I feel like Charles Dickens:\u00a0 “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”<\/p>\n
This morning I had a meeting with one of my favorite partners–Toni Branyon.\u00a0 We’ve worked together for years and it’s been a real joy to see her grow in ministry.\u00a0 She is now at Corporate HQ for Chic-fil-a–my favorite of all American corporations.\u00a0 That is a Godly bunch over there that is not only talking the talk, but also walking the walk.\u00a0 Today was Mr. Cathey’s 86 birthday!<\/p>\n
Toni is leading a new part of the organization called Communities in Transformation.\u00a0 I’m part of her board of directors.\u00a0 The rest of the crew are real heavy hitters: work with the Governor, top CEO kind of guys.\u00a0 At least I wore my black, shiny shoes and not flip flops!<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0 But talking about getting something done and actually doing something is two different things–at least in my book.<\/p>\n
I do think it’s important to give them perspective from the field.\u00a0 I guess that’s what I provide.<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0 For me that’s worth the investment in time.<\/p>\n
I left there and went to Lithonia where I met two of my new favorite partners from FBC Conyers.\u00a0 I had one assignment when I was at that missions conference and that was to talk to one Sunday School class.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
We went over to to Pinewood apartments in Lithonia to set up a Easter Hunt outreach.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
I left there feeling mighty fine.<\/p>\n
Then back to Forest Park where I spoke to the youth group at First Baptist Church.\u00a0 We had a great time together.\u00a0 I did my “Take the Church to the People” presentation.\u00a0 It went over well and the kids seemed excited about getting involved.<\/p>\n
Again, fine feelings.<\/p>\n
Then I get the messages left on my phone.\u00a0 One is from Mark Lassiter who works at SpringChase and is my daughter Ashley’s partner.\u00a0 He tells me that he’s been given a notice by the manager that we have 30 days to leave the premises.<\/p>\n
I couldn’t believe it.\u00a0 This was the same manager that BEGGED me to come work over there.\u00a0 I dreaded coming home to see my sweet Ashley all sad.\u00a0 She’d been crying, but fortunately I got home around 9pm and she had pretty much worked through her grief.<\/p>\n
I put flashers on and ran 4 miles in the cool darkness.\u00a0 I feel better.\u00a0 But writing this blog has worked me up again.\u00a0 Welcome to my world.\u00a0 It’s the best of times, and the worst of times.<\/p>\n
I really do live in Two Cities.<\/p>\n
Peace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I feel like Charles Dickens:\u00a0 “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.\u00a0 We’ve worked together for years and it’s been a real joy to see her grow in ministry.\u00a0 She is now at Corporate HQ for Chic-fil-a–my […]<\/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\/41"}],"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=41"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/whirlwindmissions.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whirlwindmissions.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whirlwindmissions.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whirlwindmissions.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}