Saturday, August 20, 2011

8/20/2011

After over 13 years of spending nearly every Saturday night writing "This Week at the Power House" (and a couple years prior writing it's initial incarnation, "Saturday under the Freeway") it's time for this author to take a break. I'll be taking a couple months off from writing the newsletter and hope to resume sometime after Thanksgiving. Even though the newsletter is taking a break, the work of Building the Kingdom of God Here and Now continues each day.

I trust that you'll continue to be prayerful for The Power House and its daily life here in Pigtown.

Jeff and everyone at
The Power House
“Building the Kingdom of God Here and Now”

Saturday, July 23, 2011

7/24/2011

It's been a busy week at The Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.

It started Sunday with Morning Worship. Barb Carter, who will soon be our apostle, and her husband and parents joined us for the service. Barb brought the message on Love.

At Kids' Church we continued our study of the Armor of God. We talked about "shoes of peace" then made a craft to show how we could leave peace like footprints everywhere we go.

That evening brought our monthly Celebration Service. Our focus for this month was on hearing reports from camp. Though not all our campers were there, many were. They were each given time at the microphone to share some camp experiences. Those present who were on camp staff then shared their testimonies. We ordered pizzas and all ate together afterward.

Throughout the week we continued to collect school supplies for our upcoming distribution. We started stocking up on the "doorbuster" sale items based on this week's sale fliers. Feel free to join us in this quest over the next few weeks as we work our way toward school.

We had four kids who came to church 90+ times last year. On Tuesday we took them out to Golden Corral for dinner as a reward for their extremely good attendance.

Our Peace Pavilion Planning Meeting was scheduled for after the NA Meeting on Wednesday. With extreme heat, some people sick, and others out of town we ended up not having enough of the parties involved to be productive.

The heat continued to blast the neighborhood throughout the week. This kept people with air conditioning inside and those without outside late into the night. We took advantage of the church's air conditioning to get the August mailings ready, both the newsletters (Kids' Church News and Pizza Church Press) and the Bible School postcards.

Sarah stopped by for a few minutes on Friday afternoon. She had a box of "lost and found" items from camp that belonged to kids from our congregation. She also dropped off some school supplies that Sally Walton had sent our way.

Friday night brought Pizza Church. The younger groups talked about faith while the senior high group continued their study of the life of Moses.

I picked up our 5 senior high kids early Saturday morning to catch our flight to Kansas City. There, we rendezvoused with our delegation leaders and other area youth to catch the bus to Graceland University in Lamoni, Iowa, for SPECTACULAR. They'll spend the week there and come home next weekend. I caught a flight back to Baltimore that afternoon.

Looking ahead to next week we have our full schedule of activities. In addition, Bill Pennington will bring the message at Morning Worship on Sunday. Next Saturday, Tamara will fly out to Kansas City to meet up with our kids who went to SPECTACULAR and escort them on their flights (and change of planes in Chicago) home.

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

The Pestridge Family
The Jamison Family
The Moore Family
The Collier Family
The Smead Family
The Livingston Family
The Jones Family
The Quick 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/

Saturday, July 16, 2011

7/17/2011

It's been a busy week at The Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.

It stared Sunday morning with good news on Facebook. The folks in the Gatchelville, Pennsylvania, Congregation will be helping collect school supplies for distribution here in August. We're anticipating having even more kids this year than last so the more help we can get the better.

For about an hour before Morning Worship, kids and their parents started arriving for the trip to camp. Kids checked in with me then stashed their luggage in the back of the church. About eight kids from Dunalk also joined us in waiting for the bus.

In the end, we had nearly 70 people for Morning Worship. We sang camp songs, reviewed the youth ministry achievements for the year, and had a blessing for the campers and staff.

The bus arrived at 12:15. The kids quickly loaded their luggage and chose their seats. Vonceil and Gloria had packaged hot dogs for the kids so we distributed them, along with chips and a drink, once the bus got on the way.



Though the campground was more than twice as many miles away from Baltimore as our old campground, we arrived there in about the same amount of time since we didn't have to go through the same traffic. We got our 20 kids registered and to their cabins then Vonceil (who had driven down behind the bus), Robert, and I rode home.

I spent the week "on call" for issues at camp. For the first time in the 14 years I've been taking kids to camp, we went the whole week without a single phone call from camp staff.

While working on paperwork at the church one afternoon, I heard a horrific crashing sound. When I went to see what had happened at first I couldn't find anything. I then noticed a mark on the glass door from where someone had pitched a large rock at it. There's no reason that door shouldn't have been completely shattered but it remains intact.

Also while looking for the source of the noise (before I found the rock) I discovered that our gutter's downspout was plugged by a tennis ball. This explained the strange problems we've had with the gutters the last few weeks. I went out in the rain, cleared it plus several rocks and sticks, and got things flowing again.

With so many our our core kids away it was a good time to work on work on lessons, crafts, and snacks for Bible School. We've got things roughed in and will gather the necessary supplies next week.

When I went to get in my car on Friday morning, I discovered that it was blocked in the parking lot at the church. This was because a neighbor had illegally parked her van in the alley. I knocked and she came to the door. She began yelling, cussing, and accusing me of lying saying that she had the right to park wherever she wanted and that if I worked hard enough I could get my car out. She went back inside. I called the police. Once she saw me on the phone she moved her van while hurling accusations and snide comments at me the entire time.

Friday night brought Pizza Church. Between two of the sessions we discovered that ants had invaded. Several of the pizzas had to be tossed out. After all the kids left we went to Home Depot to get ant bait and distributed it around the church.

On Saturday Vonceil and I drove down to camp to be at the baptism service. Though no kids from The Power House were baptized we like to be present for this sacrament whenever possible. We then loaded the kids on the bus and headed back to Baltimore.



The bus that came to get us did not have the features that we had included in our contract. When we got home I filed a complaint with the company. The errors on there part were quite significant and we are owed at least a partial refund on the money we paid.

Looking ahead to next week we have our full schedule of activities. In addition, we have our monthly Celebration Service on Sunday evening during which we'll give the kids a chance to tell about their experiences at camp. We're taking the four kids who came to church 90+ times last year out to dinner at Golden Corral on Tuesday night. We've got a Pigtown Peace Pavilion planning session scheduled for Wednesday evening. On Saturday we're taking five high school students to Graceland University in Lamoni, Iowa, for a week at Spectacular. Next Saturday evening is our monthly Sundae Church.

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

The McCusker Family
The Kelly Family
The Dance Family
The Logan Family
The Boston Family
The Liason Family
The Mitchell Family
The Sugars 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/

Saturday, July 9, 2011

7/10/2011

It started out Sunday, June 19, with Morning Worship. The message that day was on the Acts 3 story of the healing of the man born lame.

After the service I got an email saying our order was in at the Dollar Tree so I ran out to the store to get it. We'd ordered aluminum water cans to use as our prize for attending church 20+ times and I wanted to be sure to have them available at the start of the year. Afterward, Tamara and I sat down and reviewed things for when I would be out of town.



We talked about Fathers Day at Kids' Church. The kids then made "World's Best Dad" pins as gifts.

That evening was our Graduation Celebration. We had a time of song then had our three high school graduates (the most we've had in one year) talk about their plans. Two are going to Graceland University this fall while the other is planning on going to the police academy. We then shared in the two cakes (brought by Earl and Janet), lots of ice cream, and fellowship together.


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

In the end, we had only 6 pieces of cake left. I took them out and shared them with neighbors who were out on their front steps.

On Monday morning, my family and I left to visit family for a couple of weeks. While out, Sarah brought the message one Sunday while Earl did so on the other. Gloria and Earl presided over Morning Worship while Tamara, Sarah, Robert, and Kathy were responsible for youth ministries.

June 30 brought the end of our attendance year for youth ministry. With that we have the statistics for last year:

-We officially had 924 kids attend at least one activity at church. That compares to 752 in 2009-2010.
-When you factor in kids who attend activities for which we cannot track attendance (Peace Pavilion, Narcotics Anonymous, etc.) we easily served well over 1000 kids last year.
-We had a total of 6238 attendance instances. That is over 100 more per month than 2009-10.

In every category we measure, we had both an increase in both the number of kids in attendance and an increase in the frequency of attendance by kids. In other words, we had more kids come more often to more activities than any time in our congregation's history.

Some kids who came to Pizza Church this Friday came there from a funeral. A teenage friend of theirs had been murdered last week.

Several people gathered at the church shortly after noon on Saturday in preparation for camp. Sarah and several staff members stopped by to get some supplies from the church that they were using at the campgrounds. Tamara and Ebony also met there and traveled to the campgrounds to help get things ready for the campers' arrival.

Other camp needs were addressed throughout the day. I had one kid stop by the house all but begging to go again this year. We did not have the resources to take him. I got another call about a kid needing a piece of luggage and another who had everything but a blanket. We were able to fill the last two needs thanks to people who have given us used luggage and sleeping bags in advance.

Saturday night brought our monthly Solid Rock Cafe. The group was well behaved but VERY loud. The energy and excitement about camp was raising the noise level of the whole group. One young adult who will be on staff brought his luggage to the church to be ready for Sunday's travels.

Looking ahead to next week we have a different schedule of activities. Sunday morning is our annual camp service. We'll be joined by some kids from the Dundalk Congregation who are riding with us this year. Once the service is over the kids, Quentin, Robert, Lennard, and I will board the bus for camp. Vonceil will follow behind to bring Robert and me back to Baltimore once the kids are all registered. Though we've cancelled Kids' Church, the rest of our activities will follow their regular schedule throughout the week. On Saturday, Vonceil and I will drive back to the campgrounds to gather the kids back on the bus for the trip home. Though we'll be "on call" throughout the week, we're hoping not to have to make a mid-week trip to camp to pick up a kid due to medical or behavioral problems.

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

The Stinchcomb Family
The Moore Family
The Richardson Family
The Latham Family
The Jackson Family
The Allen Family
The Pringle Family
The Miller Family

Thank you for your continued prayer support.

Jeff and everyone at
The Power House
“Building the Kingdom of God Here and Now”

Saturday, June 18, 2011

6/19/2011

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

It started out Sunday with Morning Worship. Our focus was on Pentecost and what happens when we recognize and respond to the Holy Spirit.

After the service a few of us went to Carroll Park for the annual "Tour Dem Parks" gathering for bicyclists. As President of Friends of Carroll Park, Gloria ran a booth there throughout the day.

Keeping with the Pentecost theme, at Kids' Church we made flame hats to correlate with the story. The kids were especially focused in making their craft. One said, "Today, I came in here a little boy and I leave a King!"



That evening we had a long priesthood meeting. With summer upon us we had many decisions to finalize and plans to coordinate. Afterward Robert and I got a bite to eat together.

On Monday we spent time implementing some of the decisions from Sunday's meeting. This included contacting the bus company to make reservations for the trip to camp and ordering some supplies. We also wrote out the newsletters and finalized the content of the camp mailings. Further, we learned on Monday that Vonceil was named Teacher of the Year for her school.

Tuesday morning's Facebook posts indicated that something bad had happened overnight. We checked around and learned that two teen girls had been hit by a car overnight. Neither survived.

Later that day Bill stopped by with the tax forms. His accountant had figured them out for us and they were now ready to be filed.

When I arrived at the church with the donuts on Wednesday, I noticed that a portion of the awning over the back door was broken. It looked suspiciously like a basket ball had gone through it.

75 kids participated in Wednesday's final SonRisers of the school year. 9 of them were at the church for the first time.

Once the kids were gone, Onalee and I took the rug that the kids weaved at the Peace Pavilion over to school 34. The principals were very happy to receive it and immediately began discussing the most prominent place to hang it. They started talking about next year's plans as well.

We spent much of the day running errands. This included a trip to Staples to make copies (and the manager gave us more free supplies!), a stop at Home Depot to find items to repair the awning, and a stop at the grocery store to get ice cream for Sunday night. Since our small freezer at the church is already full, Gloria kept two buckets of ice cream at her house and we have 2 bucket at ours.

Thursday provided the opportunity to repair the awning. The good news is that the part we fixed now looks really good. The bad news is that it shows how worn the non-repaired sections are.

While doing this I discovered that one of our downspouts and some of the siding upon which it is attached was no longer connected to the building. Kids had been using it for first base in their baseball games so I suspect there was an incident there one evening this week. That repair will have to wait for another day.

I got a knock on the door of my house while doing the dishes Thursday evening. It was the cousin of one of the girls who had been killed earlier in the week. They wanted me to do the funeral. It was scheduled for 1 p.m. the next day.

At that point, I went out to the funeral home and found hundreds of people gathered in line for viewing and visitation. I had a few minutes to talk with the funeral director and caught the eye of the family. I spent much of the rest of the evening putting together the funeral service.

The funeral home needed to use the overflow room with closed circuit television to accommodate the crowd for Friday's funeral. The girls' deaths had captured headlines throughout the week so guards were posted at the entrance to the cemetery to prevent the media from entering.

Friday night brought Pizza Church. In the haste of the prior 23 hours I had prepared the wrong week's lesson. Normally, I would simply flip flop the two weeks lessons and it would not be a big problem. However, the assigned topic for this week revolved around Fathers Day so we couldn't do that. I had a "wing it" lesson instead. Both before and after Pizza Church, Sara and Tamara met together to work on camp planning.

On Saturday I got a note through Facebook from a high school student who used to be active in church here but now lives out of state. She wanted to know when Bible School would be this summer so she could try to time her week in Pigtown visiting her grandmother around it. She thought it would be a good chance to be able to help out with things while she's here

That night Robert and Ebony came by to set up the church for Sunday. Normally they do that on Sunday morning but since decided to do it ahead of time because of an event in the morning that will keep them from church.

And with summer upon us that means camp, Spectacular, vacations, and lots of other things might otherwise occupy our normal Saturday evening schedule. Because of that, THIS WEEK at the POWER HOUSE may come sporadically over the next few months. If you don't find a message from us in your inbox on Sunday morning, please say some extra prayers for us as you'll know we're in the thick of things.

Looking ahead to next week we have our full schedule of activities. In addition, Sunday evening is our Graduation Celebration. This service includes cake and ice cream. We'll also be working this week on finishing up our camp transportation plans. Next Saturday is our monthly Sundae Church.

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

The Kearse Family
The Carnes Family
The Toomey Family
The Smith Family
The Angeles Family
The Buckner Family
The Taylor Family
The Miller 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/

Saturday, June 11, 2011

6/12/2011

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

It started in the wee hours of Sunday morning with the conversion of our mailing list to our Mail Chimp account. I know of a few issues that arose and that some people didn't get their copy of last week's report. We've updated the list and will continue to do so until we get it fully corrected. Thank you for your patience through this transition as we continue working out the kinks.

We had a good turn out for Morning Worship. Tamara brought the communion message and summarized the series on peace, power, and purpose from the last three months. Many people stayed afterward for prayer.

At Kids' Church we learned about the Great Commission. We then made necklaces and ate popsicles together.

We learned in the morning that Shirley was in the hospital. I had a chance to visit her after Kids' Church and Ron stopped by the next day.

Our last session of the Peace Pavilion for the year was scheduled for Tuesday afternoon. We had several people scheduled to be on staff have to cancel at the last minute. Fortunately, Kathy was able to come in for the first class and part of the second class. While I was trying to figure out how to cover the rest of the time, Bill Brian called saying he was on his way through town and wondered if I have time for him to visit. I recruited him to lead a group of kids instead.

88 kids participated in SonRisers on Wednesday morning. This was more than we thought would do so since it was a half day due to heat and because many kids have already graduated.

We learned that afternoon the good news and bad news about the grant we wrote for camp. The good news is that we received $1400. The bad news is that it was much less than the $7000 we'd asked for. By doing some creative math, we have thing down to a $2600 gap between the number of kids we've registered and the amount of money we'll owe. Needless to say, we're working on this.

The heat continued through Thursday evening. Many of those without air conditioning were out on their front steps sweating out the time for when the front would come through. I was caught visiting at Gloria's (in her air conditioning) when the thunderstorms hit so I stayed for an extended visit at her place until it passed.

Friday night brought Pizza Church. Shortly after the first group left torrential rains hit. We did not think anyone would be able to come to the middle school group because of it. Two boys did show up. They were soaked to the bone. We had them use the towels we keep for baptism services to dry off and to sit on. When we tried to do the lesson, the sound of the rain on the roof was so loud that we had to huddle together in order to try to hear each other. By the end it let up enough that another kid joined us.

As the time for the senior high session approached, the rain stopped and the sun came out. One of the kids who had graduated last Sunday had a party scheduled at his house for this Saturday. He asked to borrow some chairs so he and his friends went in the attic and took about 20 wooden folding chairs home.

Afterward Quentin and I went out for some dessert. We had a chance to visit and catch up one on one.

Saturday night was our monthly Solid Rock Cafe. The kids seemed to really relax and enjoy themselves for the evening together.

Finally, I want to add that people can now sign up for this newsletter through this link. I know some of you forward this email to others and this is an easy way for them to manage their own access.

Looking ahead to next week we have our full schedule of activities. In addition, Sunday is also the annual Tour Dem Parks in which Gloria plays a role in the Carroll Park location. Some of us will be joining with her after Morning Worship. Sunday night is our monthly Priesthood Meeting. I'm meeting with Bill later this week to finish up tax forms. Throughout the week we'll be working on camp plans, including mailings for parents and coordinating transportation. We'll also be getting things ready for the new attendance year which begins July 1.

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

The Lloyd Family
The Nickerson Family
The Richardson Family
The Oloyed Family
The Williams Family
The Walker Family
The West Family
The Abrams 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/

Saturday, June 4, 2011

6/5/2011

It’s been a busy couple of weeks at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.

It started out Sunday with much of our parking lot filled with neighbors' cars, leaving little room for people who drive to church. We've started sending reminders of the need to have the parking lot cleared for church activities to those who live near it.

During Morning Worship we finished our series on God's purposes. We were all able to hear better due to the sound system's new speakers that were donated last week.

With it being Memorial Day weekend we knew we'd either have a very small group or an overflow crowd at Kids' Church. We ended up with 6 kids for the "feed my sheep" story. Of those who came, 3 were kids who had participated in SonRisers on Wednesdays who came to Kids' Church for the first time that day.

Afterward we spent some time finishing the details in setting up "Peace for the Planet" at the Peace Pavilion. Classes were scheduled to begin arriving on Tuesday. You can see pictures of the setup by clicking here.

Sunday also marked the 13th anniversary of the Anderson's arrival in Pigtown.

Though we had the Peace Pavilion set up by Sunday, we had a few items for the teachers that needed to be updated and printed. We finished those on Monday.

Extreme heat came to Baltimore on Tuesday. The schools closed early so the 3rd grade groups were not able to come to the Peace Pavilion. We were able to reschedule them for next Tuesday, though not all our our staff could do so.

86 kids participated in Wednesday's SonRisers activities. With the new kids who came to this activity, we have now crossed over the 900 mark in the number of kid participants in the last 11 months. When you consider the fact that the number doesn't include kids who come to the Peace Pavilion, the NA Meeting (a group home regularly brings their kids to the meeting), and Bible School, we can easily know that we've reached over 1000 kids this year.

The heat continued throughout Wednesday so schools again closed early. The 5th grade group had to cancel their visit to the Peace Pavilion because of it. Since they have 5th grade graduation next week, we were unable to reschedule their visit.

That afternoon we assembled the mailing for Kids' Church News and Pizza Church Press. You can read the June edition of these newsletters at the links provided.

After the NA Meeting we had our final Mid-Week Service before its summer break. Many more people than usual came to this activity, including a first-time visitor to the congregation. We'll resume this group in September.

More seasonal weather returned on Thursday. I spent quite a bit of time that night out on the streets visiting with people who were sitting on their steps enjoying the great weather. In between walks we changed out the front sign to reflect the summer schedule. We also changed out the banner to start promoting Bible School.

Blair, our incoming Mission Center President joined Quentin, Tamara, Sarah, and me in welcoming the 1st grade classes to "Peace for the Planet" on Friday. Afterward, Blair and I had some time to visit.

Friday night brought Pizza Church. Historically, June is one of our lowest months in attendance in this activity. This Friday, however, we nearly ran out of pizza. Much of the crowd was made up of kids who have recently started participating in SonRisers on Wednesdays and have just discovered Pizza Church.

Vonceil and Sarah attended Crystal's graduation on Saturday. She was valedictorian of her class and is attending Graceland this fall. Most of the other kids who are graduating from high school this year have ceremonies on Sunday.

Tamara and I were scheduled to take a couple girls to Friendly's for ice cream sundaes on Saturday evening. Neither of them showed up.

Looking ahead to next week we have our full schedule of activities. In addition, Tamara will bring the communion message on Sunday morning. The 3rd grade classes from School 34 will be at the Peace Pavilion on Tuesday afternoon. We're hoping to get more street time in this week since Mid-Week Service is off the Wednesday schedule until fall. We'll also be working of plans for our summer programming, such as camp, Bible School, and school supply distribution, throughout the week. Next Saturday is our monthly Solid Rock Cafe.

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

The Pettis Family
The Ceo Family
The Buckner Family
The Butler Family
The Brown Family
The Sugars Family
The Stewart Family
The Adeyale 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/

Saturday, May 28, 2011

5/29/2011

It’s been a busy couple of weeks at the Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.

It started Sunday, May 15, with Morning Worship. During our time together we continued our series on God's purposes for us. Afterward, a friend stopped by to see if we had space and time available for another NA group needed to meet at the church.

At Kids' Church we learned the story of Thomas. The kid/adult ratio made our plan for a "blind taste test" a bit too edgy so we had a tasting party instead and tried to tie it in with the story as much as possible.

More kids than adults came to the Celebration Service that evening. Just as the potluck dinner was ending the heavens opened and the rain poured down. For those who live more than 3 blocks away, I started shuttling people home in my van. I ended up making three trips. While I was out doing that some latecomers came in for the potluck. It was nearly 9:00 by the time Gloria and I could lock up the church and go home.

111 participated in SonRisers that Wednesday. That afternoon the kids from the Paul's Place after school program came to "Peace for Everyone" at the Peace Pavilion. They cleared out just in time for the NA meeting and the Mid-Week Service.

I spent a few hours on Thursday meeting with Bill and Blair, the outgoing and incoming Mission Center Presidents. We toured the neighborhood and church facilities, discussed issues, and had lunch together.

On Friday I flew to Michigan to be the guest minister at a retreat. Tamara and Robert were in charge of Pizza Church that evening. They had a good crowd and all the sessions went well.

Earl presided over the service on Sunday morning and Vonceil brought the message. Tamara and Vonceil led Kids' Church that afternoon.

Once I got back we discovered that one of the church's windows was broken. Some of the younger kids on my block were quick to tell stories about how it happened. This is only the second window that's been broken at the church since moving to James Street eleven years ago.

SonRisers broke its all-time participation record on this Wednesday. 138 kids signed in for donuts. We also noted that a couple kids came in to visit but never made it past the registration table. We also turned away about a half dozen kids once we had closed.

Because the remaining days this week were each projected to have only 24 hours in them, we cancelled Mid-Week service on Wednesday evening so we could work on tearing down "Peace for Everyone" at the Peace Pavilion. Though we let people know that afternoon of the schedule change, we had more people come to the door that evening than the last month's Wednesdays combined.

On Thursday we worked on getting our signs and banners ready to change over for summer as well as writing and printing the June editions of Pizza Church Press and Kids' Church News. While I was at Staples running the copies the manager gave me a bag full of packets of silly bands for the kids at the church. That afternoon I spent time on the phone making sure I had the correct materials for "Peace for the Planet" unpacked. Onalee and I then started sorting things out and setting up for next week's visit from school 34.

It being a warm day lots of people were out on the streets Thursday evening. We've had a large turnover in residents in the past 9 months so we've being conscious of being especially present in the evenings and letting people know about the church.

Our sound system's speakers have been bad for quite some time. This week we had someone offer to pay for new ones for us. I hit the Memorial Day Weekend sale at Guitar Center on Friday and found some that should work better than the ones we had.

Friday night brought Pizza Church. We've had many kids the last few weeks who have come to other activities (SonRisers, Peace Pavilion) that have started exploring Pizza Church. Hopefully we'll be able to make some lasting connections there.

Tamara and I met up at the church on Saturday morning to arrange the learning centers in the Peace Pavilion. We made a list of odds and ends that we needed to complete the centers and spent time that afternoon working the list. We also installed the new speakers and tested them out.

Saturday night brought our monthly Sundae Church. We had a full house for this event and the kids consumed six boxes of ice cream.

Looking ahead to next week we have our full schedule of activities. In addition, we have classes from School 34 coming to the Peace Pavilion on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoons. We should hear this week as to whether or not we will get a grant for camp and will have to respond to the information quickly as registrations are due this week. We'll be changing out our banners and signs to reflect our summer schedule. Our newsletters are due out mid-week. We also hope to take a couple kids to Friendly's next weekend for the trip they've earned.

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

The Harris Family
The Jones Family
The Nickerson Family
The People Family
The Ruby Family
The Carnes Family
The Saffran Family
The Fleming 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/

Saturday, May 14, 2011

5/15/2011

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

It started out Sunday just after midnight with a baby born to a member of our congregation. This was a fitting way to start out Mothers Day.

At Morning Worship we continued our series on our purpose in life. Tamara provided roses for each woman in attendance as a Mothers Day gift.

We talked about Mothers Day at Kids' Church. Each of the kids then made and decorated pinwheels as gifts for their mothers.

On her way over to the Priesthood Meeting that evening, Vonceil discovered some of the neighbor kids using the Peacemobile trailer as a jungle gym. They were quite happy standing on top of it until she arrived.

At the Priesthood Meeting we had a long agenda of seemingly random items that needed to be addressed. Of course, we added a "what to do about the kids on the trailer" item to the agenda upon Vonceil's arrival.

After each of the scheduled activities on Sunday we went out hunting for signatures on camp forms. We ended up with a surprisingly successful day registering 8 kids for camp. One woman who was reluctant to send her daughter last year said, "She can definitely go to camp. It was such a positive experience for her last year and ever since she's been better at getting things together in her life."

We spent some time early in the week in email conversation with the folks at the Laurel Congregation. They have a little bit of land with their building and we worked out a plan for us to park the Peacemobile trailer there for the time being.

When I got up Wednesday morning to go get the donuts I ran into trouble in the church parking lot. Though I wasn't completely blocked in, the way people had parked made it nearly impossible for me to get my van out. After about 15 minutes of inching back and forth, a neighbor who was parked across the street came out and moved his van. I was now able to back straight out and across the street then have room to turn to go down the block.

110 kids participated in Wednesday's SonRisers activities. Once we closed up shop Tamara helped me get the trailer hooked up to the fan. I hauled it out to the Laurel church and parked in by their garage.

While entering the attendance data later that morning I glanced up at the television and saw on of our kids on the broadcast. "Live with Regis and Kelly" was honoring a teacher from Baltimore that day and one of our kids was pictured in a clip from his classroom.

In the afternoon we worked on setting up a means of donating to the congregation through our web site and blogs. Though still working on the details, we now have a "donate" button set up on most of our sites.

After opening up for the NA meeting that afternoon we were able to catch some parents at home to get camp form signatures. After the NA meeting one of its participants stayed and joined us for our Mid-Week service.

Once everyone left, Joshua came by. We had canceled the cable service at the church and needed to run wires from the antenna to the television. Since he trained in electronics he had all the tools and skills to do it right. Meanwhile, the kids who would have been climbing on the trailer chose to spend their time throwing rocks at the building instead.

On Thursday we spent some time in the morning painting new lines on the parking lot. While outside we had some time to visit with the neighbors who were out and about that morning.

We learned earlier in the week about who our new Mission Center President would be. On Thursday we were surprised to learn of a change in the assigned Apostle, too. That makes the second time in less than two years that we've had a complete change in the administrative supervision of our congregation.

We were able to catch up with the assistant principal at School 34 on Friday. We were able to set tentative dates for their kids to come to "Peace for the Planet" at the Peace Pavilion.

There was a mix-up with one of the plane tickets we'd purchased for getting a kid home from Spectacular. The airlines acknowledge their error but it took several phone calls throughout the week to straighten things out. At this point we have a new ticket but are still waiting for funds credited back to us.

We've experienced a change in demographics of the kids participating in church this year. With that, we're trying to get ahead of the curve by adjusting some of our marketing for Bible School and other summer activities. We spent some time updating and printing our summer flier so that we can start getting them in the hands of kids coming to SonRisers beginning next Wednesday.

Friday night brought Pizza Church. We had more normal sized groups this week in all three sessions. Afterward, Tamara bounced some camp programming ideas off of me.

Tamara met up with the other camp leadership on Saturday to spend time on the new campground. They were to plan out logistics and get a better feel for the facilities available.

Saturday night was our monthly Solid Rock Cafe. The kids seemed to relax and enjoy themselves and some even tried to teach me a game of cards.

Afterward I made a trip to the train station. I was there to pick up Quentin who was arriving back in town now that the semester at Lancaster Bible College was over.

Looking ahead to next week we have our full schedule of activities. In addition, we have our monthly Celebration Service on Sunday evening. This will include a potluck dinner. The after school group from Paul's Place will come through "Peace for Everyone" in the Peace Pavilion on Wednesday afternoon. Throughout the week we'll be working on completing our camp registration forms.

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

The Riddick Family
The Bagley Family
The Whitley Family
The Bonnett Family
The Spence Family
The Johnson Family
The Bryant Family
The Jackson 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/

Saturday, May 7, 2011

5/8/2011

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

It started out Sunday with Morning Worship. We had exactly half as many people in attendance as we had on Easter Sunday, several of whom were not present on Easter. What would happen if everybody came at once? We started our series focusing on our purpose in this world.

At Kids' Church we reviewed the story of the disciples on the road to Emmaus. We had a corresponding coloring page and then a choice of a word search or maze to complete. Afterward some people came by for pastoral visiting and prayer.

By the way people parked, my van was blocked in the church parking lot on Monday morning when I was to take Onalee to school. I had to wake up a neighbor to get them to move out of the way.

101 kids participated in Wednesday's SonRisers program. We had a couple dozen donuts left over so we took them over to to the charter school for the staff.

We spent a chunk of the day working on getting invitations to camp and the corresponding forms ready. We're still fundraising and waiting on our grant funds but the forms are due soon so we have to move forward.

We did some work with the Peace Pavilion this week. We coordinated with Paul's Place for their after school program to come to "Peace for Everyone." We tried to set up times for "Peace for the Planet" with the School 34 but they had a fire in the building so that threw off their rhythm for the week. We also set up a new web site for it that you can see here.

That afternoon the NA group let me know that they may need to cancel their marathon they had scheduled for later this month. Our Mid-Week Service started reading "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" together.

Thursday's main focus was on camp. We spent time distributing invitations and then getting signatures from parents whose kids received their invitations last week. We had a couple families who had been to camp before that signed the forms at the same time they were given their invitation. ("Pastor, we don't need time to think about it. It's all they've talked about since last year and they are going. Can we just sign the forms now?")

The folks at Baltimore's Child left a message on our answering machine this week. They were wanting to publish information about this summer's Bible School program and wanted to make sure they had it right.

Friday night brought Pizza Church. We had large groups all night and ran short of pizza in the end. All groups did a quick review of the 10 Commandments. To open the discussion this Mother's day weekend, I asked which one of the commandments might be especially appropriate to remember this weekend. Though I hoped for "Honor your father and mother" as the answer, the first one given in one group was, "Do not murder."

We did quite a bit of running around on Saturday trying to get signatures on camp forms. We were generally unsuccessful until late that evening when we were able to track down one kid's mom.

Looking ahead to next week we have our full schedule of activities. In addition, we have our monthly Priesthood Meeting on Sunday evening. Next Saturday evening is our monthly Solid Rock Cafe.

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

The Stewart Family
The Carnes Family
The Shorter Family
The Ceo Family
The Ghaffar Family
The Burley Family
The Pettis Family
The Butler 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/

Saturday, April 30, 2011

5/1/2011

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

It started out with a broken bookshelf on Sunday morning. Somehow the bookcases that hold our Bibles got broken while people were setting up in the morning. They will stand for now but will need to be replaced.

Nearly 50 people gathered for our Easter Celebration on Sunday morning. This included most of our regular crowd, some folks we hadn't seen in quite a long time, and several first-time guests, many of whom came in response to the postcards Bryce and I distributed last week.

We also had a couple from Missouri who Vonceil met while registering for online classes at Graceland. She learned that they would be in the area for Easter and invited them. Their daughter had been friends with Robert when he was at Graceland so they were glad to catch up with him, too.

That afternoon 30 kids came to Kids' Church. Of those who came, 21 were at Kids' Church for the first time. Some came with baskets anticipating an Easter egg hunt even though none was planned or advertised. Additionally, this crew had clearly been eating lots of Easter candy before arriving.

A few of the new kids' parents came and stayed for the session, too. We were able to visit a bit with them and point them to times the church is open throughout the week for their families.

Wednesday was the first day back to school for kids. This impacted our numbers and we only had 70 kids for SonRisers that morning. We put a few dozen leftover donuts in the freezer to use as snacks at next week's Solid Rock Cafe.

Wednesday was also Robert's first day at his new job. I hope to hear details about it this Sunday. His employment became a more critical issue this week as we learned that Ebony is pregnant and due in November.

Hunting Season began this week. It's that time of year when we spend a lot of our time trying to track down parents to get signatures on camp forms. We're still hoping for grant monies to come through to make sure we're on solid financial footings for camp.

I met with Eric at the church on Thursday morning. He's a community organizer newly assigned to Pigtown now that we're a food desert. He was looking to both share information and get some feedback on the current virtual supermarket program offered in the neighborhood. We had a constructive conversation and hope to continue to connect share in helping resolve the lack of food availability in the area.

That evening a couple of us were to meet at the church to get Kids' Church News and Pizza Church Press out for the month. Unfortunately, I was the only one who showed up. Fortunately it was a relatively small project this month so it didn't take as long as it could have. The newsletters are also available electronically at the above links.

Friday night brought Pizza Church. We had good sized groups throughout the evening. The first two groups learned the story of Jesus and the disciples on the road to Emmaus. The senior high group finished its study of the Gospel of Luke.

I spent the day on Saturday in Springfield, Virginia, at our Mission Center Conference. Bill, our Mission Center President, included a few words at the conference about our exceedingly tight finances. Several people offered to help out with the situation and a few gave very generous donation that instant.

Meanwhile back in Pigtown, we were a designated neighborhood for Rebuilding Baltimore. Several organizations had parallel projects happening throughout the day. Plans included fixing up a couple of houses (including the home of one of our families), a painting project at the skatepark, street cleaning, and other activities. I hope to get updated on what happened when I get to church in the morning.

Sarah, Tamara, and I took Terry to Friendly's for ice cream on Saturday evening. He had earned the trip through his participation in church activities. While there we learned that his older sister is pregnant and that the baby is due in mid-May. Before taking him home we stopped by the church and picked up one of the "new baby gift baskets" to give her. She was surprised and delighted to be remembered in this way.

Looking ahead to next week we have our full schedule of activities. In addition, we'll be pressing forward in registering campers for July's camp. Next Saturday is our monthly Solid Rock Cafe.

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

The Sabedra Family
The Nickerson Family
The Stinchcomb Family
The Featherstone Family
The Burroughs Family
The Brown Family
The Price Family
The Martz 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/

Saturday, April 23, 2011

4/24/2011

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

It started out Sunday with Morning Worship. A small group gathered to celebrate Palm Sunday.

That afternoon at Kids' Church we taught the story of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem. We then made our own palm branches with the word "Hosanna" on them out of craft foam.

We had a larger group gather for our monthly Celebration Service that evening. Several people shared how God had been blessing them then we shared in a meal together. We provided breads, cheeses, and lunch meats and people brought salads, desserts, and beverages for potluck. This was the first time we tried this format and people responded very positively toward it.

On Monday I headed back to the post office to get postcard stamps at the new rate. Unfortunately they had not received any. They were able to find enough of the old rate and a corresponding number of 1-cent stamps for us to complete our project.

That evening we worked on the May newsletters for Pizza Church and Kids' Church. They'll both be assembled next week and will post on line on April 30.

While running copies at Staples on Tuesday, the manager stopped by to visit. She had a small box of free items for us and told us she should have several more things to donate by the end of the week.

Wednesday's class of nursing students met for the last time this week. Most of them will graduate in May.

Later that morning Bryce and I started handing out Easter postcards door-to-door. We handed out about 500 of them that morning.

We learned a few weeks ago that a woman who attended the church when she was a child has a baby due in a couple of weeks. We surprised her on Wednesday when we dropped off a basket full of gifts for the baby. A friend of hers who has two young children was at the house visiting when we stopped by. She asked about setting up a time to have her babies blessed at the church.

That evening after the NA Meeting and Mid-Week Service we started rearranging the furniture for the Last Supper Service and Good Friday Service. Since these services have the same basic content each year we try to make the settings a little different.

The place where Donna's Thursday nursing classes normally meets was closed this week for spring break. We made the church available to them so they were there during the day on Thursday.

Bryce and I distributed about 600 post cards Thursday afternoon. Afterward, Tamara, Vonceil, and Onalee joined us making the final preparations and decorating the church for that evening's service.

As the sun set that night we lit the candles and gathered around the table for our Last Supper Service. If I got my numbers right, we had one nine-year-old, two teens, two in their twenties, one thirtysomething, two in their 40s, and one each in their 50s, 60s, and 70s. By then end of the service, people seemed to have been quite impacted as they mostly only whispered to each other as they quietly exited. For a group that usually stands around and gabs for a long time after any activity, this was quite different.

We opened the church from noon - 3:00 p.m. on Friday for prayer, reflection, scripture reading, and meditation. In the few minutes before hand while getting things ready, I managed to spill several gallons of water down the front of me. Fortunately, Vonceil was home and able to run over a change of clothes right away.

We had created a "garden" worship center inside the church for the occasion. As expected, a handful of people came and went during this time. Nearly everyone who participated had not been a part of the service on Thursday evening.

Friday night brought Pizza Church. In all three groups we walked the kids through all the symbols of the Holy Week story they could see in the various worship centers around the church. For many throughout the evening this was totally new information. For at least one kid, this was the first time they'd heard the story of the crucifixion.

Bryce and I caught a break in the rain on Saturday morning and handed out another 500 postcards inviting people to the Easter services on Sunday. Once home I set up a Facebook event to remind folks who were on line.

The kids were all wound up when they came in for Sundae Church on Saturday evening. The fifth grade teacher inside me had to resurface for a while to bring some semblance of order to things.

Looking ahead to next week we have our full schedule of activities. In addition, we have Easter activities within our regular schedule on Sunday. SonRisers resumes on Wednesday. Throughout the week we'll be working on preparations for camp. Next Saturday is our Mission Center Conference in Virginia.

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

The Brown Family
The Johnson Family
The Jackson Family
The Burley Family
The Leach Family
The Bryson Family
The Covington Family
The Burch 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/

Saturday, April 16, 2011

4/17/2011

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

It started out Sunday with Morning Worship. Since Onalee was sick and Vonceil was at home with her, Bryce tried his hand at running the AV equipment. We continued our series on Power.

During Kids' Church we learned the story of Lazarus being raised from the dead. 19 kids came, several of whom were new to the church.

With the new kids we crossed another attendance milestone for the year. We've now crossed over 800 kids that have participated in activities at the church since July.

Shortly after the kids left we had our monthly Priesthood Meeting. We usually have it in the evening but moved it forward so people would have time to get home to watch the simulcast from church headquarters that night. The item that took the most time out of the agenda was focused on the calendar for summer.

We spent some time on Monday adjusting our plans for "Peace for Everyone" at the Peace Pavilion. We had realized at the end of last week that we would not be able to use a couple of centers that we had planned to use. We put together some new ones on Monday but discovered what we had made was too big to get laminated at Staples.

So, Tuesday we worked on reworking what we had already reworked on Monday. Fortunately we were able to reach into the box of things that Staples had donated to us last year and find a whole stack of supplies that were exactly what we needed.

118 kids participated in Wednesday's SonRisers activities. Afterward we put the final touches on the Peace Pavilion and took pictures of it to post on the blog. You can see them here.

The 5th grade class from School 34 arrived at the Peace Pavilion that afternoon. Tamara, Gloria, and I were joined by about 8 nursing students to provide the staffing for their visit.

That evening after the NA Meeting and the Mid-Week Service we started reworking our mailing list. Our old one was beyond repair so we decided to just start from scratch. Our goal was to have it ready to assemble over the weekend and get the Easter postcards in Monday's mail.

We learned on Wednesday that Robert got a job. He'll be working in the jail downtown. We'll know more information about what exactly he'll be doing once he reports in a couple of weeks.

Two classes of 3rd graders came through the Peace Pavilion on Thursday afternoon. Staffing included the 8 nursing students who helped with "Peace for Us" a few months ago.

Later that afternoon I met with Bill. We had been given new tax forms this year and they were extremely confusing. We sorted through them and he was going to take them by his accountant to have them checked. He also updated me on the meetings he was at at church headquarters last week.

Beautiful weather on Thursday brought people out on the streets that evening. In walking around and visiting, I was greeted with, "Hey your that guy from the Power House" comments from many third graders who were out and who I had seen earlier in the day at the Peace Pavilion. Some of them introduced me to their parents (many of whom I already knew) and we talk about what they had learned.

Later that night we finished up the Easter mailing list and got the labels printed.

Friday brought 1st grade classes to the Peace Pavilion. Those who staffed that event were there for the first time that week.

That afternoon I stopped by the post office to pick up the postcard stamps for the Easter mailing. They didn't have enough but would have more on Monday. As I paid for what they did have in stock, the attendant said, "Of course, you know they will cost more next week because the rate goes up on Monday." It was then that I learned that the stamps in my hands had to be on the postcards and in the mail on Saturday or they would not be sufficient. We had to rearrange plans in order to get the labels and stamps on the postcards that night in order to make it into the postbox on time.

At Pizza Church that night we focused on the Palm Sunday scriptures. Between session Tamara worked with some of the kids to make the T-shirts they had earned.

Earl and I joined folks from around the mission center for meetings on Saturday in Virginia. Though normally a slow drive due to traffic congestion, this weekend was especially bad, taking over 2.5 hours to go about 75 miles.

Looking ahead to next week we have our full schedule of activities. In addition, we have our monthly Celebration Service on Sunday evening followed by a sandwich supper. We'll be getting the last of the postcards in Monday's mail. With school closed for spring break we won't have SonRisers on Wednesday. Wednesday is also the last session for the nursing students for the semester. Thursday evening is our annual Last Supper Service and the church will be open on Good Friday from noon - 3:00 for personal prayer and reflection. Throughout the week we'll be walking the neighborhood distributing invitations for next Sunday's Easter services. Saturday is our monthly Sundae Church.

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

The Meile Family
The Latham Family
The King Family
The Iman Family
The Whitfield Family
The Wharton Family
The Boycheck Family
The Mueller 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/

Saturday, April 9, 2011

4/10/2011

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

It started out Sunday with Morning Worship. A larger group than in recent weeks gathered for the communion service. We had some technical difficulties during the service as we started a series on Power from the Holy Spirit.

In an unusual twist we had only one kid come to Kids' Church on Sunday afternoon. She and I worked on the craft together while Tamara and Vonceil took the opportunity to do some worship planning for Easter Sunday.

We spent the evening straightening out the summer calendar. We had lots of activities and schedule adjustments for mid-May through mid-September and got it all blocked in.

116 kids participated in Wednesday morning's SonRisers activities. When Donna came in afterward to set up for her nursing students we finalized plans for her two classes to help staff the Peace Pavilion on Wednesday and Thursday next week.

That evening after the NA Meeting, Tayvia came in for the Mid-Week Service. She was still talking about the good time she had a few weeks ago at the mission center young adult activity in Laurel. Sarah and Tamara met afterward for a camp planning session.

I met with a new staff member of People's Health, a clinic in the neighborhood, on Thursday morning. They've started a new program for women who are pregnant and/or new moms. They brought me up to speed with the program and we looked at way the church could partner with it.

Once home from the meeting I learned that Tim's father died overnight. The funeral was scheduled for Saturday.

That afternoon I spent some time on a phone call to Michigan to make sure I had all the elements of "Peace for Everyone" located and ready for assembly. We were able to find everything but I was not successful in getting all the software for a couple of the centers to cooperate with our computers.

Friday night brought Pizza Church. We had a couple of new kids at the first session and good behavior throughout the evening.

Afterward Jonathan pulled up. He's a young adult who went through our program here when he was in school but has since moved away. He says he's working two jobs at a nursing home and seemed to be doing quite well.

Earl and I attended Tim's dad's funeral on Saturday morning. I heard that a couple other church members stopped by during visitation on Friday.

Bryce and I spent the afternoon working on setting up "Peace for Everyone" at the Peace Pavilion. We still have a bit of work to do between now and when the kids come on Wednesday.

Our monthly Solid Rock Cafe was on Saturday night. We had over 30 people participate in this activity and had some behavior challenges as several kids showed up high.

Looking ahead to next week we have our full schedule of activities. In addition, we have our monthly Priesthood Meeting on Sunday evening (We moved it to an earlier time so people will be able to get home and watch the simulcast from church headquarters). Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday afternoons the classes from School 34 are scheduled to come over for "Peace for Everyone" at the Peace Pavilion. We plan on putting together our mailing for Easter sometime mid-week. Next Saturday is a Pastors Gathering in Virginia.

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

The Luciano Family
The Cherry Family
The Lloyd Family
The Duvall Family
The Brown Family
The Nickerson Family
The Wilson Family
The Jones 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/

Saturday, April 2, 2011

4/3/2011

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

It started out Sunday with a neighbor waiting outside the door to the church. When I arrived and unlocked the doors, he came in, put some money in the offering box, and left.

We had a small group at Morning Worship. During the service we finished our series on Peace.

The Transfiguration was the focus story at Kids' Church that afternoon. While many of our regular attendees were gone we had several kids who we hadn't seen in many months and some new kids participate.

We learned on Monday that Joe had died. He was not a part of the congregation, but many of his family members have been very active in the church over the years. We also learned that day that Tim's dad is now in hospice care.

Bill stopped by on Tuesday afternoon to talk about some administrative procedures. I had a couple of detailed phone calls with Sarah that afternoon in preparation for this summer's youth camp.

106 kids participated in Wednesday's SonRisers activities. After the nursing students arrived I spent some time disassembling "Peace for Us" in the Peace Pavilion in preparation for setting up "Peace for Everyone" next week. That afternoon We firmed up the date for the NA group's meeting marathon in May.

We've had both a shooting and an armed robbery in broad daylight this week. The two events appear to be unrelated.

Nick and I met at the church Thursday evening to package the April youth ministry newsletters. This was a day later than we usually would have done so because we waited until the Easter postcards arrived so we could include one in each of the envelopes along with the newsletters. You can find Pizza Church Press at this link and Kids' Church News at this link.

We spent some time this week hammering out the details of our summer activities. The primary things we worked on were scheduling and fundraising. In that, we received a couple more contributions to our travel fund for Spectacular at our Razoo site. Jenn Dubs set up a site inviting her friends to donate and shared a great testimony you can read at here.

Friday night brought Pizza Church. The first two groups learned about the Last Supper. One boy in the second group let us know that his favorite uncle had died on Thursday. The senior high group continued with its study of the gospel of Luke.

A new billboard popped up in the neighborhood warning people of the date that the world will end. I'm sure I'll get lots of questions about it.

Tamara and I took two kids to Friendly's for ice cream on Saturday evening. Neither of these fourth graders had ever been there before and were excited beyond belief. They had each come to church 40+ times in the last 9 months.

Looking ahead to next week we have our full schedule of activities. In addition, we'll be completing our setup of "Peace for Everyone" at the Peace Pavilion and putting the finishing touches on our Holy Week plans. Next Saturday evening is our monthly Solid Rock Cafe.

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

The Saffran Family
The Ruby Family
The Starlipper Family
The Ceo Family
The Wheeler Family
The Edwards Family
The Bowie Family
The Nguyen 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/

Saturday, March 26, 2011

3/27/2011

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

It started out Sunday with a good group gathered for Morning Worship. In it we continued our series on peace.

At Kids' Church we learned the story of Zacchaeus. We unrolled old FAX paper and had the kids draw the crowds of people that were blocking Zacchaeus' view of Jesus. We then reenacted the story with these props.

Sunday evening was our monthly Celebration Service. A few of the people who had gone to the hunger challenge came and shared about their experiences at it. Several other people had good news to share as well. We then ate a potluck dinner together.

81 kids participated in Wednesday's SonRisers activities. Afterward while Donna's class of nursing students was meeting in the front room some of Marjorie's nursing students came by. They needed to interview me for one of the projects that they're working on in class.

On Wednesday the NA group met with me between their meeting and the Mid-Week Service. They're looking at doing an all-day marathon again and were looking for available dates at the church.

We wrote and printed the Kids' Church News/Pizza Church Press newsletter for April on Thursday. While adding them to the queues on their respective blogs I ran across the statistics for them and the "This Week at the Power House" blog. Though most of the hits on these blogs are from the USA, we discovered people reading these reports in places such as Indonesia, Israel, Poland, Iran, Russia, India, United Arab Emirates, and other countries around the globe.

Friday night brought Pizza Church. All three groups were well attended and quite calm. Many of the kids who are usually there were not but several from the "once in a while" crowd and a couple new kids more than made up the difference.

With the cost of air travel on the rise we've been trying to get reservations made for our kids who are going to Spectacular. We've raised $180 so far on our team page through razoo.com. Our goal is $2500. If you are interested in giving or would like to set up a team page to invite your friends to do so just click here.

Sarah and I met up with 8 young adults at the church on Saturday afternoon. We drove them to the mission center's young adult pizza and game night in Laurel. This is the first time we've been able to take a group from here to a young adult event in the mission center.

That evening back in Pigtown was our monthly Sundae Church. The kids started out uncharacteristically quiet but by the end we had lots of different conversations going on simultaneously.

Once our ice cream time was finished I headed back down to Laurel to help transport our crew back home. They seemed to have had a good time and debated who ate the most pizza.

Looking ahead to next week we have our full schedule of activities. In addition, we'll be working on packing up "Peace for Us" and setting up "Peace for Everyone in the Peace Pavilion. We're also expecting the delivery of our Easter fliers and will be including them when we assemble the mailing for our April newsletters later this week. We also hope to take a few kids who have earned a reward out for ice cream at Friendly's.

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

The Sims Family
The Hunter Family
The Nelson Family
The Beyers Family
The Davis Family
The Lester Family
The Sykes Family
The Coffman 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/

Saturday, March 19, 2011

3/20/2011

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

It started out with a small group gathering for Morning Worship. We continued our series on the topic of peace and celebrated Barry's baptism and confirmation. Earl and Janet brought a cake that we shared in at the close of the service.

During Kids' Church we learned the story of Jesus blessing the children. We made decorated clear "Jesus Loves You" boxes with permanent markers. The kids were more than happy to have leftover cake for their snack.

Our monthly Priesthood Meeting took place that evening. Though we covered a list of topics, the ones that received the most time were the calendar, fundraising for camp, and fundraising for Spectacular.

We were running low on some of our supplies. This warranted a trip to Sam's Club on Monday to stock up.

The conference call I was scheduled to be on Tuesday evening was postponed. It is now set for next Monday.

We had a very slow start to SonRisers on Wednesday morning. Though we were open for about 100 minutes, the vast majority of the 80 kids who came arrived in a 30 minute window near the end.

Even with the slow start and smaller group we had a few new kids. This set a new statistical milestone for us. We can now officially say that we've served more kids in 2010-11 than any other year as we surpassed our old record. With 2.5 months to go we've now had 260+ kids come to at least one activity at the church this year. My projection of a notable dip in youth participation this year due to some community factors outside the church was completely wrong.

I had lunch with Damon, who is home from Graceland University for spring break, on Wednesday. It was good that he was here for his dad's baptism on Sunday. We were able to catch up on more things over lunch.

I received an email on Wednesday from the Baltimore Community Foundation about some college scholarships they're making available to this year's graduates from Baltimore City Public Schools. I sorted through them and forwarded them to our high school seniors. We'll be working together on the forms in order to get everything in on time.

Just a handful of folks participated in the evening activities (NA and Mid-Week Service) on Wednesday night.

Marjorie and I met over breakfast on Thursday morning. We hadn't had a chance to sit down together and update each other on what's been happening in our neighborhood programming for quite a while so it was good to get each other up to speed. Bill and I met in the middle of the day to review and plan for some projects that are in the works.

Spring was in the air on Thursday so lots of people were out that evening enjoying the fresh air. I was able to visit with several folks who were out. This included a few of our young adults who are looking forward to going to Laurel next weekend for a game night with the mission center young adults.

We spent time on Friday setting up the our team fundraising page at razoo.com. We're trying this in order to raise money to get our high school kids to Spectacular at Graceland University in Lamoni, Iowa, this July. You can set up a team page to invite your friends to donate by clicking on the "Join this Team" box at http://www.razoo.com/team/Spectacular or you can read our stories and donate directly by clicking on any of our names listed under "Team Members"

Friday night brought Pizza Church. The first two groups learned the story of Zacchaeus. The High School group continued its study of the Gospel of Luke.

We had lots of home visits on Saturday. While out we learned that one family in our congregation had been selected to receive some home safety repairs through a local grant program. They had applied through the church the work crew will be coming in April to make the upgrades and repairs.

Looking ahead to next week we have our full schedule of activities. In addition, we have our monthly Celebration Service on Sunday evening. This will include a potluck dinner. I have a conference call on Monday evening. Next Saturday some of our young adults will be meeting in Laurel while our high school students will enjoy Sundae Church here in Pigtown.

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

The Stallings Family
The Boycheck Family
The Shorter Family
The Pelsinski Family
The Starlipper Family
The Ceo Family
The Koethe Family
The Pringle 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/

Friday, March 18, 2011

SPECTACULAR

We're trying to send some kids from inner-city Baltimore for a week in Iowa on the campus of Graceland University. The program is called SPECTACULAR and lives up to its name.

We've already secured scholarships for the fees and now need to buy plane tickets and ground transportation. Several kids who have attended in the past have come home with academic and athletic scholarships which allowed them to be the first in their families to attend college.

Please consider helping make this happen for more kids from our church this year.

Saturday, March 12, 2011

3/13/2011

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

It started Sunday with just a handful of people for Morning Worship. We began a month-long series on Peace and shared in Communion together.

Shortly after the service the nursing students began to arrive. They along with Donna, their instructor, transformed the church into the health fair. With it pouring rain outside we feared that we'd have only a few people come. In the end, though, 40 people came through the event.

Just as the health fair was starting, the Tamara and five of our high school students arrived at back in town. They had been in Springfield, Virginia, at the Hunger Challenge. They were quite excited about their experiences there and will report to the congregation about them at the next Celebration Service.

Monday night brought our camp fundraiser at Chick-fil-A. Over 20 people from the church came through during the set hours. We all sat together and visited and had a good time. Several people who are not a part of the church but had heard about the event through Facebook and other promotions placed orders, too.

112 kids participated in Wednesday's SonRisers activities. Afterward, Donna took her nursing students to experience Paul's Place while Marjorie, whose class is based there, brought her group our way. We spent some time talking about the community and then went through the Peace Pavilion.

Once they left Charlotte arrived. She was picking up the keyboard she'd lent us back in December. We had lunch together before she left.

I got a call that afternoon to come by Chick-fil-A and pick up the check from Monday's fundraiser. I also got a couple of checks from people who were unable to attend but wanted to support sending kids to camp.

With funding on the brain I checked up on our status with Spectacular this summer. Thankfully, there are scholarships available for some kids from here. We're responsible for buying them plane tickets.

Wednesday night after the NA Meeting and our Mid-Week Service, I finally got to the attendance work I normally do on Wednesday morning after SonRisers.

Paperwork was the word of the day on Thursday. I got the order of worship for Sunday ready to print. Since they were having a sale, I designed and ordered the postcards for Easter. I also went back and forth with the school in scheduling "Peace for Everyone" at the Peace Pavilion as we needed to schedule around their state standardized testing dates.

I got a call on Friday morning from Damon. He and his friends are OK but were in a minor wreck in Ohio on their way to Baltimore for spring break. He didn't know quite what to do so I guided him throughout the day.

Meanwhile, we learned on Friday that the Pigtown Festival is on a different weekend than usual this year. We adjusted our calendars and will plan accordingly.

Friday night brought Pizza Church. The behavior of the kids at the first two groups, both inside and outside the building, was really bad. Though we made it through, it was a tough one. The senior high group was was much better.

Earl and I spent the day on Saturday at a mission center class in Stafford, Virginia. While I was there, Vonceil filled the font and got the heater going and Bryce set up the church for that evening's activities

I got back that night in time for our monthly Solid Rock Cafe. The group was smaller than last time and much more under control than was Friday night so Tamara and I had no trouble staffing the event.

Two of our college students joined us at Solid Rock Cafe as well. Damon was safely home from Graceland University and Quentin was home from Lancaster Bible College. Both will be here all week for spring break.

Looking ahead to next week we have our full schedule of activities. In addition, we have a baptism scheduled for Morning Worship on Sunday. Sunday night is our monthly Priesthood Meeting. I have several meetings scheduled throughout the week, including a conference call on Tuesday, a lunch meeting on Wednesday, and a breakfast meeting on Thursday.

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

The Carson Family
The Covington Family
The Riddick Family
The Fitzpatrick Family
The Johnson Family
The Spence Family
The Allen Family
The Stewart 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/

Saturday, March 5, 2011

3/6/2011

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

It started out Sunday with some neighbors stopping by before Morning Worship. They were inquiring about getting married. They hand their license in hand and were quite literally ready to be married on the spot. With only about a half an hour before Morning Worship was to start, I was not ready to do so. We scheduled the wedding for 2:00 that afternoon.

A small group gathered for Morning Worship. We finished out the preaching series we'd started back in mid-January.

The couple and their witnesses arrived at the church a little before their scheduled time. We had a short ceremony and they were on their way.

By 3:00 we had a bunch of wound up kids in the building for Kids' Church. We were a little short on staff that day and I was concerned. But once we got going they really focused on the Bible story and the building block project that went with it.

On Monday I boarded a plane to California. I had a couple of days of training there at the end of the week so I spent a couple of days on my own out there ahead of time.

I got a message while out west that Barry was ready to get baptized. We scheduled it for the morning of March 13.

95 kids participated in Wednesday's SonRisers activities. Along with everyone's regular responsibilities, Tamara got up early to get the donuts and Sara helped staff the activity.

Once that was over the nursing students met in the building. They sent me a Power Point presentation that they want to have scrolling on the big screen during next Sunday's health fair.

That afternoon Patricia welcomed the NA group to the building while Gloria closed up afterward and then led the Mid-Week Service.

Friday night brought Pizza Church. Tamara, Sarah, and Robert staffed one of the busiest Friday nights we've had in a long time. Many of the kids who came were there for the first time.

With my conference ending Friday evening it made more sense to fly back east on Saturday. With that evening free I was able to meet up with Don for dinner. I learned more about what he's doing with his church there and he got updated on his friends here in Pigtown.

On Saturday morning Sarah picked up Bryce, Fred, Crystal, and Carlo. They were going to the Hunger Challenge in Springfield, Virginia. Tamara joined them a little later in the day.

Looking ahead to next week we have our full schedule of activities. In addition, we have our Community Health Fair on Sunday afternoon from 3:00-5:00 p.m. The folks who participated in the Hunger Challenge should be returning to Baltimore right around the time that the fair starts. On Monday evening from 4:30-7:30 is our camp fundraiser at the Lansdowne Chick-fil-A. We'll be working mid-week to coordinate the next set of dates for the Peace Pavilion with the schools. There's training in Virginia all day next Saturday. Next Saturday night is our monthly Solid Rock Cafe. Somewhere in there we'll need to get the font filled and heated for the baptism the following Sunday.

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

The Purnell Family
The Conley Family
The Miskimon Family
The Whalen Family
The Powers Family
The Calhoun Family
The Jeffers Family
The Griffiths 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/

Saturday, February 26, 2011

2/27/2011

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

It started out Sunday with Morning Worship. A small group gathered and heard the message on Numbers 22.

We had a really fun time at Kids' Church as the kids were all in a good mood. We learned the story of Jesus and Peter walking on water. Our corresponding craft was a foam and glue project.

Sunday night was our monthly Celebration Service. Several people brought pots of home made soup and we shared in supper together. One of our neighbors stopped by toward the end and joined us for dinner.

We spent some time this week working on promoting two upcoming events, one being the March 6 health fair at the church and the other being the March 7 camp fundraiser at Chick-fil-A. We made posters and fliers and set up events on Facebook.

Monday was a holiday from school and Tuesday was a snow day so we were curious as to who would remember to come to SonRisers on Wednesday morning. "I thought you were only open on Wednesdays," was the greeting we had from one of our kids. After reminding him that it actually WAS Wednesday his world made sense again. 80 kids participated in SonRisers that morning.

After SonRisers the nursing students gathered in the front room. Meanwhile in the back room, I worked on attendance data while Gloria was interviewed by a person who was doing research on Carroll Park.

With the March youth ministries newsletters, the fliers for upcoming events, and the worship bulletins we had a larger copy order for the week so we spent some time at Staples that afternoon getting things printed. That evening after the NA Meeting we had our Mid-Week Service.

Thursday night I met up with Nick at the church. He and I assembled the Kids' Church News/Pizza Church Press mailings which included invitations to the Health Fair and the Fundraiser Night.

Friday night brought Pizza Church. We had small groups throughout the evening. Before the senior high session, Sarah talked with the group about next weekend's Hunger Challenge. It looks like we could have several kids participating this year.

Greg, a long-time friend of our congregation, got married on Saturday in Ohio. Tamara and some others from the area went there for the weekend to be a part of the celebration.

During the day on Saturday Onalee and I delivered information about the Health Fair to other churches in the neighborhood. We also had a poster to hang up at the Laundromat.

We had six different kinds of ice cream Saturday night at our monthly Sundae Church. Bryce welcomed a couple of his friends from school to the activity.

Looking ahead to next week we have our full schedule of activities. In addition, we have several kids planning on attending the Hunger Challenge next weekend in Springfield, Virginia. I'll be out of town for training much of the week so Tamara, Sarah, Gloria, Vonceil, and Robert will all be putting in some extra time to make sure all the activities are covered.

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

The Jackson Family
The Cedillo Family
The St. Thomas Family
The Cole Family
The Jones Family
The Riddick Family
The Johnson Family
The Purcell 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/

Saturday, February 19, 2011

2/20/2011

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

It started out Sunday with a small gathering for Morning Worship. The message for the morning was on 2 Samuel 6.

One of our high school seniors brought her preliminary award letter from Graceland with her. We were able to see how much more money she would need to get to start school there this fall and to start strategizing for ways to make up the difference.

Several months ago the women of our Mission Center had been given us some beautiful basket sets of items for newborn babies. Strangely, no members of friends of the congregation had had a baby since that time. On Sunday, though, we gave out two of them within 90 minutes of each other.

At Kids' Church we learned the story of Jesus feeding the crowd with 5 loaves and 2 fish. We had a color/cut/glue project to go with it that the kids really focused on.

Before the Priesthood Meeting that evening, Gloria came by the church to work on some of the plants. The one we had by the front door had outgrown the space so she and Gary had moved it to the front room after Morning Worship. The smaller plant they had brought from the front room to replace it needed some serious attention so she gave it the help it needed.

Sunday night was our monthly Priesthood Meeting. Much of the agenda focused on church finance/fundraising, youth ministries, our calendar of events, and the Peace Pavilion.

107 kids participated in Wednesday's SonRisers activities. In all the years we've been doing this I don't believe we've ever had over 100 kids come on a single day in February. Among the new kids who came were a few whose only other experience at the church had been Peace Pavilion activities.

The new kids who came also helped us cross a milestone in our youth participation. So far this year (since July) we've had 705 kids come to at lease one activity at the church where we track individual attendance. (Kids who participated in only Peace Pavilion or Bible School activities are not reflected in these numbers). We've crossed over 700 twice before, once last year and once back in 2004-2005.

After SonRisers I had a chance to visit with Donna, the instructor of the nursing classes, for a few minutes. We talked through some of the plans for the upcoming health fair. We then looked to fall and talked about having her groups develop health-related centers to be incorporated into the Peace Pavilion activities.

Once she left, Shirley, the leader of the after school program at Paul's Place Outreach, came by. She reviewed the Peace Pavilion centers in preparation for bringing her group by on Friday. Once she did that we solidified our specific times and procedures. She also let me know how wonderful it's been to have Tamara working with their after school program there and how helpful that has been in coordinating programming.

I spent some time that day on the phone with Legal Services at our denomination's headquarters. I had received some tax forms from the state and needed to know how to handle them. I'd also learned that the University of Maryland was missing its building use agreement and needed new copies from Legal.

After the NA Meeting and Mid-Week Service I stopped by our other Graceland-bound student's house. I got a chance to look over his preliminary financial award letter and start coming up with a plan to fill in the gaps. He was working on his Community of Christ Leadership Program (CCLP) grant application so I encouraged him to continue with it and bring it to church with him on Friday for editing.

On Thursday we started working on our March newsletters and spent time getting some of the marketing materials ready for the March 7 Chick-fil-A night. The weather that day was unseasonably warm so many people were outside enjoying the warm air. It was a great opportunity to walk around the neighborhood and visit with people.

Tamara, Robert, Patricia, Gloria, and I gathered at the church on Friday afternoon to host the Peace Pavilion. The group from Paul's Place arrived and we worked with them for about an hour. They then had their snacks before leaving.

Friday night brought Pizza Church. We had regular sized groups for all three sessions. After the last group we spent some time helping edit the CCLP application materials.

We had a couple of high school boys who recently earned a trip to Friendly's by having come to church 40 + times since July. Sarah and I took them there for their ice cream sundaes on Saturday evening.

Looking ahead to next week we have our full schedule of activities. In addition, our monthly Celebration Service is on Sunday evening. This month the service will include a soup supper. Next Saturday night is our monthly Sundae Church.

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

The Bagley Family
The Jones Family
The Marsh Family
The Rabb Family
The Magallanez Family
The Cain Family
The Iman Family
The Cizic 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/