We Give Thanks

We are so grateful that we had all our children under our roof today. We are proud of the adults they are becoming, yet it feels great to function as a complete family; even if it is just for a short time.

So today Thanksgiving day I am thankful for all God has given me. I am also thankful that God loves me. Pray that Cornelia and I will make a greater impact for the kingdom of God as we strive to share the Gospel with the lost.

Oh by the way we are also thankful for you our supporters.

An Ever Growing Need.

If you were keeping track of us via our blog, we would like to apologize to you for the lack of communication over the past four months. The fact is, that we are still on the job and working hard for our Lord Jesus. Our mission base camp is still located in the Villa Nueava complex where we continue to work diligently to share the Gospel of Jesus with the community of over 90,000 Hispanic people. Our promise to you is that we will resume our blog on a weekly basis to keep you apprised on our work. And to familiarize you of God's progress within the Latin American groups in which we serve.

Stay tuned for more details beginning next week.

New Kids at the Mission and Back to School

Summers are really great at the mission, because it allows us to work with smaller groups of kids. Like us, kids are distracted by the pool, vacations, theme parks and etc... so getting them to the mission is increasingly difficult. For the ones who choose to come we are able to share the love of Jesus one on one with out the usual distractions.

It's been a couple of weeks since we last posted. During that time we have been working hard to get ready to restart our after school programs. Yes its that time again. Teachers go back to school next week and the following week students too. That means we have to spend much of our time collecting school supplies for kids that cannot afford them. The average cost to supply one kid is about $100.00. If you would like to help approximately 30-40 needy kids by donating supplies or money, please contact us at keithandcornelia@gmail.com and we will provide instructions. Currently our physical donations are well below what we collected last year. Your help would be greatly appreciated.


Older kids are harder to reach. Reasons are many, but the biggest is their love for soccer. They live for the sport. But recently we have found a solution to break the ice. "CHECKERS!"

Keith started a round-robin checker tournament with middle school boys that has turned into one huge draw. So huge, that they wait at the door for us to get there so the games can begin. Their manners are kind of bad (foul language) right now, but now we can begin to build relationships that will lead to sharing the Gospel.



Please pray for these Kids!!!!

www.thetablemissions.org

Brett and Maggie!!!!

I had a great time catching up with my friends Brett and Maggie Barnes. they are Campus Outreach missionaries working in Indiana with college kids. Brett was a kid in one the youth groups I worked with back in to 90"s It such a blessing to see him become such a man of God. But better than that, I'm glad he married such a wonderful women than can keep him headed in the right direction.

Today is week two of Camp Discovery. This is our 12th year running this camp. Cornelia is the director and really does a great job with the fun aspect and sharing the Jesus message. Can't never start too young.

Stay tuned for further updates and pictures.

June and Other Musings

June has been one crazy and busy month. We were privileged to have hosted mission groups from several areas of the country. One thing a missionary loves is... groups of people who give up their time, leave home, and travel great distances in the name of our Lord Jesus.

We were so blessed to have a great group of kids from Valley Ranch Baptist Church, who came here all the way from Dallas Texas. They were able to impact over twenty locations all across the International Community. They really worked very hard to develop new work in two apartment complexes that until now had no active work going on. All their efforts will be such a blessing to us as we use the data they provided to expand on their work.

Last year as part of our mission work we were invited to work with the prayer team at "Atlanta Fest." This event is the largest Christian festival of its type in the southeast. We were so blessed this year to be invited back. The founders of this event consider prayer to be the one most important elements of the whole show, and it is even written into every artist's contract.

Much of what we do is focused around the 'Prayer Tent." This is the site people are directed to during each invitation time. It is also a place to be alone with the Lord.

We also rotate the task of praying with every artist that performs on stage in a private secured area back stage.Each year at the Saturday night conclusion,candles are lit as a reminder to carry the light of Jesus into the world. This is a picture of my hands. I was the last person this year to receive the light. This picture was taken from the main stage. Beyond my hands you can see the thousands of candles. A very cool view uh? Can't wait until next year comes!

Changing Times...

One thing about life is if you begin to become bored, just hang around a while and things will certainly change. That is kind of the path Cornelia and I find ourselves going down these days. Last Wednesday night our youngest, Kaitlyn," graduated from high school.
Kaitlyn is the tall one pictured with her best friend Vanessa.

So after 24 years of raising children, we will be sending our last child off to college this fall. Not that we are sad bout it. Actually we are very thrilled! She has earned this step in her life and we are very proud of her. But the reality is that it is going to be so strange without any children living in our home. Our house has always been the hang our for friends and thank the Lord he allowed us the opportunity to be a Godly influence on so many kids. Many we can now call our friends as well.

Some people perceive Kaitlyn to be shy and with-drawn. But honestly they really don't know her. So as I finish this article I would like for you to know my daughter. A very godly young woman who loves Jesus with all her heart. A person who has amazed me in so many ways through her art, photography, and music. She is one of the bravest people I know and I can't wait to see what God has in store for her life. Way to go Kaitlyn!!!

Mission Fair at First Baptist Atlanta

Yesterday we had a blessed opportunity to help Kathy and Ashley Cummins man the "Whirlwind Missions" booth at the First Baptist Atlanta mission fair (Dr. Charles Stanley is the pastor).
For missionaries, this event is one of the largest opportunities for meeting huge volumes of people. To give you an idea of how large...the FBA sanctuary holds 5000 people times two services. Yesterday both service times were full. Well you can do the math.

The FBA mission fair always has such great networking and outreach potential. Before and after each service people streamed up and down the halls by the hundreds. Cornelia and I brought stacks of prayer cards, copies of our newsletter, and prayer bracelets. As we handed out these items God used it to open the door to many great discussions with wonderful people interested in local missions.

We also enjoyed the opportunity to network with other missionaries. It is so much fun to see the diversity of what the Lord has called his people to do in the advancement of His kingdom.

For example, Jack and Sharon, in the booth across from us, run a construction based ministry. She said when God called them to missions that they promised to do the work until the money ran out. They were recently offered the opportunity to move into the mission house at First Baptist Norcross and God continues to provide for their needs daily.

We also promised God when he called us into mission work, that we would serve as his labors for as long as He wanted us to.

Several Whirlwind team members were also present which made it really fun. We don't get to see each other very often, so it is always a treat to be in one place with many friends on our team.

Please pray for our ministry and the effort of yesterday labors be blessed and fruitful.

Sharing the Easter Story!!!!

We have been so blessed by what God has been doing within our midst. As we complete our second year of ministry in the south Norcross area, we continue to be amazed by the miricles God continues to provide.

Saturday we were blessed to have group of middle school girls from Mountain Park Frirst Baptist host our anual Easter party and egg hunt,

These girls and adult chaperones really worked hard to make sure the event went smooth.

Most importantly the story of Easter was shared with children and adults,
The kids of Villa Nueava had a great time hunting Easter eggs. But most of all they really loved the candy inside.

Thanks MPFBC girls for a great event.

In The Swing of Things

Today was early release day for Gwinnett Public Schools. The kids were really excited about going home early. I was also able to go home early as well. This gave Cornelia and I the opportunity to get into the mission field for a few extra hours today!

We went to Villa Nueva and opened the mission a little early. It was good to have the opportunity to spend extra time with the kids. Cornelia had planed and very creative bible study about Joseph and his coat of many colors. She incorporated a great craft project that the kids really loved.
I love how she uses her many years as a Christian teacher to spread the Gospel with these children.

We also went to one of the Huntington properties and distributed gloves to several kids. The kids there are really poor and appreciated the extra warmth for the bus stop on cold days.

Please keep us in your prayers.

Villa Nueva!!!!!!

Cornelia and I had a great turnout at our Villa Nueva mission today. Sorry we don't have photos to share of the experience. May be we will have a camera up and running soon.

We Love working with the people there. They are so appreciative for everything we try to do for them. It is really fun having Cornelia working with me full time again. She had a great craft project for the kids to do today. The girls really love her.

I also worked with kids on their homework. Many struggle to understand written English words which makes it though for them to understand the point of the material.

Finally we distributed bread to the needy today. We have found an outlet that will sell us bread for $5.00 bucks a shopping cart load. It's good to get some sort of food on the table of very needy people. For more information contact us at keithandcornelia@gmail.com

We love you all!

God is Sooooo Good!!

For weeks we have been struggling with the transition that is going on among the Latino people groups. It appears that so many people are on the move. I spoke with one lady not to long ago who told me her husband had gone to Nebraska to locate work in farmland regions. What does this mean to our ministry? It means that as many people move form our ministry field it puts us in a constant state of relearning people and regaining trust. Sort of a consistent state of restarting.

The bright side...God has placed us in a perfect position to spread the Gospel with many new families.

Also we have begun new work at Hunnington Terraces which is about a mile from Villa Nueve, just off Jimmy Carter Blvd. Currently another group is also ministering there as well. Our hope is that we can develop a partnership the will work for the good of the residents and not missionary egos. We were there last Thursday handing out coats and gloves to the kids. Most were very unprepared for the extreme cold of the past two weeks. Please pray that this partnership will work out.

Finally many of you know that we recently was able to start a Christian after school club at Lilburn Elementary School.Last week we had almost thirty kids in attendance. We were also able to gain support from two local churches...Lilburn First Baptist and Calvary Baptist Church. Both churches have agreed to help supply us with resources as we spread the Gospel in public school. Many of our students are openly proclaiming the Word to other kids. And we continue to teach the kids how to read the and study the Bible.

Please pray that God will bless our efforts as we "go" in the name of Jesus

Blessings.....Keith

It's Good To Be Back

Hello everyone....its good to be back on the blog once again. Just to let you know we have been absent for so long because of a few issues we had to work through. But know we are back on by the grace of God.

Over the last few weeks we have been blessed to see God work in some very powerful ways. One of the biggest blessings has been to have Cornelia return to ministry service in the field. In the past she has served in an administrative role. But God has led her to give up an extra job and to return to a full time roll in the field with me. Last years crew has gone on to start their own ministry sites (praise the Lord), so it has been a natural progression for Cornelia to reenter field work.

God is good all the time.

Much Love,
Keith