{"id":2131,"date":"2010-09-08T21:39:38","date_gmt":"2010-09-09T01:39:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/whirlwindmissions.org\/blog\/?p=2131"},"modified":"2010-09-08T21:39:38","modified_gmt":"2010-09-09T01:39:38","slug":"pastor-mark-hearn-and-uncle-tom-christmas-azalea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whirlwindmissions.org\/blog\/?p=2131","title":{"rendered":"Pastor Mark Hearn and Uncle Tom! Christmas! Azalea!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This morning Jesse and I met up with one of my favorite people in the world, my &#8220;Uncle&#8221; Tom Jones!  I grew up with him and his family in Nairobi, Kenya and even though we are not truly blood kin, he&#8217;s closer to me than many of my extended family genetically!<\/p>\n<p>Mark Hearn is the new pastor at First Baptist Church Duluth.  This church has been a great partner for many years and I&#8217;m praying that Pastor Mark will take them to a whole new level!<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/whirlwindmissions.smugmug.com\/Partners\/Mark-Hearn\/IMG4079\/1000217062_n7pWo-S.jpg\" alt=\"gn\" \/><br \/>\nWe met at one of my favorite places:  Global Mall.  It&#8217;s the Indian center for Atlanta.  They have great food (a draw for sure) with really cool and interesting shops.  <\/p>\n<p>Jesse is interested in precious metals and they have a really cool gold store there.  It&#8217;s neat to see gold bullion!<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/whirlwindmissions.smugmug.com\/Missions\/Azalea-Place\/Azalea-9810\/IMG4082\/1000217579_yGJXi-S.jpg\" alt=\"g\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Mark, Tom, Jesse and I ate some curry then went to the Hindu Temple in the mall.  We had a good talk with their senior Pastor.  He was interested in Mark being a Pastor from a major local church.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/whirlwindmissions.smugmug.com\/Partners\/Mark-Hearn\/IMG4083\/1000217747_Yz2u9-S.jpg\" alt=\"h\" \/><br \/>\nI pray that Pastor Mark will have a big impact on this community!<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/whirlwindmissions.smugmug.com\/Partners\/Mark-Hearn\/IMG4084\/1000217933_cv8wz-S.jpg\" alt=\"h\" \/><br \/>\nI also took them to Madina which is a halal, Muslim centered grocery store.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/whirlwindmissions.smugmug.com\/Partners\/Mark-Hearn\/IMG4085\/1000218036_iB47u-S.jpg\" alt=\"m\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I introduced them to Abdul, a good friend for over ten years.  Abdul is always interested in sharing his Muslim perspective  with friends of mine that I bring to his store.  I think it&#8217;s good to actually meet with people from other religions in order to build mutual respect and friendships.  It&#8217;s all about BRIDGES!<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/whirlwindmissions.smugmug.com\/Partners\/Mark-Hearn\/IMG4086\/1000218219_eyQmn-S.jpg\" alt=\"a\" \/><br \/>\nJ and I went to the the office to pick up another big pile of Christmas in August boxes full of school supplies and toys for the kids at the missions.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/whirlwindmissions.smugmug.com\/Missions\/Azalea-Place\/Azalea-9810\/IMG4071\/1000219607_gV8yL-S.jpg\" alt=\"c\" \/><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/whirlwindmissions.smugmug.com\/Missions\/Azalea-Place\/Azalea-9810\/IMG4072\/1000219739_BJr9U-S.jpg\" alt=\"b\" \/><\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s been great!  Today&#8217;s boxes came from three states!  I think it&#8217;s cool that kids from around the country are interested in our work and helping other kids!<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/whirlwindmissions.smugmug.com\/Missions\/Azalea-Place\/Azalea-9810\/IMG4095\/1000219437_QMhW4-S.jpg\" alt=\"d\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Sure was glad to have Jesse help me load the boxes.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/whirlwindmissions.smugmug.com\/Missions\/Azalea-Place\/Azalea-9810\/IMG4091\/1000218931_yJAQ3-S.jpg\" alt=\"j\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We also went by to Bayo&#8217;s mission at Huntington Terraces to help him with his computers for the kids.  Another thanks to J!<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/whirlwindmissions.smugmug.com\/Missions\/Azalea-Place\/Azalea-9810\/IMG4090\/1000218878_c6yte-S.jpg\" alt=\"b\" \/><br \/>\nJ and I helped our kids at the missions.  Several hours of doing homework and hearing, &#8220;Mr. Tim, Mr. Tim, I need help!&#8221; over and over again gets exhausting.  But fulfilling too!<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/whirlwindmissions.smugmug.com\/Missions\/Azalea-Place\/Azalea-9810\/IMG4094\/1000219298_SKCb2-S.jpg\" alt=\"l\" \/><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/whirlwindmissions.smugmug.com\/Missions\/Azalea-Place\/Azalea-9810\/IMG4092\/1000219154_KyqBr-S.jpg\" alt=\"k\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Although today was my day scheduled to run, just too tired.<\/p>\n<p>Admin duties now, then looking forward to the summer finale of Psyche . . . one of my favorite shows!<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m still on the fence as to whether donuts should have green icing.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/whirlwindmissions.smugmug.com\/Missions\/Azalea-Place\/Azalea-9810\/IMG4088\/1000218540_r2Ho6-S.jpg\" alt=\"d\" \/><\/p>\n<p>And on the subject of &#8220;Things I Need Only Try Once&#8221;  Betel Nut.  Wasn&#8217;t bad, but wouldn&#8217;t say I&#8217;m rushing to get more.  The Indian folks believe it&#8217;ll help digestion.  Pastor Mark wondered, &#8220;Does that mean you need to stay close to the bathroom?&#8221;<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/whirlwindmissions.smugmug.com\/Partners\/Mark-Hearn\/IMG4089\/1000218656_9CrqM-S.jpg\" alt=\"b\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This morning Jesse and I met up with one of my favorite people in the world, my &#8220;Uncle&#8221; Tom Jones! I grew up with him and his family in Nairobi, Kenya and even though we are not truly blood kin, he&#8217;s closer to me than many of my extended family genetically! Mark Hearn is the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whirlwindmissions.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2131"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whirlwindmissions.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whirlwindmissions.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whirlwindmissions.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whirlwindmissions.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2131"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/whirlwindmissions.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2132,"href":"https:\/\/whirlwindmissions.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2131\/revisions\/2132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whirlwindmissions.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whirlwindmissions.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whirlwindmissions.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}