11/14/2010

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

It started out Sunday with our monthly Communion Service during Morning Worship. Even with several people out of town we still had a good sized group of people participate. We also had one first-time visitor among the group.

We've come to the end of the video series we've used at Kids' Church for the past 18 months. We enjoyed a few of our favorite video shorts then designed individual panels that that created a full-sized poster.

123 kids participated in SonRisers on Wednesday morning. Of those kid, over 20 were first time participants at the church. Afterward, we had a woman come by the church hoping we hand one left over that she could have. We didn't have any extras and she ended up in tears.

During the day we designed and ordered the postcard invitations to the Christmas Eve service. Ordering them this week saved us over 50% (nearly $100) because we beat the Christmas rush.

The art teacher from school 34 met us at the church on Wednesday afternoon. She brought over different fabrics that she and her grandmother had collected in their travels around the globe. She hung the fabrics over some of our dividers to provide more color and texture to the Peace Pavilion experience. (see them up close at http://pigtownpeacepavilion.blogspot.com/) She finished just as the Narcotics Anonymous meeting was ready to start.

We spent some time after the Mid-Week Service thinking about funding next year's summer camp. They're making some positive changes in the camping program and those changes will raise the costs quite a bit. At the same time, we're breaking all our participation records and potentially have many, many more kids who will need to spend a week at camp. With the increase in fees and the jump in the number of kids, we're looking at needing nearly ten times the money that we raised last year (excluding the grant).

I've gotten several calls and emails from people in the neighborhood this week who are facing eviction or utilities shut-off. We don't have resources to help with this beyond referrals, and referrals were what had encouraged them to call us. It could be a long winter ahead.

Earl, Tamara, Sarah, Penny, Gloria, Patricia, and I gathered at the church on Thursday morning to staff the Peace Pavilion. The class of third graders arrived a few minutes early so we didn't waste any time getting started. About 1/3 of the class had been to activities at the church in the past so they were both familiar with the people and excited to be able to go to the previously forbidden balcony. The students were engrossed in the activities and the staff did an excellent job. When it was time to leave the kids were wanting to stay and do more. Afterward the staff had a debriefing about things that worked well and things we needed to adjust to make better. We all learned a lot from the kids in how to approach the subjects at hand.

We've had some scheduling confusion and conflicts for the other classes who are to participate in the Peace Pavilion this year. We tried to connect on Thursday and Friday but kept missing each other. Hopefully we'll be able to get things straightened out this coming week.

Friday night brought Pizza Church. We had a normal sized group for the first session, a small group for the second session, and a large group for the third session.

While taking one of our kids home after Pizza Church we noticed that an intersection was blocked off by several police cars, much the same way it looks when there's been a shooting. Once back at the church I walked over to see what was going on. There hadn't been a shooting. Instead, the police were stopping every car and conducting searches for illegal substances. In the few minutes I watched while visiting the neighbors we saw them bring out drug-sniffing dogs and make several arrests.

Our monthly Solid Rock Cafe was held on Saturday night. 40 kids showed up which is the largest Solid Rock we've had in memory. Several kids were first-time attendees who came with friends.

Looking ahead to next week we have our full schedule of activities. In addition, we have our monthly Priesthood Meeting on Sunday evening. We'll be working with school 34 to finalize the schedule for the Peace Pavilion and have some groups tentatively scheduled for Thursday morning. Wednesday is the final time the nursing students will meet at the church this semester. Next weekend Tamara will be attending the Youth Specialties convention. We're also hoping to take care of some of the rewards kids have earned through their attendance this year.

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

The Oliver Family
The Alexander Family
The Boswell Family
The Rodriguez Family
The Lawson Family
The Smith Family
The Erbe Family
The Squirrel 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/