It’s still dark outside.

I’m finished packing and I’m getting ready to head to the airport.

I’ll be leaving for Texas in a few hours.

Pray for my trip!  I appreciate you reading this blog and I’ll be back soon!

Got up early to work on my financial report.  Turned that in to my treasurer this morning. Also wrote my end of the month checks.

I head for Texas tomorrow morning.  I’m trying to get everything done early.

At at Torreros for lunch with Kathy and Jesse.  K isn’t feeling well.  I think the babies she works with are getting her sick.

Went to my office to pick up my mail and check my plants.

I enjoyed throwing candy to the kids at the mission is one of the funnest things we do.  Funniest, too.  Moms rushing around picking up candy . . it’s a dad gum free for all!  Ladies in saris, picking up lemon heads with huge enthusiasm.

I saw Raphael Cruz today. I thought he looked great in his ROTC uniform!

I came home to answer my email and pack for my trip.

Hopefully, I’ll have access to the web to keep things updated.  Maybe not.

Today I focused on newsletters.

I got the camera ready copies and took them to Staples.  Today we made 265 copies, times two pages. 

We normally have three pages, but we included the new prayer card.  I wrote about Rosena having a baby.  Ashley wrote about her commissioning.  Good stuff.

I had lunch with Chris Skinner. It was good to catch up with him. Their ministry is having great success! They’re having some financial challenges too. Aren’t we all?
Chris is getting married in September!

Went to FBC Doraville and worked on writing notes on newsletters for a little over three hours and got the letters in the post.

Came home and ran 2 miles. Haven’t felt like exercising much. Don’t like cold weather.

Got up early this morning and started working on my email and blogs.  I uploaded the last of the pictures I took last night.

Wrote my article for this month’s newsletter.

Jesse and I went to the Post Office to get stamps for the letters.  I had enough envelopes, papers and labels.

We ate Vietnamese food at Pho Truc in Clarkston.  I’m still tasting it.  Not sure that’s a good thing.

I talked with the manager at Indian Creek.

We have a family that Cathy Palmer is working with that had their carpet flooded by a leaking fridge.  I went there to make sure that her carpet issue was taken care of.  I’m pretty sure it’ll be fixed tomorrow morning. My buddy Bill Hickey will make sure that the team knows what they’re doing when they paint the apartment this weekend.

I had the kids at the mission at Azalea help me label our newsletters.  They’re always good sports about it.  I usually go buy them a couple of boxes of doughnuts to say “Thanks.”  They sure can gobble down doughnuts!

Kathy Wilson and her daughter Debra came to help us at Azalea today! She’s the nurse on our team. She came to check on the girls having babies.

I couldn’t believe that this guy was holding his car together with tape. And not even DUCT tape!

Went over to Walmart to buy candy for the kids for Halloween.  I’ll throw candy this Wednesday.  I leave for Texas Thursday morning.

I had a great talk with my Dad this afternoon.  I’ll be speaking at his church this weekend.  Sure do miss seeing them.  Kathy was lucky having her folks live in Atlanta.  And all her brothers and sisters.  Groovy.

Got to spend some time with Ashley tonight!

Kathy and I got back home last night after a few days of rest in Chattanooga.  We had a great time.

We bought new shoes on the way up there.

Even drove through a fire on the side of the road.

First day was rainy, but we still had fun!

Long bike rides included 10 miles up to Cash Canyon road, and 8 miles around Chattanooga.

I enjoyed seeing the Orchid Store on the North Shore of Chatta.

One of our favorites was also seeing the Messiah’s Mansion–a true representation of the Sanctuary that Moses built.

It’s good to be home, but the work has piled up!

I finished editing and uploading the video of Ashley/Keith & Cornelia’s commissioning.

Take a look!

Remember yesterday when I bought the glue traps for the rodents?  This morning at 2:00am I heard a ruckus.  Got up and sure enough one of the glue traps had been messed with, but the rat got away.  Then again at 5:15am another noise.  This time it got really stuck.  I searched around for a stick to hit it with.  Finally had to clobber it with a big flashlight.  Gross.

Usually I’m a “live and let live guy.”  I draw the line at rodents near my bed!

No, I didn’t take a picture of it.

So this morning I was running on empty.  Don’t dig lack of sleep.

I went to Pizza Hut to bring lunch for our Chamblee Doraville Property Managers group.

It was a good time and very informative.  Apparently, bed bugs are taking over our city!  Bahd luck.

J is with me today.  We’re going over to Azalea to check on the kids at the mission in a moment.


Been a while since I’ve exercised.  Just been so busy.

Tomorrow, Kathy and I go out of town for a few days.  I’m looking forward to mucho resto.

Love.

Had a fun day today!

Started out going to Lowes to pick up a tarp. 

I’m moving my plants inside tomorrow and need to have something on the carpet so nothing gets messed up.  I have a lot of plants.  It’s cool when they come inside cuz it’s kind of like a jungle!

Unfortunately, the inside jungle also includes rodents trying to escape the cold.  I usually have to put out some glue traps to make sure no rats or mice decide to call my house “home.”

I had lunch with Jerry Counselman today.  He’s one of my favorite missionary partners.  I’m praying that he’ll get more involved with our refugee population in Clarkston.

Spent some time at my office at FBC Doraville.  Worked on email and calls for a couple of hours.

The group of ethnic Pastors from N. Carolina came to my office at about 4pm.  I had a briefing with them where I “took them to Cambodia.” Maybe you’ve heard me give that presentation?

I took them over to check out the folks at the mission at Azalea.  It was really cool to see how well they interacted with my people. I know they’re doing a great job back home!


We made a stop at Carniceria Hispana #1, where I showed them a typical Mexican tienda–store.  It’s fun to see them gawk at the weird stuff.

Then we made our way over to Clarkston and Willow Branch apartments to have a chat with my partner Bennett Ekandem. He did a great job sharing his story with the pastors.

For a special treat we went out to eat to finish the day at Cafe Istanbul. One of my favorites!

Now I’m home working on email again. I’m enjoying watching the “World’s Most Difficult Race” about the Iditarod 1,000 miles of frozen Alaskan wasteland.

Thursday, Kathy and I are headed out of town for some rest. We’ll be back on Sunday. I sure am looking forward to that!

Full speed ahead, baby!

J and started out fast and just kept on going.

Our first assignment was to meet with a couple of new partners in the Marietta area. Rick DeLuco and Greg Griffin’s ministry is called Salt and Light.  They are working in one of the complexes in Marietta.

The Director of the mission at Preston Chase, Mike Anderson, was also at lunch.  And then I had the extra blessing of having Joey Garner drop in!  Joey’s the Missions Director at Eastside Baptist Church.  He one of my favorite partners.

While Jesse and I were driving to Marietta, I made the comment, “Ya know Jesse, usually when I come up here I try and drop in on my buddies. ‘Cause I don’t get over here that much.” Not a minute later I got a call from Joey Garner who was exactly the person I was thinking of! Cool, how God does stuff. I’ve been encouraging Joey to help us in Clarkston and work with the Farsi speaking refugees.

We went to Azalea Springs and talked with the manager.  She is a believer and knew me from First Baptist Atlanta.  She has a heart for reaching the lost in her complex.  The owners are less enthusiastic.  They can make no overtly Christian  moves there.

After checking out Azalea Springs apartments, where we were basically told we could have no open ministry, to Concept 21 Delk who gave us a PERFECT apartment right at the front of the complex right across the parking lot from the tennis courts. We had a prayer time at the new apartment: 101!

Jesse and I then blasted over to Concept 21 Roswell, where we signed the year long lease agreement.

The leasing office is actually an historic farm house!

I felt rushed because I knew that Cathy Wilson would be over at Azalea at 4pm.

J and I got to Azalea right at 4pm so I was glad about that. I hate making people wait. She dove right in and was helping the kids at the mission. We visited several families at Azalea, in particular the ones with young babies or are pregnant.

The printer was out of ink at the mission so I had to go over to Staples to get some more.

A couple of the kids had things due tomorrow. It’s always a crisis mode with these kids. I’m trying to teach them to start early and don’t put all the work off till the last day.

My motto is “Do the hardest thing first.” Then the jobs just keep getting easier.

Jesse and I left the mission at Azalea around 6:30pm. We were both pooped.

I rested for a while then over to Kroger to get groceries. How many of you men do the grocery shopping? Seems like a lot of men shopping the stores. It’s probably for the same reason that I do it. I get the groceries and stop. She just keeps on getting more and more and more. . . .

We were supposed to have the Whirlwind Missions board meeting tomorrow. We’re going to postpone it so that Tito Ruiz can have a chance to heal. His surgery went great last week, but he still needs to take it easy. Lord, bless Tito!

Not having our Board meeting also means I can spend more time with the Ethnic Pastors from N. Carolina. I’ll give them an introduction to our work, show them some of the International Village, then take them over to Willow Branch to meet my partner Bennett Ekandem.

Last night I went to the concert for Family Heritage Foundation–Bennett Ekandem’s organization.

It was held at the Peachtree Christian Church.
I loved this carving of the Last Supper.


Fantastic stained glass!

What a great day!

It was a double pleasure for me because not only did my sweet angel Ashley get commissioned at FBC Mountain Park, so did Cornelia and Keith Harrell!

I enjoyed sharing what we’re doing with the congregation at Mountain Park as well as leading the charge for our new missionaries!




All 5 of Kathy’s brothers and sisters came to the event and also enjoyed lunch with us afterwards at Asian Square.


I’ll try and rest a bit before I go over to Peachtree Christian Church, where my partner Bennett Ekandem is having a concert fundraiser for his ministry.  I’m looking forward to that.  I’ll also help videotape the event.