Ashley and I had a fun time briefing our teams from Shades Mountain, Al and Central from Warner Robbins, GA this morning.

After our briefing we took them on a Cultural Safari to the Buford Highway Farmers Market.

Then on to the missions!




We worked on the newsletters with the help of the team from Central BC.

Came home to watch the first part of Fury with Kathy. I brought her home some spaghetti that the team gave me. Delicious.

Admin duties now. Those include memorizing all the names of the kids we’re working with.

Stayed up last night editing video and getting them on line on YouTube.

Rested this morning. Stayed in bed about 11 hours. Still fighting a upper respiratory infection..

Met up with our team from Shades Mountain Baptist Church from Birmingham, AL! Had a great briefing time with Ashley.

Then took them to Highland Knoll, Courtland Club and Azalea Place to work with the kids.

Got them back to their housing at Crossroads Baptist Church before coming home.

Enjoyed watching St. Vincent with K this evening.

I thought this was the skinniest truck I’ve ever seen.

Going to go to sleep early to try and fight this cough and cold.

Ashley and I had a great time briefing our teams from Dunwoody Baptist Church and Wade BC from Mississippi!

Took them on a tour of the Buford Highway Farmers Market.

Then on to eight different missions in the International Village.




Our team from Mississippi covered another four missions. And we had a team at Azalea from the Atlanta Chinese Christian Church North. 12 missions! LOTS of outreach!

The Wade BC team also did a concert at the Buford Highway Farmers Market and at Highland Knoll.




Mighty tired now!

Admin duties and rest.

Had a good day of rest. Slept many hours. I’m still having upper respiratory issues with coughing, so I’m glad to get an off day.

Took the PT Cruiser in for an oil change and check up. Everything looks good!

Had lunch and supper with Kathy. That’s always good! Haven’t had much private time with her lately. Been working too much.

It’s supposed to drop back down to 28 tomorrow night. Yow! Brought my plants inside.


Looking forward to watching Birdman this evening with K.

The new QT continues to make progress. All the concrete is poured now. Signage up.

I thought this was funny.

This morning Ashley and I did a presentation at Providence Christian Academy for our good friend Dr. Carl Barrington.

It was a good time of talking about missions.

Ash and I had breakfast together after the time at Providence.

I came home to rest. We had to be at PCA at 7:50am. I’m not much of an early riser.

I worked on my new book, The Right Way to Pray. Here’s a picture of Jesus from it.

Went to the Dollar Tree to pick up some balls for the outreach on Saturday.

Then to CD Tower to pick up more Joss paper for the teams coming into town.

Met up with Ashley at Dunwoody Baptist Church for the funeral of Bayo.

This picture is before the service. Ash and I were ok then.

We both cried a lot. He was one of our favorite people.

Had a late supper, then came home to be with Kathy. We are watching the Story of Mankind. It’s pretty good.

Admin duties now and rest. Tomorrow, I actually have a day off. Whoa!

The tulips in my garden are starting to bloom. Yeah, baby!

Here is one of my new little Pink Magnolia trees.

Stayed up late Tuesday evening working on my newsletter. Got it produced and sent to our partners at the Atlanta Metro Baptist Association.

It’s the story of Bayo, my friend who died last Friday. Sad. We’ll be going to the funeral Thursday afternoon.

Called my mortgage people. I’m setting up an accelerated schedule of payments. Took about an hour to deal with all the details.

Spent some time repairing my shoulder bag. I’ve had that bag at least eight years. I’m always fixing it. I reckon that’s the African in me.

Met up with Ashley for lunch.


We tried a new place called Little Cuba. Good.

While we were there, I saw a friend of mine recognized: Gideon Levy.

He is the owner and big boss of about 11 properties where we have work. As I often say, “The most important thing that happens is rarely what I plan.” Certainly true in this case!

Then went by the Buford Highway Farmers Market to make sure we were ok for bringing a choir there this weekend.

Went by the Dollar Tree to pick up supplies for the teams this weekend.

Here’s what’s in the block party bag. Still missing two balls. We had bought all their big balls last weekend.

We will have about 120 people in town on Saturday. Ash and I went by eleven different properties to verify with the managers the team was coming. Good times!

Then to Azalea to help the kids with their homework.


One of our volunteers brought several other kids to help. They all enjoyed playing with my kids.

Looking forward to spending time with K this evening.

I have to be at Providence Christian Academy at 7:50 am tomorrow. That’s pretty early! We always enjoy speaking to those kids. Ash and I hope to mobilize them. We’ll see what happens.

I got some really good news today! But it’s a secret. . . .

I love their art!

Worked on bills and sending letters/dvds to teams.


Went for a 5.04 mile run this morning. Beautiful weather and gorgeous trees!

Soon we’ll be getting lots of pine tree pollen.

Yesterday, I collected more plastic eggs from the Dollar Tree to give as an award to our teams that work with. Today, I painted about 50 of them GOLD. That should last us for a while! Clean off the stickers. Line them up. Shoot ’em!

Went to Walmart to pick up some supplies for the mission. Also got three new Pink Magnolia trees to plant. My favorite tree.

Took a brief nap before going to the mission to work with the kids. Glad to have Miles there too!

Enjoyed Han il Kwan Korean food with Ashley, Miles and Jesse.

Home now to spend time with Kathy and work on admin duties. Watched Super Nanny and Castle with K.

Hmmmmm.

Sweet love note from one of the kids at the church I was at this weekend.

Last night I got home around 10:30pm. I actually slept over 8 hours straight. Wow!

Got up and uploaded pictures from the weekend with Cross Pointe and Roopville Road Baptist Church.

Once the blog was caught up, I started editing video. Got that finished and processed.

I found the charger that one of the team members needed from the Mississippi group. I packaged it up, and took it to the Post Office to mail.

Uploaded to YouTube. Now working on burning a dvd of the project to send to the church.

Spent a couple of hours going from one Dollar Tree store to another.

I think I visited five in all. One of the things we do with the teams is show them my enormous Elephant Bird egg. I tell they how they need to have great EGGspectations and EGGcellent effort!

At the end of our week together, Ashley and I present the Golden Egg of EGGcellence. I’ve got a bunch of these plastic eggs now.

I paint them gold and Ashley writes a note on them. It becomes a trophy for their team and helps them to remember to pray for us and hopefully come back.

I’m always coming up with some crazy idea to make the Whirlwind Missions experience even better!

Went to Huntington Terraces this afternoon to share with the kids at the mission what had happened to Bayo.

The Spanish Pastor who we’ve been working with was there to talk to the families. I was able to share with the volunteers how much we loved Bayo. I was glad Raul was there too.

Went by my office to drop of the supplies I’d used for the weekend.

Then went to the mission to work with the kids.

Enjoyed supper with Jesse.

Kathy and I watched the Theory of Everything this evening.

Admin duties now.

Beautiful spring trees!

I love raptors.

Saturday, Ashley and I had a fun time briefing our team from Crosspointe Church!


We had a great time of dedication with these awesome families!

In our prayer time, I talk about the importance of our prayers being EXACT. I have everyone cross their two index fingers in the form of an X. We saw these con trails when we went outside. It was like a verification from the Lord!

Then to the Buford Highway Farmers Market for our Cultural Safari and outreach.

Over to Azalea to work with the kids. Here’s what Ashley and I picked up for the party.

Then straight to Carrolton to meet with the folks at Roopville Road Baptist Church.

We had a fun missions fair on Saturday evening.

I stayed with the Jackson family. They have a beautiful house out in the country.

Sunday morning I spoke to a variety of people from their church during the SS class time.

Terrific worship service.

I was interviewed too and was my usual calm, sedate self.

Ashley and Kathy joined me in the evening to speak to the Youth group. Good time.

Got home Sunday night around 10:30pm. Pretty much went straight to bed. I actually slept all the way through the night. Can’t remember the last time I’d done that! I’ve been really worn out.

I got really sad news on Friday that my good friend Bayo Otiti had died. I’m still grieving. His memorial service will be held Thursday.

This afternoon I plan on meeting with the kids at the Terraces to let them know what happened. Very sad.

A little over 1/2″ of rain yesterday.

Sad news this morning. I got various texts and voice mail that my dear brother Bayo Otiti had died this morning.

I still don’t have the exact cause, but I think it was probably a complication due to the surgery he had related to his eye. I know he’s in a better place. I felt happy that his last years working with us were the “happiest in my life.” It’s great to see someone enjoy ministry as much as he did. And when his wife came to join him in ministry his life really seemed to be complete.

Met up with Ashley and Jesse for lunch.

I bought Ashley a piece of cake to take home.

Always good. We went to the Dollar Tree to pick up supplies for the Outreach Event with Crosspoint church tomorrow.

I love my children!

Then went to Roopville Road Baptist Church this evening for the initial night of the conference.


It’s about a hour and a half away from my house. Pretty long drive. Good night and lots of good contacts.

Good to meet Dan Dockery, he’s the Associational Missionary.

Haven’t felt well today. Been coughing. Voice is really rough. Today marks 45 days straight of work with two days off. Those two days I was sick and had a bad back.

Going to rest early this evening.

We have to meet the team at 9:30am tomorrow morning. Briefing and outreach, then drive back to Roopville for the conference Saturday. I’ll spend the night at a family’s house tomorrow, that’s always kind of marginal sleeping. Then multiple services on Sunday including Sunday evening. Hardly a restful time.

Always something interesting to see.

Close parking may be my only perk.