Kathy and I went to church at Perimeter this morning.  The sermon was on confidence in the Lord.

My favorite part was the “Solid Rock” band made up of 4-6th grade students.  Kids were rockin!

Then we were part of the State of the County address at the church.  Gwinnett is a fantastic county, but we have significant issues to deal with:  sex slaves, school dropouts and high divorce rates.



We enjoyed seeing some of our best partners including Chip Sweeney and Debra Potter.  It’s always fun to hang out with them!

I always enjoy setting up our display and talking to people about our ministry.


Then back up Stone Mountain for K and I.  Super windy. 

Biting cold, expecially up at the top.  We still made it!
We also saw a B17. It circles around Stone Mountain making a loop from Dobbins AFB.

My remote for my car lost a button today.  Weird.  My spare one had dead batteries so I tracked down some new ones and replaced them in both units.

  My main remote still works, you just have to push the button that connected directly to the circuit board.  Kinda weird.

I’ve got some hot peach tea cooking.  Sure smells soothing.  I’m trying to get away from too much caffeine, especially in the evenings.

 This morning I was having trouble with my iPhone syncing with my computer.  I just plugged it in and it worked just fine.  Thank you, Lord.  I also worked on my Powerpoint presentation for FBC Conyers and the FBC Duluth Deacon’s retreat I’m doing next weekend.  Gonna be a busy week.

Also enjoyed working on the Facebook project.  It’s been a hoot to get in contact with old friends again.  It only takes a few minutes to set up a Facebook account and it’s free.  Can’t beat that!

Kathy and I had a fun day today!  We hiked up to the top of Stone Mountain.  It was so beautiful of there!


On the way back down we took a break on a flat section of the rock.  I must have been tired, cuz I crashed out for about 45 minutes.  Definitely got some sun on my face.

We went home to check on Jesse then went over to watch Slumdog Millionaire. 

I thought that was a great movie!  It was all shot in India.  Both K and I have travelled extensively in India.  It was fun to see Mumbai (Bombay) again as well as all the scenes on the train.

Woke up at 5:30 this morning.  Ouch.

Been working on financial stuff.  I’m going to start helping my treasurer more with the record keeping.  It’s a lot of work for someone who’s a volunteer working 70 hours plus a week!  He’ll still have his hand in it in a supervisory role.  Just not nearly as much time.

Set up auto pay stuff on line with several utilities.  I’m amazed how not EVERY company offers that service or that some actually want me to pay extra for it!

I talked with my neighbor today.  I’ve been noticing his truck in the driveway the last couple of weeks.  I thought he might be on vacation.  He told me today that the company he worked for had gone “belly up.”  He’s looking for a job now.  That’s tough.

Went by Staples to pick up some supplies for the mission.  One of my friends there is Edwina.  She usually checks me out when I go there.  She made sure to let me know she wasn’t going to be around for a couple of weeks.  I asked her if that was something good, she shook her head emphatically “no.”  She’s going in for surgery in a week or so.  I let all her customers check out and then had a prayer time with her at her counter.  She seemed to really appreciate that.  Most people do.

It was really cold outside.  Looks great, but still cold.  Frozen birdbath weather.  Tomorrow it’s supposed to be great!

Do you do Facebook?  I had a friend from High School encourage me to set up a profile.  It’s been cool to see the folks that have contacted me.  Check out Facebook Profile.

There aren’t many meetings I enjoy going to.  The Unite meetings are an exception.

I’ve been working in Atlanta for thirteen years now.  Over that time I’ve made a lot of friends, some of them close friends.  Many of them go to the Unite meetings.  So it’s sort of like going to a fraternity meeting with old school chums!


It was great to see my partners from Perimeter and 12 Stone in particular.  The subject of the session today was the sex traffic problem in Atlanta.  Our city is in the top three in America with this problem and in the top ten globally!  A 500 million dollar problem that affects little girls from around the world.  Horrible.

I heard a story from a bust last week in Norcross.  A couple of underage Spanish girls were being kept captive in dog cages!  Unbelievable.  I’m glad that churches are trying to do something about this problem.  Our organization is called Street Grace.  Pray that we can help stop this from happening.

It was great to be with Ashley this morning.  She had on her reporter hat at the Unite meeting.  She’ll be writing a story about the problem for her newspaper at Perimeter College, the Collegian.  I think there are a lot of college students that will be interested in the problem and how they can help.

This afternoon I took Jesse and Kathy with me to Azalea.  I helped Jojuan with his play.  Kathy and Jesse helped the other kids with their homework.

It was fun to see all the kids on their bikes.

This evening we went to a seminar at Perimeter Church for all their ministry partners.  I always think they have stuff for us to learn.

It was fun to go over what motivates people to support ministry.

Steve Anderson did a great job leading the seminar.  He works with some of the largest companies in the world!

Super busy day yesterday.  I was so whipped when I got home I went to sleep at 9:30 pm!  Yow!

Last week I had a meeting with the international pastors at Clarkston International Bible Church. 

Many of the congregations need Bibles.  Thanks to the generosity of the staff at the North American Mission Board, I’ve been able to help buy some Bibles.  This church hosts people from over 50 countries!

Yesterday I went to CIBC for their “Wonderful Wednesday” meeting with the students from Dekalb Tech who meet on the church campus. I met with the Ethiopian Pastor Moges and gave him the Amharic Bibles I had tracked down for them. 

The church members were SO happy to have their own Bible! 

I thought about many of my friends who have four or five Bibles laying on a shelf somewhere collecting dust. What a difference!

Jesse and I took chairs over to Hope Ministry in Decatur .  Pastor Terry Cummings is the leader of that congregation.  He’s a former NBA professional basketball player.  Jesse told me, “I sure felt short.”  Me too, son!  One of their congregation helped us in Conyers last weekend with the outreach at Audobon Brook.  I’m glad to be able to support partners.  They may also be able to host a Burmese congregation in their facility as well, but it’s about 2 miles from Clarkston.  Not sure if that would work out.

I took back a bunch of video equipment that we bought last week.  Just couldn’t do what we needed it for.  In particular it had no external jack for a microphone.  To do a good job you HAVE to have a lav mic that you can plug up to the guy you’re interviewing, plus you need a headphone jack so you can monitor your audion.  So back it went.  Best Buy is great about no hassle returns, except I had to pay a restocking fee on the camera.  Bahd luck.

Went to FBC Doraville to check on my office and see if the computer that I had fixed for Ms. Margie was still working ok.  It was.  PTL.  That thing was a hassle to fix.

Jesse’s class at Willow Branch in Clarkston is starting to grow!  I took him over to a guitar store near Azalea and lo and behold they actually had a left handed guitar!  We got a lefty guitar and a regular guitar with bags for a great price. 

The manager was interested in Jesse’s class since he’s teaching refugees.  I think that’s one reason they gave us such a discount.

J and I had two computers over to my partner Virginia Cosgrove.  She has a great ministry with the families living at Pearl Lane apartments.  I was glad to be able to help her out.

Checked on the kids at Azalea.  Miguel wasn’t there to have the mission open.  That was disappointing.  His mom said “He probably forgot.”  You forget on your first day?  We’ll see how it goes.  Jouvens was there with his girlfriend Makayla. 

They were both a big help.

I focused on working with Tabias who is like a son to me. I’ve been like a father to him for thirteen years now. He’s one of our success stories. Stayed out of trouble, in school, loves Jesus! He needed help on a presentation he’s doing on diabetes. He was pretty scared about it.
Did you know that the #1 fear of people is “Public Speaking?” I think he’ll do a great job on his presentation.

Kathy was sick yesterday.  She’s feeling better this morning and is on her way to CIBC to work with the refugee babies.  Last night I fell asleep in her arms watching the Championship Dog  Show in NYC.  Didn’t dream of dogs.

This morning I picked up Andrei to learn more about Atlanta. 

We drove over to the Marta station at Lenox.  Had fun walking around the area.  Visited Phipps Mall.  Place looked like a palace! 

At Northlake Mall they have new Saturns parked in the lobby.  At Phipps they had Bentleys and Aston Martins. 

The Bentley was priced at $225,000!  Yow!
I liked the sculpture on exhibit too.

Beautiful cirrus clouds this morning.

Had lunch with Ian and Ruthie North and Jason Sullivan, my partner from Chris Kids.  It was good to get to visit with these youngsters!

Good meeting with Tom Frost and Eduardo Zamora.  I wanted the Norths to get to know their partners at the other Huntington property.  I think they’re going to be able to help each other a lot!

Went over to Ian’s house to give him my video gear and pick up some stuff I’m going to return to Best Buy.

Saw the kids at Azalea.  Checked on my new leadership in the area, Miguel Cruz!  I think that’s going to work out great!

This morning I woke up thinking I’d be with a pastor friend of mine from Conyers all day long.  He called to let me know he’d have to reschedule because of a death in his congregation.

Instead I did lunch with Cathy, Kelly and Ruthie–the leaders of the Refugee Sewing Society.  Jesse and I also met with Chuck Vogt one of the leaders from In Town Community Church interested in missions.

It was fun to help figure out how the RSS will work.  And I really do think it’ll work!

Beginnings are always the hardest.  If the foundations aren’t set up correctly, the end result can be a disaster.  I’m proud that the women are being especially careful as the ministry progresses.

Also enjoyed seeing the Palmers new house.  Lots of construction going on there.  Reminded me of all the work that was done on our house and how long it took to get it all done—5 months!

Almost exactly a year since my son had his breakdown.  It’s wonderful to see how God is using him now!

In my One Year Bible today I had a note that my Aunt Betty Cummins (Cathy Palmer’s mother) died 5 years ago today. 

Sure do miss her!  I know she’d be SO proud of what her daughter is doing now! (Although being a best selling author ain’t bad!)

Started a Face Book page last week.  I can’t believe how these friends from way back in High School day have been contacting me!  What a blast from the past!  One of my dearest friends started a page called the Sycamore Tree which was what our Youth House was called at our church at FBC Georgetown.  Good days.  Very formative for me!

Had a great visit with my treasurer Jon Paul tonight.  That guy is always an inspiration to me.  My favorite line from him is, “The only difference between my job and working with Whirlwind is 4 zeros at the end!)  He deals with big bucks!  Actually, he’s working with servers, systems and stuff WAY to complicated for me to figure out.

Whenever I get tired, I think of the hours that Jon works and I feel like I’ve got it pretty good!

Kathy is sick.  Running a fever. 

She’s not good at being sick.  “I wanted to ride around the mountain today.”  “Honey, you’re sick.  You’re not supposed to ride 5 miles when you’re sick.”  “I know . . . ”  Then she gets this pouty look on her face like she’s so disappointed.  Pray for her.

We enjoyed a family get together of Kathy’s sister Ann and her brother Bill and their families today.  We went to FBC Mountain Park where they are going through the 40 Days of Purpose by Rick Warren. 

Today Bob Bochat spoke on Transformation.  Hard to think about us being just like Jesus!

After church we took Ann and her family out to Asian Buffet.  It’s always fun to get the family together.

I was really tired this afternoon.  Went to sleep for a short nap.  Woke up an hour and a half later!  I’ve been staying up till 1am working the last few nights.  I get to thinking about things I want to do and it’s hard to make my brain suddenly slow down and crash.

I’ve been drinking herbal teas in the evening to eliminate all the caffeine.  Doesn’t seem to make much difference.

K and I walked three miles to the Mountain Park Park. (It’s such a great park they say it twice!) We took our sweet ol’ Sugar dawg with us. 

She always has fun on that little jaunt!

I’m the key note speaker for First Baptist Conyers next weekend for their missions conference.  I’ve been thinking a lot about what I want to say for that. Plus I’m one the speakers for the Deacons retreat the following weekend for FBC Duluth.  I’ll be talking on cultures and languages. 

Another thing that keeps me up at night pondering.

I liked these cirro stratus clouds this afternoon. Looked like whipped frosting.

My mom Peggy Cummins in Georgetown has been having problems with her knee.  She hurt it over Christmas when we were there.  Pray for her healing!  She had cataract surgery this week. It went great!

Love!

Love is in the air!

I had a great time at Huntington Ridge with a team from Dunwoody Baptist Church and our mission directors Eduardo and Sheila Zamora.

The kids from DBC made 150 bags of love for Valentines.

We had fun passing them out to the families in the neighborhood.  El dia de lo Enamorado. I think that’s right!

From Huntington Ridge I went over to Chamblee to check on Ian and Ruthie North.  I thought they were going to go to Alpharetta Sunday evening to represent Refugee Sewing Society.  I wanted to make sure they had a display ready for their table so we went to Office Depot to pick up a couple of display fold outs, more ink for their printer and plenty of photo paper.

Ian is a really creative guy and loves movies!  I’m looking forward to mentoring him in the ins and outs of video production.  We picked up the gear he’ll need for the assignment.  It’s still amazing to me how you can set up your own production studio for so little money!  The line between consumer and pro grade has really blurred.  The tiny little camcorder we picked up has better definition than the camera I used to shoot with for WTOC!

After taking the Norths back home I went to Conyers to help with the outreach event at our new mission at Audubon Brook.

Toni Branyon and Joe Scott did a great job organizing the event!

We had an awesome time!

It’s fun to see new work get started!

I had fun working with my group of candidates from the North American Mission Board this morning.  They’re always a lively bunch.

After NAMB I went by Joann’s to pick up more yarn and needles for the ladies.  Hard to feel manly when pushing a cart full of pink yarn. Women would look at me, the cart bulging with yarn and their eyebrows would go up.  “That’s a lotta yarn.”  “Yep,” I’d say in the deepest voice I could muster.

This afternoon I went to Clarkston to check on Ruthie North and her mom Charlene. 

They had their first day of teaching bead work with the Refugee Sewing Society.  Such a beautiful group.  I love going to Clarkston!  The whole world has come to us!
I had a fun visit with a new friend from Burundi. I always enjoy speaking Swahili!

Ran 4 miles.  My left calf was killing me.  Weird.  Still did it.  Needed the stress relief.