I finished writing my newsletters and went to Staples to make the copies.

Went to the Post Office to buy stamps.

J and I went over to Azalea to help the kids with their homework.

I had a very serious conversation with two of older Bengali kids about Jesus and Islam. Pray for an open spirit.

Lots of talk about what happens when you die. Who goes to hell?

Came home to work on admin duties and start signing the newsletters.

Beautiful sunset at the mission.

We had a lot of rain yesterday. 2″ in my rain gauge here in Stone Mountain.

Jesse and I had a meeting with the leaders with a few of the ministries here in the International Village. We saw this car on the way to the meeting.

Always great to pray with friends!

We came back home to the office so I could work on the newsletter and year end financial reports.

Then over to Willow Branch where Jesse teaches guitar. I always enjoy hanging out with Bennett and Susan

.

Back home now working on admin duties, write the newsletter and crunching numbers.

Rainy, foggy morning.

K and I enjoyed a great service at Clarkston International Bible Church this morning.

Phil Kitchin is my favorite preacher. He’s got such a great heart for people too!

Jesse and I went to the pet store this afternoon to pick up another filter pump for the aquarium.

He did a major clean up of the tank yesterday. Looks awesome now!

I’m working on admin stuff now. Studying Espanol.

I’ve been doing more research on cameras. I doubt they’re going to be able to fix my camera properly. Normally, with the third repair order, they do a “junk out.” Which means, if you have the proper warranty (I do) they give you the replacement value for the camera towards buying another. Between that and the Reward Zone coupons I have I can just about buy the new camera.

I’m looking at the Canon Z90. It’s small, like my ELPH PowerShot, but has much more powerful processors and imaging device. But the real deal breaker with this camera is the lens which is super bright. That means you can shoot with much less light and still get good pictures.

Flash is always problematic, especially for white people wearing dark clothes. The faces look washed out.

So some great things on the horizon.

It’s always good when I get to spend extra time with Kathy!

J, K and I walked the 4 miles to the park and back. I ran about 2 miles.

I haven’t been exercising much this month. Too cold.

We enjoyed hanging out with the geese.

I saw some interesting signs on our walk.

I liked the color of these leaves.

I think this came from a hornet’s nest.

This lock looked like it should be on the space shuttle.

On the way home, K’s feet hurt, so she walked on the cold pavement. She said it helped!

Took K out for Chinese food for lunch. Excellent.

Then over to Snellville to see Sherlock Holmes. It was ok. I was kind of disappointed.

Working on admin stuff this evening.

Ashley was doing a beauty treatment. She’s the only woman I know who could pull off this look.

Hasta manana!

Had a fun visionary day today!

Jesse and I went to my office at FBC Doraville to meet up with the team leaders for missions for FBC Powell, TN. I’ve worked with Steve Shipley for three years. They’ve brought some terrific teams to help us. Steve and Tim McGee are on staff doing missions in TN.

They’d like to take their partnership to the next level by helping to plant a church in the ethnic community.

We spent a few hours talking about what they’d like to see happen. We are really on the same page with this and I think there will be many people come to Jesus.

I invited Eduardo Zamora to meet with them so he could hear what they’d like to do as well. I believe Eduardo is a natural church planter with a real heart for reaching the lost.

We also went by Huntington Terraces to check on our great team from FBC Mountain Park. Praise the Lord for that good church!

I can always count on them to help me!

We met up with Sheila Zamora at Huntington Ridge. I took Steve and Tim from FBC Powell to check out the facilities and get to know the Zamora family.

J and I also went by Best Buy. I’ve been having problems with my camera. Focus issues. So I talked to the Photography Department head.

She agreed that there was a problem and encouraged me to send it back to Canon. Two more weeks without my camera. What a bummer.

I looked at other models to see if I’d like to upgrade. I like mine better than the more expensive ones. At least so far.

Back home to work on admin stuff.

I had a fun morning with an exuberant group of 4th graders from Providence Christian Academy.

I had them clean and organize the mission at Azalea and at Huntington Terraces. Great team!

Bayo and I went to the UNITE group meeting for lunch. The theme was the Public School System. That’s something I’m really interested in.

It’s fun to see good friends.

My camera has focus problems. I just got it back from Canon. They replaced the lens, but something is not quite right. I get really sad when my gear’s not working right. Too much attachment to things, I reckon.

Rainy old day today. Started getting colder too. Sure am glad I’ve got a warm house to go to.

Went to Azalea to help the kids with their homework. Sure missed Jesse today. Didn’t have the heart to wake him up that early.

I saw Monkey Bear today! I asked him to spell his name for me. Couldn’t believe anyone would name their child Monkey Bear. Here’s what it looks like.

The new episode of Burn Notice came out tonight. Smooth is smooth, baby! Love that show.

GREAT day today!

Jesse and I went to Reboot.

They are my partners that refurbish computers to be used by ministries and handicapped/poor folks.

We picked up three more computers to help the kids with their homework.

I stopped at Zaxby’s to get Jesse some chicken fingers. I’d eaten earlier. I thought this sign on the wall was funny.

Then back to Clarkston to meet up with more of the team that’s partnering together for the Clarkston Oaks project.

It was great to meet the owner as well as the main contractor for the project. It’ll be a lot of work but in an EXTREMELY needy are of Atlanta.

Went by my office at FBC Doraville to meet up with another partner, Frances Price. I always think of her as Santa Claus. She’s been a HUGE advocate for us at FBC Atlanta, collecting hundreds of gifts for the kids at the mission.

She’ll be helping Bayo at Huntington Terraces. We went by the mission to introduce her to Bayo and make sure she knew where the mission was. I think that is going to be be a terrific partnership. Bayo collected a bunch of clothes to give to the folks in the complex.

Looks like the great folks at FBC Mountain Park are going to come through for me again to get the tile floor repaired at Bayo’s mission. PTL for that great church!

J and I then went on over to Azalea to check on the kids.

I’ve been praying for one of my kid’s dad’s who’s been out of work. Found out today that he got a job! He told me, “My Dad’s been playing Jesus music all day long. He says it’s Jesus that got him the job!” Had to agree!

Back home now. Working on admin stuff. Already signing up teams to come help us during the summer.

Had a fun day today! I got to see my brother Tito Ruiz.

He had borrowed some chairs and tables from the mission. We had lunch and I also invited Ian and Ruthie North, Bayo, Charles Houghton (my friend from FBC Mountain Park who is helping me with a couple of construction projects) and of course good ol’ Jesse!

I enjoy getting some of the team together. We stir each other up!

Tito invited Ian to his church this Sunday to interview him in what he’s doing at his mission at Huntington Creek. A good example for his church members.

After lunch, we unloaded the chairs and tables at the mission then went to H. Terraces to check on the mission. We need to replace some tiles that were messed up in the flood. We also went to Lowes to pick up supplies then dropped them off back at the Terraces.

Jesse and I then led Charles over to our new mission at Post Oaks apartments in Clarkston.

We went over the plans for the rehab of that location. Lots of work for sure! Pray that Got will send us those volunteers that we need to get that going!

On our way back to Chamblee, J and I also stopped at Best Buy to drop off his computer.

It has a number of small issues with it. I have their best warranty, so we’re using it!

Helped the kids at the mission with their homework. We were kind of late. They were glad we showed up!

Came home to start on homework. Never ends!

Beautiful weather today. Nearly 70!

Look how vines have changed the shape of this tree! The vines have been removed but their effort has stayed the same.

How much money do you win with this?

What’s the point of putting a cone in front of your car?

Nearly 2 inches of rain yesterday. Excellente!

Spent most of my afternoon studying Spanish. Working on possessive adjectives.

Did some yard work. Fantastic 60 degree weather. What a blessing.

Gave myself a haircut.

Had a fun lunch with my sweet family.

Ruby Tuesday officially has the best salad bar!

Took care of my admin duties. EMail, calls, blog . . .

Looking forward to a busy week, lots of great things happening!

That time of year again. Weird outfits for tax companies. Whatever they’re paying this guy, it’s not enough. Nice makeup.

Drizzly day today.

Kathy and I went to Clarkston International Bible Church.

Music was good. Pastor Phil did a great job on serving the Lord with passion!

We enjoyed Vietnamese food then came on home.

We watched Hotel for Dogs this evening with Jesse. Cute dogs!

Census is getting ready to happen again. Always sounds Biblical to me!