I had a double blessing yesterday:  Ashley AND Jesse!  Don’t get no better!

We went over to Clarkston to work with Cathy Palmer and Bill Hickey. 

We met one of the ladies that Cathy is working with.  She’s having problems with her apartment.  We’re helping her get it cleaned up.  I also had a talk with the management to let them know that they needed to get a crew over there to check it out because the carpet was wet and could be a health problem.  I feel confident that they’ll get that taken care of.

We had a fun lunch together at Cafe Istanbul–A great place to take your wife.  It’s really cool!

After lunch, I had a meeting with Bennett Ekandem and a potential new partner, Joseph Scott.

He’s from Barbados and wants to do ministry in the Clarkston area.  PTL for that!

I talked to another missionary yesterday who has been working in Cambodia.  I’m trying to get him to consider helping us here in the States as well.

This week I’ve talked to three people about coming on board to help us in the mission field.  Pray that God will make a way for that to happen.

With the economy in a slump, it’s especially hard to raise money for ministry.  Pray that God will continue to open the financial doors needed to put people on the field.

Ash and J and I went over to Azalea to check on the kids. 

I helped Jimmy with his project on Greece.  It was due the next day.  Hate it when the kids do that to me.

Today I’ve been working around the house.  Mowed the yard, went to the grocery store.  The beloved “Honey DO” list.

Kathy was working at Avondale High School today.  She was substituting for the PE teacher.  She found out last night that she can still work with the schools and not have to go every day as a sub.  She’s been enjoying helping with the little kids at Clarkston International Bible Church in their “Mommy & Me” program.  I’m glad it’s working out for her.

This afternoon I had a meeting with one of my partners from the Atlanta Vineyard Church, Sonia Adams.  She is helping mobilize the young adults at the church get involved with missions.  Amen to that!  We met up with Matt Johns, who is the director of the Corners Mission.  Vineyard will be helping out Matt in the future.  On October the 4th they’ll host a block party at Azalea Place apartments.  I took her over there to show her the mission and introduce her to one of our leaders, Joe Jones.

After leaving the mission with Matt and Sonia, we went to the Guitar Center to pick out a new guitar for Jesse. 
Mark checked up on the new guitar and made an adjustment to the neck.

He’s been playing a lot and really enjoying it.  He picked out a black Fender Stratocaster.  It’s a beautiful guitar.  We also got a Vox amplifier, cords, stand and a case.

Music has meant SO much to me.  If you’ve never learned to play an instrument, check out the guitar. 

They’re easy to play and sound great just strumming the open strings!

Jesse and I went back over to Azalea to help the kids with their homework and play chess.
Can you tell which ones want their picture taken?

Jouvens had challenged me to a game and had stated that he’d “beaten you twice.” 

I told him that was impossible.  There’s no way he could ever beat me in chess.  So we played a couple of games and I thrashed him.   He’d been talking a lot of smack, so he needed a dose of humility.

Jesse got so good I could hardly ever beat him.  He was the #2 chess player for Parkview High School as a Sophomore.

I’ve been so tired the last couple of days I haven’t exercised.  Then I feel guilty.  Tomorrow for sure!

Had a good visit with my brother Marco Solano today!  He’s been caught in the construction crunch and has been looking for a job.  It was good to catch up with him and talk to him about serving on the mission field.  My prayer is that he will answer God’s call and that the Father will support his desire to serve HIM!  We’ve worked together for years.  He’s been a real blessing to me!

I had lunch with my sweet family this afternoon.  That was fun.

Worked with Bill Hickey at FBC Doraville.  We went through the main building at the church to take a look at what the Pastor wants to do with a couple of the rooms.  He want’s to use them as Sunday School space.  I think that’s a good idea.  Shouldn’t be too hard to get the stuff out of those rooms and to install shelving for it.

Marco went over to Azalea with me this afternoon.  I worked with Mustak and Clinton on their biology homework.  Can you name the 6 Kingdoms? (Hint, two are of bacteria!)

One of our windows was smashed out. Maintenance got right on it.

I have a pastor search committee that’s supposed to call me this evening.  I have another friend of mine that’s looking at a possible position in Florida.  I usually give great references!

I rested yesterday.  I sure have been wound up tight.  Lots of stuff going on with the Compassion In Action and Impact Atlanta outreach events on the horizon.  We’ll be covering about 40 different locations.

I worked around the house today. I had a limb fall on my roof. Fortunately, it didn’t mess up anything. Here’s what the view looks like from up there!

Been working on admin stuff today.  Financial report is due.

Beautiful full moon this evening!

Please pray for the Hampton family.  Rebecca is one of our missionaries.  She hosts the Cowboy Church.  Her grandson was in a car wreck and is in the hospital in a coma.

Love you guys!

I had a fun morning today.  I made a presentation on communication at the Gwinnett Neighborhood Leadershipo Institute today. 

I split my hour into two parts.  The first half I talked about language learning.  The second part I focused on the nonverbal part of communication.   The people seemed to get something out of it.

This afternoon Ashley and I were enjoying a visit outside in my garden. Suddenly, I noticed this enormous lichen. What do you think?

I bought Kathy a new bike to replace the one she had stolen while we were at the beach. It’s a step up from the other bike. I bet Kathy has ridden around that mountain over 500 times!

I just got back from eating Thai food with Ashley and Jesse.  It sure was delicious. 

We think that Thai of Norcross has the best coconut soup on the planet!  Man, I sure am full.

The last two days have been super busy!

Yesterday, I had Ashley and Jesse with me.  EXCELLENT! We did a recon of the area near the Gwinnett Place Mall for the Compassion in Action weekend.  I set up a new mission at the FALLS.  I’m excited about that.  Tito’s church has been working over there along with my partners from Apartment Life.

Also talked to the management at Summer Trees.  That place is super fancy.  I’m not optimistic about them letting us in, but maybe!

We went shopping for supplies I needed at Azalea Mission.

I cleaned the place while Ashley helped kids with homework and Jesse was teaching them how to play chess.  We had fun!  Although I sure did clean up some nasty stuff.  Man, those kids can get a place dirty!

This morning I went to the North American Mission Board where I made my presentation to the recently appointed candidates!  They’re always a good bunch.

I was invited to come share at a conference in Washington DC.  We’ll see if that works out.  I told them I’m into the field work aspect.  I think the hands on approach is best.  They like my somewhat irreverant style.

Talked with my partner Keith Harrell about the car he picked up from one of his supporters.

I got Bill Hickey and we drove with Keith to Hapeville to get the title transferred to Whirlwind Missions and then transfer it to Bill.  They were super efficient.

It was a year ago this Monday that I first met Bill.  He has really been a blessing to me.

He told me, “I’ve lived my life just grinding along.  Now I feel like I’m a part of something, that I’m really helping people.”  You certainly do, Bill!

Waded through about 100 messages this evening.  I was too tired to do the computer last night.

It’s after midnight and I’ve got to do a presentation for the Gwinnett Leadership Institute Saturday morning.  I’m talking about Communication.  I’m going to focus on how to  achieve rapport with people and teach them how to do that better.

The seminar is held at the Gwinnett Detention Center. Sure am glad J is out of that place!  He is doing great!

I always have fun in the Clarkston area.  There are just SO many different countries represented.

Today was “Wonderful Wednesday” at Clarkston International Bible Church. 

Over 150 students from Dekalb Tech come for refreshments and a Bible story in the gym of the church.  Pastor Phil Kitchin does a great job reaching out to the refugee community in the area.

I had a meeting with a long term friend of our family: Ileko Mugalla from Kenya. 

She was Kathy’s best friend when she worked there back in the early 90’s.  Ileko is a working on doing medical research in the area.  We hope one day to have medical services available to the community. Kathy and Ashley were working with the “Mommy & Me” program this morning at the church.  There are some sweet children there!  The mothers are learning English while Kathy and some other volunteers help take care of the little kids.

I took three of the monitors that I picked up yesterday from Tyler’s church for Ileko’s office.  She works right around the corner from Ashley’s mission at Kensington Station.  I’m working on getting her some computers now.

Also got together with Kevin Riley, another NAMB missionary.  He has some teams coming in soon and I was helping him develop other locations where he could put them.  I introduced him to several of the managers.

Missed having roast goat at Madina today.  I was hoping to eat there, but it’s closed due to Ramadan.

Went to the mission at Azalea to help the kids with their homework.  The carpet is still drying out from the flood we had there when the commode broke.  What a mess.  We threw a bunch more stuff away, so it’s not looking quite so bad now.

Plus we have a dead rat somewhere in the wall.  Lovely smell.

That’s why they call it missions!

We have some new Bengali families in our area.  Always fun to meet new people.

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!