October 2021

​This month has been a good month for us. I am very thankful for my wife, as she has helped me pull through some of my shortcomings, and has herself managed to save her own business and mine during this hard season at the same time. I'll talk a bit about that in this letter. 

Family

Calvin is growing and beginning to really show his personality, he seems to be a people person, greeting everyone, and waving them goodbye when they leave, playing with other students, and playing pica boo with every stranger he sees. Calvin is highly energetic, loves to climb into the treehouse, but also has attention enough to let me read to him, or sing songs together, and i am very thankful that his energy is not a distraction. Calvin walks and runs at the park now, and entertains everyone. Fang and I are doing well, obviously in love with our little guy. 

Evangelism

So i finally admitted im not brave enough to go hand out tracts on my own regularly, so i asked my wife to go with me, and supprisingly she said yes, even when i suggested we go everyday. So i mapped out the streets, and we are going to cover them all. Most of the time we leave bible verse cards in peoples doors and mail boxes, but sometimes we get to hand them to people directly. Yesterday i handed them to a guy i didn't recognize but fang told me as we walked away that that guy delivers for her, he read the verse very loudly for all to hear… i smiled cause that exactly how we came to believe isn't it? I assured fang that the word of God is powerful, and we should never underestimate what God has called us to do here. 

Tracts

We did finish the bondage of the will, and fang finished checking it, but i need to triple check it to make sure we didn't mischeck anything, and then i'll need to format and mass print, upload to website too. Also prepared some selected chapters of scripture for memorization, spaced out for memory not based on verse, i am considering adding italics, and other things to help with emphasis, but im not sure yet (its a lot of work) 
There are a bunch others on my list, some partly done, but i am not sure which ones i will do this month. We have had several people come in and read the tracts, and i am wondering if it is due to our evening outreach. One lesbian couple read a tract at the table they were sitting at over a plate of spaghetti and fang told them the usual, "you can take them home if you want, they are free" and one of them responded "thats fine, it is a very amusing read" … not sure what to make of that… its not a comic book lol. I just pray the seed of God's truth has been planted and maybe they will come back later with a more serious tone when they have slept on it. 

Business

I have a few new students, so that good, im able to breath a little now. I don't think we will be late for rent this month. Also fang is selling strangely well some days and the normal not so good other days… not sure why, patterns are hard to figure out sometimes. It could be the pizza. 

I am going to be making candles, got the materials ready, will pour the wax in old glass bottles i have cut… i think they will be interesting gifts, and for smell, some will be lavender, and others cedar… i always liked the idea of dude candles.. so why not give it a shot. 

Recycling is going really good, surprisingly i have about 20x more paper than anything else to recycle, so im also considering doing papercrete products like boxes, or lighting fixtures, or bowls… The plastic takes up way less space after it has been shredded, so im thinking i need to save it up for a good long time before using it. All the cardboard, and paper products fill up pretty quickly. 

For food, we will be doing dehydrated food and canned food and selling that eventually, but not yet. 

Building

I am almost done with my workbenches, and i made a large swivel tool organizer, thats it for this month. 

However a thief tried to break in and the neighbors scared him off, so we hurried and added a couple extra security cameras, and a motion sensor light and new locks for the gates.... Fang will be getting her concealed to carry permit for here in thailand eventually, we will just take that one step at a time. 

Thanks

Something we read about in scripture which is a common theme throughout is thankfulness, and about a year or 2 ago, i don't remember exactly, i fell extremely convicted that i was complaining all the time and not being thankful ever. In my usual fashion i asked God why my criticism was so bad and the only answer i received was be thankful all the time. I actually think that some of the greatest heros of the faith were hyper critical people, but this must be balanced with thankfulness. Its not only a biblical truth, but a proven scientific fact that gratitude makes us happy. So I am thankful, and everyday i am given more to be thankful for, and we are living for God in a very difficult place, but there is so much to be thankful for. Thankyou as well for your continued support, and prayers.