Jesse and I had an early morning. He had an appointment with the forensic psychiatrist today. Dr. Agarkhar will do a complete report on Jesse’s present and mental condition the night of the fire. It’s hard for J to really remember what happened that night. He went without sleep for about 72 hours before the event. He was definitely not in his right mind.

I’m not sure if you have children. I just wish I could take the burden upon myself. Yesterday when we were at Waffle House and saw the mama bird with her nest she was so upset. I told J, “Parents will give their lives for their young.” He nodded his head as I gave him a big hug.

We have to continue to be proactive in our communities! In so many cases our missionaries are the last line of defense. If we can’t help the kids, the next stop is jail. Pray for our team!

Jesse was so tired so after the appointment I brought him back to the hotel to rest. I crashed out for about an hour too.

I didn’t sleep well last night. I kept going over and over in my mind, “What is worship? How do I really worship God?” I got down on my knees beside my bed and just poured out my love for the Father and how I wanted to worship Him. But I kept coming back to, “How do I do that?” Is it just mouthing words?

The Father told me, “Son, when you look at my flowers and clouds and tiny little red bugs and you say, ‘Father what you have made is so awesome,’ THAT is worshiping me. Appreciating what I’m doing around you, THAT is worshiping me. Just be aware of what I’m doing, son!”

It just seems like I should be doing MORE to tell Him, how totally great HE is! And I’m still not really sure how to do that.

I had a good meeting with the Tim and Cathy Palmer today. That’s a tough gig, living in a mission apartment. It’s a real trial by fire, and bugs, and floods! Tim got a job teaching tennis at the park next to their apartment complex. That was a real answer to prayer. I’m encouraging Cathy to expand her ministry in Clarkston by taking on some additional families in the area. I tend to throw missionaries into the deep end right quick. Most of the people on our team are very skilled and do best when they can operate with maximum responsibility.

Most of my morning was spent in the parking lot waiting for Jesse’s doctor to do his analysis. I spent the couple of hours working the phone setting up the missions for the teams coming in the next couple of weeks. I’m particularly excited about our new partnership with the YMCA. I believe they’ll bring some really talented young people into the mission field.

I ran 4 miles this evening. I take my GPS with me whenever I’m developing a new route. Seemed like I ran forever before that stupid thing said 4.0 miles.

Need to work on my financial report.

Love you guys!

Jesse, Kathy and I spent a restful weekend up in Chattanooga!

When we first got there it was raining. Check out this picture of the clouds coming up from the trees.

We had fun hiking and checking out the beauty of Lookout Mountain. I ran 4 miles around that property.

How about this close up of a daisy? Notice the pattern!

I liked these colors.

While I was there I saw 2 copperheads! Cool. Sure made me more careful where I was running!

I really enjoyed looking around the North Shore of Chattanooga. Lots of cool art stuff there. We ate pizza and ice cream at Mr. T’s.

We went on top of Lookout Mountain and watched the hang gliders and the sunset.

On our way home today we stopped at Waffle House. While K and J where finishing eating I went outside to stretch my legs and look at rocks. While there I saw a Kill deer nest on the ground amidst the rocks. Never would have expected to see a nest there! Perfect camouflage.

The mama was not happy with me.

Just finished up going through my email.

Enjoyed watching the History Channel program on Indiana Jones. Comes out this Thursday.

Keith Harrell, Jesse and I went to the NAMB HQ in Alpharetta this morning. I did my seminar on the “5 Levels of Engagement” which explains how we get people involved in missions. They seemed to be interested. I hope they put what I said into practice!

After lunch I spoke at Summerour Middle School. It was their Career Day.

I spoke on “Community Development” which is the secular way of saying “Take the Church, To the People!” I did my transport to Cambodia story where I have them imagine what it’s like to be an immigrant in this country. Ironically, at least 80% of the class WERE immigrants to this country! I had a fun time with the kids.

We went over to Azalea to check on the kids at the mission. Tabias was there. Bubba, Jouvens and Tabias were the main three kids in my youth group over the last 12 years.


Its always fun to see these young men together and think of all that we’ve gone through. I sure do love those guys! Tabias is going to Culinary School. He enjoys telling me about the food skills he’s learning. I told them I’m bringing about 10 computers over to the missions next week. I’d like for Bubba to work on fixing them up. It’s a skill that he wants to learn.  Jesse got to hang out with two of my favorites:  Tabias and Jimmy Mocombe–Jouvens’ little brother.

Later I had a meeting with Wes Binder who is the leader of the Teen Initiative for the YMCA.

They’ll be working in six missions the first week of June. I look forward to establishing a partnership with them. They could field a lot of manpower!

This evening I went to Iglesia la Belen. Luis is a deacon in the church and also a psychologist. He and Jesse seemed to have really hit it off. I think it’s a good idea for him to have someone to talk to besides just K and I. I led the Bible study with the youth group while they worked together. I look forward to having taking the youth group over to one of the missions on Wednesday nights–probably over to Westwood where Keith Harrell is working.

Kathy, Jesse and I are going to Chattanooga for the rest of the week. I’ll see you guys back on Sunday!

Ashley, Jesse and I went to visit with new partners from Total Grace Church on Covington Highway. Pastor Myrtle and Sister Deon are two of my favorites.

It was very interesting to have them share with me their insights on the African American Church. They are involved with refugee ministry in Clarkston. We hope to get them involved with some of the other apartment complexes near their church, in particular at Kensington Station where Ashley serves.

This afternoon we went to Parker Young construction to spend a little time picking out paint colors for the house and what kind of tile to use in the bathrooms. I actually like that design stuff. I find it interesting how patterns and colors fit together.

Jesse was less enthusiastic about the whole process.

We got it all done and I look forward to how our house will turn out. Do you like the colors?

Lena was from Brazil. She did a great job helping us figure everything out.

They made me feel special. Sort of like when a church puts my name on their marquee in front of their sanctuary.

I had a great day today working with some of our newest missionaries: Tim and Cathy Palmer and Keith and Cornelia Harrell. Jesse came with us today too. He was so tired he kept falling asleep in his seat.

We went around to several of the missions in their area including Huntington Ridge and its sister property Huntington Village. We also checked out Westwood where the Harrells will be working.

When we got to Westwood I asked where Carol was, she’s the manager. Ruthie, one of the leasing people told me, “She’s not here any more.”

“Oh,” I replied. That’s not that unusual.

“In fact, we’ve been bought out by a new management company and new a new owner.”

That got my attention. “A new management company AND a new owner?” I tried to be crystal clear.

“Yes. In fact they take over the property tomorrow.”

I turned to look at my two new partners, the Harrells. They looked at me wondering what we should do.

“Who’s the new owner?” I asked. Ruthie went into the manager’s office and asked.

She came back and said, “It’s a guy named Gideon. His management company is called Sabra.”

I thought, “That rings a bell.” I told Ruthie, “Let me show the Harrells the upstairs room where the after school program meets.” She nodded that that was fine and we strode upstairs.

It’s a beautiful room with several large tables and four computers. We’ve been working there for about 5 years now and we have a good set up. We prayed for the complex and for the kids at the complex. We went back downstairs and told the manager good bye and went back to the car.

“I know that Sabra name. Let me make a phone call,” I told the Harrells. I rang Theresa Akers, the manager at Chamblee Heights.

“Howdy, Theresa! What’s up?”
“Super busy Tim. Getting ready to close on a property tomorrow.”

“Would that be Westwood?”
“How did you know!!?”

“I’ve had work there for about 5 years now,” I explained.

“I wondered whose stuff that was,” she mentioned.

“Make sure and tell Zvi and Gideon that we’re looking forward to helping out at Westwood when they take over,” I asked.

“Great that you’re there, Tim!”

I sure was happy how that turned out! God is still in the miracle working business!

Pray for the Palmers and the Harrells as they begin their ministry in the Norcross area.

Pray for my peace of mind. I’ve had a lot of big bills come our way. I’m pretty stressed out, even though I know the Lord is going to work it all out.

Ran 4 miles to help me relax.

Pray for Jesse that he sleeps well at night and has good energy in the day time.

Where would we be without our Mothers?

We wouldn’t be here at ALL!

It sure was great to get to spend time with my Mom and Dad this week. It’s been hard on Kathy not having her folks around. We enjoyed watching videos of them today.

Ashley, Jesse, Miles, Kathy and I hiked up Stone Mountain this afternoon.

SUPER windy.

It was a good time.

Kathy and I came home and watched movies and enjoyed some alone time. The kids were at Miles’ house. I miss that time with her. We’ll go to Chattanooga later this week for a few days. We’ll take J with us, but we’ll get him his own room.

Love you guys!

Today I had the sad job of taking my parents to the airport.

The time sure did go by fast! It was so great to get to show them around and let them see some of our work and to get to visit.

This evening we had a party for Kathy’s older brother Paul. We had the party at our hotel.

They let us use the breakfast room to set up the tables and serve the food. Kathy’s sister Ann and brother in law Bob did a great job cooking all the hamburgers and hotdogs. We enjoyed watching old home movies from about 15 years ago on VHS tape. We’ve really changed!

After the party we all hung out at the hot tub.

Family is important!

Here is the video from our Outreach Event last Sunday at Aspen Pointe with Roswell United Methodist Church.

Today we went to the psychiatrist to have him talk with Jesse. It was really not a counseling session. Took maybe ten minutes, just to check and see how he is doing with his medicine.

My Mom and I went to the Buford Highway Farmers Market to pick out a tortilla press for my brother Jim who lives in Texas.

I took my family and my parents out to eat at Fire of Brazil as a special Mother’s Day treat. It was fun!

Came home and rested for a while. I finished the editing for the Cowboy Church video for Rebecca Hampton. I made the copies for the DVDs I made this afternoon. I also compressed the video and will upload that after I write the blog. Hopefully, I’ll also have that video on this blog today too. If not, I’ll post it tomorrow.

We went over to see the Kendall family this evening. That’s Miles’s Mom and Dad, Jimmy and Cheryl. Good to spend some time with them. The kids went bowling after the visit.

I ran 4 miles this afternoon to Stone Mountain. K and J went for a bike ride. Groovy!

We enjoyed a party at our favorite Indian Food place Vikhyat today with my parents, Tim, Cathy and Andrei Palmer, Tom and Nancy Jones (friends of mine from Kenya) and Ashley and Jesse.

We had a fun time swapping tales from the old days!

Mrs. Patel, the chef for the restaurant, showed us her recipe for cooking curry. Her son took us to the store next door from the restaurant to show us which spices to get. My mom was so excited about that!

My Mom, Ashley, Jesse and I went shopping at Stone Crest mall this afternoon.

I picked up some new software I need to work on web sites for my partners. Jesse really has lost his taste for doing that work. It is very tedious. He used to really love it. Now he just doesn’t like it. He says he’ll keep updating our Whirlwind site, but really doesn’t want to do anything new. It’s a real change in direction for him. Pray that he’ll be led to do something he really likes. Pray that I’ll be able to figure out all this web site development stuff again. I did all the original code for my web site, but that was years ago. Guess I’ll need to relearn it. Fortunately, I have Jesse if I get stuck.

Kathy, Jesse and I are enjoying watching a film in French. “My new best friend.” I like foreign language films.

My folks and Jesse and I had an Indian themed day! We went by the new Indian Hindu temple on Lawrenceville highway this morning. It is really a beautiful place. The stones were cut in India, shipped here and put together on site.

Then we went to Goodwill to pick out some new shirts. I always like to check out the foreign language shirts that people buy overseas and then give to Goodwill. I gave this one from the Amazon to Andrei Palmer.

I got a great one from Germany today!

We also went to the Global Mall which is almost totally Indian. I told my folks that it would remind them of the Sarit Center in Nairobi. It certainly did! It was like being in a time machine going back into the past into Kenya in the 70s.

We also went to the Palmer’s apartment at Huntington Ridge. I needed Jesse to work on the computers. We got the WiFi router set up in their house, made sure Cathy’s laptop worked, got them both set up with Gmail and even got a Photo Gallery account with Smugmug established!

I think that was incredible! While Jesse and I worked on the computers, my Folks had a terrific time talking with Cathy Palmer about the old days in Kenya.

Those were some golden years in many ways.

Tomorrow we look forward to eating at Vikhyat Indian Food where the Patels are actually from Nairobi!

They all speak Swahili so it will be even more fun for all of us. I’ve also invited two of my favorite missionary families to also join us, Tom and Nancy Jones. I grew up with them in Kenya. They’re now active members of FBC Duluth. The Palmers will also be with us to enjoy the great Indian food. Can’t wait!

It’s fun to have family time with extended generations!