This morning I packed some palms to take to the church and rammed one of the sharp points in my eye. Really hurt. It’s bothering me now as I type.

Ashley and I did our briefing with the team on Islam and Hinduism.

Then took them to Al Madina.

And Global Mall.

After lunch at the church, we took them to China Town.



Then to the missions to work with the kids. They’re doing a great job.




Got home late.

Admin duties now. Hard.

Worried about making payroll again. Hate this. We have a special edition going out to our supporters tomorrow to consider giving part of their refund to help our ministry. I hope the response is positive!

I thought this was bizarre.

Blast from the past.

Ashley and I had a wonderful time with our team from Brookhaven Baptist Church in Mississippi!

After sharing with them, we took them on a Cultural Safari to the Buford Highway Farmers Market. Always something fun to see!



Back to the church for lunch and a second briefing on how to work with the kids at the mission and about Buddhism.

Then on to Asian Square!


And to four missions in our area. The kids did a wonderful job!



Admin duties now.

Filled out some tax forms.

Sent off a DVD to Chestnut Mountain.

Working on a special fund raising letter.

Uploading pictures.

K and I watched the season finale of Suits.

Do you like the time change? I like it light later, but it’s hard to get up!

Rested this morning. My voice was shot after being with the teams all day long Saturday. Tried to be silent as much as possible.

Went to the Dollar Tree to pick up some supplies for the speaking engagement this evening. I went to get markers, index cards and some boxes to put them in after the folks make their commitments. Also got some magnets to put on the back of the cards we’re sending our supporters and some sticky notes that we can use as name tags. Think that’s going to work out great.

Also picked up the gold spray paint at Walmart.

I found some fairly large eggs that I painted gold this afternoon. Had to take the labels off them first.

We plan on giving them out as a small gift of their Eggcellent achievements. I think it’ll be a fun piece of the week.

Collected my gear and drove to Griffin, GA–about 150 miles round trip. I look forward to working with Carver Baptist Church in the future. They gave me a very warm reception.



I’m sure I was the wildest thing they’ve seen in a long time.

I wore my gold kurta. Groovy.

Home now to work on admin duties and go to sleep early. I’m still not feeling that well. My voice was ok, but still a bit rough. I had a good wireless microphone so I didn’t have to strain too much.

Tomorrow I have to get up at 8:30am which is like 7:30am. That’s not groovy. I’m sure I’ll be fine.

My tulips are starting to poke out.

I loved this daffodil.

Ashley and I had a fantastic time with our partners from Chestnut Mountain Church in Gainesville, GA today!

We enjoyed briefing our teams on how to do the work at the missions and how to interact with people at the Buford Highway Farmers Market.


Also had a terrific prayer time and dedication service. Signing the “Landing Pad.”

Then off to the Farmers Market.

Ate lunch at Plaza Fiesta.

Then on to the missions! Perfect weather! PTL!

Came home to work on admin duties.

Looking forward to a relaxing night with Kathy.

My voice is tired. I get SO wound up when I have a team in town.

I’ll be preaching at Carver Road BC in Griffin, GA Sunday evening.

Don’t forget to set your clocks ahead one hour!

Rainbows in my kitchen.

Spent a lot of time on Friday making phone calls.

I’m setting up the lodging for a new family at one of our missions: Southern Trace. The boss of all the complexes called me needing information as to what was going on and also to request proof of insurance.

Got on the phone to the Zamoras who are supporting this new family, to tell them what needed to happen and that our ministry would provide the liability coverage for the complex.

Talked to two managers to give them the number of our insurance rep so they could request the proof of coverage.

Also spent time with my tax man going over some questions about our return. Got all that straightened out. Good to get that going.

Wrote a special edition of our Outreach Update aimed at fund raising. I call it reFUND MISSIONS. I call for using part of your tax return money to cover our massive insurance bills. Every year insurance accounts for $37,080.00. Yow!

Went through the new promotion flyer that Ashley is working on. Tweaked a few things and added some ideas. She’s VERY good at this stuff.

Dropped off the Financial Report that Ashley generates to our Treasurer’s house.

Went for a 5.08 mile run, even though I wasn’t feeling super groovy.

I felt like I needed some exercise. Always something beautiful to see.

Watched African Cats with K that evening. Jesse came by to see us. I went to sleep at 9:30pm, which is very unusual for me.

Crashed early because I knew I needed to get up by 8am on Saturday.

Today is the five year anniversary of my podcast Verbal Surgery! I’ve recorded over 300 episodes and have had over 50,000 downloads! My twitter feed is also part of the VS project. Over 6,000 proverbs and over 80,000 followers. I think it’s some of my best work.Fun!

I had a fun morning and lunch with Pastor Ben Lehman. I’ve enjoyed going to his church and listening to him preach. He’s one of the few people I think is as intense as me!

I had a list of ideas for outreach for him. The President of my Board suggested that I help a local church with outreach as a bivocational position. This works even better as they gave me a large donation to help me with finances and I can help them in between the odd work schedule that I have.

Filled up with gas.

Met up with Ashley in the International Village.

We did all the shopping for the outreach with Chestnut Mountain Church this Saturday. While we’re in the Dollar Tree, we split up the goodies into 5 bags for the teams to take with them. Each has 36 drinks, 2 packs of cookies, a pack of sidewalk chalk, two packs of Easter eggs, a pack of permanent markers, a coloring book, big box of crayons, three pack of bubbles and a long jump rope (that I’ll get tomorrow.)

I came up with an idea for the craft and the story. We shop at the Dollar Tree and see what they have that can be used. Lots of Easter egg stuff. So the kids will decorate an egg for themselves. We’ll talk about how everyone is EGGceptional and EGGcellent! And how God can change just a little egg into a beautiful, new creation!

Then to work at the mission with the kids. Always fun.

We had to leave a little early tonight because Kathy and I had a meeting with a lawyer at our house to sign the final papers for our house refinancing!

Our interest rate is now down to 4% which is HALF what it was. I’m pretty excited about that.

Ashley and Miles came over to sign the paper as a witness.

Kathy and I both are feeling a little bit under the weather. Stuffy nose, scratchy throat and tired. Early to bed!

Admin duties now.

I like these big vultures.

Tow truck towing a tow truck.

Got up early to go see my doctor this morning.

A month ago, when I had such a terrible back injury, I also had my annual physical. I came up with a trace of blood in my urine. Came back today to verify that everything is ok. It is! Yeah!

My blood pressure was a little high. Probably due to my stress about the urine situation. Usually it’s perfect.

Went to the Post Office to pick up a package for Jesse.

Rested about 30 minutes in the parking lot. I was super tired.

Went to the Mall of Georgia on my way to recon Gainesville. I got a surprise for my wife, some Orange and Ginger body lotion she likes. You have to be mighty manly to walk around the mall carrying a bag like this.

I liked this horse in front of PF Changs.

I thought this was weird, however.

I always love walking around book stores.

I liked this quote.

I went to QT to get some coffee. While I was in the bathroom this guy tried to get a paper towel. He waved his hands under it and it didn’t do anything. He walked out grumbling about being “out of towels.”

You had to do it manually. We’re too used to using this type.

I liked this.

I got the newest Yoda while I was at Barnes and Noble.

Picked up my friend Loren Hildebrandt at Chestnut Mountain Baptist Church.



We visited with a local pastor near one of the missions we are trying to start.

I had a great visit with the manager Maria, at the complex. She is getting ready to move to another complex Glen Cove.


We went there to meet the Regional Manager and scope out the property. Looks like we’re good to go for an Outreach Event there on April 12th. Always great to start new work!

I spoke to the congregation this evening.

Fired them up about coming. We gained another 20 people who plan to come this Saturday. AMEN!


Finally got home around 9:30pm. Super tired again. Stopped up nose. Took some nose drops to help me sleep ok.

Admin duties now and rest.

Beautiful sunset.

Didn’t sleep well last night. I went to sleep early, but my mind was zooming with ideas about outreach and plans for fund raising. All good. My creativity overwhelms me sometimes.

This morning I took care of paying bills. Also sent of a dvd to our team from last weekend.

Got our insurance cards and registration for the PT Cruiser.

Wrote up the ideas I had last night.

Put some plans together for outreach with my church at Westside. I have a meeting with Pastor Ben on Thursday to discuss some of my ideas.

Met up with my friends from 12 Stone Church, Steven Perry and his interns Nathan and Michael at FBC Doraville.

Ashley and I took them to Plaza Fiesta for lunch and to talk about plans involving his middle schoolers. 12 Stone is one of the largest churches in Atlanta. They have 9 campuses around the Metroplex. He has 350 kids in his group. Of course we told him we can handle that many. That’s because we can.

Discussed my plans for fund raising with Ashley. I’ll write up some stuff and give it to her to think about the graphics for the mail out. It will revolve around helping pay for the insurance that Whirlwind Missions has. Just the insurance for our ministry costs nearly $40,000 a year! I’m planning on calling it “Keep our Missionaries safe!” Basing it on the fact that most people have money coming in from the tax refund. I’m titling it reFUND Missions! I have some art from China that is from New Year that is called “Safety” in Chinese. I think it will tie together well.

One thing I’ve learned in my 20 years of doing this, you don’t get if you don’t ask.

We are completely booked with teams the rest of the month and most of April. PTL for that. Lots of evangelism and that will help our finances too.

Talked with Comcast guys at Walmart about getting cable internet installed at Azalea. We are cancelling ATT DSl. Costs too much and it sucks. We’ll save $20/month and hopefully get a LOT better service. Can’t beat that!

Curtis, who is the Comcast representative, goes to church at Northpoint. We talked to him about bringing a team. We’re always talking about the ministry! While we were talking, a lady who had been on mission with us from One Heart Church stopped, introduced herself and raved about what a great time she had had with us. Yeah, baby!

Enjoyed working with the kids at the mission.



Always fun. Sometimes quite challenging, especially when I’m working with a child that just can barely spell. Takes massive patience, for sure.

Set up a time to sign our new refinancing loan for Thursday night at 7:45pm. It’ll drop our current interest rate from 8% to 4%. Sounds like a plan.

Tomorrow morning I’ll be going to the doctor. I have to have my urine tested again. Last month for my physical they detected trace amounts of blood in my urine. My doctor thinks that’s probably due to my back injury. Pray that everything goes well with that.

Just watched “the Family” with K. I thought it was a good movie. I love DeNiro in just about everything. Had Tommy Lee Jones too. I can dig that.

Admin duties now. Tired but wired after the movie. K and I will watch something less intense and then we’ll crash.

I have to be at the doctor’s by 9:45am.

Ashley and Miles came by our house Sunday night to pick up our grand dog Mooglie. She was a little sweetheart.

This morning I spent some time in my garden.

It rained nearly 1/2″ yesterday.

I got my hummingbird feeders prepped and ready for my little friends to come back from Texas. (Research says that some of our Ruby Throated Hummingbirds travel as far as Costa Rica!)


Also cleaned up my St. Francis area.

Spent some time recording a new podcast! I haven’t had a chance to upload it yet. Soon! I also recorded a new short video for my series “Two Groovy!” I love recording.

After a quick sandwich, I went to the Dekalb Title and Tag office in Brookhaven. I’d heard that it was the best of the spots to try. Even with 23 people ahead of me, I was out of there in 45 minutes. I thought that was pretty amazing.

Went to my office at FBC Doraville to pick up checks.

Got them into our bank account after taking pictures of them so we can track gifts from our supporters.

It was amazingly warm today! Into the low 60s. Amen to that.

Also went to CD Tower to pick up some small gifts for our supporters.

In Swahili we call that a “zawadi.” I’m planning on launching a fund raising campaign to pay off our insurance bills for the year. It costs Whirlwind Missions nearly $3,000 just for insurance!

Over to the mission to help the kids with their homework.

I enjoyed eating supper with Jesse this evening.

K and I watched part of Virunga on Netflix streaming. A wonderful documentary about Mountain Gorillas in Congo.

Admin duties now.

Loved this bumper sticker.

Beautiful sunset on my way home for work Saturday.

K and I enjoyed going to Westside Baptist Church this morning. Great group of folks!

We enjoyed lunch together and a restful afternoon.

Admin duties now.