I spent most of this morning with a chainsaw! I’ve had some dead trees that I needed to take out. I cut them down, sawed them into pieces and put them in my back yard to decompose. WOW was that a lot of work!

I did that while I was waiting for the plumber to show up. One of those three hour window kind of things.

They did a great job! And fast too! They had to drill a hole through the joist and insert the new copper pipe through the hole, then connect the two ends with the existing pipes. I was right that the copper touching the galvanized aluminum created a chemical reaction that ate through the pipe. Sure am glad to have that taken care of!

Jesse and I went by the bank and Lowes to take care of business before going to Azalea to help with the kids. Always fun!

Came home to start my home work. Financial report due to my treasurer tomorrow.

Still collecting stuff for the events on Saturday.

I’m sure my back will be sore. Load up on Tylenol!

Jesse started driving again today! I know many grown ups that are petrified of driving in Atlanta. That’s some of the hardest traffic to negotiate in the world! So I reckon after he’s finished learning here, he’s ready to drive ANYWHERE! He did a great job. I’m glad not to have to always drive, although I’m not allowed to talk on the phone, so that’s kind of a bummer.

We met up with Bayo at Huntington Terraces.

We had a camera for him and his new display that I created. He loved it! Also met up with Ian North and Dave Park. We had a good talk about ministry and opportunities here in the International Village.

Went by the church to check on the mail.

Then over to Azalea to help the kids. BIG group there today!

Always good to see some of my “old” guys around too!

Markol Allen, one of my partners from First Baptist Atlanta was there to help.

He worked at the mission this summer. The kids really love him. Me too!

Also had a new friend from Bangladesh come to meet with me. I’m helping him with his English. He’s a fiance of a friend of mine.

J drove us home in heavy traffic.

Ran 4 miles. Now it’s time for homework!

Beautiful wispy cirrus clouds today. I love winter clouds.

Most of my morning was spent working on the new display for Bayo’s ministry.

Took several hours to get it all done. I think he’ll be happy with it.

The power guys were putting up a HUGE pole today. Cool!

Jesse is driving again. Now I’m the wingman! He’s getting ready for his drivers test.

Ashley’s car had a dead batter today. Probably an alternator problem. Always something. Had to get it towed.

The pin hole leak in one of my hot water lines is still dripping. Still vacuuming it up. Plumber can get to us on Wednesday.

Mowed the yard for nearly two hours today. Counts as my work out.

Went to Willow Branch with Jesse. Great to see my partners from Grace Fellowship church working!
We helped Aziz with the song he’s writing. I’m helping him get a standard form. Teaching him about line length, verse, chorus, bridge kind of stuff.

Played the guitar for about 2 hours. My fingertips on my left hand feel weird typing.

Season premier of Lie to Me. My favorite show. Also a fan of Castle. Like those?

Got up early this morning and rode to Heritage Hills Baptist Church in Conyers with Ashley and Kathy.

We had a fun time with the kids of the church.

Ashley gave the children’s sermon during church.

I thought it went really well!

Came home to rest.

Still drying up water. On close inspection I found a hot water line that has developed a pin hole leak where it was touching the AC unit. That’s what’s been generating the couple of gallons a day. I’ve got a call in to my plumber. Always something.

Went up on the roof to clear debris from the gutters from the last downpour.

Went for a 4 mile run. Beautiful weather!

Tonight my goal is to work on the new missions displays for our ministry to replace the ones that were destroyed by the flood.

We finished writing all the newsletters. Always good to get that job done! Takes us about 10 hours a month.

Last night I spent some time thinking about water in my basement. For the last two days, I’ve still been sucking up about three to five gallons of water a day! I kept asking myself, how is that possible–since it wasn’t raining. It occurred to me that perhaps it wasn’t water seeping in but an AC problem.

I dried everything up, and sure enough it looked like water was coming from the bottom of my AC unit.

Many of you know that for years I worked in construction. One of the trades I studied was AC.

I remembered time when the unit would freeze up and then cause a big mess. So the today I’ve had a fan on it to try and get it to melt.

Hopefully, after it’s totally dry, I can turn it on again and it won’t have the water issue. Pray for that!

We got torrential rain again today! Wow! The good news is that all the adjustments I made to the drains, plus putting plastic sheeting around the area where I thought the water was entering the foundation seemed to have work. PTL!

Most of my day has been spent working on newsletters. 238 to write this month. Sure was glad I had Ashley to help me!

Got almost all of them in the mail on time.

I mentioned that the flooding messed up my displays, so I also went to Staples to pick up two new display boards. One I’ll also make for Bayo Otiti, one of our new missionaries. He’s not to adept at the computer yet, but he’s learning!

Tomorrow morning we get up early to got to Heritage Hills BC to speak to the kids. Ashley still isn’t feeling well, but she’s better! Thanks for your prayers for that!

The best news is that Kathy and Jesse got back from Columbia, SC where they plus her brother and sister David and Ruth went to visit their Uncle Jack & Aunt Bertie who’s in the hospital. Pray for her too!

This morning I had a restful time at Stone Mountain. Floated around in the pool and ran 4 miles on the elliptical treadmill. Groovy!

This afternoon Ashley and I went to speak at a missions conference at Heritage Hills Baptist Church in Conyers. Great church!

We enjoyed talking to the kids. We’ll get to talk to all the children on Sunday.

I like to do kids groups because the really do pray for us!

Kathy and Jesse took a road trip to S. Carolina today. They went with her brother David and sister Ruth to visit her Uncle Jack and Aunt Bertie. They’ve been having some health challenges. I’m glad they were able to go!

I’ll finish off the evening working on my article for the newsletter.

Always something to do!

Did have some bad news. All the flooding in my basement messed up my displays for the missions conferences. Sad. They were an archive of our work.

This afternoon Jesse and I went to Durant at Sugarloaf to check out the possibility of starting a new mission at that complex. The manager there is a great friend and believer. As soon as she took over the new property she contacted us. The best news is that our partner at Grace Fellowship has said they’d be willing to help us once a week. PTL for that!

We went over to Bayo’s house to check on the flooding situation. They guys got the carpet out of the second big room. It doesn’t smell quiet as bad. Amen! The team worked with the kids outside.

Great attitude for Kathy and her son Truett!

Bayo also needed a picture for his church which is supporting his ministry.

Then over to Azalea to help the kids with their homework and have them help us with the labeling!

It’s always great to see my young men when they come to visit. I’ve worked with these guys for nearly 14 years now. They are a real blessing to me!

Came home. Ran 4 miles.

Today is the 40th day of my diet. I was inspired by my doctor Pat Barrington. I lost 14 pounds in that time. No sweets. Lots of fruits of vegetables and exercised every day. Not complicated. I’m extending it for another 24 days to get down to my goal weight of 168.

Working on the newsletter now.

Ashley and I have a missions conference at Heritage Hills in Conyers this weekend. It starts tomorrow. So much for my day off. Ashley isn’t feeling well. She was running a temp today. She’s not as hot now. Pray for her!

Jesse and I went to the Post Office today to pick up stamps for the newsletter. I worked on getting all the labels ready for the kids to help us with the envelope.

Then we went out to Marietta to sign the current lease for our apartment mission at Concept 21–Delk. The coolest part about it is that the lady who helped us is African. I asked her where she was from. “Kenya!” I immediately went into my Swahili greetings which she was amazed by. Then I guessed her tribe: Kikuyu and said a few words in her tribal language. Talk about a freak out! I get a kick out of doing that!

Doubt there’s too many white guys in Atlanta that could pull that off!

Then over to the office to check on the mail and the plants.

Next was to Huntington Terraces to see Bayo and check on the flooding he endured. What a mess! The good news is that they’ll replace all the old carpet, which was horrible. It all works out.

Bayo’s long term plan is to return back to Nigeria to set up an orphanage. I’m helping him get that done. J set up a new email account with gmail: OrphanSafe @gmail.com. J also set up a blog account and a Picasa account. Today I taught him how to get the photos off his SD card for his camera, put it onto his computer, and upload to Picasa. It’s kind of intimidating, lots of information. Better to have several sessions with him so he can digest it.

Then to Azalea to help the kids with their homework. I spent most of my time with Shimanto doing ionic and covalent bonding stuff. Into that?

Went by the Aquarium Warehouse this evening. Super cool. They even had sharks! It’s located very near to Azalea. I’ll probably take of few kids over there to check it out. The owner is a great guy and very friendly.

Also stopped at Best Buy. Bayo’s camera sounds horrible when the lens retracts. Unfortunately, I didn’t buy the warranty. It still works, just sounds bad.

Horrific traffic on the way home on 78. Brutal.

I’ll probably work out on weights later tonight. Stressed.

Had an awesome morning! I got to eat lunch with all three of my brothers here in Atlanta! Tito & Lester Ruiz, & Marco Solano. Plus Jesse!

We talked a lot about the flooding at his church. Bummer. Seems like they didn’t have insurance for historic flooding.

They have lots of options now. I was glad to talk with them about it.

Then over to IdleWylde with Marco to check out the new, and fanciest, mission we have.

Incredible facilities that we have been asked to administer!

We came on and I worked on the gutters around the house. Some had gotten clogged by all the debris. Used a power hose to flush all that stuff down.

Went for a four mile run.

Got back and went to the Yellow River by our house that is in flood stage.

Incredible! The power of water!

Tore up Brown Lee road near our house.

Not everything survived.

Great day!

This morning I stepped out of my bed and into a puddle of water. Never a good thing.

Tremendous rain storms last night. I’ve bailed over 50 gallons of water from the basement.

I reworked some of the drainage downspouts which has helped.

While I was chopping and hoeing the downspouts into position, dad gum yellow jacket stung me. My right foot is pretty swollen.

I adapted our wet dry vac and it’s a lot better than drying it up with towels!

I just can’t believe how much rain we’ve had. Actually tore up parts of the road near our house.

They closed Highway 78 because of a land slide which covered the road. Incredible.

J and I planned to go to Willow Branch this afternoon. The weather made that impossible.

What a day!