Was all over Dekalb County this morning.

Started out in Lithonia to meet two of my favorite partners: Toni Branyon and Joe Scott.  We met at what used to be called Pinewood apartments.  Now it’s named Audobon East at Fairington.

That’s a mouthful, eh?  We’ll have an event there in December, hopefully with the help from friends at FBC Conyers.

Omar is the manager there. He was very helpful!

After Lithonia, I went to the Stone Mountain area, where I met up with two partners of mine from the Dekalb United Pentacostal Church.

I took Jose Leos and Myron  Wideman.  We cruised over to Hampton Village and took a look at the room that they’ve given us to work out of.

We also talked to Carlos, the manager of the property.  It was a great time together.  The bus came while we were there and we were able to meet a lot of the kids.  Cool.

Took a Teacher’s Guide book for an ESL course over to Bennett at Willow Branch.  Cathy Wilson, another of our missionaries, wants to start teaching ESL to one of the Bengali ladies.

It was good to talk with Bennett.  He reminded me how we need to have faith in God when times with no money come.  The Father always takes care of us!

Jesse and I went to visit Pastor Bobby Atkins today.  His church is Truth Tabernacle of Praise.  They’ve partnered with me on a number of Outreach Events.

His church is on Memorial Drive. 

J and I did a recon of the area around his church and noticed Highland Chase–which is a Miles Property. I work with three of their other properties.

Pastor Bobby and I discussed having a Christmas Party over at that location on December 13th.  He was for the idea so we went over to talked with the manager of Highland Chase. 

La Cheryl was all for the idea!  That’s great!  The property is the next door neighbor to Truth Tab.

J and I went to check on Cathy Palmer and her sewing class.  It was wonderful to see those ladies all working together.  I think it’s a great idea.

Also got to visit with John Okelly who is the director of the Clarkston Community Center.  He’s doing a terrific job in a very difficult area.
We ate lunch with Bennett Ekandem. Always fun!

Went to the office to pick up the mail.  Pile of bills.

Donations are down this month.  People are scared of all the economy woes.

Makes it tight for ministries.  Pray for us.

We went to the mission to check on the kids.  Had to go to Office Depot to pick up some supplies the kids needed.

Came back home to Stone Mountain.  Ran 4 miles.  Needed the stress relief.

The last two days I’ve been speaking at the missions conference at Eastside Baptist Church in Marietta.


Their missions director, Joey Garner, is one of my favorite partners.

The missions fair was the best I’ve ever seen–and I’ve participated in over 150 over the last decade!

Spoke to a great class this morning.  I’m looking forward to many of them plugging in.

The worship was awesome.  Terrific choir!

After church, I went by Walmart to pick up supplies for the Open House we’re having at Concept 21 Delk this Tuesday. Eastside BC also provided me with cakes for the event!

As a treat, I ate at Vikhyat for curry. Beauty!

Went to the dentist today.  What joy! 


I had four small cavities. 

He kept telling me how “When you get old, your teeth wear out.  They start cracking and falling apart.  Normal wear and tear.”

I didn’t feel encouraged.

After getting my teeth fixed, I went to our Doctor’s office to pick up some medicine for Kathy.

The doctor’s office was closed when I went there, so I went across the street and went shopping for the family instead.

Then got the meds and went over to Target to turn in a prescription for other meds for Kathy.  While I waited, I went outside and spent time talking to partners on the phone.  Some exciting things are percolating!

Came back home.  It was already nearly dark and lightly sprinkling. No run for me.

Holy Moley!  Ashley’s 20!

Amazing to me.  I still think of her as my little girl.

I can’t believe the price of gas! What a blessing!

Ashley, Jesse and I picked up Miles at his house.  His truck was getting tires so he had the day off. We went to Grace Fellowship Church to pick up Mark Casey–the new Missions Pastor.

He brought his friend along with him who’s been doing work in closed countries.  We share many of the same people groups.  I hope to gain better ways of doing things from him.

We also met up with my partners from N. Metro Baptist Church.

We saw Steve Bullard who is the Senior Adult minister, John Carr who works with Middle School kids and Tim Kinnersly who is the Missions Pastor.

PLUS my buddy Jon Lewis from 12 Stone Church.

We met at the Green Tomato in Lawrenceville and talked about the mission opportunities in the area.

After we ate, we went by to visit Olde Salem and Cherokee Courts apartments. Got to hang out with some of the families.

One man shared how his back was hurting him and how he was going in for surgery next month.  I joined some of our group around him and prayed for him.  Afterwards he said, “Come.  I want to show you something.”  He motioned for us to go inside the clubhouse.  I thought he was going to show us a power tool or something.  So we come inside and he undoes the belt on his pants and drops them to the floor!

He proceeds to point out areas on his leg.

“Dis is where bullet come in leg.  See?  It come out here,” he sait pointing to the circular scar.

“And dis . . ” He points to a scar the size of an orange on his inside thigh, “Dis is where grenade, how you say?”

“Frag grenade?” I asked.

“Yes!  Frag hit my leg.  Tore this chunk right away.”

Man!  You don’t hear that every day.

The guys from N. Metro were very calm about it all.  Cool.

We left the missions in Lawrenceville and went to Perimeter Mall. Ashley had an appointment with the guys in the Apple Store. She needed some help on a couple of questions she had about the web sites she’s developed. Got it all figured out!

I’m back home now. Finished email.

I can hear Jesse and Ashley (!) and Miles playing guitar above my room. Dig that.

Jesse and I along with one of my partners Kathy Wilson, went up to the North American Mission Board today.  I spoke on the “5 Levels of Engagement” where I discuss how to generate volunteers.

Seemed like a good group.  Several of the were involved with similar ministry to ours:  multi-housing and immigrants.  I think what I said was particularly helpful to them.  Hope so.

Had a great talk with Mark Snowden at NAMB.  He’s been a partner of mine for over a decade.  He’s especially interested in media as it relates to missions.  I came a R/TV background so we have a lot in common.  He’s helping us generate Bibles in languages that the unreached people groups in our area need.  When’s the last time you saw a Bible in Amharic, Farsi or Swahili in your local Christian Book Store?  How about never! 

The staff at the board is raising money to help with the Bible project.  I think that’s a great use of their funds!

I’m at my office at FBC Doraville right now.  Went through my email and calls. Nice to do my homework at the office and not home!

We’re headed over to Azalea to help the kids in a few minutes.

One of my favorite things is starting new work!

Carlos Martinez who was the manager of Kensington Station is now at another property, Hampton Village.  It’s near Ponce de Leon and Stone Mountain.

I met with Carlos today and went over to a stand alone building where there had been an after school program years ago.

Ramadhan–the maintenance man–shared with me the story of his father who had a mid life crisis, moved to Egypt and became a muslim.  He named his son Ramadhan! He’s actually from Brooklyn.  A sad tale of father/son alienation.

After seeing the building I went by the DeKalb United Pentecostal Church.  I met with Pastor Leos.  He’s from San Antonio, Texas.  I told him I’d been through his town just last week!  I shared the news about the new mission.  He seemed excited.  Pray that the Senior Pastor will also get on board.

Then over to True Tabernacle of Praise to say “howdy” to Pastor Bobby Atkins.  He’s another church partner in the area.  I’ll meet with him next week and take him over to see the location.  There are a lot of apartment complexes near Truth Tab, this may not be the best fit.  We’ll see!

Ran 4 miles.

Enjoyed the beautiful trees!

And the cloud formations: cirrostratus undulatus, to be exact!

And the sunset!

I felt like resting today.

Still worked, but felt like resting.

I got the power and the heat turned on at the new apartment in Marietta.  Takes a while on the phone to do that.

Jesse and I went by Northlake Mall to pick up Ashley’s purse that we had repaired.  We enjoyed some Teriaki chicken.  I was shocked that the Gyro place was out of business. That place had been there about 20 years.  Bummer.

Went to the office and picked up mail.  Then over to Azalea to check on the kids.  They didn’t have anything pressing.

Ernest just got a job at Sears.  He’s supposed to be loading stuff. I reminded him how bad he messed up his back working for UPS.  Hate to see my guys get hurt.  Heavy lifting will mess you up quick.

Came home and worked on email, blog.

Beautiful trees.

Dig this truck I saw at QT.

We went to First Baptist Atlanta this morning for the final day of their missions conference.

Ashley and I spoke with the 6th graders today.  They were an exuberant crowd.  I enjoy speaking to that age group!

We had a luncheon after church.

It was fun to see Dr. Stanley.  He has one of the few truly integrated churches in Atlanta!

I’ve enjoyed resting this afternoon.

Worked around the house. Blew the porch off. Ten minutes later didn’t look like I’d done it. Bahd luck.

Kathy and I went to the Zoo this evening.  We got there just before it closed.  Most of the animals were back in their enclosures.  It was still fun!

Then we drove around downtown.  Sure are some BIG buildings!  I liked all the lights.
With the shutter open I think the streaks of light are cool.

Kathy got a hankering for Varsity.  She told me she hadn’t been there for 40 years!  We got their onion rings.  Sure are good.  Just a tad of grease.