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/