Went to Perimeter Church this morning to do an interview with their Outreach Department.  Drue Warner is one of my favorite people and I believe we can work together to get a lot of folks out from the pews and into the street!  I also took Jouvens Mocombe with me to be part of the interview.  I thought he did a great job.  I was very proud of him!

We also picked up 8 computer monitors to share around the missions when we need them.

Dealing with a situation at one of the missions where we had a guy who is teaching a Bible Study move in to the apartment.  Happens from time to time, especially with folks that are near homeless.  Hard to deal with.  He’ll have to move out, we just hope we can keep the relationship together.

I squared away the nine locations where I have teams coming in a couple of weeks.  Also the two locations where we’ll have Outreach Events over the Memorial Day weekend.

Lots of admin work to do. Financial reports, banking, phone calls.  Seems almost endless at times.  I just keep telling myself, “poco a poco, baby.”  Which means “Little by little.”  I think you know what baby means.

I leave for Texas tomorrow morning.  I’m looking forward to hanging out with my folks for a week.  I like speaking at conferences too!  As my wife would say, “Tim lives to hear himself talk.”  True dat.

Need to finish up the paper work so I can go check on the kids at the mission.

Peace.

I was supposed to have a pre-site visit with a partner from Mississippi this morning.  Didn’t work out.  They had transportation issues.  So I did all the paper work for the team and the maps marked up for how the busses will go.

The best news is that they’re willing to come help on Sunday afternoon!  You may remember that I had a team cancel out on me that was supposed to help me with two block parties that day.  Now I’ll have plenty of help!  PTL!

Also registered for Ashley and I go to a conference in New York of the National Association of Multi-housing Ministries and Congregations from August 16-18.  This is a conference sponosored by NAMB so I think it’s going to be good.  They’re also planning on doing a block party in the area.  I like the practical aspect of it.  I’ll probably end up teaching a couple of sessions while I’m there too.

I’m going over to check on the kids at Azalea then go home and pack.  This is one of my “K & T” weekends where my wife and I go out of town for a couple of days.  It’s been a HUGE help for my marriage.  I tend to work 7 days a week and it’s good to set aside time to get to know my wife!

I need to go to Office Depot to pick up some equipment.  The fax machine at FBC Doraville died.  I want to help them out.

Peace.

Had a meeting at Willow Branch this morning with my partners Bennett Ekandem and Terry Earl along with a new partner Michele Henry who is the Executive Director of Literacy Volunteers of Atlanta. We’re trying to get a program started to help people learn to read and prepare for the GED. It was a profitable meeting and I hope we can help a lot of folks learn how to read!

Next went to a luncheon with a group of managers and cops in the Chamblee/Doraville area. We talked about recent crackdown by the INS in the area and how we can help the community learn how to handle this situation. We’ll plan on having some town hall meetings soon.

I went through all my email and followed up on some calls. Just got off the phone with a representative from the Red Cross who wants some help in setting up a free lunch/breakfast program at one of our locations. We’ll help that get off the ground as well.

I’m having problems with my mouse at home. I need to get a replacement for that. My new phone is working great! Just got off it here at the office. My old phone couldn’t get calls through here. What a hassle. I’m just glad I could keep my same number. That would have been a nightmare to change.

Peace.

Had breakfast with my folks this morning before they headed back to Nashville to catch a plane to Texas in the morning.

Met with Melissa Russel this afternoon. She’s a youth director leading a mission trip here with a team from N. Carolina. It was fun showing her around Chamblee.

We also went over to the mission at Azalea to help the kids with their homework.

On the way back to Stone Mountain I went by Best Buy to pick out a new phone. I’ve dropped so many calls lately it has just driven me crazy! My phone is several years old and I really needed to take advantage of the tech advances in the last few years. My number and data was all ported over to my new phone. I need to finish setting it up this evening.

Went for a 4 mile run tonight.

My jaw still hurts a little but is a lot better. I was taking about 8 tylenol last couple of evenings. Felt pretty good today. My doctor suspects it was a sinus infection.

Worked on team assignments. My team from Perimeter set a date to come–it’s usually around my birthday and this year is no exception–July 10-12. The 12th I’ll turn 49.

When I used to work for WTOC in Savannah, the cops used codes. A signal 46 was a Dead Person. A signal 18–Structure Fire. Signal 7–Shooting. Signal 49 is a crazy person.

Peace.

I took my folks on some tourist stuff today!

My mom and I went to the Swan House downtown Buckhead this morning. It’s a beautiful place.

Later I took them to some of the museums at Stone Mountain. Very informative.

Then we went to Kensington Station to go help Ashley with her kids for a little while. That was fun.

I just got home a moment ago. My jaw has started to hurt again after feeling fine all day long. Time for Tylenol I reckon. Bahd luck.

We’ll go out to a nice restaurant with Ashley this evening to celebrate her upcoming graduation with my parents. We sure are proud of her! We went to Thai of Norcross! It was awesome!

Peace.

I had another great day with my family!

My parents along with Kathy and her mom Nell went over to visit with the Tom and Nancy Jones famiy with their son Tommy and his wife Laura this afternoon. We had a fantastic time thinking about the old days back in Kenya. Lots of fun.

Later, Ashley and my mom Peggy and I spent several hours wandering around Perimeter Mall and nearby shoe stores doing what the girls do best–shop! I always enjoy spending time with Ashley and it was a double blessing to have my mom there too!

Pray that my jaw will feel better. I’ve had an ache in the left side of my face for a few days now. Don’t know if it’s an ear problem, or if it’s related to a chipped tooth I had before I went to Niger. I hope to get in to see Dr. Pat tomorrow afternoon.

Last night was so much fun! Thanks for your prayers for our Fiesta! It was wonderful!

Peace.

What a terrific day!

This morning I spent with my folks.  We went to Stone Mountain to see the museum on carving the big monument.  I think it’s one of the best. Then we had lunch with Kathy and Nell over at Donnies–good country cooking.

Most of the afternoon was spent getting ready for the banquet this evening.

Everything was just terrific!  We had my board speak–Jon Paul, Tito Ruiz and Carl Barrington along with my daughter Ashley and my parents Al and Peggy Cummins.  Talk about a powerhouse line up!  I was really happy with how that turend out.  We also showed some short videos from a few of the outreach events we’ve hosted in the last couple of months as well as a slide show that Ashley put together.  We also had our Outreach Band CRUZ play a few songs.  I thought that also went really well.  I was very happy to see so many of my friends in one spot!  And yet there are so many more that didn’t get to come!  Maybe next year.

I think that May wasn’t the best time for this. I’m thinking that perhaps February might be better.  We’ll see. . .

If you haven’t had a chance, take a look at a new section of our web site:  FREE STUFF!  Can’t beat that!

Peace.

Didn’t sleep well last night–too excited about my folks coming into town.

I worked on the forum this morning. I’ve started posting ideas to help folks do this type of ministry. I’ll keep posting things as I think about questions I’m asked regularly. I’ve really had trouble with my internet. I had to restart the router about ten times last night. Enough! This morning I also went over to Best Buy to get another brand–Linksys, I’m not happy with you. So far the Belkin router is doing a good job. I’ll take the other equipment back to Best Buy and get store credit. I buy stuff from them all the time.

My folks arrived into Atlanta around noon today! YAY! It is so good to see them again!

My mom and I went into Doraville to pick up the 3 Leches cake for the party tomorrow evening. We drove around the International Village before going to FBC Mountain Park to check on the facilities and put the cake into the industrial fridgerator.

This evening we took a drive around Stone Mountain. This weekend is Frontier Days at the park. They had camping reenactments of the British soldiers along with the Creek and Cherokee Indians. It was super cool to see how the folks camped out back then.

Peace.

One of the big items on my “to do” list is — Engage the Church! We do that on an individual level locally as well as on an international and national level via the internet.

This morning Jesse set up a forum board for us on our web site! I’m very excited about this endeavor as I think it’s a good way to get practical knowledge out to mission directors and youth directors who are interested in working in the community but aren’t sure how. So log onto our FORUM and leave a post!

I just finished a meeting with one of my favorite partners–Tyler Recker. He’s a real go getter and a real soldier for the Lord. He’s been in contact with a band that’s interested in doing outreach in the community. I’ll help set them up! I’m the “where/when” guy.

I’m getting ready to go to the mission at Azalea and check out the kids and help them with their school work. Hopefully I’ll learn some more Bengali!

Worked out on weights the morning. I’ll probably run this evening. I watched Invincible last night on DVD–the story of Vince Papale. Great flick!

Peace.

Got up early this morning to work on the schedule for our Cinco de Mayo Fiesta this weekend at FBC Mountain Park. I think it’s really going to be a lot of fun. Many of my best friends and partners will be there to celebrate with us. I’m looking forward to it. My folks will be in town Friday morning. Excellente!

Also worked on my Team Assignments page. With the possible loss of one of my teams the end of May, I’m having to come up with alternate plans. I talked with the pastor of the team this morning and they still may come–they’ll give me a final word on Monday.

Did more research and worked on the web site with Jesse. I’m working on building a community of people that do a similar ministry to ours. I want our web site to be THE source of information on how to go about this work. We’re already a leader. My goal is to be THE leader. As Thoreau said, “In the long run you only hit what you aim at. So it’s better to aim high.”

Went by FBC Doraville to work on my email and check the mail. Doesn’t snail mail seem sort of old fashioned? Still, hard copies have their place and I’m sure we’ll continue to have a presence there. I did find out that the source I quoted that said that Baptists only baptized 4,000 people last year was wrong. It was more like 386,000! I can’t believe I didn’t check out what I was told–my source was credible, but.

Still, less than 400,000 for the whole country of over 350 million seems pretty small. It’s the lowest our denomination has baptized since 1993.

Went by Azalea to check on my kids. Jouvens is trying to learn some words of Bengali. I think that’s great. I asked the kids to show him what the alphabet looks like–it’s WAY complicated. Jouvens said it’d take “a million years” to learn that language. I’m sure it’s be rough.

Wanna learn some?

They say Hello like most Muslims—Asalaam alekum. (Ah sah lahm ah LAY koom.) The reply is the reverse–Alekum asalaam.

Basically means Peace unto you.

How are you is–Kamon achen–(Kahmohn ahsin)

Reply is Balo ache (Bahloh ah say) Which means “Good.”

Got home and ran my usual 4 mile route.

Watched Invincible on DVD. Love sports movies.

Peace.