I’m always amazed whenever I work in Clarkston.  The diversity of people groups is astonishing! I met people from Burundi, Somalia, Turkey, Russia, Bosnia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya (I enjoyed speaking Swahili today), Bhutan, Nepal, Burma & India.

The people were fantastic!

Today I enjoyed working with my teams who were from Total Grace, New Mercies, Mt. Moriah and Green Pastures churches.

The team was very motivated and had a great attitude.  We had nearly 200 people come to the event.  We served food, did blood pressure checks, had a moon walk, had balloons and facepainting, gave out children’s clothes and school supplies.  What a blessing!

It was great to see multiple churches working together.  That’s a beautiful example of what Whirlwind Missions is all about.  Creating a partnership of churches working in multihousing communities sharing the Gospel.

In Clarkston we take a more gradual approach with the Muslim families we work with. We don’t hit them over the head with the big, black Bible.  We become friends and share when we see an interest or opening.

I have friends that ask me, “When do we know when we should share our faith?”  In my experience when it’s the time it’ll be very obvious.  Things like, “Tell me about Jesus.”

I woke up this morning to voicemail from my partner Tyler Recker.  He mentioned that at the new mission in Buford the manager said we couldn’t talk about Jesus at the after school program. I talked to the manager at length who blamed their reticence on “Fair Housing” laws.  I asked her to ask her regional director.  We’ll see.  I’m not optimistic.

Been working on my financial report.  I’ll drop it off at my treasurer’s house tomorrow.

Finished up my email and made all my call backs.

Worked out on weights with Kathy this morning.

Ash reminded me that the next time we ride out on a Thursday, she’ll be in college!  Wow!

We had a good time today.  We worked on figuring out the kitchen remode.  We’re changing the linoleum and the countertops in the kitchen.  The flooring looked especially bad.  It’s real apparent to when you come in from the newly renovated side.  We picked out the materials for the project.  Hopefully, Bill Hickey will be able to come back to install it tomorrow.

Worked on my financial report.  I’ll finish it up tomorrow.

Set up some appointments for next week.

I was invited to speak at a conference in January in New Orleans for the Salvation Army.  Confirmed with those guys that I could come.  That conference may conflict with the missions fair at Peachtree Corners BC.  Ashley will be able to cover for me.

Ran 4 miles.  Seems like it took me forever.

This morning I went up to the North American Mission Board to do my seminar on raising up volunteers.  There was a good group of missionaries and chaplains.

Went to Azalea to pick up Jouvens and Keith Harrell.  We went to Office Max with the list from the kids at the mission. 

I spent over $900 on school supplies for the Azalea and Villa Nueva missions.  Lot of need in these areas!

Not all the kids were excited to be there!

THANKS to our generous supporters!  We couldn’t help these families without your giving!

I had a “Jesse Day” today!  Amen!  We had a lot of fun together. We went to visit his psychiatrist today.  The doctor feels Jesse is make good progress and now we only have to come back to see him every two months. 

Jesse does seem to be doing better and is in good humor.

We went to the Mall of Georgia up 85 this afternoon.  Jesse and I had a two hour wait before the meeting so we ate lunch and looked at the book store. I always enjoy that!

I had a meeting with partners from the Lite House and from Youth Outreach United at Reserve at Ivy Creek.  Mary Mitchell and Tyler Recker are both great workers.

I’m sure the children there will really benefit from their leadership.

The staff of the Lite House are always friendly and welcome our help.  The manager is a believer and until recently was a member of Woodstock Baptist Church–a big supporter of what we’re doing in Clarkston.

The kids at the complex seem very friendly. 

I think the team is going to have a great time there.  We also checked out the rest of the property.  Lots of room for the kids to play.

On the way back from Buford, we stopped by Kroger to pick up supplies for an Outreach Event at Hampton Woods.  Our partners at Iglesia Belen will be helping out there.  We delivered it to the office–the party is this Friday.

Got home, dropped Jesse off and went back to the grocery store.  This time to pick up our family’s stuff.  I didn’t have the list with me earlier.

Got rained on loading the car up at Kroger.  Not my favorite thing!

Love you guys!

I’m sure there were a lot of kids moaning this morning!  I look forward to seeing all “my” kids and seeing how their classes are going.

This weekend we handed out the school supplies in Clarkston and over at Kensington Station.  Hundreds of children were helped because of the generosity of people just like YOU!

I’ve enjoyed watching the Olympics on my new TV!  We spent part of our insurance settlement on a high def TV.  It’s been fantastic to watch these athletes doing their thing!

I had a meeting with my partner from FBC Atlanta today, Derrick Posten.  He’s doing well and is very excited about our “Impact Atlanta” weekend where we’ll host block parties in over 30 locations! We had a good lunch together talking about plans for mobilizing people in our apartment areas.

Enjoyed talking to my folks this morning.  Glad to see that they’re doing well too!

I have to head over to Azalea in a few minutes to go and check on the kids and see how much more stuff we need to go and by.  My partners from Calvary church picked most of the kids up on Friday and had a lot of stuff to help them, but they always miss stuff.

It’s later now and I gave out a LOT of school supplies. Turns out that my church partners had plenty of school bags but not much stuff inside them.

Jouvens and I handed out the gear and then we took notes of what stuff each kid was missing. I’ll go buy that at Office Max tomorrow.

The area in front of the mission was a huge mess this afternoon. Alex upstairs had a big party. There were capri sun drinks, shredded paper and paper plates everywhere. The kids were good about helping me pick the stuff up.

I tied a couple more wires around trees in my yard. Hanging plants area. Excellent!

Keep praying for us!  Ashley’s website is nearly ready to roll!  Check out Ashleycummins.org.

Love you guys!

Every month or so I have a “me day.”  That’s where I get to do the stuff that I like to do.

Yesterday Ashley and I worked on her web site.  I think we’ve got most of the bugs out and are ready to publish to the web.  We still have a couple of small issues to work out, but soon it’ll be up and running!  Check out ashleycummins.org!

I had a good talk with my partner Terry Earl yesterday.  She and her partner Cathy Palmer are doing a great job in Clarkston.  Looks like the Palmers are moving out of Huntington Ridge and over to the Clarkston area to live.  Makes sense with the gas prices like they are.  The Ridge was having real security issues lately.  I’m glad they’re moving into a place where they can feel safe.

Most people think that the really hard areas to serve in missions are all overseas.  When you go overseas, do you know where most people think is the most dangerous place to live?  The USA!  they think everyone has a gun and that it’s like the wild west over here!  Perhaps you think, “That’s crazy, it’s not like that.”  I can take you to areas in Atlanta where the residents hear gun shots every night!  So keep praying for your missionaries right here!

My favorite thing to do on a Me Day is to go to the bookstore.  Currently, I’m studying orchids so I bought a couple of books about them.  Also got a book on folding dollar bills into the shapes of animals.  Origami is another area of interest of mine.  Yesterday I learned out to make an elephant out of a dollar bill!  Looks cool.  It’ll take me a while to memorize how to do it.

I also bought a book called the “Job Almanac.”  It has over 500 jobs you can start yourself.  I got it for Jesse to look through.  I thought it might help him get an idea of what direction his interests lie.  We had a good talk yesterday.  He really does seem to be in better spirits and clearer every day.  He still likes to be alone in his room most of the day.  He says that helps him feel “safe.”  Please keep praying for him.

Jesse, Miles and Ashley had fun playing cards last night.

Bill and Miles are working on the house. They’re repairing some bad boards and replacing three sections of gutter.  They come in white so Miles spent the afternoon painting them white.  I hope they’ll be able to hang them today.

They were able to get most of them hung. Not easy since it’s pretty high up.

Most of the boxes around the house are unpacked.  I spent this morning hanging pictures in the hallway. 

They are family pictures and things my mom sent me of my grandparents and great grandparents.  It really does look more like a home with pictures like that up.

Another thing I like to do on a Me Day is go to the gardening sections of Lowes.  I like wandering around and looking at all the beautiful plants, especially after they’ve just been watered.  It’s like being in a tropical rainforest.  Really beautiful.  Yesterday I also bought a new hibiscus plant and a hanging begonia plant.

I usually spend some time every day sitting on my back step looking at the birds and plants and thinking about work and praying for partners and people that have needs.  It’s a time of recharging and peace.

I’m watching the second season of Lost on DVD.  Sure have enjoyed that!

Love you guys!

Ashley day today!

Bill and Miles are back at our house to repair some wood and hang gutters.  Glad to have them back!

We went out to eat with Ashley and Jesse.

We went over to Lowe’s to get a gift card that Miles and Bill could use as they needed things.

Ashley and I went over to my office at FBC Doraville to pick up the rest of the school supplies that our partners at Briarcliff Baptist Church and Pure Fun had collected. Thanks so much! We had planned to distribute what we had this afternoon, but my partners at Calvary Church offered to come by and pick up all the kids and take them to their church to pick out all that they needed. So I gave the rest of my stuff to Ashley and whatever the mission kids are missing I’ll pick up at Office Max or Staples.

Early this morning I worked on adding a new section to my garden: orchids!  It’s been fun to learn about a new plant. 

Did you know that orchids have more species than any other plant? I decided to use the fence as the base to hang plants on.  I think it looks pretty cool.

Ashley and I are still working on getting her new blog going.  We’re getting closer!  The new URL will be ashleycumminsmissions.org.

I ran 4 miles tonight.

While running I look at the clouds and think about what types there are. Officially 27 cloud types exist. Tonight was a mixed cloud sky, with alto stratus and altocumulus fractus clouds.

Con trail is short for “condensation trail.” The jet engines produce water vapor which immediately crystalizes in the upper atmosphere around 30,000 feet. This evening during my run I actually saw one bend. I guess there was a strong river of air in that area. Are you surprised I had my camera with me while I run?

My personality tends towards being very intense. Noticed? Once I get interested in something (like meteorlogy, orchids or Tai Chi) I usually “read up” on the subject for hours and within a couple of weeks can sound like an expert.

Love you guys!

Ashley and I had a fun time this evening at FBC Lilburn for the mission fair. 

I invited Keith and Cornelia Harrell to the event to help. 

It was pretty well attended. They had the booths in the fellowship hall.  Saw a few friends of mine.  This church is known for language missions so I’ve always been proud of them.

Spent the morning organizing for the school supply distributions this week.  I’ll be at Azalea tomorrow afternoon.  Thanks so much to Briarcliff Baptist Church for collecting school supplies for our missions!  We’ll help the kids at Ashley’s mission Kensington Station on Saturday.  The following weekend we’ll be at Krystopher Woods in Clarkston.

Worked out on weights.  Feel like a dad gum tiger tank!

The big news today is that Ashley registered for College!  She’ll do her first couple of years at Perimeter which is a part of the University of Georgia system.

She’ll probably transfer to Georgia State afterward.  Kathy and I are sure proud of her!

You may be missing Ashley’s blog.  I know I do!  She’s working on a new website.  We’ve had some technical issues with the registration company that we’re still working through.

I spent the afternoon in Clarkston–the refugee center of the whole Southeast!  It astonishes me how many different countries are represented.  Today I met people from Nepal, Afghanistan, Burundi, Somalia, Eritrea and Mexico!

I had a meeting with my partners from Total Grace church: Pastor Myrtle Smalls and her partner Sherry.  I asked Bennett Ekandem to also come over to help us with the planning.  We’ll be doing a great Outreach Event at Krystopher Woods on August 16th.  We’ll host a soccer tournament, have balloons and face painting and feed everone.

It was great to hang out with Bennett. He really is one of my favorites.  He’s lost a lot of weight and looks great!

Just finished running four miles.  It’s been so hot I decided to wait until nearly dark.  It was a lot more tolerable.  I’ve had times when I’ve been running in the last week or so that it was so hot that I started thinking about something my Daddy used to tell me.  This saying usually came up when we were talking about spicy food, especially with a lot of jalepenos.  He’d say, “Kill ya or cure ya!”  In this heat, I wonder if I’m coming closer to the killing part than the curing part.

No matter how old I get (and I’m 50!), I’ll always be my Mama’s little boy.  She worries about me running in this heat.  So Mom, believe me, if it gets too hot I’ll find some shade or walk, ok?  It was a beautiful sunset to watch as I ran.

Just about finished unpacking!  I have to go through every box, figure out where to put stuff, whether to throw it away, store it or use it.