9/26/2010

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

It started out Sunday with Morning Worship. With so many women in Pennsylvania at the retreat we had a small gathering. That was really good because it was one of those days when I could hardly form a sentence much less a sermon. Though the notes were good, it completely fell apart. I'm hoping this goes down as the worst sermon I've ever given as I certainly don't want to imagine anything worse than that one.

With most of our Kids' Church staff away we scheduled an old Veggie Tales video for Kids' Church. It had been years since we'd shown that one so most of the kids had never seen it before.

Not long after Kids' Church ended the woman arrived back from the retreat. They all appeared quite tired but seemed to have had a good experience there.

That evening was our monthly Celebration Service. We heard reports from the women's retreat and from the Unity Walk. We then shared in a pizza supper together. The high school kids who came were thrilled that, unlike Pizza Church, they were not limited to only one slice of pizza.

We were delighted when nearly 80 kids participated in Wednesday's SonRisers activities. Of them, 30 were new to the church this year. With all the changes in school attendance patterns, each week this fall is a surprise.

After closing up after the nursing class Gloria took me to the airport. I needed to catch a flight to Chicago for a couple days of training in sharing the sacred story. After last Sunday's fiasco, it was quite timely.

Patricia opened and closed for the NA meeting Wednesday night. We had some last minute things come up so we had to call off our Mid-Week service Wednesday night.

The training I was at in Chicago was outstanding. It was probably the best training conference I've ever attended. It was pretty heady stuff, though, and will take me a while to unpack and implement.

Tamara and Robert lead Pizza Church on Friday. Kids were asking good and thoughtful questions throughout the evening, though in the end one of our 2-liter bottles of pop walked out the door with one of the kids.

With no warning Saturday afternoon, the motherboard on Vonceil's computer fritzed. Though she had her data backed up, the songs and videos for Sunday's service needed to be processed on that computer's software in order to be ready for morning. We dropped everything and spent a chunk of the afternoon at Staples finding a replacement for it. She was able to get things set up and ready for morning on the new machine.

Saturday night was our monthly Sundae Church. I don't usually take requests for particular flavors of ice cream, but several kids have been wanting a favorite flavor that we can only get at Safeway. We haven't had it since our Safeway closed this winter. Since we were out at Staples anyway, we found a Safeway in that area and brought in the treat for the group.

Looking ahead to next week we have our full schedule of activities. In addition, we'll be focusing on making some significant headway in transforming the balcony into the Peace Pavilion.

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

The Brown Family
The Fleming Family
The Howe Family
The Spence Family
The Ghaffar Family
The Jackson Family
The Covington Family
The Barrett 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/