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/