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.

 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.