Made the first DVD copies of the Niger movie.  It’s about 15 minutes long.  I have tons more stuff to show, but I think for church presentations shorter is generally better.  Some people go on and on and on. . . .

Went to Staples to pick up some school supplies for the kids at Azalea.  They gave us a new door!  Excellent.  Now if I had a key for it.  Jouvens has a copy.  I sure do depend on that young man!  He’s still waiting for word from the Bahamas for his birth certificate.

I’m in the office at FBC Doraville now.  Finished up my email.  GREAT stuff is happening.  I continue to have more teams sign up for the summer work.  I also have two teams coming during their spring breaks.  A third team is supposed to commit soon.  I need all the help I can get.

Got a call this morning about Briarcliff BC coming to help with some service projects.

Also heard from the director of our mission at Huntington Ridge–Ben Sawyer.  He and his family have been living on site at the apartment for about two years.  They’ve done a fantastic job there.  I really have been proud of them.  They’re going to move off site back to their house before the Summer.  Fortunately, they’ll still serve as directors of that mission.  I’m into longevity–whether they live on site or not is immaterial to me.  In fact, most of the folks that live on site end up burning out within a year.  I’d rather them move out and keep working than just flat burn out.  It happens all the time.

I’m leaving in a few minutes to go back to my house in Stone Mountain to prepare for the final night of the Missions Conference at FBC Conyers.  It’s always fun to talk to people about missions!  John Avant, the VP of Evangelism for the North American Mission Board will be speaking.

Go check out the Niger video!  Click on Mission Videos from www.whirlindmissions.org.

Peace.

Been working on the Niger Movie!  I have over 3 hours of video, but I put the best 15 minutes together on a DVD.  I’ll have it uploaded in two parts on our YouTube channel.  The video blogs from Niger will be up there too.  Eventually, I’ll put a lot of  the other video I shot on line as well.

I had a terrific meeting with my partners in the Clarkston area for lunch today.  We met with Aslam Masih from the North American Mission Board over at Madina.  We also had Ray and Shawn from International Teams, Pat Maddox from Friends of Refugees and Bennett Ekandem, Mark Lassiter and Terry Earl–NAMB/MSC folks.  It’s always fun to get together and share what’s going on in the International Village.  I was encouraged to hear how truly unique our work is in Atlanta.  I always kind of assume similar work is happening around the country.  Doesn’t seem to be the case.

A LOT of our success is thanks to folks like YOU praying for us regularly!  Hold the ropes!

Check out the mission videos (click on the button at www.whirlwindmissions.org) from last weekend with Bennett and Ashley.  Plus from the Video Blog you can see what I was up to in Niger.

I came home early today to help take care of my mother in law while Jesse and Kathy go to the dentist.

Peace.

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!