south atlanta, georgia

i drove back down to atlanta... gotta love atlanta traffic!

i went to south atlanta to meet mandy, another friend of my friend heather.  they knew each other in nursing school there.  mandy is an amazing person.  i was truly blessed to meet her and have some time to hang out.

i was around for three nights and two days.   the first night, we met up with kirsten and mike and ate mexican food at el azteca.

the first day i just spent blogging at the house where they were staying while mandy was at work.   the house was not in the worst part of town, but it was not in the best either.  while i was sitting in the house using my computer, someone broke into their neighbors house in the middle of the day.  i didn't know it at the time, but later i realized i had heard their back door getting busted off the hinges.  i had thought it might have been simply two gunshots a block away, but being so used to city noises it didn't really phase me.  hmh!

the next day, mandy spent her very sunny day off by driving me and her friend kirsten all over town.  she got to show us a bunch of places where she and heather spent a lot of time schooling working and playing, and told me a lot about the ministries that are going on in their neighborhoods now.  there are groups of people who live in purposeful community within difficult sections of the city with the goal of bringing hope and opportunity to neighbors relationally and economically.  and they do this is very sensitive, thoughtful and strategic ways, seeking god's guidance.

we spent the bulk of our time walking in the oakland cemetery, at piedmont park, and under a graffitied bridge.  ((see cemetery and graffiti photos in next posts))  at piedmont park we enjoyed a long walk around the pond.

by the pond we had some great people watching time.  we watched the funniest family play some 'broom over' game that i had never seen before and other games.  then they got into an unplanned cupcake food fight where they were running around smushing the icing onto each other's faces! haha, so fun!  i didn't get any photos of that... it just felt too intrusive : )

we had lunch at the flying buscuit.  yummy southern foods...

and dinner at the vortex...  great as well.

throughout the whole day we had really meaningful conversations, which i enjoyed immensely.  it was really great spending that time with mandy and kirsten!