Errands this morning.

Hair cut–back to my clean cut all American (sorta) self!  #2 all over!

While I was getting my hair cut also got the oil changed in the Chrysler.

Then back to house to pick up Jesse.  We went over to the dentist to pick up his X-rays.  He decided that he’d prefer to be put out completely rather than just be numbed up when the pulled his wisdom teeth.  So we’ll be going to the Oral Surgeon instead.

Once we had the x-rays we went to our first assignment:  the Chamblee-Doraville Property Manager’s meeting.


I’m one of the officers for the organization.  We had the property tax assessors for Dekalb County come and make a presentation.  It was pretty interesting.  Not exactly riviting, but not too bad.

J and I took the left over food from the meeting to the kids at Azalea.

They didn’t really have any homework, so we just hung out and paid them some attention.

This evening I had another assignment at Sunrise Baptist Church in Lawrenceville with the Hispanic congregation.  Their youth leader Mario Amoretti invited me to speak.

Their group will be coming to help us with an outreach event this Saturday at 4pm.  So I made my mission presentation–in Spanish!  It’ll wear a brain out thinking in another language for an hour.

They were a forgiving bunch of my bad Spanish.  I’ve found that most folk appreciate anyone who tries to speak their language!  So try!

I’m back at home now going through my nightly chores.  I have a friend’s little boy watching a movie while she works on Ashley’s hair.  Dad’s have to do whatever it takes to help!

I had a great day today!

I met a new partner, Fidel Guerrero who is one of the Pastors for the Rock Woodstock.

He came from Miami with seven other families to help start outreach to the Latino population in the area.  He heard about me from one of his friends in Marietta that had worked with me on a couple of other projects.  That’s the best thing about longevity in an area, you get to know a lot of people!

I took Fidel to an area that I think really needs a Spanish church.  We ate lunch together and I introduced him to two of my favorite missionaries Marco Solano and Ian North.

Always LOVE hanging out with those guys.

After getting to know each other, we went to visit two missions in the area:  Gwinnett Crossings and The Falls.

Both have given us great space and an open invitation to work in the communities.  Those two complexes represent over 600 Latino families!  I believe Fidel was very impressed with the opportunity!

He wants to partner with a local church and after some thought I took him over to New Beginnings Fellowship with Pastor Reggie Screen.

These guys seem to be made for each other!  They both have a solid heart for outreach! Pray that the Holy Spirit will bind these two brothers together in love and that MANY people will hear the Gospel because of that partnership!

Went over to Azalea to check on my kids.

I hadn’t seen Aylene in a few weeks.  Her Mom brought her little brother for help.  She was very reluctant to let me see her homework.  I knew that she had had a LOT of trouble getting it done in the past so I was leary when she said she could do it all.

The first exercise was a read/comprehension set of questions.  She could not even read the word “day.”  It’s really easy at that point to get frustrated and just give up.  I immediately went back to the basics.

“Do you know your vowels?”

“No, Mr. Tim.”

“Remember a, e, i, o, u?”  She just looked confused.  I knew we were in big trouble.

“Do you know what this letter is?” I pointed to the letter “a.”  She hesitated.  “That’s an ‘a’,” I replied. I usually don’t give them too much time, they just feel really embarrassed.  “Do you know what sound an ‘a’ makes?”  She had no idea.  How can you pass first grade if you don’t know that?

So we went through the long and short sounds of A, and I spelled out some simple words, fat, cat, sat, rat. . . She was somewhat sucessful with that and I laid it on thick how GREAT she was doing.  But in my heart I felt, Lordy mercy.  This is going to take a LOT of time. . .

I explained to her Mom in Spanish that she needs to come every day so we can work on this reading.  You can’t learn too much at one time. Just one small chunk that she can REALLY know is the way to go.

Pray for us as we help the kids.  There isn’t a safety net beneath them.

I was proud of Clinton.  I got him to help Joy.

He acted like a regular little teacher.  It was cute to hear him sounding like me!

Pray for our missionary team!  GREAT things are happening!

Had an unusual lunch today. I met with two of my favorite partners from the Chamblee/Doraville Property Managers Association:  Rita and Charlene.  Didn’t really know what the meeting was for.  Before I got there, I told Jesse, “Watch and see. I bet they ask me to do something for them.”  Sure enough, Charlene said, “We need you to tell George that we’re going to get Rita to replace him as president of our organization!”  I looked at Jesse and he nodded back.

I thought, “This is just great.  I just had one of the worst experiences in my life with one of my partners last weekend, now I have to look a buddy in the face and tell him he’s being fired!  That’s just wonderful.”

Fortunately, George didn’t make the meeting, which is one big reason why we were getting a different president; he often had a hard time juggling a busy schedule with the meetings.

I talked to George on the phone later and everything was cool.  I told him, “Bro, it’s election time again and we’re going to nominate Rita.  Just wanted to make sure that your feelings weren’t hurt.  We want to preserve the relationship.”  He replied, “No problem, Tim.  I’m a big boy, you’re not going to hurt my feelings.  I completely understand!”  Groovy!  Wish my other situation would have gone half that well!

Oh, well.

Took Jesse over to the Guitar Center which is my second favorite store in Atlanta, after Barnes and Noble.  I always enjoy rocking out on great equipment.  Today J was looking at a “looper.”

It records music and then you can overdub over it. 

It’s a great learning tool and I’m sure he’ll get hours of practice and fun out of it!

Then we went over to the mission at Azalea to check on the kids.  We helped Clinton with a research paper which was totally copied from a web site.  I went through the paper with him, it was on Coke.  I asked him, “Do you even know what ‘carbonated’ means?” “Nope,” he replied.  “How about ‘awning’ or ‘chronicle?'”  No, Mr. Tim.  “Lordy, mercy sunshine!  Do you really think your teacher will think you wrote this?”  He didn’t have a good answer for that.

Cathy Wilson came over to the mission to check on Rosena and the baby.  Continues to be drama in the family over that.  Pray for them.

I also saw Bubba at Azalea.  He’s one of my kids that I’ve worked with my entire ministry here in Atlanta. He’s like another son to me.  Always great to see him.  I picked up Ruthie North and J and I and Bubba went out to eat BBQ.  Always a blessing.

After we ate we went back to Huntington Creek to take Ruthie home and bring Ian some food. 

He’s always fun to hang out with.  J and I both dig this sweet couple.

We’re setting up a new ministry for Ruthie North at Willow Branch with one of my best partners, Bennett Ekandem. She’s going to focus on helping the refugee Pastor’s wives learn a new skill and hopefully bring a little money into their family. We’re calling the program “Refugee Beads.” Pray for this new ministry for these leader’s wives. Ruthie will teach them how to make jewelry and learn the basics of starting their own business.

Got home about 9:30pm. Working on email, blog and financial stuff till after 11pm. It’s a weigh of life.

Love it!

Kathy and I just got back into town. 

We spent the last several days up in the Chattanooga, Tennessee area.  It was kind of crummy weather.  That was a bummer.

What was much worse is that I had to make a hard decision about a partner and the way her ministry was going.  It’s a very personal thing.  Hard for people to see situations objectively.  So I lost a lot of sleep while I was on “vacation.”

C’est la vie, baby!

This is the first time I’ve had my iPhone since I’ve been on a trip.  That means work doesn’t really leave me.  But I’ve come to the realization that I LOVE my work and I prefer to always stay caught up.  I can only truly relax when I know I don’t have a bunch of stuff hanging over my head.

I’ve been reading Seth Godin’s book TRIBES this weekend, which I’ve really enjoyed. 

I’m from Kenya, so I totally grok the whole idea of tribes. While we were in Chatta, we visited the aquarium.  My favorite part was meeting up with some Kenyans.  I had a fun time speaking Swahili to them.  It really freaks people out not only when you speak their language, but even more when you speak their tribal language! (Which was Kikuyu!)

The aquarium was awesome!  Besides the Kenyans, I saw penguins, butterflies, seahorses and otters.  And sharks!

Kathy isn’t really a bookstore person.  So on the rainy day I headed over to the mall and hung out for a couple of hours at Barnes and Noble.  Enjoyed reading, listening in on conversations, thinking about how things were marketed and looking at people.


Later that day, I went for a long walk at Reflection Riding, my favorite sanctuary in the area. 

My favorite part was seeing a pair of Pilleated Woodpeckers (think Woody Woodpecker) and calling and answering a Barred Owl.

Had some great food at a couple of new places include Suwadee Thai food and New Alfredos–run by a Pakistani guy from Chicago.

Fun weekend.  Looking forward to repairing relationships with my partner.  Pray for that!

Had a fun day today with Ruthie North and my wingman, Jesse!

We picked up Ruthie North at the mission at Huntington Creek where she lives and shot over to Alpharetta so I could do my seminar with the candidates for the North American Mission Board. 

I was four minutes early for my presentation.  They were getting uptight!

They were a great group.  I always enjoy encouraging them to “Get with the program, baby!” 

I speak to them about the Five Levels of Engagement:  Prayer, Collection, Distribution, Weekly and Full Time workers.

We went to Walmart and KMart to track down supplies Ruthie needed for the craft fair she’s working at this weekend.  Pray that that goes well for her so she can help support her family and the refugees that she’s working with.

Checked on the kids at Azalea.  MAN, they needed a lot of help today!  I was glad that Ruthie was along to shoulder part of the load.  Jesse was his usual patient self.  I dig my son!

We picked up Ian and all four of us went out for BBQ.

Came home and went grocery shopping.  K and I are headed out of town for a few days.  I have really been pushing it to the extreme and I’m just pooped.

Granted, pooped for me is still far more energy than most people!

But still pooped.  Pray for a relaxing weekend with my wife.  It’s supposed to rain the next four days.  Bahd luck.

Jesse helped Ashley today and taught his guitar class at Willow Branch.  So I was lucky enough to have Ian North hang out with me!

First assignment was to go to the ATT store and figure out my cell phone bill.  I expanded our family plan to include Ashley (which I thought had already been done.)  Best never to presuppose anything!  Communication is critical.  Cell phones have doubled my productivity, mainly because I spend so much time in the car.

Ian and I enjoyed a good afternoon together. 

Talked a lot about missions and plans for the future.  Also visited the Barnes and Nobel bookstore.  I picked up Seth Godin’s new book, Tribes.  I think that guy is a marketing genius.

Took Ian back home then went over to Azalea to check on the kids.

Spent a couple of hours talking with Jouvens and Tabias, two of my older guys. 

They’re both in college now.  Jouvens and his brother Ernest and sister Rosena (who just had the baby), continue to have immigration problems.  Listening to Jouvens go over his tale of immigration woes just about made me cry.

Here’s a great kid, hard worker, smart, who because of the system ends up getting the short of the stick over and over again.

He’s still got a positive attitude, but now he’s thinking he may actually have to leave the country and go back to the Bahamas where he was born!

Lord, help Jouvens figure out this problem!  AMEN.

Got home and ran 4 miles.  Took our little dog Sugar with me.  She actually did real well.  That’s a long way on little short legs!

Been working on email for a couple of hours. LOTS of stuff going on .  If I told you ALL the plates I’ve got spinning it’d fill volumes!  And all if it’s GREAT stuff!

Keep praying for us!

Had fun today!

Jesse and I went to FBC Doraville to meet up with Greg Lang, a friend of ours from Perimeter Church.  He’s writing an article on our ministry.

I always enjoy showing people our work.  It’s sort of like taking people on safari through a never explored game park in Africa.  I get the same kind of astonished looks I used to get from tourists in the bush.  I dig it.

We started out in Clarkston.  Had a great lunch with Bennett at Madina, our favorite place to eat roast goat and tibis beef.

Then over to the Clarkston Community Center to meet up with our partners at the Refugee Sewing Society.  Always great to see Cathy, Ruthie and Kelly.

I also gave the Bibles in Somali, Arabic, Nepalese, Swahili and Kinrwanda to my partners at Clarkson International Bible Church.  Its cool to see so many different versions of the same scripture!

From the heart of the refugee community we headed over to Buford Highway to see several stores at the Asian Square.  My only disappointment was that all the duck heads were sold out!

We met up with Brad Hodges, the young adult director from Redeemer Church at Asian Square.

He’s leading a college team to our mission at Azalea this weekend.  Kathy and I will be out of town (PTL!) this weekend, so I wanted to make sure that he knew the lay of the land, met some of the kids and had a key to the mission.  I’m sure it’ll work out great!

While I was working with the kids I saw Miriam, one of the moms.  She told me that Jemillin was having a REALLY big problem.  She’s like a daughter to me so I immediately went over to see what was the problem.  Apparently, her binder which had all her work in it was missing.  She was really crying.  Very sad.  So I told her, “Let’s go check the school, maybe someone found it by now.”  So she and her mom, J and I jumped in the car and headed over to Huntley Hills Middle School.  We talked with one of the ladies in the office who gave us permission to look for the binder.  We went over to the cafeteria and THERE IT WAS!

She was so happy!  I was glad to be able to help out a little bit.

Back to Azalea to help the kids with their homework.  Teaching Freddy how to spell, pet, bet, let, get . . . “Now what’s the middle letter?  How does a ‘t’ sound?”

He’s a sweet kid, but I’m still not convinced he understands this spelling stuff.

Cathy Wilson and her two daughters came to the mission to check on Rosena’s new baby. The father of the baby is being a real butthead. I could tell you all the details, but it only makes me furious. Pray for that family.

Johan, one of my Bengali kids, had a new taxi service! This was a new one on me!

It was fun to have my wing man, Jesse with me today.  He’ll be helping his sister tomorrow.  I hope Ian will keep me from getting lonely!

I get tired of driving around for hours by myself!

This morning Ashley and I went to Glover Baptist Church to share about missions!  Glover is the sponsoring church for Whirlwind Missions, we’ve been partners since the beginning.  It was great to tell our story fellowship with this sweet congregation.

The Vietnamese church sang and had a baptism!

We enjoyed Thai of Norcross–love their coconut soup.
Came home to work on admin stuff and rest.
Kathy should be home this evening around 10pm from S. Carolina!

This morning Ashley went with me to speak at a conference hosted by the Gwinnett Leadership Institute. 

I was told to be there at 10am.  I was scheduled instead to speak at 11:20!  I immediately had a bad attitude.  There was a HUGE number of seminars.  For instance, in my time slot there were TWENTY NINE seminars.  That is complete crazy talk.  They probably had about forty people come to the event in total, everyone else were speakers!  I had three people in my class, plus two volunteers and Ashley.  I had fun with them and I think I taught them something valuable.  I’m sure there were many presenters who had NO ONE come to their class.

I left the conference and went to Huntington Ridge where my partners from Dunwoody Baptist Church hosted an Outreach Event.  There were also volunteers from Iglesia Baptista Belen to help.  It was very well attended and I thought it went great.

Then we went over to Huntington Creek to drop off the canopy I’d purchased for Ian and Ruthie North.  I met up with them at Asian Square then we went back to HC where we had an event with the kids on planting seeds. 

I thought the kids really enjoyed that too.  It was great to see Ruthie’s whole family there.  It was her birthday yesterday!  Pray for her!

Came back home to plow through my email, blogs and check up on Facebook.

Kathy and her sister went to S. Carolina to visit their cousin today.  Pray she’ll have a safe trip!

I had a relaxed day today.

Enjoyed my doves flying around the room.

Worked on financial stuff.

Looking forward to seeing the movie “Watchmen” in a little while.

I’m still amazed at the people I’m connecting with through Facebook!  Long last pals resurfacing.  It’s a beautiful thing, baby!