Now most of you might be wondering, what have I been up to over the last while. Well, I want to say that we, as a family feel incredibly blessed. I have managed to secure freelance work that is covering monthly expenses. Essentially, the revenue of this freelancing business has grown from zero to covering full living costs. Over the course of four months. This has meant a lot of late nights working on projects. So you might rightly ask, How is everybody? Well, Taryn's business in the travel industry still is on ice.
But thanks be to God, she received some revenue by taking people on flower tours, these flower tours are basically taking people up the west coast of South Africa, to see the desert flowering. I have inserted some pictures for you to take a look at:
Taryns health has been a bit of an issue recently. She has to have an operation to remove some benign tumors in her uterus. The process of addressing this health issue, is a lengthy one, because we are using the Public Health Service. The kids are growing up, we have one teenager already in our house, which brings with it unique challenges. And every day, I'm forced to my knees, as we navigate this new phase in our children's lives. Ethan had a birthday recently, and I was an extremely responsible parent, buying him a pellet gun. Something that I could never have as a kid!
And we have discovered and hidden talent. He is an extremely accurate Shot. And much to my dismay he beats me every time when we tried to shoot cans in the yard.
The amazing thing about this freelancing work that I've developed, is that I'm still able to do ministry two days a week. Now you may ask what kind of ministry, Am I doing? I'm involved with the Institute for Transformational Leadership www.itl.org.za. And what I'm doing with them is helping them to develop their alumni remotely. These alumni are Christian leaders, based in difficult places from El Salvador to Pakistan. And I'm helping them with two major projects at this stage. The first one is the Crowdfunding project. This is actually our second year of running the project, and you will see by the website.
Using a combination of instructional videos, group zoom meetings and individual coaching we have helped them develop crowdfunding campaigns for projects as diverse as helping retired pastors in El Salvador, to dealing with the crystal meth crisis, and providing rehab facilities in Zimbabwe. These guys are all Christian leaders who are looking to transform lives. They are a diverse bunch of people from El Salvador to Tanzania, all working to grow the kingdom of God and bring his light to dark places. It's an amazing project, and I'm so blessed to be a part of it. Please take a look at the website ITL crowdfunding.
Secondly, we've started this new project called seeding enterprise, which is focused on helping people who were part of the Institute of transformational leadership to develop their social enterprises. And we're doing this by coaching them. So, every two weeks, I meet with a group of four different Christian leaders, and help them to develop goals that will grow their specific social enterprise. These enterprises range from a software and website development company in Togo, to a Daycare in Tanzania.
We have also people running a restaurant in Juba, South Sudan, which provides a space for the youth together, and hear the wonderful news of Jesus Christ. I've attached the profiles of some of the people we working with. So, if you are supporting us we really are grateful for the support. And we pray that that would continue. Because even in the midst of our trials and tribulations over the last year and a bit. God has used us significantly to help grow his kingdom here on earth, and we are.
We have seen the hand of God everywhere, in hindsight. And we just praise and thank God for everything. If you want to pray for us, please do. Thank God for all that he has done for us. He has decided to take care of us because we are the people of the light, kingdom people. He has taken it upon himself to care for us and provide us the income that we need, while at the same time using us extensively in the growth of his kingdom through the ministry at Institute of transformational leadership.
