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.

I got together with Bennett Ekandem this afternoon. We talked about allocation of personnel. To me that is the MOST important decision leaders can make. Where do we need to put people?

We also went over to Willow Branch where we loaded some software to compress pictures so he can upload them to the web. Part of my job is help partners get their message out! Posting pictures of teams helps remind them to pray for us! Our work continues long after they leave.

Talked with my friend Tim Tidenberg in Arkansas. He came in from Kenya yesterday with cancer. Lord willing everything will turn out ok for him.

Also talked with another friend in Texas. He just lost his job of 13 years. The even harder part is his boss is his sister’s husband. That makes for some might tense family relationships.

Ashley started the after school program at Kensington Station today with the help of Toni Branyon and Teri Earl. Marc Lassiter was also there to help. WE have a great team!

I went to my office to check on the mail, then over to Azalea to help the kids with their homework. They really didn’t have anything so I spent about an hour talking withe Marilee the manager. She’s been off of work for over 40 days because of illness. I had a prayer time with her and debriefed about the situation at Azalea with the immigration situation. Over 20 families were displaced in the last two weeks. They were either arrested by immigration or left in fear of potential arrest.

Jesse worked on a search feature on our web site. It’s cool!

Peace.

He is RISEN!

What a great truth! The worst thing that can happen to us, has been overcome!

We had a terrific family day today. We spent the day with David and Debi Doverspike’s family. All of Kathy’s brothers and sisters were there. We had delicious food and great fellowship!

I got up early and worked on editing videos.

This afternoonI went for a 4 mile run.

This evening I watched Planet Earth on the Discovery Channel. It’s an 11 part mini series and is truly fantastic. Kathy and I also watched pieces of The Sound of Music. When I was a little Tim, whenever I would get scared at night, I would sing “The Hills are Alive with the Sound of Music” to myself. The fear always went away. I watched that movie and cried like a dad gum baby.

Also watched pieces of Castaway–one of my favorite survival movies. It’s amazing how time is so relative. How important are our priorities and critical our perspective!

I had a long talk with Ian North–one of my favorite people. I’m hoping he’ll move back to Atlanta! Please, Lord, make it so!

Peace.

Fantastic day!

The outreach at Kensington Station was awesome! We had six Hip Hop bands come rap and tell the crowds about Jesus. Our partners included Crossroads Church, Greater Faith Church, International Teams, Family Heritage Foundation and Whirlwind. It was a perfect picture of what we’re about. Team work.

FBC Conyers also did an incredible job at Pinewood. there were over 80 kids plus parents there. Our director of the mission, Heather, shared the Gospel story with the kids and at least 15 accepted Christ!

Then I received email from one of my team from this week that they had 10 kids accept Christ yesterday. Praise the Lord!

Thanks for your prayers! They are making the difference!

Peace.

Ashley and I finally tracked down the balloons and face paint we need for the Outreach Event tomorrow. Party City had plenty! PTL! We also picked up the decorations for our party on Cinco de Mayo (May 5). We’ll have a Fiesta! Sweet!

After doing out job we went to Perimeter Mall to shop till we dropped.

Then over to Barnes & Noble for research. I picked up a couple of books. I’m doing a lot of reading on web site development. Jesse and I continue to fine tune our home on the web. Yesterday we added an email subscription page to our newsletters. Also made a re-direct page. J showed me a site called the “Webgrader.” It goes through a bunch of criteria and rates the site. We were able to immediately correct some small things that I think make us even better!

I’m into constant improvement. Incremental progress–even if slow–makes a big difference over time. The cool thing is that J and I work fast! It’s great to have a partner that sees a problem and can fix it immediately!

I think we have everything for our events tomorrow. I’m expecting the Holy Spirit to do big things!

Peace.