Saturday, July 23, 2011

7/24/2011

It's been a busy week at The Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.

It started Sunday with Morning Worship. Barb Carter, who will soon be our apostle, and her husband and parents joined us for the service. Barb brought the message on Love.

At Kids' Church we continued our study of the Armor of God. We talked about "shoes of peace" then made a craft to show how we could leave peace like footprints everywhere we go.

That evening brought our monthly Celebration Service. Our focus for this month was on hearing reports from camp. Though not all our campers were there, many were. They were each given time at the microphone to share some camp experiences. Those present who were on camp staff then shared their testimonies. We ordered pizzas and all ate together afterward.

Throughout the week we continued to collect school supplies for our upcoming distribution. We started stocking up on the "doorbuster" sale items based on this week's sale fliers. Feel free to join us in this quest over the next few weeks as we work our way toward school.

We had four kids who came to church 90+ times last year. On Tuesday we took them out to Golden Corral for dinner as a reward for their extremely good attendance.

Our Peace Pavilion Planning Meeting was scheduled for after the NA Meeting on Wednesday. With extreme heat, some people sick, and others out of town we ended up not having enough of the parties involved to be productive.

The heat continued to blast the neighborhood throughout the week. This kept people with air conditioning inside and those without outside late into the night. We took advantage of the church's air conditioning to get the August mailings ready, both the newsletters (Kids' Church News and Pizza Church Press) and the Bible School postcards.

Sarah stopped by for a few minutes on Friday afternoon. She had a box of "lost and found" items from camp that belonged to kids from our congregation. She also dropped off some school supplies that Sally Walton had sent our way.

Friday night brought Pizza Church. The younger groups talked about faith while the senior high group continued their study of the life of Moses.

I picked up our 5 senior high kids early Saturday morning to catch our flight to Kansas City. There, we rendezvoused with our delegation leaders and other area youth to catch the bus to Graceland University in Lamoni, Iowa, for SPECTACULAR. They'll spend the week there and come home next weekend. I caught a flight back to Baltimore that afternoon.

Looking ahead to next week we have our full schedule of activities. In addition, Bill Pennington will bring the message at Morning Worship on Sunday. Next Saturday, Tamara will fly out to Kansas City to meet up with our kids who went to SPECTACULAR and escort them on their flights (and change of planes in Chicago) home.

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

The Pestridge Family
The Jamison Family
The Moore Family
The Collier Family
The Smead Family
The Livingston Family
The Jones Family
The Quick 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/

Saturday, July 16, 2011

7/17/2011

It's been a busy week at The Power House in Baltimore, Maryland.

It stared Sunday morning with good news on Facebook. The folks in the Gatchelville, Pennsylvania, Congregation will be helping collect school supplies for distribution here in August. We're anticipating having even more kids this year than last so the more help we can get the better.

For about an hour before Morning Worship, kids and their parents started arriving for the trip to camp. Kids checked in with me then stashed their luggage in the back of the church. About eight kids from Dunalk also joined us in waiting for the bus.

In the end, we had nearly 70 people for Morning Worship. We sang camp songs, reviewed the youth ministry achievements for the year, and had a blessing for the campers and staff.

The bus arrived at 12:15. The kids quickly loaded their luggage and chose their seats. Vonceil and Gloria had packaged hot dogs for the kids so we distributed them, along with chips and a drink, once the bus got on the way.



Though the campground was more than twice as many miles away from Baltimore as our old campground, we arrived there in about the same amount of time since we didn't have to go through the same traffic. We got our 20 kids registered and to their cabins then Vonceil (who had driven down behind the bus), Robert, and I rode home.

I spent the week "on call" for issues at camp. For the first time in the 14 years I've been taking kids to camp, we went the whole week without a single phone call from camp staff.

While working on paperwork at the church one afternoon, I heard a horrific crashing sound. When I went to see what had happened at first I couldn't find anything. I then noticed a mark on the glass door from where someone had pitched a large rock at it. There's no reason that door shouldn't have been completely shattered but it remains intact.

Also while looking for the source of the noise (before I found the rock) I discovered that our gutter's downspout was plugged by a tennis ball. This explained the strange problems we've had with the gutters the last few weeks. I went out in the rain, cleared it plus several rocks and sticks, and got things flowing again.

With so many our our core kids away it was a good time to work on work on lessons, crafts, and snacks for Bible School. We've got things roughed in and will gather the necessary supplies next week.

When I went to get in my car on Friday morning, I discovered that it was blocked in the parking lot at the church. This was because a neighbor had illegally parked her van in the alley. I knocked and she came to the door. She began yelling, cussing, and accusing me of lying saying that she had the right to park wherever she wanted and that if I worked hard enough I could get my car out. She went back inside. I called the police. Once she saw me on the phone she moved her van while hurling accusations and snide comments at me the entire time.

Friday night brought Pizza Church. Between two of the sessions we discovered that ants had invaded. Several of the pizzas had to be tossed out. After all the kids left we went to Home Depot to get ant bait and distributed it around the church.

On Saturday Vonceil and I drove down to camp to be at the baptism service. Though no kids from The Power House were baptized we like to be present for this sacrament whenever possible. We then loaded the kids on the bus and headed back to Baltimore.



The bus that came to get us did not have the features that we had included in our contract. When we got home I filed a complaint with the company. The errors on there part were quite significant and we are owed at least a partial refund on the money we paid.

Looking ahead to next week we have our full schedule of activities. In addition, we have our monthly Celebration Service on Sunday evening during which we'll give the kids a chance to tell about their experiences at camp. We're taking the four kids who came to church 90+ times last year out to dinner at Golden Corral on Tuesday night. We've got a Pigtown Peace Pavilion planning session scheduled for Wednesday evening. On Saturday we're taking five high school students to Graceland University in Lamoni, Iowa, for a week at Spectacular. Next Saturday evening is our monthly Sundae Church.

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

The McCusker Family
The Kelly Family
The Dance Family
The Logan Family
The Boston Family
The Liason Family
The Mitchell Family
The Sugars 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/

Saturday, July 9, 2011

7/10/2011

It started out Sunday, June 19, with Morning Worship. The message that day was on the Acts 3 story of the healing of the man born lame.

After the service I got an email saying our order was in at the Dollar Tree so I ran out to the store to get it. We'd ordered aluminum water cans to use as our prize for attending church 20+ times and I wanted to be sure to have them available at the start of the year. Afterward, Tamara and I sat down and reviewed things for when I would be out of town.



We talked about Fathers Day at Kids' Church. The kids then made "World's Best Dad" pins as gifts.

That evening was our Graduation Celebration. We had a time of song then had our three high school graduates (the most we've had in one year) talk about their plans. Two are going to Graceland University this fall while the other is planning on going to the police academy. We then shared in the two cakes (brought by Earl and Janet), lots of ice cream, and fellowship together.


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

In the end, we had only 6 pieces of cake left. I took them out and shared them with neighbors who were out on their front steps.

On Monday morning, my family and I left to visit family for a couple of weeks. While out, Sarah brought the message one Sunday while Earl did so on the other. Gloria and Earl presided over Morning Worship while Tamara, Sarah, Robert, and Kathy were responsible for youth ministries.

June 30 brought the end of our attendance year for youth ministry. With that we have the statistics for last year:

-We officially had 924 kids attend at least one activity at church. That compares to 752 in 2009-2010.
-When you factor in kids who attend activities for which we cannot track attendance (Peace Pavilion, Narcotics Anonymous, etc.) we easily served well over 1000 kids last year.
-We had a total of 6238 attendance instances. That is over 100 more per month than 2009-10.

In every category we measure, we had both an increase in both the number of kids in attendance and an increase in the frequency of attendance by kids. In other words, we had more kids come more often to more activities than any time in our congregation's history.

Some kids who came to Pizza Church this Friday came there from a funeral. A teenage friend of theirs had been murdered last week.

Several people gathered at the church shortly after noon on Saturday in preparation for camp. Sarah and several staff members stopped by to get some supplies from the church that they were using at the campgrounds. Tamara and Ebony also met there and traveled to the campgrounds to help get things ready for the campers' arrival.

Other camp needs were addressed throughout the day. I had one kid stop by the house all but begging to go again this year. We did not have the resources to take him. I got another call about a kid needing a piece of luggage and another who had everything but a blanket. We were able to fill the last two needs thanks to people who have given us used luggage and sleeping bags in advance.

Saturday night brought our monthly Solid Rock Cafe. The group was well behaved but VERY loud. The energy and excitement about camp was raising the noise level of the whole group. One young adult who will be on staff brought his luggage to the church to be ready for Sunday's travels.

Looking ahead to next week we have a different schedule of activities. Sunday morning is our annual camp service. We'll be joined by some kids from the Dundalk Congregation who are riding with us this year. Once the service is over the kids, Quentin, Robert, Lennard, and I will board the bus for camp. Vonceil will follow behind to bring Robert and me back to Baltimore once the kids are all registered. Though we've cancelled Kids' Church, the rest of our activities will follow their regular schedule throughout the week. On Saturday, Vonceil and I will drive back to the campgrounds to gather the kids back on the bus for the trip home. Though we'll be "on call" throughout the week, we're hoping not to have to make a mid-week trip to camp to pick up a kid due to medical or behavioral problems.

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

The Stinchcomb Family
The Moore Family
The Richardson Family
The Latham Family
The Jackson Family
The Allen Family
The Pringle 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”