I feel like Charles Dickens:  “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”

This morning I had a meeting with one of my favorite partners–Toni Branyon.  We’ve worked together for years and it’s been a real joy to see her grow in ministry.  She is now at Corporate HQ for Chic-fil-a–my favorite of all American corporations.  That is a Godly bunch over there that is not only talking the talk, but also walking the walk.  Today was Mr. Cathey’s 86 birthday!

Toni is leading a new part of the organization called Communities in Transformation.  I’m part of her board of directors.  The rest of the crew are real heavy hitters: work with the Governor, top CEO kind of guys.  At least I wore my black, shiny shoes and not flip flops!

They start talking about needing 4 hour meetings and I’m like “are you nuts?” As long as we get something done, I don’t mind the time.  But talking about getting something done and actually doing something is two different things–at least in my book.

I do think it’s important to give them perspective from the field.  I guess that’s what I provide.

Bottom line, I think that this Communities in Transformation could be a really big deal nation wide and can help millions of people if put together properly.  For me that’s worth the investment in time.

I left there and went to Lithonia where I met two of my new favorite partners from FBC Conyers.  I had one assignment when I was at that missions conference and that was to talk to one Sunday School class.  I had a great time with them and issued a challenge to get to work. They seemed up for it, so I immediately put a plan into action.

We went over to to Pinewood apartments in Lithonia to set up a Easter Hunt outreach.  I think the planning went great and that there will be a positive participation both from the FBC Conyers group as well as the apartment dwellers.

I left there feeling mighty fine.

Then back to Forest Park where I spoke to the youth group at First Baptist Church.  We had a great time together.  I did my “Take the Church to the People” presentation.  It went over well and the kids seemed excited about getting involved.

Again, fine feelings.

Then I get the messages left on my phone.  One is from Mark Lassiter who works at SpringChase and is my daughter Ashley’s partner.  He tells me that he’s been given a notice by the manager that we have 30 days to leave the premises.

I couldn’t believe it.  This was the same manager that BEGGED me to come work over there.  I dreaded coming home to see my sweet Ashley all sad.  She’d been crying, but fortunately I got home around 9pm and she had pretty much worked through her grief.

I put flashers on and ran 4 miles in the cool darkness.  I feel better.  But writing this blog has worked me up again.  Welcome to my world.  It’s the best of times, and the worst of times.

I really do live in Two Cities.

Peace.

Met with Jason Lemming this morning.  He’s one of my favorite partners.  He did a great job while he was working at Perimeter Church.  He’s starting a new ministry church in the area focused on working with the least and the lost.  I got plenty of those!

Worked on my schedule for the rest of the week.  I got a lot of plates spinning–want to make sure I keep them all going!

Knocked out the last of my bi-weekly financial report and delivered it to my treasurer.

Worked out on weights this morning.  Feel like a dad gum Tiger Tank.

I’m headed over to Azalea in a few minutes to check on my kids.

Peace.

Had a terrific meeting with Cindy Hunnicut from Restoration Church of God.

She’s our Regional Director for our work in Marietta off of Holcomb Bridge road–a huge International area.

Looks like she’s taking the plunge to go to work in the community full time.  WONDERFUL news!  Whirlwind Missions is committed to making dreams like hers a reality.  I’m expecting God to do really big things through her intensified focus on the international population in Marietta.

I’m at the office now taking care of paper work.  Not my favorite thing, but you gotta do what ya gotta do.  I’m SO glad I have partners like my Treasurer who do a LOT of the work.

In a moment I’ll go over to Azalea to check on my kids at the mission.

Peace.

We packed up the room and had lunch at Golden Corral at Chickamauga near the battlefield.

On our way back to Atlanta we stopped at New Echota–the capital of the Cherokee nation. That is before the US government decided to throw them off their land and march them on the Trail of Tears. Over 4,000 Cherokees died.

Mighty sad part of our history.

We can’t change the past. I hope that I’m a positive part of the present course our nation is taking. Some of the things I see our government do really makes me shake my head.

My friends, only Jesus can bring peace to the Middle East.

Saturday, March 10, 2007

K and I went to the Chattanooga Nature Center where she rode her bike and I ran about 6 miles.

Later we went into the city where we rode bikes around town and over the bridge to N. Chatt. We enjoyed the artsy folk stores. I took some cool pictures.

We ate BBQ at Sweeney’s and then up to Lookout Mountain Hang Gliders to watch the sun set.

Fun day!

Friday, March 09, 2007

Kathy and I headed off in the morning to drive up to Chattanooga–one of our favorite get away places.

We started out in Marietta where we ate Gyros at the Mediterranean Deli. Sweet! Especially the baklava!

Moved into our room and enjoyed a relaxing evening.

Later we went to see 300–the new movie by Frank Miller about Sparta. It was awesome!

I met with David Clyde and Scott Sharp from Briarcliff Baptist Church this morning.  We went over the service projects that they will be doing with us in Chamblee on April 28th.  They’ll also host Outreach Events in the area.

We went over to Willow Branch to meet with Bennett and most of our Clarkston team went over with us to Cafe Istanbul.  Ray Vaughn, Terry Earl, Toni Branyon, Bennett, David and Scott and I enjoyed delicious Turkish food and even better company!

We then went over to Kensington Station to bring over the monitors for the computer lab that Bennett is setting up.

We also visited the our room under the leasing office where we will start our new after school program.  Kensington Station is HUGE (nearly 1,200 units) and is probably the neediest complex in the whole county.  My prayer is that our team will be up to challenge of reaching this community for Christ.

It’s very exciting to get my partners together.  Man, I get fired up!

Kathy and I are looking forward to getting out of town for a couple of days.

Peace.

Made the first DVD copies of the Niger movie.  It’s about 15 minutes long.  I have tons more stuff to show, but I think for church presentations shorter is generally better.  Some people go on and on and on. . . .

Went to Staples to pick up some school supplies for the kids at Azalea.  They gave us a new door!  Excellent.  Now if I had a key for it.  Jouvens has a copy.  I sure do depend on that young man!  He’s still waiting for word from the Bahamas for his birth certificate.

I’m in the office at FBC Doraville now.  Finished up my email.  GREAT stuff is happening.  I continue to have more teams sign up for the summer work.  I also have two teams coming during their spring breaks.  A third team is supposed to commit soon.  I need all the help I can get.

Got a call this morning about Briarcliff BC coming to help with some service projects.

Also heard from the director of our mission at Huntington Ridge–Ben Sawyer.  He and his family have been living on site at the apartment for about two years.  They’ve done a fantastic job there.  I really have been proud of them.  They’re going to move off site back to their house before the Summer.  Fortunately, they’ll still serve as directors of that mission.  I’m into longevity–whether they live on site or not is immaterial to me.  In fact, most of the folks that live on site end up burning out within a year.  I’d rather them move out and keep working than just flat burn out.  It happens all the time.

I’m leaving in a few minutes to go back to my house in Stone Mountain to prepare for the final night of the Missions Conference at FBC Conyers.  It’s always fun to talk to people about missions!  John Avant, the VP of Evangelism for the North American Mission Board will be speaking.

Go check out the Niger video!  Click on Mission Videos from www.whirlindmissions.org.

Peace.

Been working on the Niger Movie!  I have over 3 hours of video, but I put the best 15 minutes together on a DVD.  I’ll have it uploaded in two parts on our YouTube channel.  The video blogs from Niger will be up there too.  Eventually, I’ll put a lot of  the other video I shot on line as well.

I had a terrific meeting with my partners in the Clarkston area for lunch today.  We met with Aslam Masih from the North American Mission Board over at Madina.  We also had Ray and Shawn from International Teams, Pat Maddox from Friends of Refugees and Bennett Ekandem, Mark Lassiter and Terry Earl–NAMB/MSC folks.  It’s always fun to get together and share what’s going on in the International Village.  I was encouraged to hear how truly unique our work is in Atlanta.  I always kind of assume similar work is happening around the country.  Doesn’t seem to be the case.

A LOT of our success is thanks to folks like YOU praying for us regularly!  Hold the ropes!

Check out the mission videos (click on the button at www.whirlwindmissions.org) from last weekend with Bennett and Ashley.  Plus from the Video Blog you can see what I was up to in Niger.

I came home early today to help take care of my mother in law while Jesse and Kathy go to the dentist.

Peace.

Beautiful weather!  Bright blue sky and not too cold!  Excellent!

Worked most of the morning on the Niger Movie.  So far I’ve got most of my daily blogs while in country done.  I have all the video on my hard drive.  All of these processes takes time: rendering, compressing, editing, uploading , , , no fast way to do it.

Plus I have to do one version for the DVD and another for the on line YouTube account.  Just keep chipping away at it.  I nearly have all the blogs ready to upload.

Went by Dekalb Tech to drop off some paper work for Jesse to take his GED test.  So far he’s taken the practice tests for Social Studies, Math and Science.  He made nearly a perfect score on those three.  He’s taking more time with the essay section.  He’s a great writer, but he has trouble writing about things that he considers a waste of his time.  For instance, the last essay subject was: “Tell the value of sports in developing community.”  He thinks organized sports are useless so he doesn’t have much to say on the subject.  I try to tell him to write as if he was interested in it.  The teachers are really only trying to find out his writing skills.  But he thinks that’s “against his principles.”  C’est la vie, baby.

Working on financial records here in my office.  Just about have that knocked out.  Need to go by the bank and then over to the mission to check  on the kids.

Peace.

GREAT day today!

I really enjoy doing the mission conferences and FBC Conyer’s is one of my favorites.

I spoke at a very receptive Sunday School class this morning.  Ashley came and made a brief presentation too.  People ask me, “How did it go?”  I always say, “We’ll see if people get involved.  That’s how I judge whether I was effective or not.”

Entertaining folks is easy.  Mobilizing them is not.

I’m about engagement, not entertainment.

Hopefully there’s some of both, amen?

Put over 100 miles on the car today.  Sure was glad that Ashley went with me this morning.  I fell asleep on the way home in the car.  Pooped.

Peace.

First Baptist Mountain Park hosted two Outreach Events in Clarkston at Springchase and at Willow Branch.  We also had Providence Christian Academy help out.  It was a great time together and very well received by the communities.

Full coverage is in our Photo Gallery and on our YouTube accounts.  Go to www.whirlwindmissions.org anc click on Mission Videos and Photo Gallery.

Kathy and I went to FBC Conyers ths evening to set up our display for the missions conference and to get our assignment for tomorrow.

We watched a beautiful sunset on the way home.  Check out those pictures too!

Peace.