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/