Checked on Mr. Hickey who’s been working at Huntington Terraces. The mission looks great. He finished painting the mission at Glennbrooke in Marietta and almost finished the Terraces. We went over to Northchase where he’ll help paint the mission there for Paul Reynolds.
Took care of banking deposits and checked on the mail at the office at FBC Doraville.
Helped the kids with their homework. Most of them have projects due this week. You have to have the patience of Job to get them to do those reports. There’s a fine line between helping them and just doing it for them.
I had my car worked on this afternoon. The check engine light came on when we were leaving Savannah. They said the computer gave them two codes–one was a battery problem, which they fixed and the light went out. The other code is a transmission problem. As long as the light doesn’t come back on then the code was just the battery cables. If it comes back on could be the transmission. Now doesn’t that sound like something to look forward to?
I hope you all have mechanics you can trust with your car.
Tomorrow night I go to Villa Rica for the mission conference at Midway Macedonia Baptist Church. It’ll be about an hour plus one way. Not looking forward to the trip, but I really enjoy the church. I’ll be helping with a couple of block parties with them this Saturday. Excellent!
Kathy and I spent the last few days together at the beach at Tybee near Savannah. I worked with CBS there for 5 years and I really love that area.
We had a great time together. Did a lot of athletic stuff. Rode bikes, walked and ran for miles and miles and miles. I got a little bit sunburned but not bad.
Enjoyed the beautiful ocean views as well as my old stompin’ grounds around the historic district.
I shot just over 1,000 pictures in the last week. Check out the Photo Gallery. I particularly liked the shots of Bonaventure Cemetary.
Just got finished wading through all my email. Didn’t have access to a computer while I was at Tybee.
I spent about an hour this morning in the worst traffic jam imaginable. Two separate jams blocking all four lanes. Brutal.
This morning I met with Derrick Posten from First Baptist Atlanta to discuss plans for Impact Atlanta. They plan on hosting events in at least 15 different apartment complexes and before it’s all finalized may be double that amount. Sure hope so!
Working on my admin jobs here at FBC Doraville. Never ending paperwork.
K and I hope to leave town tomorrow night after work to spend a few days at the beach together. Sure am looking forward to that!
William Hickey (the older gentleman who reminds me of my Grandfather) got the apartment at Glennbrooke primed. The management never did come through with the paint so we went to Lowe’s to get it. I’m having him stay at Glennbrooke till he gets done. He’s been sleeping in his car. Then I showed him the mission at Huntington Terraces. He’ll be painting that one for me next. He can stay there for a while too. I gave him an air mattress to sleep on. He told me he had a sleeping bag and used his windshield shader as a mattress. That’s about a half inch of hard foam.
Dropped off some forms for our insurance agent then went to help the kids at Azalea. Odaliz, one of the girls who’s like a daughter to me, will be moving to Mexico in the next couple of days. Her dad was arrested at Azalea and put in a detention center in Tennessee. He’s just been sent back to Mexico so the family is going there to see him. They intend on coming back in a couple of months. Sure hope so.
I had such a fun day today with my Uncle Harold. He’s one of the missionaries that I grew up with in Kenya. He had a huge influence on me especially with the idea that you can learn anything if you just try.
We went out for Indian food at Vikhyat in Tucker. The Patels who run the place are from Nairobi. We had a great time talking about the good ol’ days. It was just like being back home in Kenya. Very special.
I came home and rested then Kathy I went out to the Baby Shower party that Patricia, Tito Ruiz’ wife was having. We had a great time and enjoyed some delicious Colombian and Nicaraguan food. I love seeing Tito and Lester’s kids. I really do love those sweet peas. Children are a real blessing!
Friday, September 8, 2007
Tito and I got the band’s PA into my van and we took it over to Gwinnett Crossings. We finally got a key to the downstairs area where the classes will be held.
Later that day I went back to the apartment complexes where we gave out ten large pizzas, registered for the ESL and Tutoring times and our band CRUZ played. I thought we played great. Lester is an inspiring drummer and Tito sings as well as he plays the keys. It was tremendous fun.
Finally got all the stuff upacked and put up at my house around 11pm.
Today was UT–University of Tim–day with Ashley. Once a week she rides with me and I try to teach her more about ministry. It’s always a blessing. Never too much Ashley!
We spent most of the day with Stephen Bandela. He’s the nephew of Sam Bandela who was my mentor when I first started doing this ministry back in 1996. Stephen wants to do church planting here in Metro Atlanta. I’m helping him get set up with partners, supporters and where to plug into ministry. Finding new partners, getting them plugged in and helping them thrive is a major part of what I do. Sam Bandela used to tell me, “What we need is 10 more Tim Cummins!” I’m not sure the world really needs ten of me, but the idea of replicating yourself is a key part of our strategy at Whirlwind Missions.
Ashley and I went over to Stephen’s house to help him get the printer at his house working with his computer. Took some time, but we figured it out.
I also worked with an older homeless man named William Hickey. He reminded me of my Grandfather. I sent him over to our mission at Glennbrooke in Marietta to paint the apartment and give him a place to stay for a couple of days. We’ll give him some money too. Helping people get back on their feet—another big part of what we do.
Kathy and I watched the Last King of Scotland this evening. It’s a movie about Idi Amin. I liked it because most of it was shot in Africa so it reminds me of home. Amin threw so many dead bodies into the Nile River that the crocodiles couldn’t eat them all. They jammed up the hydro electric dam and shut off power to the Northern part of Kenya! I’ll never forget that from when I was a boy in Nairobi.
Does man’s inhumanity to man know any bounds? I don’t think so.
Modern man has only figured out ways to kill men in a more efficient and wider scale. Ay caramba.
Over 125 miles today on the Chrysler. Lotta driving!
Tito Ruiz and I went to Gainesville today to meet with a church planting partner Mike Taylor. He’s done a lot of research on the Gainesville area, in particular the church growth, or more importantly decline.
I’m not big on research like that. I don’t really like to see what I know in my heart is already true. Church is in trouble. A lot of churches are thriving, but in general that doesn’t seem to be the case. they’re just barely holding their own.
When a person’s #1 need is a relationship with God and they don’t have someone to share how that’s possible—it’s a very sad situation.
That’s why I do what I’m doing.
Got back to Chamblee after lunch and worked at my office on email.
Then took computers from my partner Clatie Lewis’ house over to the mission at Pearl Lane. I’m really trying to help the team over there accelerate what they’re doing. Last week I bought a new air conditioner for the mission. This week I took them new computers and some software to help the kids do math and reading.
Went to Azalea to help my kids with their homework.
Went to Razwana’s house to help her install the printer and teach her how to use Microsoft Works.
Ashley went to a presentation my partners at Clarkston International Bible Church had for prospective churches. I hope that gets them more people to plug in. I probably needed to be there more than in Gainesville today. I know Ashley did a great job without me.
Kathy and I are watching the third season of House on DVD.
J and I worked on updating the web site. We’re trying to figure out how to rename the maps to be even clearer to the average user. Ashley has already updated the actual maps. Now she’s working on getting the updated directions together for those maps.
I used the van to pick up chairs and tables from three missions (Azalea, Huntington Terraces and Adelaide Park) and took them to our new mission at Gwinnett Crossings.
Everytime I stopped at a red light the van started to overheat! I managed to make it to all my stops and make it home without the car really messing up. I had to leave the mission early so I could beat rush hour, otherwise the van would have been toast.
Ashley helped me get the van over to the mechanic so they could work on it first thing in the morning.
