Greetings from New York City

How you doing? Well, my thick New York accent is tough to translate through a keyboard, but that's a traditional New York City greeting. Martha and I arrived in NYC this afternoon on a vacation/ministry/business trip. Nothing like multitasking a trip.

I try to convince people up here I'm from the south Bronx, but for some reason they think I have more of a south Alabama accent. What's up with that? :-)

We always enjoy coming to the Big Apple. It's definitely a city everyone should visit at least once in their lifetime. For five of the last six years we have been coming to NYC twice a year, because I have been fortunate enough to serve two consecutive 3-year terms on the national board of directors of the Associated Press Managing Editors. We meet twice a year at the Associated Press headquarters in NYC.

Love In Action is something Martha and I do totally on a volunteer basis. We love it. We spend at least 40 hours a week doing the ministry. We don't receive a penny for anything we do with LIA. My "real" job is being the managing editor of the Dothan Eagle in Dothan, Ala. I'm also the regional editor of the Media General Alabama newspaper group. I enjoy my job and being on the APME board of directors has been a terrific experience.

Today as we got off the airplane, I noticed that I had a totally different mindset. Six years ago when I first arrived for an APME board meeting all I could think about was APME and what I could do to help the organization. I also focused on how it could help my career. Thankfully, I have accomplished some good things with APME, and it has helped my career.

But today, all I could think about was the ministry Martha and I are going to do in Brooklyn tomorrow (Thursday) with our friends at Sunset Park Community Church. I also was thinking about seeing Benny for the first time in nearly five years. When we first met Benny he was a homeless man living on roof tops and the streets in Brooklyn. We kept working with him until we got him the help he needed. We brought him to Alabama twice. One time was to sing at mine and Martha's wedding.

When he came back to NYC he got in trouble and went to prison. He's out now and he's doing good. He is doing something this time that he didn't the last time, and that's use his support system, which we are part of, as is a pastor here in New York. It's going to be great to see him.

Growing closer to God and doing His work is constantly on my mind now. I like that change in me. Yes, I'm thankful to still be on the APME board of directors and look forward to our meetings this weekend. This will be my last meeting though as I can't run for re-election. But, I have to admit that I'm much more excited about serving the homeless in Brooklyn tomorrow.

You can keep up with us on our Twitter page, which is http://twitter.com/liaministries. There is also a widget or Twitter thread on our Web site that you can check out to keep up with us - http://loveinactionministries.com

Please keep us in your prayers. Thanks and God bless.