1/30/2010

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

Started out Sunday, January 16, with Morning Worship. Before the service started John requested baptism. We set the date for January 30. Only about 15 people were at church by 11:00 a.m. By the time the sermon started at 11:20 nearly 40 had gathered.

Karen had been considering baptisms for quite some time. After the service I checked in with her on the topic and she said she was now ready and would do so on the 30th.

The story at Kids' Church was about Jesus' baptism. We then made bracelets. Among the adults present was Tammy . Karen had stopped by her house to tell her about the baptism and invite Tammy to get baptized, too. Tammy let her know that she had been baptized here a few years ago. She also wanted to visit with Tamara and me about schooling opportunity for her daughter.

That evening was our monthly Celebration Service. About half the people there were folks who hadn't been at Morning Worship. At the end of the service we had pizza.

80 kids joined us that Wednesday for SonRisers. Afterward we worked on setting up "Peace for Me" at the Peace Pavilion.

A very large group gathered for the NA Meeting that evening. We had one object for the Peace Pavilion that was still downstairs because it was quite heavy. A few of the guys at the meeting carried it up to the balcony for us. After our Mid-Week Service I spent some time getting things ready for the weekend since I was scheduled to be out of town.

I had a meeting with Bill Pennington on Thursday morning. That afternoon we finished setting up the Peace Pavilion, which included a call to Michigan to make sure we had everything set up correctly and to get some help in its practical application. You can see pictures of the current setup at http://pigtownpeacepavilion.blogspot.com/.

On Friday I caught a flight to Nashville. I was in training for the weekend there and got home Sunday night.

Friday night brought Pizza Church. Tamara, Jenn, and Robert staffed the evening and had good sized groups throughout the evening.

I got a text from Vonceil on Saturday to call Ron. I did so during a break and learned that he was working with a girl who wanted to be baptized. He wondered if they could do it as a part of the service on January 30. That sounded like an excellent idea to me.

Tamara hosted our monthly Sundae Church that Saturday evening. Based on how long she said the kids stayed to visit they must have had a good time.

Gloria presided and Ron Gillilan brought the message on Sunday. He brought a friend with him who shared his testimony and sang some songs. I've gotten rave reviews throughout the week about the service.

Tamara, Vonceil, and Kathy ran Kids' Church on Sunday afternoon. The had the largest crowd we've had in many months. I was told they had a hard time focusing on the songs and lesson but got quite into the craft project.

On Monday Tamara and Bryce spent a good portion of the day giving part of the church a good scrubbing. It made things look much better.

A series of snow storms hit the area starting overnight on Tuesday into Wednesday. This closed schools for the rest of the week. Therefore, we didn't have SonRisers on Wednesday and our sessions with kids from School 34 at the Peace Pavilion were all cancelled.

After shoveling out the church for the NA Meeting Wednesday night only a few people attended. Between the NA Meeting and the Mid-Week service I spent about 30 minutes shoveling things out again. The snow was coming down so hard at that point that people who came to the service doubted that I had shoveled at all. Interestingly, we had more people than usual number at the Mid-Week Service since they were home due to the storm.

With more time at home this week I got caught up on a lot of things. I got the February newsletters written, the attendance from last weekend done, finished the letter that goes with our end-of-year receipts, wrote several letters of recommendation, updated the web site, and cleared most of a laundry list of items that had been overlooked for quite some time.

I also had a chance to visit with Marjorie this week. We finalized Sunday, March 6, as the date for the health fair at the church.

Ron and Tamara each stopped by St. Agnes Hospital on Friday to visit with one of our kids. We'd learned on Thursday afternoon that he had been hospitalized there. I got up to the hospital to visit him on Saturday.

Friday night brought Pizza Church. We had smaller groups throughout the evening. Afterward the senior high boys helped get the font out of the closet.

I woke up to a surprise on Saturday. I'd posted on the church's Facebook page that we'd gotten the font out in preparation for Sunday. I had a person respond that they were thinking about baptism and would like to do so in the spring.

I touched base with our baptism candidates on Saturday. They've been busy inviting friends and family members to come with them to the service. Let's hope the weather holds and that we can have a big crowd for the service in the morning.

We have trouble keeping the water in the font warm enough this time of year due in large part to the fact that it sits on a cold cement slab. It's not unusual to have very hot water at the top of the tank and ice cold water at the bottom. Before filling it on Saturday, we decided to see if putting a thick layer of carpet under it would help. We'll know in the morning.

Looking ahead to next week we have our full schedule of activities. In addition, we have several baptisms scheduled for Morning Worship. We'll be working this week to try to reschedule the Peace Pavilion with School 34. I'm meeting with the director of Paul's Place Outreach on Thursday for some coordinated planning.

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

The Ayers Family
The Magallanez Family
The Stinchcomb Family
The Meile Family
The Cizic Family
The Marsh Family
The Ghaffar Family
The Lancaster 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/