I spoke at two Sunday School classes at First Baptist Atlanta this morning. They’re class was called, “Gap 57.” They were 6th graders! The classes were fun. I like that age group.
I only had to speak for the first part of the Sunday School hour so I was able to hear George Werwer speak during the service. He’s the founder of Operation Mobilization and a really incredible guy. He wears the same map jacket that has become a second skin to me. He’s one of the best mission speakers around. His sermons sometimes border on being racey! Imagine!
After church I loaded up all the grills and took them over to Perimeter. I thought I had a meeting in Gainesville tomorrow morning so I thought I really needed to do it today. Turns out now didn’t really matter but I’m glad I got it done!
Now I can spend time working on my Board report. I have all the info together, I just need to put it in one form. This year we’re going to a near paperless Annual Report. I realized “why am I spending all this money printing up all this stuff? We can have it on our computer instead.” I just need to do some number crunching.
I spent an hour working on a press release about Impact Atlanta for FBA and the Christian Index. It’s supposed to go out the 22nd.
Need to work on editing the video I shot for Impact Atlanta.
Saturday, November 10, 2007
First Baptist Atlanta hosted Impact Atlanta 2007. We had over 500 people help us “Take the Church, To the People!” We fed hot dogs, made balloon animals, painted faces and shared the Gospel! Over 100 people accepted Christ including a mother, her daughter and the grand daughter! Sweet!
The debriefing was really special with story after story of incredible experiences, God providing translators exactly when and where we needed them.
Ashley and I went to Kroger to get the massive amounts of supplies for Impact Atlanta today. We’ll have enough food to serve 5,000! Something Biblical about that!
Derrick Poston is my partner from First Baptist Atlanta. He’s done a super good job organizing the church to get involved with the community.
We took the truck load of food from Kroger back to FBA. Fortunately, we had a good team of volunteers to help distribute the food into 36 different areas. Awesome!
Came home. Ran 4 miles.
Looked through my email.
Had a good call from my partners at Campus Crusade. I’m looking forward to setting up the logistics for their large outreach on January 1, 2008.
She rode with me up to Alpharetta where the HQ of the North American Mission Board is located. I gave a lecture to the Missionary Candidates who were being approved by the Trustees today. I spoke to them about mobilizing volunteers. It was a lively group.
Then we went over to North Point Mall. Ashley had no idea I was going to take her there. We did some shopping for her birthday. It was fun. Never too much Ashley!
Perimeter Church was our next stop. We picked up 22 grills from the Community Outreach team. We’ll be using them this weekend at Impact Atlanta with FBC Atlanta. In all we’ll be covering 36 locations with over 500 volunteers from First Baptist Church of Atlanta. After putting them in the van we hauled them over to FBCA to be stored until Monday when I’ll take them back.
Some fantastic clouds this afternoon.
Went over to Azalea to check on the kids at the mission. Ashley helped Rezwana with her paper on suicide. Not a happy subject.
I’m back in the saddle here in Atlanta after about 6 days in Texas!
I went to speak at my Dad’s church, make new contacts at Baylor and meet with big donors.
My mom broke her foot about three weeks ago, so I did a lot to try and help her. . . cleaning, shopping, stuff like that.
Had a great time at Baylor. One of my fraternity brothers is the main financial person for FBC Austin. I’m looking forward to expanding our relationship with that church.
I’m super under pressure right now. Because of the size of the outreach this weekend–36 apartment complexes–I’ve come up short on some grills. So I need to figure that out today and tomorrow.
Got a letter saying that out apartment at Preston Chase will probably close because of the new owner. I hope to change their minds, but it’s a long shot. Others are opening in the area, so God always has his timing.
Pray for me as I get the last minute details together for this event.
I went by Kroger this morning to give them the updated Impact Atlanta food list. We’ll be covering at least 36 locations now with over 500 people!
Picked up some computer stuff from one of my partners, Doug Kennedy. He’s been SO generous to help!
I’m at FBC Doraville now. Finished up my admin stuff. Made the rest of my calls.
I’ll go over to Azalea in a little while to help the kids and then throw candy to them.
I got up early this morning to do some other admin tasks, notably contact the team that had worked with us this summer to check on their donations.
I’ll be going to a Halloween Parade in our neighborhood this evening.
Then packing for my trip to Texas tomorrow morning!
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
I had a meeting with Bennett Ekandem who coordinates our work for us in Clarkston. Always good to hang out with him! We had a number of issues we needed to talk about, in particular the allocation of resources–where do we put people to do the most good? I’m helping him get the area where we can send volunteers put together for next summer.
Met with Dan Williams in the afternoon. He’s the director for Kids Games–an international group that does an Olympic type outreach for kids. It’s pretty cool. In the past they were really strict about where the event would take place–notably in some stadium. I told them the problems related to that strategy–primarily transportation issues. We seem to be on the same page now. PTL for that. KG is doing a great work. Right now there’s a big event going on in Antananarivo, Madagascar. I still have a soft spot for the Malagasy people since my family lived there for a year.
Went to Azalea to help a bunch of kids with their homework. Also went over to Clatie Lewis’ house to pick up a computer. The computer at the mission went dead. Bahd luck. Took Ernest Mocombe over to the Lewis’ house. Ernest is interested in repairing computers. Clatie volunteers for Re-Boot, a non-profit organization that takes older computers, refurbishes them and then gives them to poor people, handicapped or seniors in the community.
I spent most of my day in Lawrenceville today. I was part of the ministry partners team that got to tour the new facility that Crossroads Church is building. Crossroads is also changing it’s name to 12 Stone, which I think is a great idea because there are lots of Crossroads churches around.
The facility was really incredible. I am really looking forward attending a service there in January when it opens!
I really enjoyed getting to meet some new partners and hanging out with some of my old friends–Especially Chip and Drue from Perimeter Church.
Dropped by Best Buy to pick up a new USB cable for a printer.
Checked on the office at FBC Doraville. Picked up mail so I can get that to my Treasurer.
Had a great talk with Ron and Debra Hayes. They work at the Doraville Pregnancy Center. Their office is across from mine at the church.
Went by Azalea to check on my kids. Jouvens said he had a date tonight. I slipped him a $20 to have a good time on. It struck me as to how much he’s like a son to me. We’re still working on getting his documentation squared away.
Ran 4 miles. My knee really hurt last time I ran. Today I felt fine. I think I ran a little too hard last time. I find myself racing with people that pass me. Most of the time I pass them back. Except for those High School Track or Soccer guys. Those guys run like dad gum antelopes.
Ashley, Kathy and I finished working on the mailing the newsletters out. It shares a lot of our background which I think people find interesting.
We went to the missions on Roswell road to check on our team from Powell, Tennessee. They were passing out clothes to the residents that they shared with this summer. Great response from the residents.
Ashley and I went to Eastside Baptist Church this evening. We set up our booth and fellowshipped with many of the congregation during the missions banquet. I was one of the missionaries that spoke at the meeting.
Ready to rest. I need to get up early. Have to be back in Marietta at 9 am tomorrow morning.
Just finished cleaning the house. I’m trying to help a lot so that Kathy can stay off her foot since she had surgery yesterday. I’ll go get the groceries in a little while.
Produced the newsletter. I’m printing it right now, then I’ll take it to my copy place and print them. Then over to the grocery store—which is the last errand on the list K gave me to do. Vacuum, clean spider webs, blow the back porch, and fix the screen on Jesse’s window.
I hope to get some exercise today, probably run 4 miles.
I plan on getting most of the newsletters written so I can mail them tomorrow. Ashley and I will be going to Eastside Baptist Church for their missions conference tomorrow.
I worked on my article for the newsletter today. It’s nearly two pages long which is about twice as much as I normally write. This edition talks about my best friend–Kathy! She’s on staff with us now at Whirlwind Missions, which is very exciting! So I wrote a background piece about her and our ministry together.
Ashley and I also worked on printing out all the labels we need to produce the newsletter. She also went to Stapels to pick up supplies and to the Post Office for stamps.
Jesse practiced his driving today. He drove all four of us to Doraville where Kathy went in for her foot surgery. Dr. Mel Colon is a friend and partner of mine and did the procedure for Kathy as a favor to me. He runs an International Clinic that provides low cost assistance to people without insurance. Lots of people in that category! The Doctor and I talked about the needs of the community and how best to provide health care for them. I think it can be a very exciting partnership!
Kathy’s surgery went well. He had to cut out a hard mass in the heel of her left foot. The doctor thinks it was probably caused by the last cortisone shot that Kathy got for her heel spur problem. He really wrapped it up well. She’s supposed to stay off it for three days.
Later we went over to Azalea to check on the kids at the mission. They also helped me do the labels for our newsletters. I took over doughnuts as a special treat. I also went over to one of the kid’s house to fix their computer. Usually it’s something pretty obvious.
I still need to put the finishing touches on my newsletter.
Today I met with the Chamblee Doraville Property Managers Association group. These guys are some of my best friends. We had a fascinating program about the International Village that is being built in Chamblee.
I took the notes for the meeting and sent them an email with it as an attachment.
I also developed a data base for the managers and associates in the organization. Attached that too.
Most of my day was spent calling the 33 managers where we’ll have outreach on November 10. I contacted all of them, but need to follow up on about three. That day will be the single biggest outreach in Atlanta’s history.
Talked with my partner at First Baptist Atlanta Derrick Poston about final preparations for the outreach and to make sure the media knows about it.
I was on the phone a LOT today. No matter how short it is, multiply it by 35 and it’s going to take some time to get through the list.
Thank you, Lord for the RAIN! It seems like a miracle after being so dry.
