July 2024

Hope everyone is doing well, I know I am. My personal favorite part of this update is that my son has started quoting scripture, and I do believe that speaking 2 languages has given him a wonderful memory. I pray that he has a foundation that is unshakable, founded on the word of God, and furthermore that he would be an example to others. Abby has begun to speak, she says peekaboo in Thai from morning til evening she never stops, everytime she sees anyone she peekaboos. She has learned the Thai bow, and greets customers as well. She also has learned to clap. She greeted me with a peekaboo yesterday followed by a bow, and then a hand clap. She also sings what seem to be some kind of made up tune, but its super cute. 

Needs
I have also petitioned for Fangs green card which will allow her to get a visa. There is a 5 month wait now, but at least its not 10 like we thought before. Then there is another 2 month wait for her visa. Please keep her in your prayers as well. The application cost an unexpected 700 dollars, but with your support that becomes 500. We need 2600 now. Seems like we are moving backwards, but I have to remember that unforseen expenses were always going to happen, even if i didn't see it coming. Thankyou for your support, it helps a lot. 

Writing
Because Calvin has started quoting scripture, i put a lot of work into the scripture memory verse lists, and decided to level them based on how essential they are. Each level will have 100 verses, and they are sorted into categories. So I have level 1 almost finished, I need to add 3 more verses, its going to be hard to pick. 

I have also spent time this month making a system of essential vocabulary, no more than 100 words per subtopic, but I want a way to teach english more systematically. There are about 150 prepositions in the english language, so i picked the most common and will put pictures with each, and hopefully this will serve as both a flash card system and a clip art system for illustrating the books. Its a bit large right now, and I'm looking at somewhere between 5000 to 50,000 words to organize, so I'll get a system going and every now and then add a subtopic, and hopefully this allows it to grow more naturally. I want this to be something useful for everyone, and available for esl teachers, but also gospel centered, and homeschool friendly. 

I have continued to work on writing the books, making them rhyme, covering all the important stuff. I also started a practical book for kids, introducing the imperial system of measurement for kids who grew up with metric, and why a base 12 system is possibly better because it divides evenly by 2, 3, 4, and 6. not just 2 and 5. I cover other practical benefits to the imperial system as well, including the benefit of fractions over decimals, and the natural division of sizes that developed over a long period of time. I am reminded that great missionaries build hospitals, printing presses, paper mills, write dictionaries, and more. We should show love in practical ways, so practical topics, creating systems and machines to help with efficiency in the future is needed. 

Teaching
This month I've had Calvin help me in class more. I have him wait to answer, he has had to learn to let the other kids participate first, then when they can't answer, he can. He does well with dramatic pronunciation for the other kids to see. I think he enjoys it quite a bit. He has also been walking around the house quoting bible verses, so when I can, I may ask a student what Calvin is saying, then we can talk about the fruit of the Spirit and what it means to be born of the Spirit and produce fruit uncommon in this world. 

Making 
I made a chair with a metal frame I welded up years ago, and its been taking up space, so I painted it with rustolium an milled up some mango boards and placed them in it as a seat, bolted it to the wall out on the side of the house. Hopefully that will be a nice place for the smokers to sit so that the smoke doesn't come inside. 

Today I need to do some concrete grinding on the pillars in front so that the neighbors gate will open all the way when we want to open the gate between out houses. Shouldn't take long, just need to remove about half an inch. The neighbors have a music school, so it would be nice if we can get that gate to open right, and when they are open at the same time we are open, their customers can walk strait into our house from theirs. The owner of that school is friends with Fangs older sister and he proposed that i do this a long time ago, but I haven't got around to it. 

Conclusion
Whatever I do, I'll do it for the glory of God, both while acknowledging God in my work, but also working towards the expansion of the gospel in every direction. I pray that an extra door open means something. I hope that is true for all my work. Thankyou for your prayers and support. 
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