March 02nd, 2024

​Passed the health inspection with flying colors, nothing to it, they barely checked anything, however they brought 10 people, typical government spending i suppose. So now Fang has her papers in order, and has permission to do business in the city. I am hoping they don't come after tutorials next. My class is capped at 6 kids per class, so by current standards, i don't need a licence or anything, if classes get above a particular size, ill have to apply for a permit to open a school or something, and that can get hairy. 

After passing the health inspection, we went on vacation. It was a very short overnight trip to a seaside resort that was somewhat affordable and honestly quite nice. I even set up my slackline and did some tricks, Calvin played in the sand, and Abby didn't fuss at all, i think she enjoyed being held the entire time. 

This vacation gave me time to reflect on the times i used to set up my slackline to share the gospel with those who would come to see. I spent time thinking about how far we've come, and ways where I've lost focus. Since i've got back, i've spent a lot of time thinking about how to be more intentional about sharing the gospel in my daily life, even outside the classroom setting, which i am comfortable with, whether hanging from a rope or eating a sandwich in the bakery. 

Teaching
Teaching Calvin how to write has been a goal of mine this month. He picked up reading so fast, and now i just give him a couple m&m's as a reward, and he's back every day and never gives me trouble when i want him to read. Writing is giving me a headache however. It's teaching me patience. If i am too hard on the boy, he freezes up and its then nearly impossible to teach him anything. It has to be fun, easy, and at his pace. There is an important lesson, that every student will pick up different things at different speeds. That's part of why homeschooling is a great option, because it allows us to go at their pace. 

Teaching students how to read so they can pass their entrance exams was another challenge i had to face at the same time this month. Some of my students who speak english fluently, still can't read, so their parents had them study with me 1 on 1 until they got a bit better at reading. I made a good amount of progress with these students, and they passed their entrance exams and interviews. This is important for me long term, because i will continue to receive new students from their parents recommendations. 

Learning to lay a biblical foundation and build on that every class has been a focus this month as well. Students continue to come to me with questions, and i am able to build on what we have talked about. Small groups like this are vital i believe. 

Writing
I've been working on a Missions re-evaluation mindmap, which has allowed me to put everything in its spot. It is helping me prioritize projects better, and remember why i am working so hard to do this or that. 

Using AI to help generate book art for the childrens books is something i've been playing with as well. It seems to work remarkably well, and I am excited to have yet another resource to utilize when trying to create artwork. I do like using older historical pictures when i can find them, and finding background images isn't that hard, and using Photoshop is a great trick too. This is just one more tool in my arsenal that i truly believe to be useful. And googles ai is likely to get a little less woke as well after all this pushback. I have found the bing ai image generator to be super good. 

After a lot of prayer and thinking through things i have decided to move back to tracts. I will continue to do the kids books, and the tracts will likely come much slower, but i do believe that there is a need for more. It has been extremely useful to have them to give people when i need them, and the concept is still solid, even if the content needs tweaking. I may even decide to add pictures or illustrations, even though originally i was opposed to this idea. I want to say that i believe that it is possible to do more, as long as i increase efficiency by organizing and systematizing enough. That has been a huge focus of mine this year. Abby will be crawling soon, so it will be much easier to get my work done, i remember this was the case when Calvin started crawling. 

The kids songs are coming too. I did get an audio interface to help me record higher quality audio. Hope we can make stuff for youtube that can bless a much larger group of people than my tiny influence here. With this stuff, it will have to be a focus on quality first, so i don't think we will be popping stuff out every month, more like once or twice a year. 

Making
We did have to add a grease trap under the sink in the kitchen, we were told that every restaurant had to have one regardless of what the sell. So i bought one and installed it, which caused a the washing machine to flood our utilities room, so i managed to Jerry rig a pipe to flow only one way and close with there was backflow, and that did the trick, forced it all in one direction, no more flooding.  

Redid my 2nd commandment icon on my 10 commandments lighting fixture in my classroom, quick project but now it is an icon of a Buddhist idol instead of the golden calf icon i had before, which was confusing, and i think i wasn't as bold as i could have been.  This should help eliminate confusion. I will continue to find ways to decorate my classroom with conceptual art that will help me to share an important concept. 

Worked on the treehouse a bit and now i'm almost done, maybe in a few more months i'll be completely done, it does belong on the back burner, because of what it is, but Calvin is growing up and the under side is still not finished, so maybe i need to buckle down and get it done. 

Built a roofrack on the vehicle using aluminum extrusion. Stronger, more useful in a wider arrange of applications, and cheaper. Didn;t take too long to make either. Now i can save money by hauling stuff on the roof by myself instead of paying the service fee to have things delivered for me. 

Needs
We are planning on visiting home sometime around this time a year, next year, so we need to buy tickets and get passports for my children, and save some money for travel. It's been about 10 years since I've been home, so there is a lot to plan. Please keep us in prayers, we think we will stay for almost 2 months. Thankyou to everyone who supports us for this trip. 

Thankyou for your prayer and support.