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/
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