Went to Marietta this morning to work with partners at FBC Marietta figure out the logistics for the youth group’s Summer Missions experience. We’ll host around 40 kids in four missions for about 6 days. Should be a great time!

Talked to office staff at Glenbrooke about the status of the mission there. Still no solid decision. Hard for me to understand.

Bought my tickets to go to Texas next month. I’ll be gone for a week to speak at a conference outside of San Antonio and at FBC Georgetown. It’ll be a good time to also renew relationships with the folks at my Dad’s church. They’re big supporters of our work!

Also had a pre-site visit with two partners from Pine Lake, MS. I think this team is going to do a terrific job for us. I had originally planned on starting new work in the S. Atlanta area specifically for them, but after yesterday I just don’t feel comfortable with that. Bottom line there are no churches to plug any converts into. Few if any leaders in the area. Not a good recipe for success. They told me today that it wasn’t a big deal for them to drive the bus the 25 minutes to come to the International Village area. I think they’ll have a much better experience up there.

Went to Azalea after working on my admin work at FBC Doraville. Went to the Post Office to get the stamps for this month’s mailout. Also got the rest of the supplies I needed from Office Depot. The kids at the mission are always good about helping me do all the labels and stamps.

My partner Paul Reynolds is having a challenge with his brother. He may be suicidal. It was so sad talking to Paul about the situation. Pray for the family.

Ran 4 miles and worked out on weights when I got home.

K and I enjoyed watching House on TV and then on DVD. Pray for Kathy’s mom, Nell. She’s not doing very well. Hard on all of us.

I spent the day with a new partner–Doug Bell! He’s working in East Atlanta around the Moreland Avenue area. LOTS of work to be done there for sure. He’s been a minister in the Manor 5 apartment complex for the last three years. I plan to bring my team from Pine Lake, Florida to help us ramp up work in this area even more.

We did a recon of the area and set up work at Sun Valley and talked to the manager at Paradise East. I still have to hear from their corporate bosses as to whether we can work there or not.

I also went back to the Forest Park area where I hoped to put in teams in about 6 locations. Unfortunately, it turns out the Clayton county doesn’t get out for Summer until June 1st! That means that my teams will have to be in the Dekalb county area instead. So I’ll go back to the Moreland Avenue area and set up another 6 or 7 locations soon.

I really enjoy starting new work, meeting new people, seeing their vision and helping to accelerate their work.

The director of the mission at Sun Valley goes to church in Douglasville, where I had an outreach event last weekend! I hope to get her church involved with our work there.

We went to Walmart to pick up school supplies for the two missions in the area–a little gift to help them from Whirlwind. While I was there, I asked different Walmart employees where they went to church. I hope to get some of the African American churches in the area to plug into the work I checked out today. They need a LOT of help.

And so does my daughter Ashley. Pray that we can get some volunteers to go over and help her there. It’s a burden on my heart.

Came home about 7pm and went for a 4 mile run.

K and I enjoyed watching “The Quick and the Dead.”

Ashley and I went to First United Methodist Church of Roswell this morning. We had a great time at the early service. Their praise band rocks! Pastor Mike also gave an inspiring message about getting out into the community. I certainly amen that idea!

Then we spoke at the class led by Rick Mullen. They were very enthusiastic and I pray that they will get involved at some level in the Latino communities around Roswell.

Ashley and I went to the rubber stamp store and learned how to make some thank you cards for our supporters. I like the hand crafted stuff. It looks super cool and I think people really appreciate the effort!

We ate at Taco Prisa and then went to visit the historic district around Roswell. We checked out a number of antique stores (I bought a really cool compass/sextant and some candles), sports stores and art galleries. My wife can’t stand that kind of arty stuff, so I’m glad Ashley likes to go there with me.

We got home around 6 pm and I took Kathy and Jesse out for steaks for her birthday. She really enjoyed it!

I’m looking forward to her putting her mom to bed so we can spend some time together.

Super busy weekend. Looks like next week is jammed too. Pray for me!

April 21, 2007

I spoke at the Multi-housing conference at Central Baptist Church in Douglasville. We had a good time discussing how to get the church engaged into the community—not an easy task!

Then I led the actual field training where we hosted an Outreach Event at Columbia Gardens. We had about 60 people show up, which is great for an initial event! We fed everyone and then I had the chance to share the Gospel. Best part was that five of the kids accepted the Lord! PTL!

After the Outreach Event I shot over to Stone Mountain to watch the finish of the 6^th stage of the Tour de Georgia. I was running late because of the event in Douglasville. I went to the main entrance, waited in line for about 20 minutes before they told us, “This entrance is closed until after the bike race! What!? I sped over to the West Entrance from the Stone Mountain side, parked my car and ran over to the where the police had blocked off the road. “They’ve just gone through!”

“WHAT!?!” I then had a decision to make: run or blow off the race. I decided I could run that two miles in my sleep, so I started down the road. Finally got to the park and the bikers were making the first lap around the mountain. I ran to finish line and then back towards where they were coming from. I got to see the group go by twice! Then I got to watch the presentation of the awards and even met some of the winners!

What a great day!

Worked on my email this morning. Went over my notes for the conference I’ll be speaking at in Douglasville tomorrow morning. I’ll also be doing some field training at an apartment complex near by.

I took care of K’s mom today. She went with me to the bookstore in Snellville. I’m doing research on camera filters for my video camera. I go and read all the books on the topic then make my decision as to what to get and where. My mother in law sat in the religious book section. Do you like book stores? Where do you head for first in the mall?

I was hoping to go by Wolf Camera to pick up the 30 mm polarizing filter I need, but they were out of business and had moved. Bahd luck.

Came home and watched “Kicking and Screaming” on DVD with K and her mom.

Went for a 4 mile run.

April 19, 2007

Went to the Faith Based Alliance meeting today at FBC Clarkston. The main topic was the Separation of Church and State—specifically in regards to the schools. We were interested in how it relates to after school programs on school campus. All in all I found it pretty depressing how our schools have nearly NO Chrisitian perspective any more. Very sad to me. I did tell the people there that we have after school programs off of school campus and we do NOT have to separate the church from state. We can tell the kids all about Jesus as much as we want.

Later we had a meeting with Barb Newman from Dunwoody Baptist Church and Tim Isaacson from Open Table Church. I wouldn’t be here in Atlanta if it wasn’t for DBC. I owe them a large debt of thanks. We hope to have a more agressive partnership in the future.

I went on to Doraville to work on admin stuff and then talk with Jason Pope–the director of the mission at Hamptons at Lenox. He’ll probably be shifting his ministry to an apartment in the S. Atlanta area soon near to the church where he’s a member. Works for me! He’s part of the Salvation Army.

Came home and paid for my car. Timing belt, water pump, hoses, radiator flush, oil change. All preventative maintenance. Cost over $1,200 when it was all said and done. Gotta do what you gotta do. The Chrysler has been a real work horse and I’ve found if you keep up with these cars they do really well, but if they over heat–you’re doomed.

K and I watched the last of the first season of House this evening.

Took my car into the shop this morning. The check engine light came on. Looks like an oxygen sensor has gone bad. PLUS my timing belt is due for replacement. Between the two the estimate is about $900. Not like I can walk the 50 plus miles a day! And is it just me, but is gas outrageous or what?

I took flyers by Huntington Creek and Huntington Station this morning. Picked up keys for HC for my team from First Baptist Atlanta that will be hosting an Outreach Event at those two locations plus Azalea this Sunday afternoon.

Dropped of DVDs at Briarcliff Baptist Church and at Briarlake Village. They show the team we had from Agricola BC last week. Hopefully, we’ll get more interest from the local church and from corporate because of that effort.

Had lunch with Jason Lemming. He’s a long term partner who is starting a new ministry in the area. He’s particularly interested in helping people by furnishing them micro loans to get them started in business. I think there are multiple applications of what he wants to do in our ministry area.

Went by Azalea to help the kids with their CRCT test prep. Most are doing pretty well. I’m not sure how well they’ll do on the actual test.

Spent most of the afternoon at Northside Hospital with Pat and Michelle Barrington. Carl got through his prostate surgery well. Looks like no cancer in the lymph system! Praise the Lord! Pray that all the nerves will be undamaged so he’ll have normal functioning!

Jesse and I spent a long time this evening talking about programming. It’s amazing to me how smart this kid is. It seems really complicated to me. He’s now installed three different programming languages on his little pocket PC. He goes from one platform to the other showing me how it works in Ruby then Python then Scheme. I just nod my head and try not and look too stupid.

He recently programmed the Team Assignment page so it automatically updates as I change things. Pretty slick.

Did you notice how he put in search functions on the web site and on the Photo Gallery site? Cool.

Ashley’s having some trouble at Kensington Station with some of the older 7th grade girls. We’re going to limit the After School program to Elementary only. I think that’ll solve a lot of the problems. Pray that we’ll have more volunteers there soon. Especially men.

Peace.

Please pray for Carl Barrington. He’s the President of our board at Whirlwind Missions and a dear friend. I can honestly say that I wouldn’t be doing my ministry here in Atlanta if it wasn’t for Carl!

He’ll be going into surgery on Wednesday afternoon around 1pm. Please pray for him and his wife Pat in a special way tomorrow.

They are the couple that I went to Niger with in February. They are real soldiers and have a terrific heart for God!

Thanks for praying for my friend Tim Tidenberg! His surgery went great and they think they got all the cancer!

Internet is still acting up. It’ll be fine, then crash completely. I’ve been able to catch up on most of my work.

Beautiful weather!

My appointment for this afternoon cancelled because of a death at their church. Plenty of other stuff to keep me busy!

Went to Best Buy to get some gear for the computer.

April 16th, 2007

I worked on office and admin stuff most of the day. The kids at the mission are taking the CRCT test this week, so they don’t have any homework. Posted a lot of pictures to our Photo Gallery. Check out the shots at Ashley’s Mission–Click on Mission then Kensington Station. Took me forever to get that job done. I’d upload and the connection would crash. . . .upload . . crash. Couldn’t work on the blogs nor my email for most of the day. Very frustrating.

Burned DVDs for Agricola Baptist Church, Kensington Station, Briarlake Village and Azalea Place. Also worked on a template to use for labels. It’s hard to believe how labor intensive this stuff is–but once it’s done it’s a snap to change it to make new ones.

Ran 4 miles and worked out on weights.

Tour de Georgia starts today! Are you into biking? We have a world class event here!

April 15th, 2007

I’ve been having internet problems. That’s the main reason for all these blogs on the same day! I got a new router, but Jesse things it’s probably an internet issue with Comcast. I have the tech guys coming out to check the line.

Weather turned cooler and really windy for our trip back to Atlanta.

When we got home, Ashley, Jesse and I went to Borders to do some research at the book store on graphic design and programming. We also went to Michaels to pick up some equipment for Ashley to do Thank You notes.

April 14th, 2007

Went shopping at the stores on the square in Dahlonega. Bought a new Cherry Quartz crystal–it’s incredibly beautiful! Also a new hummingbird feeder made from blown glass. Finally found a straw hat that I liked for my hot summer gear.

Ashley is taking her ACT test today. She’ll be doing some classes locally in the fall, but we say she’s enrolled in UT–University of Tim!

April 13th, 2007

I took Nell, Kathy’s mom, over to her sister’s house. She’ll be watching Nell for the next couple of days.

Went to Lowe’s to get some equipment for the mission–needed some new water coolers.

K and I drove up to Dahlonega, GA—voted one of the top Outdoor Cities in America! We went to the Smith House to eat.

Ran 4.6 miles.

I am so fired up, baby!

Just got off the phone with my partner Ruth Nolen from Cross Pointe Church. We started English classes about 6 months ago in an apartment complex off of Boggs road in Duluth. The complex shut down the program and we had to leave. BUT we continued relationships with several of the families over there. They continued to come to classes at another complex near there. Ruth just told me that they are going to baptize two of the new believers this weekend! PTL!

My team from Agricola, MS is doing a fantastic job! I’m so proud of them. They started new work at Briarlake Village and helped us enormously in getting the mission going at Kensington Station where Ashley is working. I’m expecting really big things out of that mission!

I had lunch with Bennett and Teri Earl about missions in the Clarkston area. They are two of my favorite people and I’m very excited about what the Lord is going to do in that community through their work!

I finished up my financial report for my treasurer and went through my email. I’m headed over to Azalea, Briarlake Village and Kensington Station to check on my teams and take pictures/video. Check out the Photo Gallery! I’ll post the video on this blog.

Peace.

It’s about 12:30am so I guess it’s no longer “today.”

Awesome day getting the folks from Agricola moving. We had a great briefing this morning then over to the International Village for a Prayer Walk. It was a hoot. The kids got a real kick out of the weirdness that is Asian supermarkets. Did I mention the special 8 pack of Duck heads? Man that raised some eyebrows–and not just the duck’s!

They worked at Briarlake Village (a missions we’re trying to get fired up again) and Azalea (my kids!) and the new mission at Kensington Station where Ashley works. They did a great job helping round up the kids at the new locations even though we had kind of crummy, sprinkly weather.

Had a lunch meeting the Chamblee-Doraville Apartment Managers Association Jery Gonzales from the Georgia Association of Latin Elected Officials made a presentation on immigration. It was interesting and upsetting at the same time.

Did a pre-site visit with Jeff Blevins who will bring a team from Huntsville, Al this June. He’s a return partner and a great guy!

Work continues to accelerate. Terrific phone calls today about teams coming into town and new partnerships in new areas of Atlanta starting to percolate. I LOVE working for the King! He always has so much going on all around us! Get with the program, baby!

Watched House on DVD with Kathy this evening. Got a late start on homework, plus didn’t have any time to do any admin work at the office in Doraville. Looks like my mother in law’s sister will be able to watch her for a couple of days so K and I can go out of town this weekend. PTL! Man, I need some time with my wife alone. Her schedule gets so weird by taking care of her mother super early in the morning. . . if you don’t PLAN time, it just doesn’t happen.

Plus, if I don’t get away from town I fixate on work. Period. That’s all I think about. It’s a passion thing.

Peace.

Had a meeting with my nephew Jason Sullivan in Clarkston today. He’ll be helping us with sports evangelism with the soccer kids. I think that’s a great way to get involved in the community. He’ll also be assisting in some of the computer classes if all goes well. Our computer sessions started this morning at Kensington Station. So far the classes are packed! We have four groups meeting. Excellent!

Just got finished going through my email. Looks like the next big team will be from Pinelake Church–nearly 140 people! We’ll be working in the S. Atlanta area. That’s a new place for me. I’m excited about penetrating total darkness.

Updated the Team Assignments page. Really filling out!

I’ll go over to help the kids at Azalea in a few minutes.

I got an email from my dear friend Carl Barrington. He’s been diagnosed with prostate cancer. He’ll be going in for a cat scan tomorrow. Please pray for Carl. He’s really one of the good guys!

Peace.