Febuary 2023

Family

Calvin really has started to speak a lot more this month. He is copying a lot of what we say in both languages, and it is getting a lot more clear too. He can count to 30 or so, but not clearly, the boy likes numbers, and cars, and tools. He walks around and identifies things by their color as well. So thank you for your prayers. I've done a lot of reading on this, and i think that additional information/ education given at a younger age, even while being a great benefit and giving him a head start, causes slower speech.

I don't know if i let everyone know yet or not, but Fang is pregnant with another baby, and this is her 3rd month, so soon we will know if it is a boy or a girl. She is doing great but is feeling much more moody and sickly than she did with Calvin, which, from what i read, might actually mean its a girl, it will be fun to see if this is true.

I've spent quite a bit of time this month on a roll, preparing resources to start homeschooling Calvin. I am going at it in a way that i can hopefully provide guidelines and materials for other parents who want to homeschool their kids in Thailand. This will be a bilingual homeschool curriculum with guidelines for how to apply for homeschooling the easy way at a local school.

Ministry

This month i got into a very long multi day discussion on monerism vs. synergism. This discussion kind of wrapped up in a weird way, but in the process, i started to research what the church fathers said on the matter, and i think the information i found is interesting, and worthy of a tract, or being added to a tract. So i will continue this work into this next month

On top of that, because of some discussions with muslims, i have discovered verses in the quran which are direct quotations of the gospel of the infancy of Jesus book, which was not accepted as canonical by the early church. Looking deeper, there are lots of verses like this. I need to make a long and detailed list of all the verses in the quran like this, and make a second tract explaining that it is not the christian bible that was corrupted after the quran was written (after the false prophet muhammad said the bible was good and true) because our canon has remained unchanged since at least 200 years before him, but rather the quran and arabs at the time who were influenced by unreliable cultic christian texts, effectively making islam an extension of those christian cults who denied the deity of Christ in the Arab world at that time. This is good because this above all things is able to show muslims the fallibility of their book, and point them to the God of the Bible, Elohim, which is where the arabic name Allah derives from.

I have done a little bit of work on that online tract, but will have to continue it next month. I really wanted to get that wrapped up, but i have been so busy.

Business

Fangs business and mine are doing ok, ive gotten a few more students recently, which is good, and while fangs business could be better, it has remained somewhat steady, so we are thankful.

I have successfully molded recycled plastic, so i will be looking for ways to create profitable products to sell and generate additional revenue. In the end we want to grow this business to support additional members of our team, and even our children if they are interested. We will grow it slowly as a low risk side business for now, and see how it does.

Vehicle

We did go ahead and buy the vehicle, and extend the tags and paperwork. The vehicle is looking very good in my opinion. I have been driving this little suv around the city for a week now, and i like it. Perfect little vehicle for us. I added a car seat, and have been cleaning it up and doing a little repair work here and there, and will fix a little pealed paint, the paint code was on a sticker under the hood, just small stuff. Its a good car, but now that i used the visa money that i need to extend my visa, to buy a car, i have 7 months to put that money back in the bank. It was 60,000, and 30,000 has already been given in support, so if you want to help me, just let me know and i will let you know how you can give. Now is a good time to support me here because the thai baht is dropping, and the exchange rate is great, the legal amount i need hasn't changed, but the value of the dollar compared to he baht has increased, so any money you give now is slightly more valuable. Last time i took advantage of the exchange rate, i made a profit of 300 dollars if i remember correctly. I can imagine a system where churches in different countries raise support for each other by sending money at ideal times, back and forth as the exchange rates change.

Thankyou for everyones prayers and support, we are excited at what God is doing in our lives, our family, and in this city. Thankyou for standing with us.