Got up early this morning and did a 4 mile run. Still hot.
Picked up a special cake for my friend Bob Speer who just got remarried! We saw each other at our monthly manager’s meeting at Sheltering Arms in Chamblee. He’s the manager of Shallowford Gardens and is a dear friend.
Our meeting at lunch revolved around a new clinic that specializes in the uninsured in the area. According to their stats, over 40% of the residents of Atlanta (5.2 million!) are ininsured. I know that’s true for most of the immigrants here. I plan on working with them more in the future to help us with Health Fairs in the area.
I’m at my office at FBC Doraville now. Just finished my email.
I’m headed over to help the kids at Azalea in a moment.
I had a good work out on weights this morning. Always feels good to push hard.
Had a meeting with two partners of mine: Todd Harrison and Tyler Recker. We talked about the mission work with Youth Outreach United in Lawrenceville especially.
Tyler and I met with the manager of two properties. If all goes well we’ll get to start a mission in both.
Todd also loaded us down with lots of drinks and cookies and chips for the kids at the mission.
Went to Chamblee to help the kids with their homework. Almost all of my kids are from Bangladesh. It’s something.
Whenever I get a few of my partners together it’s always a terrific time. I had some of my favorites there today including my brother Tito Ruiz, Steve and Ruth Nolen (missionaries to Argetina and India), Derrick McGee, Amy Turner and Robert and Shelita Carter! Very exciting to hear the plans we have for reaching this community for Christ!
Ran 4 miles this morning.
Fished up my admin work at home.
Lots of email. People treat me like I’m something special. It’s weird.
Kathy and Ashley and I got back from NYC last night around 1am. We had an awesome time in NYC. We met a lot of great folks. I led four sessions at the conference. We also got to go around the city and check out the different ethnic areas. We lived in Queens and our confrerence was held at the French Speaking Baptist Church in Brooklyn.
Ashley and I went shopping one day before we took off on the air plane. Never too much Ashley.
I’ve been working on the pictures I took. Click on the Photo Gallery link at right and look at the featured galleries.
Today I played catch up. I had about 20 phone messages that I went through and figured out.
Set up an Outreach Event in the Brookhaven area with my partners there at First Baptist. They’ll be hosting a back to school party this weekend.
Also set up for a Health Fair this weekend at Northchase. I got all the food and supplies today since I’ll be in NYC this weekend. Paul Reynolds is doing a great job over there and I’m glad he’s a part of the team.
Split up the back packs given to us by FBC Atlanta. They gave us over 140! So far they’ve gone to help the kids at Azalea Place, Gwinnett Crossings, Kensington Station and Concept 21 Roswell. That’s a lot of happy kids!
Been working on my financial report so I can turn that in to my treasurer before the conference.
My temperature guage in my car briefly went to 105 degrees this afternoon. Dude, that’s hot.
Kathy and I spent a week together up in Chattanooga, Tennessee. It’s one of our favorite places. We stay at a little Indian run hotel for about $40/night.
We especially enjoyed the bike rides around Lookout Valley, Camels and Crested Cranes at the Zoo and the Veterans Memorial Cemetary.
I took over 650 pictures. Check them out at the Photo Gallery!
Just in for a couple of days before leaving for NYC to speak at a conference. I’ll be giving out the school supplies to my kids at Azalea on Monday and Tuesday. We leave on Wednesday morning then come back on Saturday.
Tired.
Ran 4 miles. We’ve been doing a lot of biking in Tennessee. REALLY hot the last few days.
Today was the last day for my friends Tim and Cathy Palmer to be visiting with us. We enjoyed my favorite Indian food restaurant: Vikhyat–it means “famous” in Gujarati. It was a fabulous as always. I ordered a plate of Samosas (a pastry filled with spicy meat). It reminded her so much of Nairobi where we grew up that she actually started crying. It’s a beautiful thing to find something from your childhood! The cooks are all Indians that grew up in Nairobi back in the 60-70s and we all knew the same places. It really was extraordinary. Then we went two doors down to the Indian supermarket and she got an immense kick out of seeing the brands of soap and candy and spices that we were so accustomed to.
It is one of the main reasons I love Atlanta: it reminds me of home. I just love all the rich variety of ethnic cultures here.
I’m just another immigrant.
I also took them over to Stone Mountain. I love that big rock.
I have an Outreach Event tomorrow and I preach twice on Sunday morning in Lawrenceville. Then Kathy and I will wing our way towards Chattanooga for some much deserved (at least in my opinion!) rest.
I had a great time with my partners from Perimeter Church this afternoon! We got a good start planning our Outreach Events for the Compassion in Action weekend in October. I’m really looking forward to that!
Picked up some new software for my partners in Clarkston–learning Swahili!
Also got another computer to take over to Oak Forest this weekend for the mission there.
Spent good time with the Palmers. They’ll be leaving this Saturday. Hopefully, they’ll love what we’re doing as much as I do!
I took Tim and Cathy Palmer to the missions in Clarkston today. We enjoyed meeting with my partners Bennett Ekandem and Terry Earl.
Tim and I went to Oak Forest to put together the new basketball goal I bought yesterday. We’ll be using the equipment to share the Gospel in a special Basketball Clinic Outreach Event this Saturday.
We had a team of college students from around the USA working with the kids at the mission at Willow Branch this evening.
