Last Day of 2008

I had a good time today meeting with one of my best friends from high school . We have not seen each other since 1996. It was really good getting reacquainted and sharing war stories about high school days and talking about our current lives and families. Its truly amazing how much our lives have paralleled over the years. It was great to see you again Terry.

We have a group coming from Campus Crusade for Christ tomorrow to distribute food boxes to needy people of our complex. Frankly they may not have enough to cover the current needs of the many that live there. Nevertheless we are so thankful that they are doing what they can to help.

Thanks for reading our blog and we hope you have a blessed New Year. Also to those of you who supported us prayerfully and financially this year...we could not have done it without you.

We Love You All!!!!

Merry Christmas

Hey...we would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas. We hope you all had a blessed day with family and friends. We are taking a little time off and won't be blogging for a while.Our December news letter went in the mail yesterday. We would like to invite you to read it so we can update you on the progress of our ministry. You can also visit our website at www.thetablemissions.org for additional information about our ministry. See you soon.

We Love You All!

It was a Great Day

Today we went to the mission to check on the kids and to clean our mission up. Boy was it filthy from all the Christmas and homework activity last week. It took a good hour to get it back in shape. We sure had fun telling the kids about Jesus and sharing the meaning of the candy cane with them.

We are so blessed to have a Savior that is willing to give up everything in heaven to come to earth just because of His unconditional love for us. Yesterday we were ministering to families at one of our mission sites. One of the kids asked me if we had a Christmas tree. I told her yes. I asked her why? She said that her family could not afford a Christmas tree. It made me sad to know that many kids there may never have the joy of something as simple as a Christmas tree. The management company at this particular location has placed a beautifully decorated tree in the big window of the office. Kids are constantly hanging outside just to look in the window at the tree. The kids tell us this is our tree...see how beautiful it is!

Do you take for granite having something as simple as a tree in your home? Are you thankful how well God has blessed you? Would you be surprised to know how many people in your neighborhood are having to forgo gift giving this year because they can’t afford it any longer?

God sent his son (Jesus) into the world that he might save his beloved mankind from their sin. Jesus came here in the form of a baby. He grew into a man in stature and was set apart for one mission...to take all the sins of all men to a rugged cross as the ultimate gift for all mankind.

Today was my uncle and aunts 50th wedding anniversary party. My uncle Charles is my mothers brother. He is pictured here with my Aunt Louise. It was also good to see my cousins too! We don't see each other very much because of varied schedules. It was great to do a little catching up. By the way I am the oldest of the bunch. Praise the Lord i am the handsome one. My cousin Karen refused to get in the picture with us because she did not want to ruin her reputation.

This is a group shot of the Horton family. Boy don't they clean up good? I sure do wish we could get together more than we do.My dog Sam has been under the weather today. I don't really know whats wrong with him. He acts like he has a virus if a dog can get one. Two weeks ago Sam was a hero. Some one broke into one of our cars and then tried to get into our house through the side door. My daughter and one of her friends was here alone. My daughter said Sam barked hysterically and ran the intruder off. Sam is our hero!!! He is still just a 10 month old puppy but he has a big dog bark.

We love you all and are praying for you during this season of peace.

Merry Christmas!!

Mission Update!

The kids at the mission got out of school today. They will be on Christmas break until after the first of the year. We will probably swing in a couple of times over the break just check on them.

Parkview Church is coming tomorrow for a little outreach event. Kind of a mini backyard bible club.We will swing in there tomorrow to pray with them. They have been there before so they really don't need to be supervised. We appreciate their partnership.

Please pray for families that are doing without things for Christmas. Many people are even hurting for basic food needs.. I sure wish we had the financial resources to help them. A few 50 dollar gift cards would really help out.

We plan to be at the mission on Monday at regular time to see the kids one last time before Christmas. After that we plan to take a little time off the be with family and celebrate Jesus' birthday. We have had a busy fall and need to recharge the batteries.

Thank you to all who have donated to our mission work this year. We really appreciate what you do for us more than we could ever express. Please pray for us as we begin a new year.

We will be sending our newsletter out early due to the holidays. Please read it and tell us what you think.

We Love You All!

Ministry Full Speed Ahead!!

To those who count it joy when they meet trials of various kinds...

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for wholeness and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11


Praise be to God in the Highest. Worked on administrative items this morning and caught up on email. Began thinking of articles for the newsletter.

This afternoon we did homework help at Villas Nueva. We had about 20 kids show up. Megan Faircloth did a lesson on the symbolic meaning of the candy cane. We hung out with the kids for a while. Two girls were having a disagreement for the bus ride home...we got all that straightened out. Now they are friends again.

School will be out starting next week. We decided to go back on Monday to check up on the kids. We have a couple of adults that need counseling. We plan to check up on them as well.

We Love You All!

Jacksonville Brothers!!!!

Sorry its been so long since our last blog. Ten days to be precise. It sure is wonderful to be getting closer to the birthday of our Savior Jesus. We are so blessed that we have a Savior that loves us so much. The reason we exist and is to love people like Jesus did.

Today me Tim and Jesse met with two brothers from Jacksonville, Fl. Paul Bowman and his partner Ira. These men feel called to connect Church's with missions. I was happy that we had the opportunity to get to know them and establish a partnership as well. Paul is familiar with a family that lives in Villa Nueva. It turns our the we have been helping their kids with home work. I was able to learn a few things about the complex that I didn't know.
We took them to one of our favorite Thai restaurants just down the street from V.N. We all had a really good time!
While we were in the area we visited a grocery store geared to accommodate Muslims. It is always a real eye opener to go into places like this. Much more for people that visit here to see the community.
We also took them over to the Hindu Temple to see the largest of its kind in the southeast. This is one impressive structures inside and out.
All the detail work inside and out was done by hand in India and shipped to the US.
The custodian of the complex told us that it took seven years to do all the intricacy and detailed work the surrounds the entire temple.

It was a fun day!

Just to update you...our home work help program continues to grow. We have also been able to share Jesus with several kids. We are so grateful that God is opening door to families there.

Please pray for us this week as we continue to reach out to lost and gang influenced kids.

We Love You All!!!

Christmas Party!!! WooHoo!!!

Today we had a Christmas Party for the kids at Villa Nueva. It was sponsored by our good friends and partners Mark and Ginger Whitley's Sunday school class from Mountain Park FBC.We are so excited that they came in full force bearing gifts, games and food for our kids. They brought so much stuff that we were able to lavish the kids with all sorts of goodies and still have stuff left over that we can use in the future. For some of the kids we work with this may be the biggest part of their Christmas.
Ginger shared a story with the kids.

The kids were also treated to a craft center where they made Christmas cards for their families and also had the opportunity to get their faces paint pictures on there cheeks.

They had several games to share with the kids including the highly popular bean-bag toss.Isaid was good at it.

All the kids ended up leaving with gifts, candy and a piece of happy birthday Jesus cake. They had a great time.

This is me with my longtime friend Mark Whitley. Thanks Mark and team for all you guys did to share Jesus with the kids at this mission. We really enjoyed having you and your class as our partners. See more photos at www.thetablemissions.org.

We Love YOU All!

20+ kids...Homework Help!!!!

Our homework help program is really beginning to take off. We had 20 kids today come to seek help with their homework. It looks like the word is out with the parents. More and more kids are coming in for help. Praise the Lord! We decided to not only offer homework help but to also let the kids come for board games and art.. the catch is that homework must be finished before art and games can begin. We are thinking about the possibility of increasing our homework help from two days to 4 days each week. We have prayed a long time for this to happen and the Lord is finally blessing our work and helping us to move forward.This is Genesis pictured above. She is one of our regular friends. She saw our chain decoration around the and decided to create her own chain for her bedroom. She is a good girl.The best part of having the kids come for homework help is that we get to share the Gospel. This is my partner Meghan pictured below sharing a word from the Bible with the kids. They really listened to the study closely. This Saturday we will be having a Christmas Party for the kids. We really got out and played it up today. Mark Whitley's Sunday school class from Mountain Park FBC will be hosting the party. We are really excited and blessed that they are coming and the kids can hardly wait. We are so blessed to be able to work with such beautiful and eager children.

We hope those of you who read this blog will get a sense of just how diverse God's family really is, and how His love abounds for all his people. I often wonder what language we will be speaking in heaven.

Please pray for our party this Saturday that we will be a reflection of Christ in the lives of all who come.

We Love You All!

Public School Ministry

This week I had the opportunity to work two full days as a sub-teacher at one of the local public schools. Many of the teachers are astounded that the kids, I have worked with, have liked me so quickly. As a matter of fact they care for me so much that it is a little disruptive sometimes. But I do really try to be kind as possible so as to reflect Jesus to them. Even though we are not supposed to directly witness unless asked, the model of Christ can be reflected in our personal lifestyles. My consistent theme is always "be good" and "do your absolute best."

Cornelia works daily in a local church preschool as a teacher and as mentioned in an earlier post she also works at a daycare center in the after school program working for Hindi speaking Indian nationals. She has likewise developed her own little ministry. Basically doing the same thing that I do in public school. She also really tries to reflect Jesus to the different cultures she encounters everyday.

Our after school homework help continues to do well and we also have a Christmas Party planned for December 6th at Villa Nueva. Please pray for these two ministries as we continue to share the Love of our Lord and if you feel led maybe even donate resources.

We are thankful for you all!!!

The End of The Bridge!!!

Yesterday was a sad day for our family. It was the last day for "The Bridge Ministry." We were one of the original core group families that stepped out of the traditional service three years ago to help start this service, so you might say that it was close to our hearts.

The service was designed to reach out to people that were disgruntled with church, had been hurt in church, or just simply wanted to have a low impact come as you are place to attend. It's hard,humanly, to understand why it had to go.

To be in the service yesterday and hear testimonies of the lives that were changed by this ministry was deeply touching. Many of these people were wounded at some point in the lives and were renewed by the overwhelming acceptance for all people who came to "The Bridge." Some one said yesterday that over 50 people had joined the church through this ministry in just under three years. Missionary types like us have a hard time seeing program cuts to mission based programs. We generally base success on one life led to Christ at a time.

Thanks to Bob and Rachel Bochat for all their hard work and weekly dedication. It took a lot of hours and sacrifice to pull this service off each week and with out a doubt you were called to this place just for that specific purpose. Also thanks to all of you who volunteered every week with the Lord's purpose in mind. We love you guys very much!

Parkview Chistian Church @ Villa Nueva

We had a great time today working with Parkview Christian Church! They were a lot of fun. We love to have groups come to the mission to help share Jesus with the kids.God sends many people to work with us from various denominations and Parkview has been a long term partner with Whirlwind Missions. They had originally thought of doing a block party, but due to the blustery weather conditions they decided to do a backyard bible club instead.

We were expecting a few kids and ended up with over 40. Praise the Lord! You wouldn't think kids would come out this time of year...but like all kids you just can't keep them pent-up in the house for long.Tim lead out today with the story of Daniel and the Lions Den. He told them how even though Daniel was thrown in with the Lions to be eaten, God saved him and would not allow the Lions to harm Daniel. In the same way when we are in danger God will protect us if we know him.

We had snacks and then Tim lined the kids up for a candy throw. This prevents mass chaos...if you know what I mean.

Thanks to Dan Boots and the P.C.C. mission team for a job well done.

We Love You All !!!

The Need is Great...The Workers are Few!!!

It's good to be alive in the Lord.

How many of you are keeping up with the News Media Buzz regarding the economy? Well if you are like me you might choose to just cut the TV off rather that listen to all the negative hype. Even when we think we are poor, for most of us who live in the U.S. when it all boils down to it we are still rich far above the worlds standards. A friend of mine said if you own more that one computer then you are rich.

Recently I mentioned that I had started sub-teaching at Lilburn Elementary School. This school is greater than 90% immigrants. Working there has turned out to be a vastly greater mission field than I could have ever imagined. Its so strange to think that directly north of the Rail Road tracks in our town of Lilburn one can go from one of the most effluent neighborhoods in the county to one of day to day living and struggling just to survive. Before God called Cornelia and I to missions, I found it easy to turn my head and look the other way. But now after seven months working with families from all over the world we can tell you that our hearts have been changed. When we used to see intruders...now we see people that merely want the same things for their children that we take for granite as a birth-right.

At school each day we have morning announcements. Just after announcements we say the pledge of allegiance to the flag and then sing a patriotic song followed by a moment of silence. Yesterday my heart was moved listening to the kids with brown and tan faces say the "pledge" with more gusto than any native born kid. Then the kids then sang God Bless the USA with all their hearts. WOW! one of the kids exclaimed. I love my new country.

Just to let you know...since I have been sub teaching I have been able to minister to dozens of kids and faculty. It's amazing to see God at work. What I looked at as a part-time job, God intended for it to be a misson field for sharing His Word with many people from everywhere in the world. So when you start thinking that you are poor, remember the opportunity God has placed in our path to minister to people from all over the world.

Please pray for our us and our public school ministry as we deal with dire situations of families. In many cases all we can do is pray! Also think about how you can help us in partnership.

We Love You All!!!

We are Back!!!

We are sorry for neglecting our blog update. Our Internet has been down for several days...so we have not had access to the Internet. This day and time that is liken to not having food or water ( at least that's the way my kids felt about it). Man what an experience dealing with the "new" AT&T no customer service. I guess its such a mammoth company that departmental communication is difficult. After two inadvertently canceled work orders and much anguish its full steam ahead again. The bottom line is we're back. More to come later!!!! Thanks for viewing our blog.

New Testaments and the Christmas Story

Yesterday I spent a lot of time in the Singleton Road area looking for problem areas. Also looking into starting another mission site in a different Apartment Complex. Went over to Villas Nueva to meet Meghan and the kids for homework help. When I got there I noticed a couple of Mormon missionaries were standing at the bus drop off point. Fortunately for us most of the kids were warned by their parent to stay away from these guys. I spoke to them and asked them if they were missionaries. They replied yes.

Just as the bus came and the kids started getting off. They ran straight over to us to say hello. You see we have spent the past months building relationships, so they know we care about them. The other guys have little time invested so the kids wont have anything to do with them. We had about six kids for home work help. I see why Tim Cummins has taught us to homework help as a spring board for relationship building. Many of these kids would probably fail school of we didn't tutor them, so they treat us like heros.We always try to make Jesus the hero.

We had 3 cases of New Testaments donated by our partner Matt Johns. We started distributing them yesterday and today. The kids are virtually fighting over them. Hardly anyone seems to have their own Bible. We are thrilled that we can get them in the hands of people who really desire to have a copy of the Word.

After homework help we had a Bible study. Many of the kids are Catholic so they have been taught the Word. We are really glad that the children have been so eager to learn. We read the Christmas story to them from Luke Chapter 2. The kids were really into it! They knew a lot. Meghan did a fantastic Job helping them understand. We were proud to have the opportunity to share with them.

Today I worked on fund raising and administrative details. I am trying to figure out a way to raise support on line. We recently launched our new website. We also need to find a way to advertise the site. . If you are reading this please feel free to forward our web address to your friends and family. Or place us as a link on your site. http://www.thetablemissions.org/.

The manager wants to have a health fair.. I will need to work on that and see advice for my elders.

Have a great day tomorrow. We love you all!

Kid's Zone

I went to the mission yesterday to check on the kids and to hand out fliers for our new Saturday "Kid Zone" program which is being directed by our partner Meghan Faircloth. I went back today to do a survey of the area to see how many other organization are evangelizing the neighborhood. I found out that the new building across from the Kroger, on Singleton, is a Universalism Church. Noticed that they are really blitzing the area with their flyer's and other propaganda. Looking at their material it looks like they are some sort of charismatic prosperity/healing organization. I plan to investigate in greater detail. This is the building in the photo below.

The sign translated in English to say, "Stop the Suffering." The sign below translates into "Jesus Christ is Lord." Like I said...we plan to investigate. I saw people handing out literature on the sidewalk of Old Norcross-Tucker. They looked like Jehovah's Witness foot solders.This is just an example of the competition we face among the cults. They like to work exceptionally hard with Latinos and, unfortunately, have made some headway deceiving people. Notice the sign below is bilingual. This Kingdom Hall is only one half mile from our mission base. This congregation is larger than most JW facilities.

They really have a lot of manpower on the street. Please pray that we can keep the people we are working to influence headed in the right direction.

Kaitlyn practiced her driving this afternoon. She should be able to get her regular license soon if she can conquer dreaded parallel parking. Thanks for stopping by. We love you all!

Lilburn Dazs

This week I have been substitute teaching at a local elementary school. This school is one of the largest in the county. It is also the most ethnically diverse as well. The older kids had a chorus concert yesterday morning. All the non-participating students came. Looking over the crowd...I think every ethnic group on earth was represented there. I might have seen three or four white kids in the crowd. It is so amazing to see what God has placed right here in our back yard in Lilburn. I feel God has given me this opportunity to not only earn some extra support money, but to also work in a school as an expansion of my mission field. Missionary work takes real creativity and this is just another way to build relationships with a different ministry technique. I really do approach this as part of my ministry.


One of the administrators asked me today why I was there? I think beads of sweat broke out on my forehead. After all I am a 50 year old man working with very small children. I thought "OK God" here we go. So I was straight up with her and told her that I was a missionary looking to make some extra income, then I waited for her reaction. To my surprise she began to tell me about her church and how proud she was of all the teachers in her school who are Christian. Honestly I have been very surprised to find so many Christian teachers there. It is almost like God has strategically placed these teachers in this place for this time for one common purpose. The attitude of the staff there is tremendously upbeat!

Yesterday one little girl named Marta came to me crying. I asked her, "Whats wrong honey?" She said in a broken voice, "Phillip says that God doesn't really live in heaven. Phillip is a Muslim kid. I bent down and told her, "Don't worry! I promise God is still in his heaven." She smiled and wiped here tear and said, "I knew he was wrong." Wow what a moment.

One of the blessings of serving the Lord as your missionary, is getting to meet and know so many people. If you know me personally...you know that I have no trouble expounding on the issues. Cornelia always says I came from my mother talking at birth. She is probably right.

Cornelia and I would like to invite you to keep praying for our ministry work. The Youth Outreach United team will be back at Villa Nueva on Saturday morning for their biweekly outreach. Please pray for my partner Meghan and her team as they work to reach the children with games, snacks, and the Word of our Lord. Also pray how you can become a partner in our ministry.

We Love You All!

Election Day!!!!!

As many of you know this is a very historical day in the life of our country. The Bible tells us that God gives certain people the authority to rule. He has also given us the freedom in our country to vote. We had a very special time voting early this morning as the Harrell's voted as a family minus Kaitlyn (see is only seventeen). Man what a tremendous feeling it is to have such God given opportunity as we have in the United States of America to vote. I hope you exercised your opportunity as well.

You know sometimes we get all hyped up when it comes to elections, but let us remember that God is sovereign and He is really in control despite the outcome. Jesus also tells us in Luke 12 not to worry, so whatever the outcome, as Christians we know who really controls things. Jesus! So don't worry.

If you are reading our blog...we want to thank you for taking interest in our ministry and our family. We love you all!

Sunday heading toward Monday

I want to update you with the progress we are making at our mission. On Wednesday we had about 15-18 for homework help. Not bad for a program that was almost dead two weeks ago. The power of prayer is amazing.

We give thanks to the Lord for sending Meghan Faircloth to us to help with our homework program. She is really doing an amazing job.

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I had gotten my substitute teaching certificate. I finally started receiving calls last week. This will be a grand opportunity to get a Christian influence into public school, while making extra income. My plans are to do this two or three days a week as time permits. I still have to keep our field programs running...they come first.

The entire Harrell family went to church a North Point Community Church today. Andy Stanley is beginning a new series on "Not Worrying." He really has a unique ability to preach to the heart. We have a regular home church, but we like to visit there once every other month or so.

If you are reading our blog...Cornelia and I want to say thank you. We will be back in the field tomorrow. Please pray for us!!!

Kindest Regards...we love you all!

Catching You Up on Things

Were back!
I am sorry for the lack of blogging the past few days. Friday was a miserable rainy day! I met the youth pastor of Parkview Christian Church and his team. We left their church and drove up to look at mission sites. They plan to do a block party for us November 22. They wanted to personally look at sites. I hope its not too cold then. Sorry for not having photos of the group..the camera was acting up.

After lunch I was back at the office working on administrative stuff. We also started on our news letter gathering supplies, postage, and working on layout design etc... I have a lot to tell you about in the next news letter. If you would like to be on our mail-out list send your email address to keithandcornelia@gmail.com. God has kept us busy this month with great ministry.

Saturday morning we met a team from Youth United. They came to do a party for the kids along with Bible stories at three different complexes. They were able to round up a few kids at each location. Several kids are Catholic and were at confirmation class, while others were attending Saturday school (for kids who need help keeping up). Later in the day I took Kaitlyn and her friend Vanessa back to Six Flags (yes we went back again!). We hit a few rides and came back home. It was fairly crowded.

Today we attended church at MPFBC "Bridge" service. We had a Tex-Mex lunch with our friends afterwards. We met a new family that we did not know. It was fun getting to know them. We really enjoyed Pastor Bob's sermon on "Why Come to Church."

Love you all!

Round Two

This morning started off with language classes. Learning Spanish is not really easy for me. Still I do believe that if I keep at it I just may get conversational by the time i turn 60.

Today was round two of homework help. We had approximately 10 kids. We love helping them because many of them have to go to Saturday school because they have already fallen behind this semester. It's our goal to instill success into the lives of these kids. As Truitt Cathy said...it's easier to mold a boy than to treat a man. Lord let us me molders of these kids so that we don't have to treat them later in life.This is Meghan Faircloth our new partner. She is doing a great job with the kids and has a huge heart for the lost. thank you Lord for sending Meghan to us. Meghan is a part of Youth United. They are coming Saturday to run a small fall party with costumes and lots of candy. Please pray that we will be able to share Jesus with someone.

Tomorrow I meet with two different potential partners.Tim is leaving for an out of town trip so I guess I will be running the ship. i love working with new people that are willing to move outside of the four wall. Praise God for them we need all the help we can get.

Love you all.