And I'll tell you, first of all, how I got involved with this. Nancy and I were members of Northminster RPC, Up and Coming, where Dr. Smith was a pastor there, and that one didn't make it. And then during that time he was pastoring there, and he started a Bible study on some burnt-out church steps in a street that's known as English Avenue. And English Avenue is infamous for various reasons. But he bumped into a lady who was a widow of a drug kingpin in the area when he was teaching at a college down there. And she had some Bible study material. Sunday evenings out there when he's burned out church steps there in downtown Atlanta. The area that the church is located in is known as the Bluff Vine City. It is written about in rap songs. It is considered, if not in the East, it's also argued for not only in the United States but possibly internationally. of human trafficking, heroin, and gun smuggling. As a matter of fact, the corner we sit, which is at Western Avenue and Walnut Street, the apartments that run right across from us there had a car theft ring, and we had trouble parking at times, and I would call and ask the police to come do something, and they wouldn't, and they wouldn't, and they finally sent a captain out there on Wednesday evening, And after I showed him all the cars that I thought were stolen, he said, yep, I would say they are, too. He says, you see my camera right here? You see this light? It's on. I said, yes. He says, I have come to tell you that Atlanta PD does not care about these stolen cars. So crime is rampant in this area. If you're familiar with Mercedes-Benz Stadium, that's where the Falcons play and the Atlanta United, the soccer team, that's the stadium they play. We are just three blocks west from that stadium. Just two blocks to our west as well, and just slightly over towards the north, that's where the Coca-Cola Museum, the World's Coca-Cola, the Civil Rights Museum, and the Atlanta Aquarium is right there from us, too. Between us and Mercedes-Benz Stadium, there is the world-renowned World Commerce Center. sit right at the edge of Atlanta's international cultural melting pot that it has from that humongous airport, Hartsville-Jackson, and right there where the least of these, as they have become to known in our ministry, live. So how do we arrive at this corner? Pastor Smith had been ministering down there. We rented a couple of buildings, a couple of houses, a couple of basements, a couple of basements and churches. And when I started working there in September 2019, we were renting half a condo. And one of the things that's happening in this area, because of the melting pot that's slowly encroaching into the people we minister to is that a lot of these apartments are being torn down and they're putting up these new apartments. You have homes that are being rebuilt and renovated, being turned into Airbnbs so they can be rented out to people who are coming to the games or to the World Congress Center, which is right there. And that's what was going on with the duplex that we were, meeting is just about two miles to the west there into the bluff, a little deeper into the bluff. And they were going to turn that into an Airbnb. So as I was taking on the job, we were having to move out of this duplex and find a new building. And we found this church. where the people were getting older and not meeting anymore and they were running into us and we finally bought the building in 2020, I believe it was. And the building was built in 1950. It was formerly a broom factory. They made brooms and mops there. In fact, there's an article that I saw on this factory and it was an article on a blind man who lived in the area that sold brooms and had a sack of brooms on his back where he'd walk around the area and sell brooms from this broom factory there. So, we're kind of in the heart of downtown and we sit between this international melting pot and the inner city people who are poor and have lived very rough lives. So again, this ministry has been going on for, I think it was 14 years on April 10th, 14 years on April 10th. And so how do we operate? How does, a church like this, especially when you're outsiders, operate within an inner city like this? And I don't know if I can really answer that question totally, but I can give you kind of an idea of what the culture is like there, and kind of how the community operates. And they are a community, and as huge as they are, Atlanta itself, I think we just checked the other day, has around 6 million people in it. The city itself has 6 million people in it. It's humongous. It's out of hand. So how does two outsiders come into this area? and make a connection with their community. And one of the things I found very interesting, I had not been working there very long, and one of the ways that we practice evangelism there is we were going out to pick up members and adherents to bring them to worship, is we pass out flyers to people we see. And I cannot tell you how many times I went to pass out a flyer to somebody, and they refused the flyer, not because They're being angry or anything with me, but because they said, I know who you are. You work with the man in the tall train hat over here. I know who you are. If I want to come, I'll come. And so I was surprised that they know what they're talking about, the tall man in the train hat, that they're talking about Dr. Smith. Because if you all know Frank Smith, he's always wearing a train engineer's hat. And so they, so even though that I've never met these people before, and have never interacted with them, they know exactly who I am. They may not know my name, but they know who I am. So that's one of the ways that we start to operate when we have visitors from the community that come in and things. We're always told that we have a reputation in the area of being the church that cares. And so we try not to give money and things like that away, but if we've got blankets or food or something like that, of course, because you want to be very controlled of what you do. So that's one of the ways that we operate there, is that we try and show that we care about the needs of the community, and we use that to start sharing the gospel. So when they come in and sit and talk to us, we immediately start to interact and try and get them involved in the ministry and get them back and not just be thinking about bodily needs, but spiritual needs as well. I'll give you an example. Back in the fall, we had a gentleman come in that the pastor had given a flyer to. And his name was, I believe it was Jermaine. And he was in a wheelchair and he comes rolling in. Turns out he'd been released from the hospital the night before and he had COVID. And we'd give him a blanket and food because it'd been raining and it was cold. And so after the service was over, I went back in and started praying for him. And he stopped crying. And then he said to us, he said, I heard that y'all were appearing in church. He said, so many church runners said they care. He said, but y'all actually did. I was cold and you gave me a blanket. I was food, you gave me, I needed food and you gave that to me. I was thirsty and you gave me water. And he said, he says, you know, he says, I've heard and I know what's real. And then that man put the whole of John chapter 14 to me and then Matthew chapter 25 to me. And I was blown away and I haven't seen and he was a homeless man. And so, we see that even among the homeless community, and even among the locals, that that's kind of how we started to make our inroads, is that we're known as the church that cares. And that's, it's difficult to cross that line. So, Pastor Smith has been very successful in that. So, I would like to show this. I'll try and pass it around. So, this is the building as we were starting to begin work on it. You can see that we've tapped into sort of the international idea of Atlanta. We have these four flags here, and the flags are switched out every four months because you can't have an end sign stay up any longer than four months in the city of Atlanta, or they will decide that you owe them money for that. So this is the building as we were getting it started. And if you look, oh, and right here, the apartments I was talking about where the car But if you also look right there on the outside above that, you have a blue banner above the flags. And those flags are, that we switch out with, are, pardon me, the nations where all the RP churches, where all the RP ass churches represent. So you got Scotland and South America and all those things in there as well. We, of course, fly the banner above the flags that show that Christ is king above all these nations that we're representing there. And that's sort of the message we want to bring there. If you guys want to see any of these afterwards, please let me know. Here's a little better picture of the idea that we got going on. It's a little closer there. And so when people walk up to the front of the church, and this is on Walnut Street. You're looking from Walnut Street up at the church here. Even though our address is Western Avenue, the entrance is better on Walnut Street. You can see the idea there. So when the people in the community come up, that's exactly what they see, the crisis king above all nations, which is certainly the message we want to propose there. So what else are we doing there? We start a little later in the afternoon. Worship starts around 3.30. One thing is in Atlanta, there in the inner city, time is not so much a consideration. Things are more like an event. I try to start around 2.30, and then worship somewhere that starts around 3.30. We try to have some time of interaction there between Sunday school and worship. I remember I was, pushing to make things start a little bit more on time and try and gather people in, but one of the locals told me that the white man has the watch, but we have the time. So we just gave in to that principle, and as soon as we can get gathered, we can get started. Also, too, I wanted to show you some of the work that's going on on the inside. One of the things that this building had was some pretty severe water damage in the in the rafters, and in the hanging ceiling. And there was actually a mold issue. We had to have a company come in and do a big cleanup and put the fans in and all that. And so we tried for like three years to get people to come work on this building. And they would sign a contract, and they would turn back from us. Somebody else come on and sign a contract, they'd turn back from us. And finally, one day, a gentleman named Martin decided that he was going to take us on as a project. And so he has really started working on taking this old rot material out. And I'll show you a few pictures here in a second. And this old yucky broom factory is starting to become beautiful. I can't believe I'm actually saying that about this place. So you see the flags and the banner there as soon as you come under those steps, this is what you see above you now. So he's really doing a great work there. And this is the theme that's carried on inside of the church. I wanna see if that comes up next here. Yeah, so here's the old, so when you walked in off of, off of Walnut Street, And you walked in there under the flags, and you walked into a scene like this. This is where we were worshiping. Did you see it, Mrs. Fearing? And you can see that it's got this little... You got this little tile that's torn up here and everything. It's super yucky. And then, as soon as Mr. Martin had a hold of it, That scene looks like this now. He's really starting to work it and bring it through. And so one of the ways that this has happened, probably the main way is, I don't know Frank Smith very well, but he has, he's got a way of showing the work to people and having them donate to help. ground our roots more in the community to serve in a way here. And it's all his contacts and people he's been working with for a while that are helping make this happen. So we've also torn out the old doors and we're now putting in these lovely French doors here. This is coming out of the worship area and we're going to what's going to be the fellowship area. We may even use that for a classroom as well. So this would be looking north if you're in the worship room there. While I'm loading up this... Here's a little better view of the ceiling there. So what do I do there? First, I was ordained as a ruling elder. at Brookwood PCA in Willowbrook, Georgia around 2007, 2008. I had become convicted of regular principle while I was there, and we'd become members of Northminster RPC. That's where Hannah was baptized. We were there until it dissolved. That was 2012 or 13, something like that. And again, I ended up coming back to the denomination through this in 2019. And what is my role? Well, I would say I kind of serve anywhere from being a deacon. As a matter of fact, the locals are not sure what I am. I could be a deacon or pastor, but I definitely can't be what I say I am. I am what's to rule the elder. They've never heard of that before, therefore it can't exist. So they'll say, Pastor TJ, I'm like, I'm not a pastor. I'm studying to be one, but I haven't earned the right to be called that. I'm a really young, and you just call me T.J. Oh, so you're a deacon? No. But I do, Pastor Smith and I do fill that role as deacon, and you know, sometimes I'm the one that goes and visits in the hospitals and those things, so I take on that role as well. We have a crew there that, on average, we have about 20 in attendance on a Sunday. Sometimes we have more, sometimes we have less. I think we have 13 community members, is that right? Something like that, give or take a few. Sometimes we have people listening on the phone almost every Sunday because they have health issues. has been coming to that church for a decade plus. She has several ailments, and she's on dialysis. She goes three times a week for dialysis. She doesn't feel well, but she faithfully listens by phone. And she never fails to remember your birthday and call you singing happy birthday to you. She has a lovely voice. That's always nice. This was a blessing. We got new bathrooms being put in. You can actually feel like you can go in there and not get a tetanus shot or something when you get in and out. Let's see if I can get to some people. If not, I've got some stuff on the phone. Now, oh, this is another room here. So this area used to be the old worship room. and we're actually taking this area we're chopping it up it's going to have a couple classrooms it's going to have a couple of compartments or apartments for what we call sextons so we're going to have people that live there who are kind of on the grounds keeping taking care of things and being there for the community so if somebody's needing something, we're going to help train them on what it means to have the mercy ministry. They're on the grounds so they can help within the community. And part of the reason we're doing this is because when you come into an area like this where you have, first of all, the ladies are the heads of the homes here. In this community, the heads of the household are ladies. The men just kind of roll around and do whatever they want. Ladies run the households. So one of the things that we're doing here, not only are we sharing the gospel, we're impacting a particular culture that is, you know, antithetical to being scriptural. We're taking, we're having to find men that we can start to raise up and see possibly these could be local elders and deacons. So part of the process as we're doing this and we're seeing who has leadership skills, who's really loving the Lord, who's really having a desire to follow Christ among us and see who can be raised up for such. So the Saxons are going to be people that we trust, who we know will take care of the place and not bring any unwanted things from the neighborhood inside and help continue the ministry throughout the week. So this runs uh south there so um i'll start here so this will be kind of done in half but the double doors you saw another picture of are here and then there's actually an old office that goes back this way there used to be a pastor's office uh so you see this work being done here These wooden beams you see were replaced with what used to be jacked hoist beams. And when they came in and did the work, they actually had to lift the ceiling up 14 inches in order to set it properly. But it's all good now. And praise the Lord for that. It used to be kind of amusing because, too, there was like a six-inch little stage thing there up against the wall, you're looking at the back, and the ceiling being so low. You know, Frank Smith is 6'4", so when he'd get up there, it was like he just kind of has a little bit of headroom up there when he was giving the message. Does anyone have any questions or anything? I know I'm talking a lot. I don't know if... Oh, this is Martin. Frank calls him Martin the Mexican, but I remind him, Frank, there's more than one Mexican in the world. And so he's not the Mexican, and that's where he's from. And Frank did these slides. It wasn't me, sir. This is the gentleman that's doing all the amazing work on this building. He's a very talented man, and a very hard worker, and really appreciate what he's doing. Thank you, Martin. I've not met Martin, but I love him already. Oh, this is a nice scene here. So up on the porch where you saw the flags, this is looking off west and slightly south. And I'm surprised that an airplane wasn't captured in the picture, but so you can see it's kind of what it's like to look off the church porch there that way. This here, let me put this in that. This area here is a new park, and if you heard about the controversial MLK Jr. statue that came up a couple years ago that was causing so much ruckus down there because of the way it looked like it presented an idea, I won't get into detail, but it caused a lot of ruckus. That was right there in that park that that happened. It's just two blocks away. And sometimes we do go to that park and set up a prayer table to meet people and invite them to the church. Here's a picture of that park, too. So they've got a nice little bridge there. Ma'am? Is Pastor Samantha here? from that area, or how did he end up, I know you said he ended up there after he was at Northminster, is that what you said? So yeah, so Northminster, he wanted to do an evening service at Northminster, and the congregation didn't want to, and he, it's just one of those, it's just one of those things that the Lord just put together. He was teaching at a school down there, you know, he's a history professor, that's what his, actually, as well. But he was teaching a few classes down there in that area, and he met this lady on a bus, and again, she was a widow of one of the drug kingpins down there. I think her name was Rose, is that right, Nancy? And he started a conversation with her, and she said she'd been wanting to do a Bible study, and it just, grew from there. So no, he's not from there. He is from Georgia, although his father was a PCA pastor who was in New York for a while, and I believe Florida for a while. So he's been around. helped his father plant a church up in New York that's still going. And so it was just that, and he wanted to do something in the evenings anyway because they didn't want to do a worship service in the evenings at Northminster, and so he got it started. And it kind of upset the people in Northminster a little bit. That might not be I don't think they, I think they were worried about him going down is what it really was. And I believe his answer to them was, I'm a pastor, it's the Lord's day, what else am I supposed to do? So it is stuck. So, yeah. Oh, I got it, so this is Frank for sure. So here's a picture of Mercedes-Benz Stadium if you've never seen it. So even though we're right there where people are poor and needy, you can see this building. So you know where we were standing there looking at the flags and have the blue banner above it? When the leaves are off the trees, you can look directly west and you can see Mercedes-Benz Stadium. This building was $2.6 billion, and I could see it from, I mean, literally, you know, slums, doors, steps, when I would pick people up. I could see this $2.6 billion building. There's such a contrast there. I'm standing on that, and I can almost reach That's another thing, too, between the red cars and the game traffic, they would come down to the park, because you can walk to the stadium from there and have people with St. Louis Saints, or the U.S. Saints flags when they're playing the Falcons all out there, and we take their time. They were leaving when we were pulling up to minister to them and trying to get them to stay and come to worship. They weren't interested in that, though. Yeah. So, and here's a, this is standing there on Northside Drive, which is the main road that runs north and south there. This, to your right, will be Mercedes-Benz Stadium. To your left, we'll be going back towards And this is when you look out, so you're actually looking over 85, 75, at the skyline here. So you see that this is right there where all the big money folks hang out, right there across the highway. So that's where we are. That's kind of what it's like. What I'm gonna do is, does anybody have any questions about Anything more that I've talked about or anything that I haven't spoken about? Have we been checked to see if we're sane going down there? No? So one of the things that this slideshow is missing are some of the people. And I will tell you this, too, about the area. You never know. how folks are going to be. One thing they've taught me is not to pigeonhole them. Because if you do, they will prove you wrong very quickly. We have an adherent who comes quite often. Her health has gotten bad recently, so we don't used to, but her name is Adrienne, and she is in an electric wheelchair now. And Nancy, I should have asked you to pull this up for me beforehand, but I want to show you just kind of, well, here's a, before I go to the angel, we had, Tucker, PCA, it's a plant, a church off of Westminster PCA out there. They came to visit us, wanted to see what we were doing, and so we had a nice full house that day. Had a few people come visit us. But I wanna show you some of the locals here. Also, during the 2020 riots, did you ever watch any of the riots in Atlanta? Did you ever see any of that footage? If you go back, to where I was showing you the last photo looking across, if you go right back up to that next red light and turn left going west, as you are coming down to the Civil Rights Museum and all that, there's a huge Ferris wheel over there on your right, and that's where the riots were going on in 2020. And so one time we left the service and we're headed home, When we normally go back up, that's Ivan Allen is the name of that street there. And all of a sudden, this police officer on a motorcycle comes roaring by, and he stops right in front of us. And I was like, hm, I wonder what he's doing. I should have known. But what's he doing? And next thing you know, I see all these signs starting to march over from around the corner. And I was like, nope, we gotta go. So I turn around and head back south and west. Then cut back on Northside Drive, head over to what's called 14th Street. Come back and hit the 875-85 corridor there. During that time, there was a stand set up where people were trying to get people to sign up to vote. And they were passing out water and chips and stuff there at the corner of Sunset and Boone. That's about two blocks to the west of us, just slightly south. And they were there for several weeks. And I noticed when I go and pick up some of the locals, we drive by there, they would be very quiet. And I look in the rear view mirror and they were looking at these people. And so after this went on for several weeks, I finally decided to ask the elephant in the room a question. Do y'all know these guys? And they said, uh-uh, uh-uh. And it was bothering them because they talked about it for the rest of the way. So after service, I decided to ask them. when I was carrying home about the voting thing up here that we were about to pass that started up. So I decided I would pull over and ask who these people were because the locals didn't recognize them. And as I said, even though it's a big community, they all know if you're from there or not. They know. And they don't trust outsiders. So I stopped the car, pulled up, had an armed guard there, and I started a conversation with him. He wouldn't tell me who it was that was out there, but he finally admitted that his paycheck came from Black Lives Matter. So when I got back in the car and told them that that's what the guard told me, they all started talking about how they would never walk by there again because they didn't like it that that organization was in their town because they looked at it as just an organization that came in from the outside to tear their city down. And this is just about two weeks after the Wendy's had been burned down, just a couple blocks from us. So anyway, as I said, they're full of surprises. I've learned that all literature on dealing with the inner city folks is not It's not always, it's really not applicable. So this is Adrienne, and so right after the last election, she proudly wore this to the city as she rolled down on her, on her electric scooter thing. That is her hat. She bought it with her money. And so, yeah, it's interesting, full of surprises. And that's kind of what we do on Sundays. I appreciate it. Thank you. Can I ask one question? Yes. I understand you said your service is much later in the day. Yes, ma'am. We started, well, I said we're trying. Sunday school, 2.30 ish. That fits, but I understand that perfectly because when we were in the QF, the banks were supposed to open at 8, but you better not go until about 20 after or 8.30 because nobody would be there. And I heard your vernacular. I had never heard carry, but you said you carried him places, and that is basically what the terminology was there. That came from Mississippi when she was teaching school down there. Yeah, I was in an all-black school, and so I learned a lot. Yeah. They are somewhat not trusting, so I think... And yet, in other ways, they are. Yes. It's just a matter of kind of establishing some connection. Well, thank you for bringing that up, because that's one thing. When you're an outsider, they don't trust you. Once they learn that you're not there to harm them or take advantage of them in any way, you gain their trust, then you have a hard time losing their trust. Also, I'm glad you brought that up, too. I believe one of the reasons why Frank Smith is able to work in that community is because these people are smart. They are. And they learn who you are way before you learn who they are. And they know that he genuinely loves them. They know it. There's no doubt in their mind. And though, you know, I get along with them for the most part, or with them and their teacher and minister to them and things, they know that Frank loves them, that he's been there so long and he's so faithful to them, that they'll say to me, T.J., we like you, but Frank's our pastor. He's, they understand that, and I don't know if that's because they, that they have the sense of community that they have and the way their community operates and how they learn to work with people and all that area, but they are, they really have it in a way that's unique. And also the, and I won't get into this today, the dynamics of how the community works is almost upside down with what you think. What we would say is... It's okay. So, yes, it's a learning curve. And I'll tell you, just when I think I understand how we're working as a community, something else happens. I'm kind of like, ah. So, probably one of the things, Asher Smith and I have said most to each other when we're having our meetings and talk about how to progress in the ministry is, probably the words that he and I have said most to each other is, I don't know. And so you just have to sit back and wait and let things happen. We used to do, at the school in Key West, home visits were part of the school program. You would go into the home and make two home visits a year. And I had a parent say to me, no matter what I tell you, people never really understand our culture. And I was probably 22 years old, and I was like, exactly what is she telling me? And it's hard for me to believe that I can't. Can't figure this out, but that's, she told me exactly that. Yeah. And they are, that's their own world. And you either find a way to go with the flow or you'll fall off the track. And they won't come back and get you either. Yeah. Well, thank y'all for listening. I know we're getting close to starting, or need to start the next service. Thank you, appreciate you coming. Thank you.