Good day today!

I was up in the Mall of Georgia area with one of my best partners, Tyler Recker. 

He’s a real go getter.  I like to work with him.

We went to several new complexes including Summer Park.  I feel optimistic that they are going to let us host a block party in there.

But the best news is that Reserve at Ivy Creek who had originally said that our ministry could work there as long as we “didn’t talk about Jesus,” changed their mind and is letting us come there to serve.  That was really good news.  I’m glad that one of my partnering churches, New Branch Community Church will be helping lead the charge in that area.

Went by their church to pick up a load of monitors.  We’ll use them in several  missions.

Also went by Rob and Cindy Bryant’s house to pick up some girl’s clothes for the kids at the missions. 

They also gave us a recliner.  Looking forward to sitting in it!

Ran 4 miles when I got home. Got a hair in my eye.  Kathy finally had to get it out with tweezers.  Pretty scary seeing those metal tweezers coming closer and closer to my eye ball!  Sure feels better once she got it out!  Amen!

Put nearly 100 miles on the car today.  I had to use the van to carry all the stuff.  No AC.  I’m glad it was cooler today.  Downside about rolling the window down is you get wet when it rains.  My left side was damp  most of the afternoon.  C’est la vie, baby.

It was great to have my son help me today!

We went to Lowe’s first thing to pick up a couple of medicine cabinents for Bill Hickey to install for us.  He did beautiful work on the rest of our house!

I had a great talk with Barb Newman from Dunwoody Baptist Church.  She has a real heart of reaching the lost.  Her church is going to help make our Community Chaplain position a reality!  We’re raising support for Dr. Carlos Salaverria to be our main liason between the local Spanish churches and the unreached apartment communities that surround them!

Jesse and I went on a mission to Piedmont Hospital this morning to check on a friend of ours son who was having surgery.  The Lord answered our prayers and the cancer in his body was completely gone!  What a miracle!  Two days ago they did a scan and the tumor was about the size of a quarter.  This morning, it’s just not there!  We had a good prayer time with Randall Blythe and some other friends.  Please pray for Josh Blythe’s complete recovery!

That hospital was a Rubik’s Cube of information.  Can you imagine reading signs like this in another language?

I don’t go downtown very often.  Atlanta really is an amazing city!  I love the big buildings.  I just love big trees more.

J and I went over to the church to wade through the mound of bills at my office. With lots of missions come lots of utility bills.  We really do appreciate your financial support!

Checked on the kids at the mission.  Last weekend one of the silly Bengali kids turned the faucet on for a tube going to the commode.  I really have no idea how he got it to come off from its coupling. Ended up flooding the place before someone could turn them off.

The place is all dried out now. Doesn’t smell too bad.  It’s a good thing I’m from Africa.

We had some heavy localized rain.

We went to the Bridge service this morning at FBC Mountain Park.  Pastor Bob preached on “Why do we go to church?”

For most of the people I work with going to church isn’t even a consideration.

Kathy and Ashley and I went to Metro Diner for gyros.  Yum!

Jesse has really been practicing guitar.  He’s sounds pretty good!

Before going to church I saw something kinda rare. A newly emerged cicada! Have you heard them in the trees lately? This one had just emerged from his skin to come out with wings! That’ll preach!

I got email from my partner Cathy Palmer today.


They recently moved to a new apartment much closer to their ministry area and see to really like it!  I’m so glad they’re doing better.  I’m a big believer in our team and I feel personally responsible for the folks I get involved with ministry.  In a real sense they are family to me, just like the missionaries I grew up with in Africa.  We called the adults, “Uncle Harold” or “Aunt Betty.”

I guess I knew intellectually that we weren’t really related, but I’m MUCH closer to my missionary family than I am to my real flesh and blood relatives.  It’s an MK thing, I reckon.

Got my financial report finished up and delivered to Jon, so I’m caught up on all my assignments.  PTL.

I big part of my strategy is training people and helping them be independent.  I’m very sensitive to “choke points,” those areas where if I’m taken out of the game the whole system stops.  I’ve tried to almost completely eliminate that.

My team are all Special Forces operatives.  They’re  ALL leaders.  I get the most fun out of catching up with partners after a few months and seeing all the fantastic things that are happening.  Independent ministries thriving.  It’s a beautiful thing.  We just need to accelerate that strategy!

I ran 4 miles right before lunch.  Although K and I averaged about 10 miles a day on the bikes, it’s not like running.  Especially when it’s hot.

I guess if you know anything about me it’s that I’m passionate about the things I do.  One of my interests is ornithology.  I love feeding the birds and watching them in my garden.  This year I was introduced to the concept of “clustering” feeders, in particular of hummingbirds which are very territorial.  So I went from one to three to five . . . now I’m up to eleven hummingbird feeders.

This one is just inches from where I sit. They constantly buzz right by me, or suddenly hover to check me out.

I’ve stretched out thin metal wire between trees and I hang the feeders from them.  The wire is very thin and it looks like the feeders are just hanging there.  Now, I have at least 5 permanent hummingbirds that constantly dash around chasing each other.  It’s super cool.

Peace.

The only bad thing about going on some R&R is the pile of work when I get back.

I finally finished answering all my email last night around 1 am.

This morning I enjoyed watching the Monk marathon in preparation for the special 100th episode this evening.  It was a great show!

I went to Best Buy this afternoon to pick up an external hard drive.  I sent it to the producer of the shoot for NAMB.  She’s going to dub off the video they shot and send it back to us on that hard drive.

Big news is that we actually shot our new Family Prayer card! 

I’ve already put in an order for the new batch.  I look forward to handing those out in the Mission Conferences to come.

After a week away with my sweet wife we’re back!

We had a fantastic time at the beach.  The weather was great.  We enjoyed walking and riding our bikes.  Plenty to see including River Street, Bonaventure Cemetery, St. John the Baptist Cathedral and the Historic District. They even had a fireworks display one evening.

Here are some of my favorite pictures!

We watched as Gustav hit Louisiana and wondered what Hannah would do to Tybee.

Oglethorpe was the leader of the colony and laid out the first planned city in America: Savannah!

Every been to River Street Sweets? They make great pralines. I wonder what their secret ingredient is?

I love the lighthouse!

Of course, the sunsets are terrific too!

Kathy and I are headed out of town for a second honeymoon.

We need time together!

Love you guys!

One of the fun things about our Compassion in Action weekend is I get to start new work!

Today I finalized agreements with two apartment managers to host Outreach Events at Highland Corners and at Medlock Woods. 

I’m excited that we’ll have the opportunity to talk to people about Jesus!

I worked on laying out the newsletter and making copies. The kids at the mission helped me put on labels.

Bill Hickey came over to our house today to install our new countertops.  They look great!

Kathy and I will be going out a town for a few days.  Amen!

Yesterday I spent my time in Clarkston–home of thousands of refugees!  Ashley and I met up with the video crew from the North American Mission Board. 

It was pouring down rain, but we managed to make the shoot work anyway!

We shot some of the video at our partnering church Clarkston International Bible Church.  It’s always interesting to see the ESL students and hear all the different countries that they’re from.

We ate roast goat at Madina Restaurant with my friends from NAMB and three other missionary partners: Kevin Riley, Bennett Ekandem and Jason Lemming.  It’s always great to spend time with those guys. 

We always fire each other up!

Ashley did a great job on her interview.  She’s studying Media/Journalism at Georgia Perimeter College.  It’s good to give her some real life experience. The kids at Ashley’s mission were as cute as always and were very excited about being on TV.


I got about 2 inches of rain over the last two days.  Awesome!  I ran four miles last night when it finally cleared off a little bit.

Felt like the old days today when I used to shoot news.  I had a video crew from the North American Mission Board along with Field Producer Cheryl Collins shoot an interview and video of the International Village. 

I took them around Asian Square and then across the street to Carniceria #1 for a trip to Central America.  It’s always fun to see people’s reaction to this totally foreign environment.

It’s like I’m a guide into an unknown and somewhat dangerous region.

I always enjoy it.

Helped the kids over at  Azalea with their homework.  My Assistant Director at Azalea Mission, Jouvens Mocombe, also had an interview with the crew. 

I thought he did a really good job.

They seemed to think I was good.  The hardest thing about these interviews is to speak in short chunks.  The goal is to try and answer the question in 15-30 seconds max.

Need to work on the newsletter.

Love you guys!