discussions.
We received a citation from the fire marshal this week. It said our bill wasn't paid, but we had a cancelled check that says otherwise. We spent some time trying to straighten that out. No success. We'll keep on working on it.
Don came into town on Friday afternoon. He decided to spend the weekend here and help out with the extra activities while on his way home to North Carolina for Christmas.
Larger than usual crowds greeted us at Friday night's Pizza Church sessions. We had studied the stories of the birth of Jesus for a couple of weeks so this week's project for the kids was to put all the events in the order of their occurrence. All three groups concentrated and worked as teams to get it right.
Between Pizza Church sessions Robert came by. He had just gotten home after completing his first semester at Graceland University in Lamoni, Iowa. He'll be home for several weeks.
On Saturday evening we had our Christmas caroling party for the kids with the best attendance records. After caroling we consumed 6 feet of sandwich from Subway.
As you know, we've been working on fundraising for our building project. This has been at the top of our prayer list for several weeks. This last week we've watched God show Himself strong in this area. As people have talked about the project at their places of employment, people have given theme money to add to the fund. I've received checks in the mail from people from other states who wanted to contribute. The doorbell rang on Wednesday and a man handed me an envelope. In it was money that some people who work for business Danny's company does business with had collected. I even got a phone call Saturday afternoon from the realtor who sold us our house over 5 years ago. She said she just felt like she needed to make a donation to the church and asked who she should make the check payable to. Wow.
Many people in the congregation spent lots of hours in their kitchens this week getting ready for Sunday's bake sale. I've heard of a wide variety of goodies including cakes, cookies, candied apples, brownies, fudge, and lemon bars. Mike also told me that he'll be bringing some gingerbread houses and gingerbread men that the youth at the Washington, D.C., congregation made for the sale.
Looking ahead to next week, we'll have a different schedule of activities. As mentioned, we have our live nativity petting zoo and our bake sale on Sunday afternoon. This will replace Kids' Church. We will not have SonRisers, Narcotics Anonymous, or Adult Disciples on Wednesday. Instead, we have our candlelight services at 6:00, 7:30, and 9:00 p.m. that night. All activities on Thursday are canceled. In addition, we'll be taking the gifts and food to the family that the Towson Congregation sponsored for Christmas.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned and the continued progress on our building project, please keep the following individuals in the forefront of you prayers:
Mary
Karin
Tayvia
Jordan
Decarlo
Markia
Anthony
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.pigtownchurch.org
12/27/03
It's been a busy week at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.
It started out with Morning Worship on Sunday. The topic was "Joy" and we had a full house. People also started bringing their baked goods in for that afternoon's bake sale.
Immediately after church we put set up for the afternoon's festivities. We cleared the floor of chairs, set up tables, printed banners, and began setting out the food. By about 1:30 people who were bringing food over for the bake sale stayed to finish setting up. In the end, the tables were loaded down with beautiful Christmas treats.
The animals for the petting zoo arrived early so some people came to look at them while they were still in the trailer. By 2:30, the scheduled starting time, we had a line of people to see the animals and another to get into the bake sale. We continued with large crowds on this cool, sunny day at both locations until 4:00. We don't have firm attendance numbers, but we're estimating that we had a little over 200 people come that afternoon.
That night during Evening Worship we took time to share with each other what blessings had brought us joy this past year. We again had a full house.
On Monday afternoon Ron stopped by with a car load of food and gifts from the Towson group. Later that day Gloria and I delivered it to the family they were sponsoring.
That night, the women's CORE group spent their meeting time tidying up the church. They dusted the areas around the computers, polished the wood, and even miraculously cleaned off my desk.
On Tuesday afternoon Robert got his report card from his first semester at Graceland University. He had a 3.4 gpa, which was a little better than he had originally anticipated.
Tamara met with the senior high girls then she and I started setting up for the Christmas Eve services on Tuesday evening. We hung the candle chandeliers, found our candle holders, and started placing them around the room. We also set up the chairs and the worship center.
Wednesday brought the three Christmas Eve services. Each service had a few more people in attendance than did the previous one. By the end of the evening, we had a total of 104 people who had come. Among them were many people we hadn't seen in a few months and others who were first-time visitors to the church. Danny, Robert, and Tamara kept thing running smoothly and cleaned and reset the chairs between each service. One of our middle school aged boys came up after the service and said, "Three times during those songs I felt all electric inside, sort of like that tickley feeling I had when you prayed over me after I was baptized."
Mike and I were the only Pizza Church staff left in town this Friday. Further, Vonceil's grandmother had died earlier in the week and she was out in Missouri for the funeral. Because of this, Bryce and Onalee attended the two first sessions with me then Mike had the third group on his own. We ended up canceling this Saturday's Sundae Church.
Looking ahead to next week we again have a different schedule of activities. Sunday follows its normal schedule, but everything on Wednesday and Thursday is canceled except for the Narcotics Anonymous group. We'll be back on our normal schedule starting on Friday. Next Saturday we'll be taking kids who have recently crossed over 40 attendance credits to Friendly's for ice cream sundaes.
Along with the individuals and activities mentioned and the continued progress on our building project, please keep the following individuals in the forefront of you prayers:
Roxie
James
Terrence
Durrell
Amy
Bernice
Bev
Billy
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.pigtownchurch.org
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