The last two days have been super busy!

Yesterday, I had Ashley and Jesse with me.  EXCELLENT! We did a recon of the area near the Gwinnett Place Mall for the Compassion in Action weekend.  I set up a new mission at the FALLS.  I’m excited about that.  Tito’s church has been working over there along with my partners from Apartment Life.

Also talked to the management at Summer Trees.  That place is super fancy.  I’m not optimistic about them letting us in, but maybe!

We went shopping for supplies I needed at Azalea Mission.

I cleaned the place while Ashley helped kids with homework and Jesse was teaching them how to play chess.  We had fun!  Although I sure did clean up some nasty stuff.  Man, those kids can get a place dirty!

This morning I went to the North American Mission Board where I made my presentation to the recently appointed candidates!  They’re always a good bunch.

I was invited to come share at a conference in Washington DC.  We’ll see if that works out.  I told them I’m into the field work aspect.  I think the hands on approach is best.  They like my somewhat irreverant style.

Talked with my partner Keith Harrell about the car he picked up from one of his supporters.

I got Bill Hickey and we drove with Keith to Hapeville to get the title transferred to Whirlwind Missions and then transfer it to Bill.  They were super efficient.

It was a year ago this Monday that I first met Bill.  He has really been a blessing to me.

He told me, “I’ve lived my life just grinding along.  Now I feel like I’m a part of something, that I’m really helping people.”  You certainly do, Bill!

Waded through about 100 messages this evening.  I was too tired to do the computer last night.

It’s after midnight and I’ve got to do a presentation for the Gwinnett Leadership Institute Saturday morning.  I’m talking about Communication.  I’m going to focus on how to  achieve rapport with people and teach them how to do that better.

The seminar is held at the Gwinnett Detention Center. Sure am glad J is out of that place!  He is doing great!

I always have fun in the Clarkston area.  There are just SO many different countries represented.

Today was “Wonderful Wednesday” at Clarkston International Bible Church. 

Over 150 students from Dekalb Tech come for refreshments and a Bible story in the gym of the church.  Pastor Phil Kitchin does a great job reaching out to the refugee community in the area.

I had a meeting with a long term friend of our family: Ileko Mugalla from Kenya. 

She was Kathy’s best friend when she worked there back in the early 90’s.  Ileko is a working on doing medical research in the area.  We hope one day to have medical services available to the community. Kathy and Ashley were working with the “Mommy & Me” program this morning at the church.  There are some sweet children there!  The mothers are learning English while Kathy and some other volunteers help take care of the little kids.

I took three of the monitors that I picked up yesterday from Tyler’s church for Ileko’s office.  She works right around the corner from Ashley’s mission at Kensington Station.  I’m working on getting her some computers now.

Also got together with Kevin Riley, another NAMB missionary.  He has some teams coming in soon and I was helping him develop other locations where he could put them.  I introduced him to several of the managers.

Missed having roast goat at Madina today.  I was hoping to eat there, but it’s closed due to Ramadan.

Went to the mission at Azalea to help the kids with their homework.  The carpet is still drying out from the flood we had there when the commode broke.  What a mess.  We threw a bunch more stuff away, so it’s not looking quite so bad now.

Plus we have a dead rat somewhere in the wall.  Lovely smell.

That’s why they call it missions!

We have some new Bengali families in our area.  Always fun to meet new people.

Good day today!

I was up in the Mall of Georgia area with one of my best partners, Tyler Recker. 

He’s a real go getter.  I like to work with him.

We went to several new complexes including Summer Park.  I feel optimistic that they are going to let us host a block party in there.

But the best news is that Reserve at Ivy Creek who had originally said that our ministry could work there as long as we “didn’t talk about Jesus,” changed their mind and is letting us come there to serve.  That was really good news.  I’m glad that one of my partnering churches, New Branch Community Church will be helping lead the charge in that area.

Went by their church to pick up a load of monitors.  We’ll use them in several  missions.

Also went by Rob and Cindy Bryant’s house to pick up some girl’s clothes for the kids at the missions. 

They also gave us a recliner.  Looking forward to sitting in it!

Ran 4 miles when I got home. Got a hair in my eye.  Kathy finally had to get it out with tweezers.  Pretty scary seeing those metal tweezers coming closer and closer to my eye ball!  Sure feels better once she got it out!  Amen!

Put nearly 100 miles on the car today.  I had to use the van to carry all the stuff.  No AC.  I’m glad it was cooler today.  Downside about rolling the window down is you get wet when it rains.  My left side was damp  most of the afternoon.  C’est la vie, baby.

It was great to have my son help me today!

We went to Lowe’s first thing to pick up a couple of medicine cabinents for Bill Hickey to install for us.  He did beautiful work on the rest of our house!

I had a great talk with Barb Newman from Dunwoody Baptist Church.  She has a real heart of reaching the lost.  Her church is going to help make our Community Chaplain position a reality!  We’re raising support for Dr. Carlos Salaverria to be our main liason between the local Spanish churches and the unreached apartment communities that surround them!

Jesse and I went on a mission to Piedmont Hospital this morning to check on a friend of ours son who was having surgery.  The Lord answered our prayers and the cancer in his body was completely gone!  What a miracle!  Two days ago they did a scan and the tumor was about the size of a quarter.  This morning, it’s just not there!  We had a good prayer time with Randall Blythe and some other friends.  Please pray for Josh Blythe’s complete recovery!

That hospital was a Rubik’s Cube of information.  Can you imagine reading signs like this in another language?

I don’t go downtown very often.  Atlanta really is an amazing city!  I love the big buildings.  I just love big trees more.

J and I went over to the church to wade through the mound of bills at my office. With lots of missions come lots of utility bills.  We really do appreciate your financial support!

Checked on the kids at the mission.  Last weekend one of the silly Bengali kids turned the faucet on for a tube going to the commode.  I really have no idea how he got it to come off from its coupling. Ended up flooding the place before someone could turn them off.

The place is all dried out now. Doesn’t smell too bad.  It’s a good thing I’m from Africa.

We had some heavy localized rain.

We went to the Bridge service this morning at FBC Mountain Park.  Pastor Bob preached on “Why do we go to church?”

For most of the people I work with going to church isn’t even a consideration.

Kathy and Ashley and I went to Metro Diner for gyros.  Yum!

Jesse has really been practicing guitar.  He’s sounds pretty good!

Before going to church I saw something kinda rare. A newly emerged cicada! Have you heard them in the trees lately? This one had just emerged from his skin to come out with wings! That’ll preach!

I got email from my partner Cathy Palmer today.


They recently moved to a new apartment much closer to their ministry area and see to really like it!  I’m so glad they’re doing better.  I’m a big believer in our team and I feel personally responsible for the folks I get involved with ministry.  In a real sense they are family to me, just like the missionaries I grew up with in Africa.  We called the adults, “Uncle Harold” or “Aunt Betty.”

I guess I knew intellectually that we weren’t really related, but I’m MUCH closer to my missionary family than I am to my real flesh and blood relatives.  It’s an MK thing, I reckon.

Got my financial report finished up and delivered to Jon, so I’m caught up on all my assignments.  PTL.

I big part of my strategy is training people and helping them be independent.  I’m very sensitive to “choke points,” those areas where if I’m taken out of the game the whole system stops.  I’ve tried to almost completely eliminate that.

My team are all Special Forces operatives.  They’re  ALL leaders.  I get the most fun out of catching up with partners after a few months and seeing all the fantastic things that are happening.  Independent ministries thriving.  It’s a beautiful thing.  We just need to accelerate that strategy!

I ran 4 miles right before lunch.  Although K and I averaged about 10 miles a day on the bikes, it’s not like running.  Especially when it’s hot.

I guess if you know anything about me it’s that I’m passionate about the things I do.  One of my interests is ornithology.  I love feeding the birds and watching them in my garden.  This year I was introduced to the concept of “clustering” feeders, in particular of hummingbirds which are very territorial.  So I went from one to three to five . . . now I’m up to eleven hummingbird feeders.

This one is just inches from where I sit. They constantly buzz right by me, or suddenly hover to check me out.

I’ve stretched out thin metal wire between trees and I hang the feeders from them.  The wire is very thin and it looks like the feeders are just hanging there.  Now, I have at least 5 permanent hummingbirds that constantly dash around chasing each other.  It’s super cool.

Peace.

The only bad thing about going on some R&R is the pile of work when I get back.

I finally finished answering all my email last night around 1 am.

This morning I enjoyed watching the Monk marathon in preparation for the special 100th episode this evening.  It was a great show!

I went to Best Buy this afternoon to pick up an external hard drive.  I sent it to the producer of the shoot for NAMB.  She’s going to dub off the video they shot and send it back to us on that hard drive.

Big news is that we actually shot our new Family Prayer card! 

I’ve already put in an order for the new batch.  I look forward to handing those out in the Mission Conferences to come.

After a week away with my sweet wife we’re back!

We had a fantastic time at the beach.  The weather was great.  We enjoyed walking and riding our bikes.  Plenty to see including River Street, Bonaventure Cemetery, St. John the Baptist Cathedral and the Historic District. They even had a fireworks display one evening.

Here are some of my favorite pictures!

We watched as Gustav hit Louisiana and wondered what Hannah would do to Tybee.

Oglethorpe was the leader of the colony and laid out the first planned city in America: Savannah!

Every been to River Street Sweets? They make great pralines. I wonder what their secret ingredient is?

I love the lighthouse!

Of course, the sunsets are terrific too!

Kathy and I are headed out of town for a second honeymoon.

We need time together!

Love you guys!

One of the fun things about our Compassion in Action weekend is I get to start new work!

Today I finalized agreements with two apartment managers to host Outreach Events at Highland Corners and at Medlock Woods. 

I’m excited that we’ll have the opportunity to talk to people about Jesus!

I worked on laying out the newsletter and making copies. The kids at the mission helped me put on labels.

Bill Hickey came over to our house today to install our new countertops.  They look great!

Kathy and I will be going out a town for a few days.  Amen!