This morning I worked on my new podcasts: Verbal Surgery. I think these will really help people!

Then over to Staples to pick up a new dry erase board and stand for our new English as Second Language classes in Lawrenceville. I delivered the supplies to the manager at Olde Salem and talked with her about the class.

Stopped in at Barnes and Noble for ten minutes as a treat. Can’t get over how many “brain” books there are these days.

It’s an area I’m fascinated by. My favorites from this group are Brain Rules and A Whole New Mind. Both excellent!

I picked up a new book by Jason Fried called “REwork.” Looks really good.

Shot to Clarkston to meet Charles Houghton at Clarkston Oaks. He’s been a huge help in coordinating the effort of renovating the basement over there. Great ministry opportunity, but I’m not sure how much the owner really wants to get the project done.

I’m definitely not going to do more than what I told him we’d do which is hanging the sheet rock, the dropped ceiling and painting. Even that is a really big job.

Met with Aziz at Willow Branch. I’m teaching him some different strum patterns and chords on the guitar.

Eduardo Zamora came over to Willow Branch to pick up some clothes that someone had dropped off for Bennett. Glad we could put those to good use!

Back at home now for admin duties.

Man! It was sure great to get away from the ATL and rest!

K and I visited with the team from Texas before leaving for Tennessee.

We enjoyed an awesome time of togetherness for the weekend.

We read books, hiked up the mountain and walked around the neighborhood.

I caught up on a lot of sleep. I really had no idea how tired I was until I went to sleep and woke up 11 hours later! YOW!

Raccoon Mountain is just outside of Chattanooga. It is really beautiful over there.

We enjoyed walking around Chatta too!

We stayed at Alpine Lodge, our new favorite place.

It’s run by the Patel family. Definitely not for everybody, but we like it! It’s right on the Trail of Tears. Sad part of our history.

Last month we had snow. This month POLLEN!

I really enjoyed the BBQ at Purple Daisy cafe in St. Elmo, right beside Incline Railway.

We came on home Sunday afternoon. We stopped at the Tellus mineral museum. I enjoy looking through the gift shop for rocks for my collection. Didn’t find anything today, but I got a couple of cool toys. Yep, I’m still a kid.

Great to be home and hang out with my Ashley angel! She just keeps getting more and more beautiful!

I thought this was funny!

Reminded me of driving on 285. Not me, other folks!

My team from Arlington, Texas is still doing a fantastic job! What hard workers.

They’re putting on the finishing touches on the mission at Pearl Lane. We sure do appreciate that.

Had a fun lunch with two of my favorite missionaries, Ian North and Bayo Otiti.

Mexican food always tastes better with great friends along for the ride.

I prayed with my team and then took them on a tour of the International Village.

Plenty of wacky stuff to see!

Went around the missions to check on the teams on site.

Also picked up more supplies for the construction project they’re working on.

I’m looking forward to getting out of town with Kathy this weekend. I looked at my driving log. I’ve actually worked 28 days straight except for one day: when I had my colonscopy! Hardly a rest day!

Today on my way home I saw something that caught my eye standing right beside the road. Know what this is?

A coyote! I felt like I was back in the bush checking out wild animals in the game park.

Not sure what happened to my blog post from yesterday. It just disappeared!

I had a meeting with Randall Cash,

enjoyed taking the Byron Malone family around the International Village

and gave my briefing to my team from FBC Arlington.

That team worked at Pearl Lane this morning with my partner Virginia Cosgrove repainting the mission.

They did a great job! They’ll finish that project over the next couple of days.

The team worked in six locations around Chamblee and Doraville: Azalea Place, Highland Gardens, Pearl Lane, Huntington Terraces, H. Creek and Hamptons at Lenox.

The kids sure do love having the teams in town!

Kathy had a tooth pulled today. She said it didn’t hurt too bad. The doc gave her some pain meds. She crashed out early. I went to Popeyes to buy her some red beans and rice. She seemed to like that. Pray for her fast healing.

This morning Kathy and I went to CIBC.

I was really looking forward to hearing Pastor Phil Kitchin speak. It was the Gideon’s Sunday, so that didn’t happen. Their rep was a good speaker, but I was still disappointed.

There was a big team from Alabama at church today. Glad to see them!

Also saw Tim, Cathy and Andrei Palmer at church. Always a blessing to spend time with friends.

We went to Piccadilly after church. I saw Pastor Howard Greer over there as well as a friend from FBC Mountain Park who helped us at the outreach yesterday.

Seems like many days the most important things that happen are completely unplanned!

I’ll finish my admin duties then work on editing video from yesterday. Here’s the video I shot with my team from FBC Mountain Park.

Today marked 14 days in a row without a break. Sure am looking forward to next weekend with Kathy!

I have a team coming in from Arlington, Texas tomorrow afternoon. Full speed ahead!

Jesse also leaves for New Hampshire for his conference tomorrow morning. Man, I’ll miss him!

It was great to get to work with my home church today: First Baptist Mountain Park!

Lots of food!

Josh Sutton is the new Worship Pastor for our church. He’s a real go getter and super cool guy! He mobilized over 20 people from his choir this afternoon.

The team worked with our missionaries Keith Harrell at Villa Nueva and Eduardo Zamora at Huntington Ridge.
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They did an awesome job even though the weather was pretty chilly.

I really appreciated their “Can Do” attitude! They made a lot of balloon animals. Even this sword!

I thought baby Sophie was the best missionary!

Also hosted a team from Myrtle Beach SC! They were a college group visiting on Spring Break.

They also helped Eduardo and Bayo Otiti at Huntington Terraces.

I got word from iTunes today that my video podcast “Verbal Surgery” was approved. Cool. I’ll post those for your amusement.

Daylight savings time starts tomorrow morning. I LOVE THAT! My father in law used to tell me that a lady in his church would share with him that she was “So glad about the time change because my roses get an extra hour of sunshine!” ; )

Fun day!

Kathy rode around with Jesse and I today! Yeah!

We needed to go by Party City, this time the store in Snellville. I wanted to make sure that we had plenty of balloon pumps for our outreach this weekend. Now we got ’em!

Then to Fry’s electronics to pick up a new chair mat for Jesse’s office. The one he had was all cracked up. Not good. His new one wasn’t flat, so I heated it up in the bath tub so it would be softer. Worked great!

J is still figuring out all the nuances of his new hearing aid. We drove over to Roswell this afternoon so Dr. Greenberg could hook it up to his computer and adjust the settings a bit more. It really is a work in progress!

Dr. Greenberg is very happy with how Jesse is adjusting to his new hearing. I’m confident that over time J is going to be happier and happier with his new hearing! He already loves it!

It was really raining hard today. I’m seeing it lighten up outside now. Sure am glad about that, since we have multiple events tomorrow!

While at Fry’s I picked up a Mac Life magazine. I really am excited abou the new iPad coming out. I think it’s going to be a great way to share our ministry with other people! Super cool!

I’m getting ready to work on editing some video. I’m looking forward to getting my new podcast “Verbal Surgery” on line soon! Based on my tweets, I think it’ll be a lot of fun to listen to and watch. And good for you too!

Been a hard day for me today.

Bummed out about what’s going on in the apartment industry. The idea that we may lose apartments where we’ve had work really saddens me. It also impacts our on site missionaries. I feel personally responsible for the folks on my team.

Just have to keep focused on the fact that the Father is in control, and that HE is going to to work everything out perfectly!

J and I went to meet with one of my favorite pastors, Howard Greer this morning. He’s the interim pastor at Indian Creek Baptist Church. Its hard to move a church forward when they don’t want to.

That conversation certainly didn’t make me feel any better.

We did have a good prayer time which helped me. I was pretty upset about it. Jesse leans over and kind of hugs me while we were praying. That helped!

He’s headed to New Hampshire next week with a friend of his from Florida. They’re going to the Liberty Forum. A convention for Libertarians. It’ll be the bad ol’ days for me for that 10 days. Riding around by myself for hours, lifting everything by myself. . . .not looking forward to it.

We met up with Ruthie North at Best Buy. We helped her get a new wifi device for her computer which Jesse fixed. She call it her “new computer.” He’s a whiz kid for sure!

Then to Party City and Michaels to pick up supplies for the Outreach Events for this weekend.

I’ll get the food tomorrow.

Checked on the office at FBC Doraville.

Then went to a Chinese book store in Chamblee.

J is studying Mandarin.

We got him a children’s book to help him study. Cool! I find it amazing that I can drive around the corner from my mission and feel like I’m in Peking!

The kids at the mission needed a lot of help.

It was hard to stay focused. Being sad takes a lot out of you.

I heard from a friend of mine who buys properties. I told him about what had happened at the apartments in the area. Sure wish he’d buy them. He’s super prayed up.

THAT did make me feel better!

I really appreciate you reading this blog. I know that there are a cloud of witnesses praying for me. I’m sure that’s why I feel like a dad gum TIGER TANK 99% of the time!

Love y’all!

Super rainy day today! Rain gauge said 2 1/4″ when we got home.

Jesse and I had the fun of riding around with one of our new partners, Rob Martin. He’s the leader of Mobilizing Students. We’ll be hosting a group with him in April.

I enjoyed showing him around the Jimmy Carter side of the International Village. He was wide eyed with amazement as I took him around. It’s definitely an amazing place.

We also went to Clarkston International Bible Church to check on doing a service project there. The team will help do a spring cleaning in their facility and some light painting.

J and I dropped Rob off at the church then went to Hamptons at Lenox and Huntington Terraces to drop off checks for the water bills. When we went to Hamptons at Lenox the manager there mentioned that Huntington Village had also gone bankrupt. That’s the sister property to Huntington Ridge where the Zamoras live. Sure makes me sad when I hear those places going under. We’ve had some terrific ministry in those locations.

Please pray for a smooth transition of owners into those properties.

We also helped the kids with their homework at Azalea.

This morning I dropped off the cards with the Bible verse “And we know that God works all things for good for those who love Him and are called according to his purpose,” to my partner Richard King at FBC Mountain Park. If there was ever a verse to focus on in these tough times it’s that one.

Jesse is really enjoying his hearing aid. He said it helped him a LOT at the mission this afternoon.

J and I had a great morning!

We went to visit with Dr. Greenberg to get J’s hearing aid!

It’s a tiny piece of technology that I think is really going to improve Jesse’s quality of life. It’s about the size of a pencil eraser. Here the doctor has it connected to his computer to tune it in to exactly the frequencies that J needs.

It was such fun to watch the silly grin he got on his face as the doctor tweaked the device. A truly great day for a Dad!

A special THANK YOU to the president of our board and one of my best friends, Carl Barrington and his wonderful wife Pat for providing the funds to make this miracle possible!

After our appointment, we ate lunch at the Northpoint Mall. We like this restaurant that is run by Chinese folks. Jesse is learning Mandarin. It was a hoot to have the ladies behind the counter coaching me on how to say things like “two piece chicken.”

I love languages and the reason that I pick them up pretty quickly is that I’m not afraid to look stupid. The ladies got a kick out of me proving that point!

We checked by my office after lunch. I collected some Bibles and dictionaries for a new partner of mine doing work in the inner city. He’ll pick them up later this week.

Then over to Huntington Terraces to sign the new lease for my partner Bayo Otiti.

Jesse spent a lot of time last week working on Ruthie North’s computer. He’s a genius with that stuff!

We also helped the kids at Azalea with their homework. I enjoy working with one of the moms there. She’s trying to learn English and it’s fun for me to practice Spanish with her. Win-Win, baby!

Kathy got some bad news today. Her tooth has been really bothering her. She had it checked out. Seems like the crown that she had put in while we were living in S. Africa had developed a problem. Looks like she’s going to have to have it pulled. She’s pretty scared about it. Pray for that!

We enjoyed watching Castle and House that I’d recorded.

Now back to admin duties!