What Now?

The last month was full of unexpected things, both good and bad. And with the school year entering its final quarter, we are looking ahead at what the near future holds.

At the end of June I will be officially leaving classroom teaching. I am in the process of interviewing for some online tutoring places and we are going to start some intermediate and advanced English classes as well. However, even with picking up tutoring and doing odd jobs, the income is not reliable so we are looking at other options.

We are actively pursuing and are in the process of starting a crochet business and an electrical business. The idea for my crochet business is that the focus will be bags and baby items. Those are the things that will sell here, but we will also have some other misc. things as I feel inclined to make them. Ultimately, we want to employ the women at Cancela who are now making things to sell but we have to start with building the business.

I placed a yarn order last week to start making bags but we found out a member of our church is in urgent need of a backpack, so I will be using the yarn for that and saving up to get more. I would like to make market bags, backpacks, purses, diaper bags, etc. The possibilities and creativity are endless. I even found a site that will sell the yarn at wholesale prices if I buy in a large enough quantity. I do not see that being a problem! We just have to come up with the money first. I have a couple of leads on places I can set up temporary stands to sell things so once I have stock, I will do that. Jonathan is designing the website and tags and such for me so we can save money that way. I am also starting a crochet YouTube channel so once that goes active I will post a link to it.

Since the future is still largely unknown, we ask for prayer for wisdom, patience and strength It is scary to walk away from the only steady income we have had, but my health just will not allow me to continue teaching in the traditional classroom setting. So, please keep us in your prayers and I will keep you updated as everything develops and unfolds.