Ever have that feeling that life is moving so fast, all you can do is fight for a breath of air and try not to drown in the sea of activity?  We have been busy these past few weeks!  We completed our first Echo Asia Agricultural / Community Development conference.  200 attendees from 24 different nations gathered together to share information and ideas for small scale agricultural development.  It was inspiring, and the greatest resource we took from the conference were the contacts we made with so many like-minded people.  It is the question (and vision) I personally am especially interested in.  How can we work with nature (the provision God has already made) to shepherd and steward---cultivating land, raising animals, discipling people, and helping those in need?  Our own mini farm here at Faithful Heart is growing!  We now are host to almost 700 tilapia, our first small batch of chickens is almost ready to eat and just yesterday I picked up another 100 baby chicks (Thank You Mill City Church in Fort Collins, for sponsoring the new chicken tractor and chicks!).  Some new friends from the Philippines came for a visit and taught us to make cheese from raw milk we got from a nearby dairy.  Audrey makes some good cheese!  The challenge remains to see if we can convert it into cheesecake (my idea).  We will let you know how it goes. 

Before I could chew on all the information from the conference, I had a visit from some wonderful folks from the US who had come to visit our Foundation and help build a new kitchen for one of our homes.  We had a great group and if I may say so, we did some good work!  This was my first concrete job (sorry pics coming soon!).  Our house father Ajan Yay led the concrete crew and did a great job.  If you have never laid a large slab by bucket (one in each hand), you don’t know what you are missing!  I really miss the satisfaction that comes from a group of people working and sweating together to get a job done.  It is a powerful sense of camaraderie and accomplishment.  A special thanks to Jean and Cassandra (and those who gave money for the project!).  If everyone in Texas is as kind and helpful as you guys, it must be a great place!      

Life continued to take us for a ride and the next stop was at the a dorm way up in the mountains.  It was a beautiful area and the children were wonderful.  We are proud to support the work of this local pastor and his wife.  For all our Colorado friends, this brought back some homesickness.  The mountains were beautiful and the air clear. 

We continue to meet with our college students every Tuesday night for time to look at the Bible together, learn English, and just hang out.  Their English is getting better all the time (hopefully the same is true for our Thai).  We have a new contest where each of our orphan homes submits photos at the end of the month and we vote on the best picture.  The cowgirls helping in the rice fields won for October and it was too good not to share.

Thank you!  We know many of you are building and loving and serving right along with us, in many different places, in many different ways.  Great things are not done by great individuals, but by many faithful people working together.  It is an honor to serve with you! 

Blessings in Hope,

Matt & Audrey