8/29/2010

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

It started out just as after I sent out the report last Saturday night. There was a shooting right around the corner from my house. I needed to scope out the scene and make sure I could account for people, especially our World Service Corps volunteers. I was also able to visit with some congregants who were at the scene. Wound up from the incident, I wasn't able to get to sleep until about 4 a.m. If you want to know where my head goes in those kinds of settings, you can read my blog entry written that night at http://davotionsfromdahood.blogspot.com/2010/08/scarey.html.

The next morning I shelved the original sermon for Morning Worship and had a message with prayers from the congregation interspersed in it. The new message revolved around why we do what we do and our long-term hope for the community.

Sam and Hannah took the lead during the lesson at Kids' Church. They shared some things about Wales and England with the kids. We then had coloring pages with the Welsh, English, and UK flags.

As Kids' Church wound down our kids who went to Spectacular began to gather in the building. They were going to Pennsylvania for an evening with Spec participants. The family who hosted it have a backyard pool so they all had a chance to play and had a good evening together.

We were on the road to Pennsylvania again on Monday. The kids who had come to church on average of more than twice a week for the last school year had earned a day at Hershey Park. We got there shortly after opening and stayed late enough to close the place.

Work continued on the mural on Tuesday. Sarah brought over another ladder so more people could work on it at the same time. Meanwhile, I got the supplies necessary for our teacher care packages and restocked the paper products at the church.

I met up with George on Wednesday morning. He brought donations of school supplies from folks in the Frederick, Maryland, congregation.

We also worked on producing the September newsletters for Pizza Church and Kids' Church. In trying to make things easier, I completely messed up our mailing student address data base. It took much of the afternoon to get things straightened out.

That afternoon the mural was declared finished. That portion of the Pigtown Peace Pavilion is now complete. You can see pictures of what will welcome kids to their B'more Peaceful experience at http://pigtownpeacepavilion.blogspot.com/.

Bryce and I spent Thursday morning shopping for school supplies. Hannah and Sam had kept a good inventory of what supplies we'd received so Bryce and I took the money and gift cards we'd been given for school supplies and went shopping. At the first Office Depot we were in the supervisor initiated a conversation with us about the unusual combination of things we were buying. When she heard what we were doing she got all teary-eyed and stared giving us lots of extra things for free. The manager at Staples, who we already know well and who has supported us generously over the last few years, also gave us additional items when we were at the checkout. By the end of our trip (which included buying the loss-leads at a variety of stores), we had purchased everything on our list and much, much more, and were only about $8 over our budget.

That afternoon we delivered the teacher care packages to the schools. The elementary school was expecting us and were all happy for the treats. The folks at the charter school were pleasantly surprised with the gesture of support.

With a touch of fall in the air, lots of folks were out on their steps on Thursday evening. I was able to catch up with many people, schedule a baptism for September 12, answer questions about Sunday's school supplies distribution, and collect school supply donations from people who hadn't yet dropped them off.

That evening I spent some extra time at the church making sure the mailing labels were correct as I assembled the newsletter mailings. One of our neighbors stopped by to see if she could volunteer to help with the school supply distribution on Sunday. While I was finishing up the work someone stole my car from the church parking lot. They had first gotten hold of my keys so it was easy for them to do.

We received a 51 lb. box of school supplies from the Hampton, VA, Congregation on Friday. They were delivered to my house so Tamara and Hannah came and took them to the church since I no longer had a key to the church (a fact I realized earlier in the day when I took 6 boxes of ice cream there to put in the freezer for Saturday but couldn't get in).

Friday night brought Pizza Church. The groups were a bit smaller than in recent weeks but very interactive. It was Hannah and Sam's last Pizza Church so the kids spent quite a bit of time after the lessons visiting with them and leaning a bit of British English. Hannah had given out pins with the Welsh flag on them last week and it was neat to see some kids wearing the pins to church. Between sessions, I visited with the mom of a couple of our kids. I think both of her kids kids are going to get baptized on September 12, too.

I got a call from Tamara at about 2 a.m. saying that some kids were in my van. She called the police and I met here there. She had scared the robbers off so we waited for the police. No one came so we went home at 4:00 a.m. By 4:30 they were trying to get in again and were chased off by some neighbors.

When Vonceil got in the van on Saturday morning she saw that they had been back again and had tried to cut through the steering wheel. They did enough damage to need to replace the wheel but didn't have a strong enough saw to get through the steel reinforcements. The police finally came on that call but could only write a report. In getting information from witnesses we learned that they had been in the van at least a 4th time as well.

During the day on Saturday Hannah and Sam worked on unpacking and sorting items from the Peacemobile items. Vonceil picked up a cake to have at a reception for Hannah and Sam after Morning Worship on Sunday. Tamara took the responsibility of getting a locksmith to come out and change the locks at the church. This was a necessary activity and expense because of the situation with my car and van. The robbers have a copy of all my keys and are still very much active in the area so getting the church secured was a priority.

That evening was our monthly Sundae Church. We don't usually get first-time visitors to this activity but today one kid brought four friends. They had a great time and seemed quite interested in Pizza Church. We started with six boxes of ice cream and had no leftovers.

Afterward I got a call from Jenn Maser. She had collected three more boxes of school supplies at work and wanted to drop them off at the church.

Looking ahead to next week we have our full schedule of activities. In addition, we'll have a reception after Morning Worship for Sam and Hannah. We'll distribute school supplies on Sunday starting at 3:00 p.m. On Monday Hannah and Sam fly back to the UK. Wednesday brings the return of SonRisers and Mid-Week Service. The University of Maryland School of Nursing will also begin using the buildings as their neighborhood base this Wednesday. We hope to get copies of the church keys made early in the week so that we will not be dependant on just two households to open and close the building.

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

The Taylor Family
The Johnson Family
The Carson Family
The Riddick Family
The Pettis Family
The Bagley Family
The Ghaffar Family
The Bryant 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/