Today I had Keith Harrell, one of our partners ride along with me.  We had a fun day!  Of course Jesse was also my wing man!

This morning I met with partners at Clarkston International Bible Church.

Kevin Riley, one of our North American Mission Board missionaries organized a luncheon with the Pastors from the ethnic congregations.  It was fun to get to meet with them!  Thanks to Chic Fil A who helped provide lunch and to Toni Branyon to get that organized!

After our morning meeting I met up with Matt Johns another of our NAMB missionaries. Matt works in the Norcross area.

  Last Fall, with the help of our partners from Perimeter, we started new work at Sturbridge Square apartments off of Howell Bridge.  We met with the manager and her staff and saw the facility again.

  We pray that Matt will be able to help mobilize volunteers in that apartment complex.  We had a great time praying with the staff.

We went by the church at FBC Doraville to check on the mail.

Then over to Azalea to see how my kids were doing.  I promoted one of my youth group as my new Assistant Director for the mission.  Miguel Cruz has been part of my life for thirteen years now.

  I actually baptized him at FBC Doraville.  He’s had some good times and bad times over the years, including being involved with gangs.  He’s turned his life around and seems to be doing great!  I’m glad that he’s willing to help out at the mission.  My other partner at Azalea, Jouvens Mocombe, is in love and working a couple of jobs. Between the two he didn’t really have time to help me out.  So welcome aboard, Miguel!

On my way home I got a call from my partner Cathy Palmer.  Apparently, there was a mix up with when the new beading class was going to start with the Refugee Sewing Society.  Bottom line, I had to make sure that all my partners were working in unison and had the materials they needed to make it happen.  We had a good time talking with Ian and Ruthie and taking them out for Mexican food.

Burn Notice came on TV tonight.  It’s my favorite show.  “Smooth is smooth, baby!”

It was a blessed day!  It’s nearly 1am.  I have to teach a seminar at the North American Mission Board tomorrow morning.

I had fun with one of my favorite partners today, Andrei Palmer.  Plus, Jesse was with me!  Yeah!

I’m trying to help Andrei volunteer over at FBC Atlanta in the food service industry, which is something he’s interested in.  First thing was to teach him how to get around the Marta system (the buses and trains around metro Atlanta.)

A couple of nights ago I spent an hour or so trying to figure out how the buses work in order to get from his apartment on Clairmont over to the church near 285.  I’ll admit it wasn’t the easiest thing to figure out!

I made up a little book for him with the routes and the numbers of the trains/buses.  We followed the route in my car, taking note of each of the marta signs we’d see.  Jesse followed the map with the GPS on my iPhone.  (That thing ROCKS!)

We got out at the stations, saw where each of the buses parked and saw where to get out to walk to the church.

We had a GREAT time meeting the staff at the church and introducing him to Andrei.

The folks at FBA are always super nice.  I think it’ll be a terrific place for him to thrive.

Andrei is also quite an artist! Dig these cars he makes!

After we checked out the church, Jesse rode the buses and trains back to Andrei’s apartment to make 100% sure he can do it by himself.  THANKS TO JESSE it all worked out!

That boy of mine is such a blessing!

While the young men rode the MARTA, I took care of other errands.

I picked up a saxophone and clarinet from Perimeter church.

Also went by Azalea to pick up chairs for an Outreach Event we’re having this weekend at a new mission in Conyers.

Jesse and I also went to look for left handed guitars for two of Jesse’s students he’s teaching in Clarkston.  Not an easy thing to find!  We’ll keep looking.

We had supper tonight with Ian and Ruthie North.  Two of my favorites!

We spent time talking about part of Ruthie’s ministry that revolves around helping another favorite partner Cathy Palmer and her Refugee Sewing Society.

Always good to hang out with friends.

Pray for me.  I’ve had almost constant headaches the last four days.  Bummer.

My Mom, Peggy Cummins, had cataract surgery today. My Dad called me and let me know that it went just fine. Thank you, Lord!

I had a terrific time with some of my favorite partners today.

I picked up Ruthie North and took her over to Vikhyat for Indian food. Mrs. Patel showed Ruthie some of her cooking techniques. It was fun to see Ruthie’s excitement about learning new things.

Mr. Patel is from Nairobi. I always enjoy talking Swahili with him!

We met with Cathy Palmer and her partner Kelly who helps her with the Refugee Sewing Society.

Ruthie shared her testimony and thoughts on how the Sewing group might be even better.  Cathy also talked about her journey getting here.  It was a very moving experience for me to see a partner so happy about her ministry!

The women went to Clarkston to meet with a couple of the refugee women.  Ian (Ruthie’s husband) met up with me at Michaels.  We bought more yarn for the ladies.

We also went to visit with Pastor Phil Kitchin at Clarkston International Bible Church and with Bennett at Willow Branch.

The kids looked like they were really working hard!

Always great to hang out with partners!

I dropped Ian back off at his mission at Huntington Creek and I went to Azalea to check on my kids. I had a bike for Stephanie. She wasn’t at home. The Bengali boys were enjoying the basketball goal I brought over.

I had such fun today.  Not.

One of the things I like the least is preparing financial reports.

I discovered a letter from one of my supporting churches in an envelope where it had been hidden since right before Christmas.  In it I was informed that I needed to turn in an financial report for 2008 plus a budget for 2009. It was due on January 31st!  Yow!

So I went to my treasurer’s house so I could get the Whirlwind checkbook.  I spent hours inputing data from that into an Excel spread sheet.  I keep up with the donation and daily expenses on our visa card, but I don’t input the checks that are written.

Spent about four hours compiling all that information.

I mentioned I had a new Iphone.  I’ve really enjoyed it, but I’ve been working through over 2,000 contacts in my Outlook database!  I had no idea I’d met that many people!  There was some repetition between entries and others that just listed people by their email address=com as a last name.

I’ve probably spent ten hours over the last couple of nights wading through all that stuff.

Can’t say I’m done, but I’m certainly further down the road!

Pray for my tired eyes!

I had such and awesome day!

Kathy, Ashley and I met up with Ian and Ruthie North at New Beginnings Fellowship.


I always enjoy speaking about missions and this congregation seemed to really be interested in Taking the Church, to the People!

The music was terrific and Pastor Reggie Screen did a great job.

Ashley also made a short presentation about doing missions at Kensington.  She was great!

Ileko Mugala and her nephew and niece also came to the service this morning.  We had a talk over lunch about her health ministry in Clarkston.  I’m looking forward to helping her get started.

Ashley and I also had fun shooting the BB gun and slingshot this afternoon.

I didn’t sleep well last night.  Woke up at 4am and couldn’t go back to sleep for hours.

Fantastic weather today!  Reminds me of living in Nakuru, Kenya!  65 and bright blue skies.

My business card scanner didn’t work.  Wouldn’t calibrate properly.  Went to Staples and got my money back.

Ran 4 miles.

Been practicing typing on my Iphone.

Had fun talking to Ashley this evening.

Entered all the donor information for my treasurer tonight.  Took a long time because a lot of new people were added to the list.  Most were from the North American Mission Board who gave money so we could buy Bibles.  I’m still working on that project.  Not the easiest thing in the world to find Bibles for Kirundi or Uzbek speakers!

I’ll be speaking at New Beginnings church tomorrow morning.  Looking forward to that.  Sometimes I don’t sleep well when I know I have to get up early.  I get so fired up!

Peace.

Went to Staples this morning.  I picked up a business card scanner.

I have hundreds of business cards.  Now that I have an IPhone I have space to put all that information.  Groovy.   I’m practicing typing on it with my left thumb.  Go thumb, go!

I had a fun day with Ashley today.

We spent some time shopping for scarfs and shoes at Target.  I always enjoy seeing her find something new she likes!

This evening I hosted Briarcliff Baptist Church who came to have a party for the kids at Azalea Place.

The kids were having an awesome time with all the new bikes.

The team did a craft where they made a paper ring where each link had someone they love.

Who do you love?  Have you told them recently?

We had a great time today hanging out with other partners!

I had some of our team get together to meet with Grant Haynes.  He’s a missionary with Global Frontiers Missions working in Oaxaca, Mexico. He’s looking to relocate with part of his team to Atlanta and work with our international population here. Welcome aboard, Grant!



Ian and Ruthie North, Bill Hickey, Toni Branyon, Bennett Ekandem, Kevin Riley, Ashley and Jesse and Grant and I talked about missions and our work around the community.  It was a lively group and we had a ton of fun!  I look foward to helping Grant get his group plugged in locally.  He does a lot of training with indigenous leaders.  I think that’s an element that would bring great value to our team.

Ashley, Jesse and I went over to Perimeter Mall to the Apple Store.  I needed to get a protective case for my new IPhone.  It’s been fun to start learning all that it can do.

We met Ian and Ruthie and Bill Hickey at Azalea at 4pm.  My nephew Jason Sullivan is the volunteer coordinator for Chris Kids a local non-profit doing a great job with kids.  They had some extra bikes and we enjoyed giving them to the kids at the missions.

I focused on the ones that had been doing particularly well on their school work.  But I also made them promise to share with their friends.  They were SO happy.  Thanks again, Jason!

We helped the kids with their homework and writing Thank You notes for the bikes!

Jesse also taught some of the kids guitar.  He got a small guitar so the kids could use it.  They were rocking out!  Jesse is really great with them.

Still mighty cold in Atlanta.  It was 20 degrees this morning.  Too cold to run.

J and I had a fun time with Derrick Poston, one of my favorite partners today!

He’s the Local Missions Director at First Baptist Atlanta, Dr. Charles Stanley’s church.  We worked together a lot when we had Impact Atlanta in October.  We’re putting together a local missions trip for people to have an immersion experience in the International Village.

Derrick turned out to know a lot about garment fabrication. He was a wealth of information about how we could help the Refugee Sewing Society.  I had no idea he knew about all that stuff!  We’ll get together in a couple of weeks to visit with the refugee ladies and talk with my partner Cathy Palmer.

We also went to the A1 Sewing Machine Company where we bought two serger sewing machines.

They’re a special kind of machine used in making clothes.  The folks were super nice to us and gave us a great deal.  They’ll also set up an instruction time where one of the ladies will teach our refugee women how to use the new equipment.  Excellent!

I also took the plunge into the IPhone world.  Ashley has had one for over a year and it has been awesome.  I’ve had an account with Verizon for years. It occured to me recently that if I dropped my Verizon account and added a line on our family plan with ATT we’d save at leas$50/month!  So they helped me port my number over to my new account, got a new IPhone AND save money!  Talk about a win/win!  I’m into all this new technology and I’m really looking forward to learning how to use it.

Brittney was a big help in getting me set up!

Derrick has an IPhone and he was showing some of the ways he uses his.  It’s an incredible device.

Went to Azalea to check on the kids.  They were all at their houses.  Still freezing cold.  Got down to 53 in my bedroom last night.  14 outside.  Plus the wind . . .  Brutal.

I took Bill Hickey out to eat supper.

Today I had such a great time meeting with new partners from Sunrise Baptist Church. 

I had a briefing with Amanda Nix who is the Outreach Director for the church and Mario Amoretti who is the Youth Director for the Spanish congregation. I was glad Angie Sturbridge and her baby could come too!

We also went for a visit to two of the missions near their church:  Cherokee Courts and Olde Salem. 

It’s always good to visit with old friends and make new ones.

Also went to see another of my favorite partners, Todd Harrison.

  He has some furniture for us.  I took pictures and will figure out who needs it.  Mario said he’d help me transport it since he has a truck.  Excellent!

Spent hours on the phone.  There’s a LOT of stuff going on.  Great stuff!

Ashley ran over a piece of metal at the mission in Kensington.  AAA came over to help her change the tire.  Then over to Tires Plus to get it swapped out.  Glad we have road hazard warranty.  It paid for most of it.  Those big truck tires are pricey.

Super cold tonight.  I feel sorry for the homeless folks living under the bridges.