Ashley and I finally tracked down the balloons and face paint we need for the Outreach Event tomorrow. Party City had plenty! PTL! We also picked up the decorations for our party on Cinco de Mayo (May 5). We’ll have a Fiesta! Sweet!
After doing out job we went to Perimeter Mall to shop till we dropped.
Then over to Barnes & Noble for research. I picked up a couple of books. I’m doing a lot of reading on web site development. Jesse and I continue to fine tune our home on the web. Yesterday we added an email subscription page to our newsletters. Also made a re-direct page. J showed me a site called the “Webgrader.” It goes through a bunch of criteria and rates the site. We were able to immediately correct some small things that I think make us even better!
I’m into constant improvement. Incremental progress–even if slow–makes a big difference over time. The cool thing is that J and I work fast! It’s great to have a partner that sees a problem and can fix it immediately!
I think we have everything for our events tomorrow. I’m expecting the Holy Spirit to do big things!
I took my team from Emmanuel Baptist Church on a Prayer Walk in the International Village this morning. We had a terrific time at Asian Square, Ngozi Tropical Foods and Carneceria Hispana #1. We saw most of the planet in a couple of hours!
We had Easter Outreach events at Azalea, Northchase and Highland Gardens. We presented the Gospel to over 100 kids!
I was hoping to get the last of the supplies for the Outreach this weekend, specifically the balloons and face paint stuff I ordered last week. I’ll have to go back into Doraville to check on it again tomorrow. If it’s not at the church, I’ll have to go to Plan B.
Kathy and I watched Little Miss Sunshine tonight. I liked it.
My team from Emmanuel Baptist Church did a great job today in Clarkston, Chamblee and Doraville! There was a heavy storm in Clarkston last night and they went to help clean up the neighborhood. They also held Backyard Bible Clubs at Azalea, Northchase and Highland Gardens. Tomorrow we’ll have Easter Outreach Events at those three locations.
Had a meeting with a potential Eagle Scout from Perimeter. Ryan is organizing a Health Fair that will be held at Northchase probably right after school starts. Paul Reynolds is the pastor of that location and has been a great help with getting this put together. It was also good to see Jean Murphy who is one of my long term partners and a health care specialist.
Went to see my partners at Pure Fun. Todd Harrison has been so generous with his support of our ministry. They are providing all the drinks and cookies for the outreach at Kensington Station on April 7th.
Also checked in with friends at Crossroads church in Lawrenceville. Norwood was out of town but I enjoyed seeing Karen Klett. She has been an enormous aid in getting their church mobilized into the community.
Today I got notification that I have a subscriber to my YouTube videos from Iran! What do you think about that? I guess even Iran could use a little Mr. Tim.
The team from Blackshear, GA started working today. Their church is about 4 hours from Atlanta–right on the border with Florida.
They completely cleaned out the mission at Springchase. The place looked great. Sad to move. Latest dumb stuff the manager did was to take the hoops off the basketball goals! Man, the kids were really upset with that. No telling what kind of bad feelings that is going to cause. Expect windows broken! Stupid decision.
Another part of the team worked at Azalea, cleaning the mission, organizing the books and leading a Bible Club. My kids really enjoyed it!
The third team helped my friend Pat Maddox with their first day of the Thrift Store being opened. They did a terrific job of cleaning the place, decorating for Easter and organizing the clothes. That clothes ministry is SO labor intensive! I have no calling to get into it.
We also had a Backyard Bible Club at Highland Gardens. Had some gang younsters over there. Looked like LRZ types. They’re nice to me, but I still don’t trust them.
Had a letter from a supporter upset with my take on the illegal alien issue. Some people really believe that these poor folks coming here to work and support their families are somehow going to take down the American way of life.
White people drive me crazy.
Caught up with my admin work. It’s already after midnight.
Peace.
April 02, 2007
Ashley is on Spring Break so I had the pleasure of her company with me today!
We went to visit with Pastor Tito Ruiz at Sugarloaf Community Church. Tito is a brother to me and plays keys in our outreach band: Cruz. We set up work at Gwinnett Crossing this morning. Kim Le is a good friend of mine. She’s the manager and we’ve worked together in complexes in Norcross and in Clarkston. Looks good!
I then took Tito over to Northchase where we met with my partner Paul Reynolds. He’s also a pastor doing a church plant in the area. Tito and Paul did some counseling with a family while Ashley and I went to eat Indian Food at Annapurna.
After lunch, I took Tito back to his church and then Ash and I went out to the Mall of Georgia for a marathon shopping spree. I really miss hanging out with her and it was real blesing to shop till I dropped.
Got home and my internet wasn’t working so the admin work didn’t get done. Bahd luck.
I spoke at Peachtree Corners Baptist Church this morning, specifically to the 4th grade Sunday School class. I spoke to the whole youth group in January. This particular class had collected school supplies for the missions. I went over there to meet with them and pick up the stuff. My neice Sarah Doverspike was in that class–it was great to see her!
I spent a little while at the bookstore before I came home. Did more research on marketing and the internet. Our ministry normally comes up in the top 3 spots on Google for Apartment Ministry–so I guess the words is getting out. One of the books I purchased was on Search Engine Optimization. Can’t go too much higher than #3.
I came home and checked up on my mother in law. She’s doing better today. Her son Bill and his girlfriend Deborah come over on Sundays to take her out for lunch. That frees Kathy and I to go hang out together. Normally we do some sort of exercise. It was kind of rainy so we went to the Stone Mountain graveyard and walked around for awhile. I took some cool pix there including one where a tree had grown around a grave stone! Another where the man buried was with the KKK! Ay caramba! Click on Photo Gallery and see the featured gallery for the graveyard.
J and I are working on another video project for our Team Info page. Nothing ever seems simple. Always some kind of compression or transfer of format issue. We’ll figure it out. We always do.
Ashley had her final event at Springchase this afternoon. They had an Easter Egg hunt and told the story of the resurrection. We also gathered all the remaining gear from the mission to my team coming in on Tuesday can help me move it and scrub the room clean.
Went to the bookstore to do more research on improving our web presence. I’m convinced that the Father has given mankind the internet as the ultimate network. It’s part of my job to let future partners know how we do what we do. I’m so glad we have my son Jesse to help us accomplish this goal.
Finished up my email and calls. Cool stuff on the agenda for next week including opening up a new mission in Duluth with the help of my brother Tito.
Edited, compressed and uploaded six new videos to our Mission Video section of our web site: Three parts of the African Prodigal Son and Three parts on Evangelism.
One of the new books I’m reading is called “Guerrilla Publicity.” One of the concepts is to put as much free material out to the public as possible. I’ve been doing that for years. But with this “embedded video” concept that Jesse worked out for me, I’m now driven to do a video version of most of my training material that I can “embed” in the written material on the web site.
I think that will make the training section much more powerful and effective.
Of course it’s a lot of work to do a project like that. I’ve never been scared of work.
Ran 6.2 miles. That’s 10 k. And a mighty long way . . .
Kathy and I worked at Springchase this morning. We transported all of the computers and three 8 foot tables over to our Ethiopian Pastor Milkano’s church. It was great to see Milkano and his excitement about how this gear can impact the Ethiopian community for the Lord.
Even though it was sad to start clearing out Springchase, it’s also a time for new beginnings and that’s always exciting!
After unloading the gear at Milkano’s we went to Kensington Station to deliver the Easter Outreach gear that I had so far. I took grills, charcoal, plates and cups, over $150 of candy, about 600 plastic eggs and a small PA for the party. Things are really shaping up! I still need to pick up drinks and cookies from my partner Todd Harrison and I’m expecting my twisty animal balloons and new pumps to come in on Tuesday.
We’ll also have events in Lithonia, Norcross and Roswell.
I also went by Truth Tabernacle of Praise to drop off some Spanish tracts and Bibles to one of my Pastors–Bobby Akins. He’s a great guy. I’m looking forward to helping them reach out into the community.
Also dropped off some info to friends at First Baptist Church of Snellville. The President of our board Dr. Carl Barrington said that their mission’s director is a terrific guy. I look forward to getting together with them soon.
Went to the book store this afternoon. Got a couple of new books on marketing and internet video–two things I’m sharpening skills on. This blog gets over 800 hits a month.
I REALLY appreciate you guys for reading and praying for us! That is a BIG reason why we have been so successful.
Click on the video too!
I went to see The Shooter this afternoon. I liked it a lot. Mark Walburg was great. It’s about a Marine special forces sniper.
Ran 4 miles when I got home.
Just finished up the last of my admin work.
Also posted some new stuff on YouTube–the African Prodigal Son. Click on MIssion Videos. It’s some of my best work.
Started out early finished up my newsletters. Got them in the post before noon.
Went to Kroger to make the order for the big event at Kensington Station on April 7th. Picked out one of every item I needed, they scan it in, then I tell them how many I need of each item. It’ll be ready for me to pick up the morning of April 7th. Mainly I needed to make sure that they have the hotdogs and buns ready. No way they’d have enough for 400 people.
Then over to Walmart to buy the candy I need for the event. I picked up $164 worth of sugar sweet goodness. Kids ought to be mighty hyped up after that!
Enjoyed lunch with Bennett Ekandem. We talked about one of our new partners, Milkano. He’s a Ethiopian pastor in the Clarkston area. We’re helping set him up with about 10 computers so he can teach his congregation–plus use it as an outreach tool. Bennett also supplied him with Bibles and chairs. We’ll take equipment from Springchase which we’ll be moving out of on Friday over there too.
Dropped off some paperwork for Jesse at Dekalb Tech for his GED class. His home schooling is coming along really well. Take a look at his work at aeokos.org. He’s already programming and some of his stuff is really popular–particularly VoteGrabber. He’s a clever lad. I like his TILT section—Things I Learned Today.
J and I spent a couple of hours together this evening. He always teaches me something or helps me improve our web site. Ever heard of Google Analytics? It’s a site analyzing program. Pretty cool. We average over 100 visitors a day at www.whirlwindmissions.org. This blog gets over 800 views a month.
J helped me embed our YouTube video this evening. He taught me how to do it at least. So that way if you want to hear me talk about what’s going on rather than just read it all you have to do is push PLAY. So GO for it!
After lunch I had a meeting with Amy Turner a leader in the Singles SS class at FBC Duluth. Her class is going to do an Easter Outreach at WestWood apartments. Amy is also the Choir Director for Meadowcreek HS. Many of her students come from the WestWood area. I used to really dig Choir in HS. I went All State in solo/ensemble in Texas. Sure seems like a LONG time ago. But I still like to sing.
Also worked with the kids at Azalea. Talked with Jimmy about what his brothers had said about him. He didn’t deny anything–just said it was because they “teased him.” Still made me really sad.
Then over to the Center Precinct Crime Watch meeting with about 15 managers and the cops. I got to spend a lot of time with Carlos Martinez who is the manager for Kensington Station where we’re starting a massive new work. Other managers I work with were also there. It’s a good way to see a bunch of my partners in one whack.
After the meeting, I got a call from Liz Pearson a partner of mine from Briarcliff Baptist Church. We’re working together on the “Great Day of Service.” I’m helping them focus on outreach in the community. We also did a recon of several properties together. I think they’re going to fit in best at Briarlake Village, just a couple of miles from their church. I always enjoy putting a team together and getting them rolling on the Jesus highway.
Also worked on writing newsletters. Kathy and Ashley also helped me write some. I’ll finish the last few tomorrow morning.
Went to Azalea to help the kids. It was their report card day. Some I was really proud of!
Others, not so much. I got pretty upset with one kid who is really smart but LAZY. He came home with 4 Fs and a D. I did the flip out.
Then his brothers started talking about his youngest brother and the way he’s been acting lately. I was shocked. He’s always super nice and respectful around me. It was just heartbreaking to hear how he’s been acting at home–cussing out his parents, threatening to “cut them up” while they’re sleeping. I mean he’s only in 4th grade! I was so sad.
Got home and talked to Kathy about it. Decided I needed to run to help me de-stress out. So today I ran a total of 8 miles.
I’m still sad.
This mission stuff is really hard on you emotionally. If you get attached to people–like I do–it’s like my own kids failing. I take their failures really personally. I keep asking myself, “What else could I do?”
I told their older brothers that I felt responsible. They told me, “Not your fault, Mr. Tim. You did the best you could.”
My problem is just how good is “my best?”
I’m one of those ultra Type A, high achiever, never satisfied, kinda guys. I always feel I could have done more.. .
I had my partners Bob Wiley and Kim Jeffrey meet me at Columbia Gardens. We had a great talk with the manager there who is a dear friend of another manager we work with a lot in Villa Rica.
It’s all about relationships!
I’ll be going back to Douglasville in April to speak to a multi-housing conference. I accepted the invitation to make a presentation ONLY if they agreed to do some outreach in the area. When Bob said, “Ok” I immediately started contacting partners in the area. The Father was at work!
Went to the mission in Azalea to help the kids with their homework. Most of the kids are Bengali. I had one of my older girls come to help explain a math problem. She said, “I’ll help. But I have to separate them.” When I asked “Why” she said, “They speak two languages.” Never occurred to me that they had different dialects. Learn something every day. . .
Worked out hard on weights when I got home. Kathy did too!
