It has been a long time since I have entered anything into this blog, and high time that I do so.
As I indicated our intent in my last entry, Theresa and I are back in Manitoba. We got here in the wee hours of the morning on the 9th of September. Life has been very busy since we arrived back. We are trying to juggle all of the daily things that need to be taken care of whenever we are back, as well as fitting in as much time with all of the kids as possible.
Jessica finished her first round of radiation and chemo about a week ago. Once again, I encourage anyone who is interested in what is going on in their lives to look up their blog at: mainlandmessage.blogspot.com. I know that you will find it not only a very good read, but also uplifting, at times an occasion to look into the depths of your faith, sometimes shed tears, and many times you will find it straight out hilarious. It will also give you a good window into what is going on in our lives while we are here in Manitoba with them.
We are in fact staying with James and Jessica and the boys this week. We have been changing off with Leonard and 
Leona, Jessica’s parents in helping out with the boys. Ari and Jude, five and three years old, take a lot of energy to keep up with. There is a reason why God gives us children when we are in our twenties, and not in our forties and fifties.
Theresa and I are doing well. We are busy. Theresa is trying to visit all of her friends and get caught up again after being gone for six months. This also has to be fit in around all of the other things that are going on now in our lives.
One of the rather “crazy” and bold things that we are trying is to see if we can manage to survive while we are here in Canada on the income from an import business that we have set up. Before we returned to Manitoba, Theresa and I went to Southern Mexico to the silver cradle of the region, and purchased jewelry with the intention of reselling it when we arrived back in Canada. We then went through the process of applying for a company registration through the Canadian government. We are currently registered as Silver Valley Imports and are importers of fine silver jewelry and handcrafts.
Our dream is eventually to be able to utilize this business in “tent making” in such a way that we can become self supporting while on the mission field. The next step is that we hope to be able to provide fair trade prices to the artisans and villagers throughout Chiapas, Oaxaca, Guatemala and other regions where we purchase the handcrafts which we will import. Many times there is no good market for these local artisans, and they receive far less than their handcrafts are worth.
At this point we lack the ability to find a good venue for sale here. We have sold some, but certainly not enough to be 
self supporting as we had hoped and envisioned. We are looking at possibly setting up home jewelry parties, and possibly selling through a website. However, both take time to establish – time that we don’t have on such a short visit. Any suggestions from any of my readers as to how we can do this would be appreciated. I still believe that the idea is sound, and that we should be able to be self supporting in this way – freeing up money for ministry rather than personal support.
Just a little “heads-up” as to what is coming to the VitW Ministries website soon. We will be adding another tab along the top of the home page marked “Archives”. Here you will find the old ministry newsletters which I sent out over the years while I worked under Earthen Vessels and CornerStone Ministries. For some of you, this will be an opportunity to reread old mail. For others, this will be a chance to catch a picture of the early history of the work of these ministries in Cd. Valles, and the Huasteca region of Mexico.
Until later…
