I had a fun time today with a couples group from the Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham, AL.  We had a briefing together about what immigrants go through here in Atlanta.

I was also happy to see Mark and Cathy Wilson from FBC Atlanta come to help! Cathy is one of my NAMB missionary partners. She’s been dealing with some health challenges. GREAT to see her back!

Then we went of a prayer walk/vision trip through the International Village.



We visited a traditional Chinese medicine pharmacy. I think a lot of their cures work!

We enjoyed lunch at a local Mexican food restaurant.  They were shocked when the menu was ONLY in Spanish!  Good food!


Then over to Azalea to host a one day Backyard Bible Club with the kids at the mission.

The team also helped me to clean the place up.  Looks great now!

I’m working on my Annual Report for my Board of Directors.  Hope to get some exercise today too!

Nothing better than having BOTH my kids with me!

Thursday is definitely my favorite day of the week!

We started out driving over to my treasurer Jon Paul’s house where I dropped off my financial report which I completed in the morning.

Then over to Cathy and Tim Palmer’s house where we dropped off the sewing machines and the vacuum cleaner for the mission at Huntington Ridge.

After lunch I spent a long time working the phones from FBC Doraville. Lots of follow up after the last two weekends of evangelism! Also some good prospects for partners. It’s always cool to see how the Lord is working all around us!

We spent a couple of hours at Azalea helping the kids with their big school projects.

The printer (which I just bought a couple of weeks ago!) was having issues. Of course the CD that has the drivers for the printer is gonesville. So that means you have to try and download it from the web. I pay for dial up at the missions, so that’s no fast process.

Finally got it downloaded (at another family’s house who has DSL) onto my flash drive. Or at least so I thought.

So I had to call in Tech Support: Jesse!

PTL he’s with me. He figured out how to get in on the drive then helped me get the computer set up back at the mission.

I’m pretty good with this techno stuff. I love it. But I just couldn’t figure out that printer installation/driver download situation. I’ve probably installed at least 50 printers over the years. But that thing yesterday about made me want to toss it out the window.

And here I have these kids looking at me like, “You gotta help me Mr. Tim. We’re going to make zeros.”

So again, thank God that I have Jesse with me.

Today I’m trying to take a breather. But I’m still making calls, answering email and working on my annual Board Report for next Tuesday.Great news is that our Prayer Cards came in yesterday! I’m looking forward to passing those out!

It’s raining outside right now. We sure need it.

Jesse and I picked up our partners Tim and Grace Hatch at Clarkston International Bible Church today.


They are new partners helping us with the refugees in Clarkston.

We also stopped at First Baptist Church of Doraville to pick up Joe Scott another of my new partners.

We travelled up to the North American Mission Board where I did my presentation on how to generate volunteers for your ministry.  I call it the “5 Levels of Engagement.”
It was fun to catch up with some of my friends at NAMB like Mike Riggins who is in charge of the MSC program at NAMB.

There was a great group of new missionaries coming on board this month.

  I had three of my new partners being voted on by the trustees.  I know they’re going to be a terrific addition to our team.

Got a call from Kathy on the way back from NAMB.  Her van had conked out on her.  Fortunately, she wasn’t far from our house when it happened.  After I dropped off Joe and the Hatches back at the churches, I went home to deal with the tow truck and getting the van over to the mechanic.

Hopefully, she won’t be hard to fix!

Went back to Walmart today to buy two new sewing machines for a project we’re doing with the refugees in Clarkston.  We’re going to teach the ladies how to sew and sell their products to help support their families.

Also got a vacuum cleaner for the mission at Huntington Ridge.  The other one I bought got jacked.  Bahd luck.

Last week I heard something that surprised me.  Jesse told me, “I’d like to work for you, Dad.”

Bottom line is that he’ll spend at least 4 days a week doing ministry with Whirlwind, either with me or Ashley.  After all the heavy lifting last week I started thinking, “Sure would be good to have some young help.”  This is an answer to prayer!  He’s been doing a great job at the mission.  We’ll give him some money every week.  I believe in showing people that I value their work.  He’s a good partner.

We went over to Grace Fellowship Church today (one of my favorites) to pick up the hard drive with the video that NAMB shot.  I sure do appreciate their ministry to us!  The video looks great!

Then we had the pleasure of seeing Todd Harrison–one of our biggest supporters and a true man of God!  Sure do love that guy.  He was really there for me when I needed help.

He helps us a LOT!  Today he gave us 15 full size medical emergency kits.  When he told me he had these kits I was thinking some little white plastic box with some bandaids and antibiotic salve.   These are full on, go to war, medical emergency supplies.  They’re cool too because it’s divided into sealed plastic bags that each contain one crisis (Burn, Not Breathing, Shock).  It has an emergency card to give you instructions along with all the supplies.  They’re really super cool and I think we’ll be a great asset to the mission.

Lord, I know that’s a great gift, but please protect the kids and volunteers so we never have to use them!  AMEN!

Todd also loaded down the car with snacks and drinks for the kids at the missions.  THANKS!

We went over to Chamblee to pick up a partner Joe Scott. 

He’s in the process of being appointed with the North American Mission Board.  He’ll be coming on board with our team in the Avondale and Clarkston areas.  Actually, we’re still laying out options for him.  I believe the best thing we can do for new missionaries is to help the refine what it is they really want to do, and then figure out the place that best suits that call that is close to where he lives.  We went by Oak Forest to talk with the management there about some possible job training courses.

It was good to also see Cathy Palmer and Tim Hatch while we were in Clarkston.  Tim also came with me to check out Oak Forest.

We had a terrific time at OF last weekend with First Baptist Atlanta.  They were one of the locations for “Impact Atlanta.”

Then all the way over to Chamblee to check on “my” kids at the mission.  Mustak and Clinton needed science fair boards.  I picked some up at Office Depot.  I got back to the mission and two of the other kids came by and said they needed them too.  Back to the store.   Ay caramba.

I met with a new friend Derrek Meier who works with Global Frontiers.  He’s been working in Oaxaca, Mexico for the last few months and is going back in a week.  He’d heard about our ministry and wanted to check us out. 

It was fun hanging out with him as I rode back and forth to the office supply place.

Their mission organization is considering Atlanta as a training site for their missionaires and local teams.  Of course I told him that that was a great idea and that I’d help him expedite that!  I’m all about getting people here and getting them to work.

Had a talk with Rosena, Jouven’s Mokombe’s 19 year old sister. I’ve known her since she was a little girl. Today she came to the mission to let me know that she’s four months pregnant! I’ll make sure she gets prenatal help.

I talked with Cathy Palmer today.  She’s working with 8 refugee families very intensively.  She does that and juggles a full time writing career too.  It’s very inspiring!  Check out the Palmer’s blog at   http://palmermissions.blogspot.com/  Cathy always has something worth reading.

On the way home I had a bad experience.  Some people in the religious community I don’t get along with well.  I’m just a little bit much for them to handle.

I’m not the most politically correct person you’ve ever met.  I think in the long run it’s best to be honest with people about whether you think what they’re doing is going to work.  Sometimes just changing direction ever so slightly can pay off big.

But there are many people out there that are so SURE that they are RIGHT!  and they talk in ALL CAPS all the time.

People that are that sure that they’re right make me nervous.

I mean, I know I’m right.  But there’s always a doubt . . .

Can’t we do this better?  Of course we can!  So be open to change.

But some people have been doing the same thing for years.  And they’re so sure they’re right.  So they just keep right on going.

I’ve spent most of my thinking about my brother Tito Ruiz.  He went in to the hospital today to have a hernia operation.  Please pray for Tito!

I’m trying to rest.  Been really pushing it lately.  My back is still hurting from loading those bags of ice.  I must be getting old.

Took Kathy out to eat.  We enjoyed that time together.

I need to exercise, but I just feel tired.

Guess that means I need to rest!

Pray for me while I’m driving and smiling!

Ashley and I had a great time today at Perimeter Church! 

These last two weekends were focused on serving with the Compassion In Action weekend.  Today they had a mission fair to raise awareness of local opportunities to plug in.
Vanessa is one of the ladies who wants to plug in with us!

Some of my favorite partners were there in particular Chip Sweeney. 

We’ve worked together since the beginning of our ministries here in Atlanta.  It’s been wonderful to see how God has worked in the last ten years!
Debra Potter is my main partner at Perimeter–she’s the leader of the local missions department! She and Jackie Deiter have provided great leadership!

These two ladies, Cheryl and Carolyn served in one of our apartment complexes last weekend. God provided just the right person to help her witness to around twenty Mexican men. Now they plan on starting a Bible Study there!

Bad news is that my camera decided to die on me today. I’d had problems with it a couple of days ago. Today, while I was shooting a picture of a little girl’s cowboy boots, my camera stopped functioning.

Here’s the last, blurry cowboy boot picture. How sad.

Very sad. I’ve probably taken over 10,000 pictures with it so I reckon I got my money’s worth!
My new camera is the Canon Elph Sure Shot 880. It’s the 750’s big brother.

We had such a fantastic day!

Around 300 volunteers from First Baptist Atlanta hosted block parties in 25 different apartment complexes around Metro Atlanta. 

Derrick Posten was my partner for this project. He did a terrific job!

17 of the 25 teams came back for the debriefing. 

78 professions of faith were reported by those 17 teams!

Amazing stories of whole families coming to Jesus where the high point of my afternoon.

I appreciated having Keith Harrell along for the ride today. 

He and Bill Hickey helped me clean and put up the 25 grills we took to First Baptist.

Today I was supposed to go teach a class at the North American Mission Board in Alpharetta.  I called to verify the time and they informed me that the meeting was changed to next week!

I went on over to Clarkston to meet with Grace and Tim Hatch, some of our newest NAMB missionaries.  We were going to the board together.  When I told them about the schedule change they went on back to Covington.

I called up Bennett so we could go over the details of the Help a Child Smile program. 

We’d like to get their mobile dental units over to Indian Creek Elementary School, where many of our refugee kids attend.  I think we’ll be able to go see the Principle of that school soon.

Came home and worked on my email.

Then went for a hike up Stone Mountain.  What a beautiful day!


I’m really looking forward to Impact Atlanta tomorrow!  25 locations!

I had Ashley and Jesse with me today!  Yeah!

We started out a Kroger picking up the supplies for the big event this weekend:  Impact Atlanta at First Baptist Atlanta.  I’m really looking forward to it.

Derrick Posten is my partner helping with this!

Lots of stuff!

After we picked it up we drove to FBA to drop it off. The bags of ice were the hardest to deal with.

Then over to First Baptist Church of Doraville to pick up the grills that Bill and I worked on yesterday.

We also dropped by Guitar Center to pick up some small supplies.  My guitar needed a stand to set it on. GC has a special section for vintage guitars. Check out the price tags!

Went through my email.  I’ll post pix and put ’em on the blog.  Then go back to Kroger to do the family shopping.

Hope to run my 4 miles later.

Big things on the horizon!

This Saturday is Impact Atlanta, the largest single evangelistic outreach in the city!  We’ll be hosting Outreach Events in 25 different apartment complexes simultaneously!  We’ll mobilize about 400 people that day.

Of course there’s a lot of logistic prep work to make something like that happen.

Today I focused on the grills for the event. I called Bill Hickey to come and help me with the grills.

I had to come up with 25 that worked.  I had 17 that my partners at Perimeter Church had given me.  We’d cleaned and stored them outside behind the church under tarps.  They looked great.

We were short 8 grills so I went to Walmart to pick up some more.  I got them for $9.95 each.  Not bad.  And they’re pretty sturdy!

Bill and I had to put the new grills together.

After we got all the grills organized I came home to work on other admin stuff.

Very exciting emails every night from people interested in working with us!

God is up to something BIG!

This evening I took my family to City Diner.

I love their gyros and french fries! And the desserts! Art that you eat.

Please pray for Impact Atlanta and thank God for the rain we had today!