I always like a challenge. They test us and see what we’re made off.

It’s not easy to preach in a foreign language. I managed to do ok encouraging the congregation to say, “Yo soy misionaro” “I am a missionary.”


Many also promised to pray for an individual every day until they led them to Christ.

I’m a big believer in incremental progress. It’s all about a lot of small steps. Unless we’re willing to try to do something hard, you can never get stronger.

The service was in Spanish. I sat beside Paulette Dehart who is one of my favorite partners. She represents Georgia Literacy and English as a Second Languange. While Carlos and the other pastors were speaking full speed Spanish, I noticed that Paulette was getting everything they said, including the jokes! Later I asked her where she learned Spanish. She said, “My mom is Colombian. I used to live in Colombia!” Cool!

It was great to work with Carlos Salaverria and his brother Raul today! In Step and the Norcross Co-op was also represented along with New Tribes and the Georgia Baptist Convention.

It’s a sad state of affairs, but I assume if you’re an American you only speak English. It’s a beautiful language, but it’s not the heart language of millions of people living here.

I had about 1/4″ of rain today. PTL.

Saw a Pileated Woodpecker this morning before going to Church. That’s what Woody Woodpecker is based on. They’re by far the biggest woodpecker and when they hit the tree with their bill it sounds like a hammer! I watched him strip away the outer bark on these dead trees exposing the inner core of the tree. The bugs were underneath that bark. Suddenly it became clear to me as I looked up on the trees how the branches came to be exposed. I’d always assumed it was just a natural process. I liked the precision of it.

I guess I’m easily amused.

Tomorrow I have a video shoot with a crew from the North American Mission Board.

I’ve had a good restful weekend!

I’ve enjoyed watching the Olympics and sitting in my garden.

Kathy and I went to eat at John Boy’s on 78.  One of my food faves.

We got the files of our financial reports for Whirlwind since 2001 from Jon Paul’s house.  I’ll be working on organizing and filing those.

I’ve been working on my sermon for tomorrow morning: it’ll be in Spanish! I only have to speak for about 10 minutes. I should be fine for that long, but pray heavy anyway!

Ran 4 miles today. Pleasant weather!

I’m always interested in capacity.  How much can you do in limited time.  It’s amazing how much can get done if you just keep doing! Thomas Jefferson said that.

I got an email from a partner of mine that completely changed the plans of what we had decided months before.  It covered six new complexes! It’s great to be in an expansion mode! The Outreach Events we’ll host in 10 communities around Norcross and Duluth are good ways to open work in new locations.

The Sturbridge complex is what I would call a “home run.” 

That’s when the manager not only wants us to work there, but shows me around the building and says, “You can have this space.”  Three big rooms!  That was pretty exciting.

I’m always happiest when I’m starting new work.  I like meeting new people and seeing new plans and ideas come together.  I like to see kids that beam when they see me because I bring “the Teams” to come and play with them.

It’s cool to see how God is working all around us.

I enjoyed spending time with Matt Johns today.

He’s my partner working at the Corners.  He’s doing a great job in a difficult location.

Looks like we’ll also be opening up work at Howell Bridge apartments and also at Highland Corners.

Good day.

Ashley picked up her new glasses on the way home.  They’re cute.  Of course Ashley could make corn cob glasses look cute.

We went by Azalea to check on the kids. We helped a couple of them with some pretty hard homework. At least hard for them. Ashley’s great with the kids. I talked to them about the TV crew coming to film on Monday.

Unfortunately, the basketball goal I just brought over there didn’t work. It was missing a bunch of pieces. So I had to put it back in my car with the pole sticking out the window, take it back to Walmart to get credit to buy another one. What a hassle. That’s happened one other time where a bunch of parts were missing. I’ve probably bought at least 20 of those things over the years. The last a couple of years and have to be replaced.
I thought it looked a little like a mortar sticking out the windo.

The men delivered the armoire to our house today. Now I have somewhere to put my clothes. Amen. It was made by Kathy’s grandfather. I think they did a good job on the refinishing after the fire.

Love you guys!

Today I spent time with some of my best friends!  Doug Allison has been a great partner and has done wonderful work for the Lord in the Villa Rica area. 

Carlos Salaverria is doing phenomenal ministry in the Norcross area.  It’s terrific to be around motivated guys like them!

We talked about he October 4/5th weekend which is the Compassion in Action dates for the UNITE churches.  Last year over 60 churches and over 6,000 volunteers worked in over 200 projects.  We hosted 20 block parties with them.  It was awesome!

Spent most of the afternoon in Lawarenceville setting up the four locations for 12 Stone Church’s outreach on the 4th.  It was fun to see managers again from that area.  They’re very excited that we’ll be there.

Also set up a new location for an after school program with one of our Youth Outreach United teams at Greens at Hillcrest.  I think that’s going to turn out very well too.

Came home and lifted weights.

Enjoyed hanging out with Ashley tonight.  She went to eat pizza with me.

Good news is that looks like all the blood work that Kathy and Jesse had today went well.  Amen!

I had a great talk with one of my favorite partners this morning, Dr. Carlos Salaverria.  We’re working on some very important strategies for reaching the Latino communities for Christ.  He’s a hands on guy and I really think he’s doing a great job.  He should be appointed with the North American Mission Board next month.

Today I had two major things to do:  Buy a new computer for Margie Brooks who runs the office at FBC Doraville, and buy a new basketball goal for the mission at Azalea.  I got a new Emachine from Best Buy for about $300.  I got them the Office suite for home (she really only uses Word), as well as a wifi card so she can get internet.

Whirlwind provides internet access to the Pastor and the staff at FBC Doraville as well as our friends at the Pregnancy Resources of Doraville and the Doraville Korean Church.  I’m glad we’re able to help our partners!

Went by Walmart to get a new basketball goal.  I’ve probably bought at least 10 goals for the mission.  They are heavily used.  I also bought some tools so keep at the mission so we can put it together.

Ate lunch with Ashley and Jesse before going down to Chamblee.  Took me a couple of hours to copy all the files that Margie needed from the church computer, install them on the new computer and then put the new computer in it’s place.  Had to go to Office Max to pick up the WiFi receiver so it can get the net.  Margie barely uses a computer.  And has never surfed the internet.  That is amazing to me, but I guess there’s still a lot of people that haven’t.

I ran my 4 mile route.  Not too hot.  I ran around 8pm.

Yesterday Kathy, Miles, Ashley and I went to the Bridge.  We enjoyed hearing a sermon on how Christians should relate to their work environment.

Ran 4 miles.  It was cooler but I was still whipped after the run.

Enjoyed my garden.

This morning I’ve been in touch with Bill Hickey.  We’ll figure out the final measurements for the kitchen work we’re doing.  Hopefully we can put in the flooring on Wednesday.

Just went through my email again.  Making phone calls.

Ashley started college this morning!  What a joy she is!

I’m always amazed whenever I work in Clarkston.  The diversity of people groups is astonishing! I met people from Burundi, Somalia, Turkey, Russia, Bosnia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya (I enjoyed speaking Swahili today), Bhutan, Nepal, Burma & India.

The people were fantastic!

Today I enjoyed working with my teams who were from Total Grace, New Mercies, Mt. Moriah and Green Pastures churches.

The team was very motivated and had a great attitude.  We had nearly 200 people come to the event.  We served food, did blood pressure checks, had a moon walk, had balloons and facepainting, gave out children’s clothes and school supplies.  What a blessing!

It was great to see multiple churches working together.  That’s a beautiful example of what Whirlwind Missions is all about.  Creating a partnership of churches working in multihousing communities sharing the Gospel.

In Clarkston we take a more gradual approach with the Muslim families we work with. We don’t hit them over the head with the big, black Bible.  We become friends and share when we see an interest or opening.

I have friends that ask me, “When do we know when we should share our faith?”  In my experience when it’s the time it’ll be very obvious.  Things like, “Tell me about Jesus.”

I woke up this morning to voicemail from my partner Tyler Recker.  He mentioned that at the new mission in Buford the manager said we couldn’t talk about Jesus at the after school program. I talked to the manager at length who blamed their reticence on “Fair Housing” laws.  I asked her to ask her regional director.  We’ll see.  I’m not optimistic.

Been working on my financial report.  I’ll drop it off at my treasurer’s house tomorrow.

Finished up my email and made all my call backs.

Worked out on weights with Kathy this morning.

Ash reminded me that the next time we ride out on a Thursday, she’ll be in college!  Wow!

We had a good time today.  We worked on figuring out the kitchen remode.  We’re changing the linoleum and the countertops in the kitchen.  The flooring looked especially bad.  It’s real apparent to when you come in from the newly renovated side.  We picked out the materials for the project.  Hopefully, Bill Hickey will be able to come back to install it tomorrow.

Worked on my financial report.  I’ll finish it up tomorrow.

Set up some appointments for next week.

I was invited to speak at a conference in January in New Orleans for the Salvation Army.  Confirmed with those guys that I could come.  That conference may conflict with the missions fair at Peachtree Corners BC.  Ashley will be able to cover for me.

Ran 4 miles.  Seems like it took me forever.

This morning I went up to the North American Mission Board to do my seminar on raising up volunteers.  There was a good group of missionaries and chaplains.

Went to Azalea to pick up Jouvens and Keith Harrell.  We went to Office Max with the list from the kids at the mission. 

I spent over $900 on school supplies for the Azalea and Villa Nueva missions.  Lot of need in these areas!

Not all the kids were excited to be there!

THANKS to our generous supporters!  We couldn’t help these families without your giving!