7/4/2010

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

It started out Sunday with a "Code Red" heat day and all of us very thankful for working air conditioning at the church. Because of the heat we had a few people stop by between services to cool off and get some water. At Morning Worship we reflected on God's Kingdom as described in Isaiah 11.

We started learning about the book of 2 Kings during Kids' Church. Sarah brought over some baked goods that were leftover from a bake sale at the Dundalk Congregation so the kids got some homemade treats for a snack that day. We still had a few items left over so I did some reverse trick-or-treating that evening handing out treats to people who were cooling off on their front steps.

The close of Kids' Church marked the end of our attendance year. I spent some time that afternoon and evening running the final attendance data and setting up the new system for the 2010-2011 year.

With that, let me share some of the statistics:

-752 kids came to at least one regularly scheduled activity at the church during the last 12 months. That's the most we've ever had and 177 more than last year.
-We had 4965 recorded attendance instances, meaning that kids came on average 6-7 times over the course of the year.
-51 kids came on average of at least once a month, 22 kids came on average of at least twice per month and 6 came to church on average more than once each week.
-This data does not include participating in "off schedule" events such as Bible School, the anniversary celebration, etc.

Robert opened the church on Tuesday for the scout troop. They'll be meeting at the church each Tuesday afternoon this summer then resuming their regular location at the school this fall.

With the start of the new month we published our July edition "Kids' Church News." We also launched "Pizza Church Press," a newsletter for parents of kids who participate in Pizza Church. You can follow it on line at http://pizzachurchpress.blogspot.com/.

We spent some time this week working on travel plans for getting Damon out to Graceland University this fall. The good news is that he received a small football scholarship. The ramifications, though, is that he now needs to report several weeks earlier for practice. This means he needs to travel during Bible School so none of us will be able to travel with him. We'll get him there on time but we're still trying to figure out exactly how.

The extreme heat broke mid-week. Pleasant evenings brought much of the neighborhood out to their front steps. We were able to visit with many folks while walking around the neighborhood those nights.

Friday night brought Pizza Church. With the change of groups because of grade changes, the holiday weekend, an event at a nearby church, and last minute camp preparations our attendance patterns were disrupted. We had very small groups for the first two sessions, though they were all quite excited to be in new groups. The senior high group, though, actually had an unusually large number of participants.

I touched base on Saturday with a couple of campers' families. I hadn't heard from them in the last couple of weeks and wanted to make sure they were still on track for going. I've now talked with almost all the kids in the past two weeks and all but one that I've talked to are still on track.

Tamara packed up her vehicle with all her camp supplies on Saturday. She was able to spend the night with a friend near the campgrounds so she'd be ready to start setting things up at camp as soon as staff could get on the grounds on Sunday.

Looking ahead to next week we have our full schedule of activities. In addition, camp begins this week. Robert and Ebony, who are both on staff, are going down Sunday while Lennard join them on staff on Monday. We'll pick up the rental vans at the airport on Monday (Vonceil and I will drive them) and rendezvous with Gloria (driving our van) and Earl (driving his own van) at the church. We're scheduled for a 10:00 a.m. departure for camp. We'll reverse this whole process on Saturday to get the kids home. Next Saturday evening is also our monthly Solid Rock Cafe.

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

The Moore Family
The Quick Family
The Marsh Family
The Livingston Family
The Kruft Family
The Saffran Family
The Bookhultz Family
The Latham Family

Thank you for your continued prayer support.

Jeff and everyone at
The Power House
“Building the Kingdom of God Here and Now”
PowerHouseMD@Juno.com
www.pigtownchurch.org
http://thisweekatthepowerhouse.blogspot.com/