8/15/2010

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

It started out Sunday with a text message. The Wadhams Grove Congregation in Michigan had just had a business meeting. In it, they voted unanimously to donate their Peacemobile to our congregation so we could establish the Pigtown Peace Pavilion here in Baltimore. This will be a major long-term project for us. We'll transform our currently underused balcony into a space for seasonally changing interactive displays that classes from the neighborhood elementary schools can come to and learn about peace building skills.

As a part of the message at Morning Worship, we cast vision for what this blessing and challenge to us from Wadhams Grove will mean to the congregation and the community. People were VERY excited about what could happen here as a result of this new ministry project.

In another part of the service we offered a blessing for Damon. He was scheduled to leave for Graceland University later in the week and we offered our collective prayers for him. After the service, we had a cake and shared our good-byes and well-wishes.

Our topic at Kids' Church was evangelism. The kids made invitations to this week's Bible School activities to give to friends.

That evening was our monthly priesthood meeting. With so much going on this week and last, we limited our time to one hour and got as much covered as we could in that amount of time.

Sam, Hannah, Tamara, Sarah, and I hit the streets Monday morning with postcards announcing Bible School. In about 2.5 hours we distributed a little over 2000 cards to homes surrounding the church. We covered the areas we normally flier and several blocks that we don't normally get to but were able to because of the number of people working together. Afterward we spent much of the rest of the day finalizing Bible School plans, making a shopping list of things we still needed, going to some stores, setting up the room, making sample crafts, and otherwise preparing for morning. About 9 that night we were nearly ready so we had our final prayer session for Bible School together.

We opened the doors for Bible School at 10:00 Tuesday morning. About 30 kids came to the festivities. The group was predominantly 4, 5, and 6 year old kids, the vast majority of whom had never been to The Power House before. We had the absolute best first day of Bible School in all the years we've been doing it. One grandmother who stayed with us for the day said, "You are so organized! You all accomplished more here in two hours than they do all day at where I volunteer!" Our theme was "Taste and see that the Lord is good" and included activities like making butter, frosting crackers, making kaleidoscopes, and mounting pictures of themselves.

After Bible School I headed out to Uhaul. I needed to get a hitch installed on our van to be able to haul the Peacemobile back to Pigtown. We've planned a road trip there next week to pick it up.

We have an elderly person in the congregation who lives alone and has no family. He stopped coming to church about 6 months ago. We've been trying to track him down on and off for the last several months. Gloria learned a while back that he had been hospitalized but, because we aren't family, we were not able to learn even which hospital he was at. Gloria found out this week that he's now in a care home on the other side of town. We're hoping to make contact with him there as soon as we get an afternoon open.

On Wednesday Charlotte and brought a couple of her friends and her keyboard up to the church to run one of the learning centers. Kathy brought a couple of her guitars for the kids to experience. We also made tambourines and colored large posters. Our theme that day was "Make a joyful noise unto the Lord."

Afterward we rearranged the room so that the NA group could meet there that evening. Hannah and Tamara went with Vonceil to her school for a while. Hannah and Sam continued their work on the mural inside the church.

Gloria and I met up at the funeral home that afternoon. Kenny Meile, Bev's husband, died earlier in the week. We went to pay our respects and represent the church in her life.

The Spirit's coming as wind and fire at Pentecost was the basis of our activities at Bible School on Thursday. We made pinwheels, played with bubbles, and made candles out of all our old crayons.

That afternoon I got a call from a friend who distributes free food he's received from grocery stores. He had more than usual and wondered if we could distribute it through the church. He dropped off boxes of fresh meat, breads, desserts, fruits & vegetables, and gallons of milk. We sorted through it and immediately called a some families on the phone and flagged down neighbors who were out on their front steps. Within an hour several families had come and stocked up.

As that wound down I picked up Damon and drove to the airport to catch our flight to Kansas City. He needed to report to Graceland University on Friday morning so we flew out Thursday evening. Once in Missouri we got some additional dorm and school supplies at Wal-Mart. I then took him to Tony and Charmaine Chvala-Smith's house. He spent the night there and they took him up to the campus on Friday morning. I spent the very short night at a motel by the airport to catch the 6:30 a.m. flight back to Baltimore.

Tamara took the lead at Bible School Friday morning. It was our celebration day so we had an inflatable obstacle course, a moon bounce, a Lego table, a coloring table, and a Lincoln Logs/Tinker Toys table. For our snack that day each kids got an apple and two cookies that came from the food distribution on Thursday. My flight from Kansas City was on time so I arrived at the church about 10 minutes into the program.

Once the kids left we started a major clean-up. We mopped the floors, scoured the bathrooms, and scrubbed crayon marks off the tables. We moved some supplies to the attic and got the video screen back in place. Later that afternoon people worked on sketching out details on the mural.

That night brought Pizza Church. We had larger-than-usual groups throughout the evening. The first two groups learned about one of Elisha's miracles while the High School group continued its study of the Gospel of Luke. Two of the older kids from Bible School came to the 6:00 session.

I spent the bulk of the day on Saturday catching up on paperwork. Meanwhile, others were working on the mural inside the church. While I was updating some of the church information on Facebook, I noticed the status of a kid who hadn't been to church in years. It said that he wished he'd gone to Pizza Church on Friday. I commented on the post and invited him to Solid Rock Cafe on Saturday night.

That evening Vonceil came over to the church to help get the curtains back in place. They are used to keep light off the video screen and had been removed for Bible School. With those back up we were ready for Solid Rock.

Not long after opening the doors, the kid I'd reminded on Facebook earlier in the day came in. He brought a friend with him who had never been to the church. In visiting, I learned that he'd seen the pictures we'd posted from camp. He recognized many of his camp friends, now many years older, in the pictures and had decided he needed to get back in church so he could go to camp next year and reconnect with them.

Looking ahead to next week we have our full schedule of activities. In addition, Bill & Wendy Brian and company are coming on Sunday and will be in charge of Kids' Church that day. Hannah, Sam, Tamara, Carlo, Fred, and I are taking a road trip to Michigan to pick up the Peacemobile. We'll also be trying to finish up the mural. With school fast approaching we'll be working on collecting more school supplies and getting them ready for distribution on August 29.

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

The Fleming Family
The King Family
The Wagner Family
The Howe Family
The Lydick Family
The Lester Family
The Martinez Family
The Iman 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/