Beautiful weather!  Bright blue sky and not too cold!  Excellent!

Worked most of the morning on the Niger Movie.  So far I’ve got most of my daily blogs while in country done.  I have all the video on my hard drive.  All of these processes takes time: rendering, compressing, editing, uploading , , , no fast way to do it.

Plus I have to do one version for the DVD and another for the on line YouTube account.  Just keep chipping away at it.  I nearly have all the blogs ready to upload.

Went by Dekalb Tech to drop off some paper work for Jesse to take his GED test.  So far he’s taken the practice tests for Social Studies, Math and Science.  He made nearly a perfect score on those three.  He’s taking more time with the essay section.  He’s a great writer, but he has trouble writing about things that he considers a waste of his time.  For instance, the last essay subject was: “Tell the value of sports in developing community.”  He thinks organized sports are useless so he doesn’t have much to say on the subject.  I try to tell him to write as if he was interested in it.  The teachers are really only trying to find out his writing skills.  But he thinks that’s “against his principles.”  C’est la vie, baby.

Working on financial records here in my office.  Just about have that knocked out.  Need to go by the bank and then over to the mission to check  on the kids.

Peace.

GREAT day today!

I really enjoy doing the mission conferences and FBC Conyer’s is one of my favorites.

I spoke at a very receptive Sunday School class this morning.  Ashley came and made a brief presentation too.  People ask me, “How did it go?”  I always say, “We’ll see if people get involved.  That’s how I judge whether I was effective or not.”

Entertaining folks is easy.  Mobilizing them is not.

I’m about engagement, not entertainment.

Hopefully there’s some of both, amen?

Put over 100 miles on the car today.  Sure was glad that Ashley went with me this morning.  I fell asleep on the way home in the car.  Pooped.

Peace.

First Baptist Mountain Park hosted two Outreach Events in Clarkston at Springchase and at Willow Branch.  We also had Providence Christian Academy help out.  It was a great time together and very well received by the communities.

Full coverage is in our Photo Gallery and on our YouTube accounts.  Go to www.whirlwindmissions.org anc click on Mission Videos and Photo Gallery.

Kathy and I went to FBC Conyers ths evening to set up our display for the missions conference and to get our assignment for tomorrow.

We watched a beautiful sunset on the way home.  Check out those pictures too!

Peace.

Got up early and ran 4 miles.  Beautiful weather, but cool!  Glad to see the sun!

Been working on email and office admin stuff.

Headed over to Southern Trace in a few minutes to clear out the rest of our equipment from that apartment.  They are selling the complex.  Hopefully, we’ll be able to move back in after the transition.

I also need to pick up some supplies for an outreach event we have with FBC Mountain Park tomorrow morning.

Peace.

Thursday, March 1, 2007

I had my computer with me on the trip, so I was pretty much caught up with my correspondence but for some reason my cell phone didn’t receive a bunch of my calls while I was out of town.  I had 18 voice mails to work through.

Pretty much all good news to deal with.  More teams heading our way during the Summer.  PTL!

Had a great talk with my mom this morning.  She’s always such a blessing to me.  My dad is doing well.  Had a stress test to go through.  We’re still waiting on the results for that.

Did some work with the tag office in Gwinnett County.  Sure do like working with them as opposed to DeKalb county!  What a difference!

Enjoyed going to eat Mexican food with Kathy!   It’s fun just to hang out and watch a movie together.  I really missed that during all my travels.  I’ve never been away from my wife for longer than 5 days in the last 21 years!  I’ve really made a conscious decision to try not and be away too long.  In February I was away for 19 days! That was tough!

Wednesday, February 28, 2007

BACK HOME!  YEAH!

We cruised into Atlanta right after lunch.  I took a short nap and then Ashley and I went to New Providence Baptist Church where we spoke at their missions conference.

We had the children.  Ash did a good job and I helped fill out the time.  The told us we had about 45 minutes.  Two hours later the service was over.  I’m not sure when the last time you had to keep a bunch of 4-7 year olds entertained, but it was a challenge, believe me.

It was fun to share with them and I think it helped Ashley see how to work with little kids, too.

Pooped.

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

J and I started our long trip back to Atlanta today.

We had an smooth and easy trip.  We finally crashed out in Charlotte, NC after traveling just over 600 miles.  We were on the road for over 12 hours.

Closer to home!

We woke up pretty early and headed on to Philadelphia. My original plan was to go to Boston first, but I decided that there really wasn’t much I wanted to see in Boston. We were going to see MIT, but decided that going to Keene was more important.

We got into our hotel room around 10 am and got all our stuff into the room.

I figured out the maps for the town and headed off. Jesse really doesn’t care about any of that stuff, so I did the Lone Ranger thing. Probably all for the best because I have an unusual way of touring: I do the run/visit thing. I ran at least 7 miles today between locations. There is no way that J could have kept up with me, not that he wanted to.

Ben Franklin is one of my main heroes. I really got a kick out of running around his neighborhood, visiting his grave (throwing in a penny!), seeing where his print shop was and generally just imagining he was just around the corner.

Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell were also awesome.

Then to top it all off, the Franklin Institute had the King Tut exhibition in town! I enjoyed seeing that plus watching the IMAX movie of the Mysteries of Egypt. I have to admit that I was disappointed that the main face mask for Tut wasn’t there. Apparently, they don’t let that out of Egypt any more. Bahd luck. It was still super!

Ran back to the hotel. J and I ate pizza. I’m tired.

Peace.

Sunday, February 25, 2007

J and I finished up the Liberty Forum conference in Concorde, New Hampshire this morning.
Congressman Ron Paul was the final speaker. I enjoyed listening to his presentation.

We packed up the car and headed over to Keene, NH. That’s the town that J really wants to move to. It’s a beautiful place, lots of friendly folk. But too far from dead old Dad for my taste. Plus it got like 21 feet of snow this year! It was nice when we went through.

Our plan was to drive to Philadelphia, but we ended up about 50 miles short stopping just outside of Allentown, PA. Weather really got bad with heavy snow and road icing. I’ve had some bad experiences with icy roads and I started to get the fear. Turns out they closed the roads about an hour after we got off them. When the Yankees close roads, fer sure an ol’ African like me needs to be off ’em. Give me mud any day.

We stayed at a Scottish Inn run by a bunch of Gujarati Indians. The room was ok but the toilet seat was broken. I sat on it and it slid off and I thought I broke my back. It’s ok.

Thanks for praying for us!

Peace.

It’s about 7am.  I’m sitting in the quiet of the hotel room.

Just went through all my email.  This morning is the missions conference at First Baptist Church Mountain Park.  Ashley and Bennett will represent our work in the area.  I’m praying for that to be a fantastic meeting.

The Saturday conference in New Hampshire went well.  The more I hear about our Federal Government and the incredible waste of money . . . the more I wish we could get rid of the whole group of them and start over.  I sure don’t think the founding fathers thought this is how it would turn out!

Do you ever ask yourself “What do I get for my tax money?”  I come up with roads and police and schools.  Roads are almost always better privatized.  Schools, at least in Georgia, seem to be a near total failure. The police are doing a good job, but are way undermanned and out gunned by the bad guys.  Does our federal money even pay for the police locally?  I’m not even sure about that.

Does it seem to you that ALL the politicos in Washington are rich?  Do you ever see an average guy in that bunch?

I think of Jesus and the things he did.  He was basically homeless!

Bottom line for me, the real solution to this country’s problems is a spiritual solution, not a government one.  Christians have got to be more socially active.  Maybe not politically active, but at least socially.

See a problem and try and help fix it.

I have a burden for education.  I believe that helping our kids learn is THE critical element in our society improving.  When the guys I work with fail school, their next step is gang life.  The better they do in school the more they steer away from the bad guys.  It seems really clear.

Who are you investing in?

Peace.

J and I are on our second day of the conference!

There sure are a lot of liberty lovers in this hotel!

I am at heart of Libertarian.  I have become distrustful of the major political parties.  Seems like one big business that isn’t particularly interested in the “little guy.”  And I am really tiny.

Had a good run yesterday.  Did four miles in about 35 degree weather with a strong wind chill of about 29 degrees.  BRISK!

The conference has been interesting and thought provoking.  My son wants to move to New Hampshire and be part of the Free State Project.  It’s a beautiful state with no state taxes, no sales tax, the lowest crime rate in the country and one of the best areas of tech guys.  But it sure is a long way from Mom and Dad.

I know my parents had concern for me as I tromped my way around the world.  Guess it’s genetic.

Peace.

J and I are in New Hampshire at the Liberty Forum Conference!

After driving nearly 1,200 miles in rain, sleet and snow we made it!

Horrible accident in Virginia made us go around a big detour that lengthened our trip by a couple of hours.  I improvised another route by talking to locals that saved us about four hours in traffic.

We’re going down now to register, eat breakfast and check out the conference!

Thanks for praying for our safety in travels!

Peace.

Woke about about 4 am.  Stayed in bed till about 5:30 then got up and started working.  Hopefully my body will get back into the regular time schedule soon.

We’ll be leaving for the conference in Concorde around 8am.

I’ll be taking my computer with me, so hopefully I’ll keep you guys informed!

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Up around 5:30am.  Jet lag seems to be getting better.

Got my newsletter together.  Wrote my article and did the layout.  I’ll have Ashley write her article and then make the copies and seal the envelopes.

Visited with the kids at the mission.   They helped me with the mailout labels.  I really appreciate them doing that!

Went to Decatur Bible Chapel this evening.  I spoke about our work in the International Village.  Bennett Ekandem–our director in Clarkston, Ray Vaughn and Renee were also there as part of our team.  Great to see them!

Jesse and I had talked about maybe leaving for New Hampshire tonight, but I was just too tired.  Went to sleep around 10:30pm

Monday, February 19, 2007 

Go up around 4:30am.  Been working on my admin duties.  Finished catching up on all of the people who had called me while I was in Niger.

Took care of my email.

Went to the office in Doraville to collect the rest of the mail to give answer and give bills to our treasurer.

Spent time with Kathy watching the sun set.

Sunday, February 18, 2007

I spent the day with Kathy. We went out to eat then went over to the zoo.

We had an especially good time watching the elephants and getting to see the baby panda. Super cute.

I continue to upload pictures that I took. About 1,450!

Saturday, February 17, 2007

One of the longest days of my life. We got on the plane with no problems and flew back to Paris over night. I slept a few hours.

We arrived into Paris before sunrise. We had a few hour lay over at Charles De Gaulle airport before catching our connecting flight back to Atlanta.

Really serious security through all the check points along the way.

We chased the sun arriving into Atlanta about 1:30pm–still the same day as when we left Niamey!

It’s incredible to see how fast we can travel around the world now! From the Iron Age to the 21st Century in less than 24 hours. Amazing.

Sure is great to get back home with my sweet family!

Friday, February 16, 2007

This is our tourist day. We went shopping for friends. I purchased a few little masks made out of soapstone, a few pieces of jewelry for Ashley and some cloths that I plan to make book marks out of for our supporters back home.

Worked on my email for about 5 hours. Had 178 messages while I was in the bush.

We went to the airport at about 10:30pm.

Thursday, February 15, 2007

We pack all our gear back into the truck.

I walked around the village and shot extra pictures and video of where we stayed. I’ll post them on our YouTube channel soon.

After sad “Good Bye’s” we climbed back into the truck and headed back down the rough roads to Niamey–the captital city.

We ate Chinese food at Chez Chin–pretty good for the world’s poorest country!

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Valentine’s Day! My wife and family wrote me little notes which the Barringtons took over with them. What a surprise to see love letters from my girls! Really made me cry.

Showed the Jesus film for the last night in a village WAY out in the bush. The people were pretty responsive to the film, even though there were no conversions.

Medical emergencies made Cherry have to drive a woman into town. Dr. Pat watched another woman who had IVs and bleeding. At about 4:30am she tried to find her way back to our camp site. It is incredibly dark in the bush with no electricity. She got lost and really frightened. The Father woke me up to hear this plaintif call “Tim! Tim! I’m lost!” I jumped out of bed, grabbed my flashlight and went to look for her. She finally saw my light and was able to make her way back to our camp. What a relief! God is good!

A lot of excitement for our final night in the bush!

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Continued to share the Gospel in small villages around Diatiandou. Ran 4.5 miles into Burkina Faso with Musa and Habadura on his bike.

We had a feast with the translators and a few other men in the village. We ate rice and beans, ground millet with some stew and drank hot tea.

Monday, February 12, 2007

Went to Burkina Faso–just a couple of miles from our camp. Shared at a village over there. Showed the Jesus film at Gite. Trained the other African men how to run all the equipment

Sunday, February 11, 2007

I led Isa to Jesus! I’d been talking to him for three days. He also speaks limited French so we were able to communicate without another interpretor. He called me over and told me he wanted to pray. As we talked he shared with me that he wanted to ask Jesus into his life! Praise the Lord! I didn’t think we’d be blessed to see someone actually convert in this nearly 100% Muslim environment! His brother Omarou is a Christian, so I hope that they can support each other.

Walked about in the bush to watch the birds during the heat of the afternoon before we went back to the villages in the evening.

Saturday, February 10, 2007

Another baby is born.

Went to villages to share the Gospel. Showed the Jesus film in the evening.

Walked to the river with the men of the village.

Friday, February 09, 2007

We went to Daresalam and Windemama villages where we did storying and also showed the Jesus film in the evening. It was incredible to release that technology on a village that had no electricity or running water. For them to actually see the Jesus story was incredible. The people were interested in hearing more about this.

Dianne got pretty sick. We’re worried about her. She rested in bed the whole day eating cipro anti-biotics/diarrehea meds.

Aisa delivers one baby. A few hours earlier another baby died. This place has over 50% mortality rate for infants. Really sad.

Thursday, February 08, 2007

Unbelievable heat in our first full day in the bush. Temperature gauge was over 111 degrees in the shade. I felt like I was going to pass out from lack of sleep. I walked over two miles with one of the interpretors past the village with the rest of the team.

We started a regular pattern of driving to a village, splitting up into small teams with an interpretor and then sharing the stories of the Gospel. I focused on three stories which I told in a form of a drama: The creation story of Adam and Eve, Daniel in the Lion’s Den, and the Prodigal son. A common theme of sin and final redemption ran through all the stories.

I about froze. Temperatures got down in the mid 50’s. An engagement party went on until after midnight. Then I listened to braying donkeys, crowing roosters/guinea fowl, and team members snore the rest of the night. Lack of sleep is a killer.

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

We drove about 2 hours to Diatiandou down some of the worst roads imaginable.

We got to our camp site and set up our gear. I slept outside on my airmatress with a mosquito netting around me.

We met the other translators who came from an English speaking country nearby. (For security reasons I can’t say where.)

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

We arrived in Niamey, Niger. I was pleasantly surprised to see how well my French was still hanging in there. We got through customs fine. Cherry Faile (whose African name is Aisa–which means Second Born Daughter) picked us up.

We went over to the Baptist Mission Guest House where I was able to check email.

We ate together and went to sleep. Sorta. I really didn’t sleep but maybe two hours all night long–a recurring motif for this trip.

Monday, February 05, 2007

The rest of our team (Drs. Carl and Pat Barrington and Dr. Dianne Sheintal) picked me up from the Chic-Fil-A on 78. We rushed over to the airport and got through security just in time to board the plane. That was closer than I like it!

I took this sleeping pill on the way to France. I had a weird reaction to it and my eyes started seeing double.

I’m writing this post actually on the 19th. The pictures of the trip are on line and can be seen on our photo gallery from www.whirlwindmissions.org.

I had a real upset stomach last night. Kathy hasn’t been sleeping well. She’s pretty worried about me going on this trip to Africa. Sounds like we are going to be WAY out in the bush. I reckon there’s cause for concern.

I stayed home this morning to take care of Kathy’s mom.

Finished the last of my packing of my video equipment. It’s unbelievable to me how that tiny little camcorder can get such great pictures—equal to all that heavy gear I used to carry around for WTOC in Savannah!

Kathy and I watched “the Life Aquatic” with Bill Murray. It was funny in a quirky way.

I’m going to try and go to sleep early since I didn’t sleep well last night.

Tomorrow we head to AFRICA! Man. It’s been a long time–over TEN years since I’ve been back.

It’ll be a while until you hear from this blog. Make sure and scroll down to February 02 for a day by day account of what we’ll be doing.

Peace.


Saturday, February 03, 2007

Ashley and I met with a group from Toccoa Bible College to talk about urban ministry. We had a good time as I discussed with them what their dream ministry would look like. We enjoyed sharing our vision for Clarkston while we ate roast goat!

I took Ashley over to Best Buy to get her a radio for her car. The other one stopped working years ago. The new one sounds great!

Later I went over to Carl and Pat Barrington’s house where we did our final packing for the trip to Niger.