I just finished typing the blog and hit send. The connection crashed and lost everything. Bahd luck!

This morning I mailed out the DVDS that I edited and burned this morning until about 1:15am. Sure am glad to get that project under my belt! I did two different projects, one for Tim and Cathy Palmer and the other for Terry Earl and Cathy Palmer. I was pleased by how they turned out!

Jesse and I had a meeting with the manager of Hamptons at Lenox and her main leasing agent as well as the police officer for the area this morning. We had a good visit. Pray that we will find volunteers to help us at the project. Salvation Army has been a main player in that area in the last couple of years but my director of the mission moved south of I20. I helped him start work in that area too and he’s doing a great job over there, but I sure miss him here. Pray that we can mobilize more volunteers in that area.

In fact, I had TWO managers call me and beg for me to help them at their complexes this morning. Never had that happen before! One are is in College Park. I have some great partners down there, I pray that they’ll be able to get some churches mobilized in that area. The other one was near Hamptons at Lenox. I’m less optimistic about getting help for them since we’re already stretched so thin in that area. God can raise up more soldiers!

J and I also went to check out under the bridge near the complex where there have been a bunch of homeless people living.

There were several extremely nasty mattresses over there and it smelled like a dirty toilet.

We’ll have our team from Briarcliff Baptist Church help us clean up that area this weekend. They’ll also host block parties at Azalea Place and at Briarlake Village as well as clean up the soccer fields near the PDK airport.

We went over to our partner Clatie Lewis’ house to pick up two computers for our mission at Huntington Terraces. Mr. Lewis has been sick. He still didn’t look well. Please pray for him!

We dropped off the computers and picked up Bill Hickey from the Terraces. We went over to Walmart to buy a new basketball goal for the complex and to buy some groceries for Bill. He’s a very generous fellow and tends to give a lot of the food I get for him to the other residents. He says, “They were hungry, Tim.” What can I say? I do the same thing.

After dropping the equipment off, Jesse and I went over to the Church to pick up mail, (or should I say, pick up bills?) then over to Azalea to check on the kids at the mission. They have CRCT testing this week so they don’t really have any homework. We just hang out and visit really. I always try and say positive things to them to help them feel better about themselves.

We got back to the hotel around 7pm this evening. Ashley was crashed out in Jesse’s bed. She was really pale and had been throwing up. Please pray for my sweet angel Ashley! She just left for the Lamb’s house a few minutes ago with Kathy.

Well, I guess I’ll try and upload this again!

Love you guys!

GREAT day today!

I got up early and finished the video project I made for Terry Earl and Catherine Palmer. It was a complicated piece and I’m happy how it turned out. I want to post it on my YouTube account, but I need to make sure that the families on the video are cool with it first. It’s after midnight as I’m writing this blog. I just finished editing Cathy Palmer’s husband Tim’s project too. I’m making copies even as I type this. I really wanted to get these done for them before their commissioning but my computer was broken and it just wasn’t possible. I sure was sad about that.

Jesse and I had lunch with the Pastor of FBC Doraville, Sam Letson and one of my partners Keith Harrell.

Keith is one of the new guys on our North American Mission Board team. He’s a GREAT guy and will do a lot for the Kingdom. If all goes well, he might actually come on staff part time at FBC Doraville to help work with the youth. That would be awesome. Pray that the church might consider that. Pastor Sam is doing a great job at the church in a difficult situation. Almost all the white people have left the Doraville area. That’s great for an international missionary like me, but it’s a real challenge for any English speaking congregation!

Jesse and I also went over to our new lawyer’s house to take him the signed contract and retainer for his services. Pray that the Lord will guide him as he represents Jesse. Our prayer is that the county will drop all charges due to his illness.

He is doing better with the medication. He still sleeps a lot but I don’t normally schedule anything for the early morning so that works out fine. He’s a real asset to our team!

We had a meeting with a Haitian Pastor Jeff this afternoon. He wanted to show me the plans for a school that he wants to build. I really like him. I gave him some really straight talk about how he should proceed with the project. Ithink he needs to start out with a water project before going into the whole huge school building project. People are dying there because of unsafe water. It’s a huge need in Haiti. People also tend to support smaller projects and when they see he can handle it, then they entrust him with more money and larger projects. At least that’s been my experience.

We went over to Azalea to hang out with the kids at the mission. I spent about an hour talking with Jouvens and Bubba. They are like two sons to me. They want to start a business. Jesse and I are working along similar lines and I want my son to help mentor Jouvens and Bubba. Pray for all three of my sons!

Ran nearly 5 miles today. My new trail runs along highway 78. As I was running I saw something that caught my eye–a $20 bill! Groovy. As I ran I found more money! I went along the section a couple more times and by the end of my run I had found $64 and a gift card that had $1.38 on it. Sweet!

I’m constantly looking for things on the ground. When we were in Montana hiking in the forest, I saw some trash along the trail. That irritated me so I went over to pick it up so I could throw it away. Inside was a wallet that had over $400! I talked with some local residents who knew the owner and gave it back to him. I’ve found at least two other wallets that I’ve turned in during my runs over the years. I always get a note back from the owner saying how I’ve “restored their faith in humanity,” or something along those lines. C’est la vie, baby.

I stare at the ground because of growing up in Kenya. I was always watching out for snakes!

Love you guys. Keep praying! Jesse’s improving!

We had a restful day today. I really needed it!

This afternoon I’ve been working on video projects. I got a couple of new standups done for projects for the Palmers and Terry Earl, so I should have all the pieces I need to finish those up.

Most of the afternoon was spent with our new lawyer Gary Greenwald to represent Jesse. We decided that it wasn’t a good idea to continue with the Public Defender lawyer, even though overall I think he did an adequate job. These proceedings are just way too important in the Jesse’s future to just HOPE that that lawyer would have been good enough. Pray that the proceedings will do well and that the financial obligations won’t be too onerous.

Jesse and Kathy are at the mountain right now getting some exercise on the bikes. We’ll probably get a third one soon so we can all go together!

We fun lunch together with Miles and Ashley. Good to have the whole family together!

Love you guys! Keep praying for Jesse! And us to while you’re at it!

Jesse and I had a great day today! We drove to Jefferson, Ga where we worked with a partners of mine Sharon and Ty Sanders.

They are in the application process to be Mission Service Corps Missionaries with the North American Mission Board. Sharon and I have worked together for years. She has a real heart for ministry and really loves working with the residents of Pine Lake Apartments.

FBC Jefferson was the lead team at the city park where they hosted an Outreach Event for the residents of the apartment complex across the street. They seemed to really enjoy the festivities and I saw one man addicted to alcohol pray for freedom with the Pastor. Very powerful stuff!

After the event, Jesse and I went to get him a new cell phone. His old one was melted in the fire. He got one he likes that is pretty simple and didn’t cost to much. I’m all for that!

Got home and ran to Stone Mountain from the hotel. That’s 4 miles. It was a beautiful evening for a run!

Love you guys!

We went to see our psychiatrist Dr. Evans today. He seemed to be happy with the progress that Jesse is making.

We’ll also need to get another psychiatrist that specializes in forensic psychology. He’s the doctor that will help write out a case report for Jesse that we’ll need for the District Attorney. We’ll probably end up getting another lawyer to help with the trial. We think that we need to get someone that has more experience in dealing with the psychological issues of the case. Seems like good progress. We’ll have a meeting with the lawyer on Sunday late afternoon for a consultation and figure out what we need to do next. Dr. Evans did write a case report out for Jesse. He seems optimistic that he will do very well, so that was good news. I know we’ve seen a lot of improvement with Jesse in just a week, so keep praying for us!

We got stuck in a bad traffic jam on the way home. I hate traffic.

Jesse and Kathy and I hiked up Stone Mountain this evening to watch the sun set.


I really do love that place! Whenever anyone asks me, “What’s there to do in Atlanta?” I always tell them, “Go climb Stone Mountain.” If you haven’t, you should.

Love you guys!

The only thing better than a day with Ashley is a day with Ashley AND Jesse!

We had a great time hanging out today. Our first assignment was at the Atlanta Metro Baptist Association office with Joel Harrison and Barb Newman from Dunwoody Baptist Church. We had a fruitful discussion regarding a possible community chaplain position.

We spent a couple of hours trying to figure out exactly what that person would do, what the goals would be and how we could measure their success. It’s very important to start out with the end result in mind. That way you know if you’re going in the right direction!

This afternoon Ashley and I went over to Georgia State University to work on getting her admitted into school in the fall. Jesse stayed at my office at FBC Doraville to rest. Everything went very smoothly and all the admin people were very helpful and friendly. The school is in the shadow of the capital building’s gold dome.

I think that’s pretty cool! Pray that all the paper work will go well as Ashley goes on line to fill out the forms for the application process and to get her test scores. We were able to get her transcript from Parkview High School and hand it directly to the admissions department.

This evening Kathy and I went over to watch FBC Mountain Park’s softball team play Smokerise BC. Mountain Park won on the last hit of the game! Awesome.

BUSY day!

I was up working on the DVD video project till after 1am this morning.

Jesse and I got up and went to the Chamblee-Doraville Property Manager’s meeting at Sheltering Arms in Chamblee. We had a interesting meeting with my friends from the Dekalb Police Department and the Chamblee Police Department making presentations. Jose Ayala is the liaison for the DPD with the Latin American population. He is a true man of God! We’ve worked together on a couple of projects and he really has a passion for helping improve the communities where we work.

We also heard a report from the Renters Bureau. They are an organization that analyzes the rent paying history of residents. This can actually help the people that we work with that don’t use credit cards and pay in cash. I think most of the managers that I work with will get involved with this organization.

After the meeting Jesse and I went to distribute the DVDS that I made to the managers that weren’t at the meeting. We saw the folks at Pearl Lane, Highland Gardens, Wynscape and Briarlake Village. They were impressed that I had a DVD for them that they could show their bosses as well as the residents. Ashley will distribute the DVDs I made in her area, in particular at Oak Forest and Kensington Station. I also made a version to show the Dekalb County PD for the Wynscape clean up project we did. Lot of work making all those different versions, but it’s all about relationships and showing people what we’re doing!

I got home and checked on the house. The contractors are waiting for the insurance guys to give the final approval for the scope of repairs. Nothing happens fast in this process, that’s for sure!

Sure love you guys!

Jesse got his new laptop up and running this morning! Excellent! He’s already updated the Team Assignment page on our web site. Now he’s working on putting up the Spanish version of our “How I Do What I Do” section from our Training pages. I’m very excited about that!

I’ve been working the rest of the day on editing video from our team we had in town last week from Agricola, Ms. I’ve finished the master edit of that (it was about 16 minutes long.) Once I have the labels for that done, I’ll star working on the edited versions that to to the different apartment complexes and to the Dekalb Co. Police Department. We have a partnership with them working at Wynscape apartments where our team did a major renovation of a playground.

Then I’ll work on the videos for my partners the Palmers and Terry Earl. This stuff is really labor intensive!

Jesse is doing better today. He didn’t complain of nausea as much. I think he may have had some type of stomach bug. Keep praying for him.

Not sure if you guys read Ashley’s blog or not, but if you don’t you SHOULD! She’s looking to get a journalism degree from Georgia State University starting in the Fall. I think her writing is already terrific!

Our family had a good time this evening at Ruby Tuesday. It’s fun to have the whole group together again!

I just got finished on a major video project for the team from Agricola Baptist Church. I had to make EIGHT different videos! Then burned all the copies for the teams, the police and for the managers as well as for my archive. It’s nearly 1am. Gotta rest!

It was an interesting sunset tonight. Dig the corona of the sun!

I hope to finish up the videos of the Palmers and Terry Earl this week too. Always good to have big goals!

Love you guys!

It was a super cold day today! What’s up with this weather?

Jesse woke up feeling really nauseated again. Please pray that he’ll get over that side effect. The doctor just emailed me that he can drop one of the meds. We’ll see if that helps. He seems to be fine in the afternoon.

Most of the morning I spent working on my financial report for my treasurer. It’s a pretty detail oriented job. I add numbers to a spreadsheet and then add our new donors to our mailing list. It’s simple, but you have to pay attention to what you’re doing.

In the afternoon, Jesse was feeling better. We went by to visit our house. He was so sorry for the damage he caused. I told him, “I didn’t care about all this stuff, son. I was only worried about YOU!” And that’s the complete truth.

We went by FBC Doraville to check on the mail at my office and to make sure that my plants are ok. Are you a plant person? Hope so! At my house I also refilled the bird feeders. Even added the hummingbird feeder. Here’s pictures of a hummingbird I found at the Carter Center. I guess he’d broken his neck on the glass. First time I’d ever really seen one that close up.

J and I went by Azalea to see how the kids at the mission were doing. Good to see my older leaders doing a solid job with the younger kids. Jouvens got some bad news last week about his resident status. Looks like he probably won’t get his paper work for TEN years. That was a real blow to him. I’m still trying to figure out a way that we can make it ok for him. His dad says that there’s a lawyer in Florida that might be able to help.

This evening J and I went by Best Buy to take a look at new laptops for him. He decided that he’d rather have a laptop this time rather than a desktop. His other machine he built himself! He liked the look of the Sony Vaio that I have. They just marked down the last unit another $250 dollars today. I went by this evening and got the last one they had. He was really happy about that!

I had a good time talking with my treasurer Jon Paul this evening. He is such a man of God. I really don’t know how Whirlwind would survive with his help and wise counsel. His wife has been under such a strain physically. Please pray that Linda will do well and that the Father will help heal her!

Love you guys!

Jesse and I woke up early to get ready for church. We had the Local Missions Fair at First Baptist Atlanta–Dr. Charles Stanley’s church this morning. He got all ready, dressed up in my suit! Then he started feeling really nauseated like he was going to throw up. Kathy and Ashley arrived around 8am and we decided for K to stay with Jesse in case he felt worse and Ashley and I would go to cover the assignment at First Baptist.

There were a lot of loving people at the church! So many of them had been praying for me for the last two months since our challenges with the fire. They were sure glad to see me! Ashley did her usual fantastic job of sharing about our ministry and loving on people. We handed out nearly the last of our prayer cards. That means we’ve given out over 10,000 in the last two years! I aim to take over people’s refrigerator! We’ll be working on a new family card soon. We’ll probably also do an individual one for Ashley as well as she becomes even more independent!

We ate at a new favorite place after the mission Fire of Brazil. It was a really beautiful place with men dressed in Brazilian garb who carried large skewers of grilled meat who would carve off a slice onto your plate. We had sirloin, sausage, chicken, pork loin, garlic steak, ribs . . . it was awesome. Highly recommend it. It’s located right by the Barnes and Noble bookstore off of Ashley Dunwoody near Perimeter Mall.

I came home and slept soundly for about an hour this afternoon. I was really tired!

Up working on email, blogs and getting my pictures on line.

This is Jesse’s first full day with us since the fire. Thank you SO much for continuing to pray for him and our family. Pray that the medication will be effective and that he won’t have bad side effects like always feeling tired or being nauseated.

Love you guys!