New Beginnings
As we enter 2017, we would like to thank everybody for their support in helping grow our business last year. It has been amazing to see how far the Lord has allowed us to come in less than a year. At this point last year, Shaun had only just gotten his first knife. The thought of this business hadn’t even crossed our minds. However, once talk of having a business had occurred, each member of the family started thinking of ways they could impact the business for God’s glory. Our business name, “For God’s Glory Designs” poses as a constant reminder of why we’re doing what we’re doing.
Over the course of the last nine months, we each have been spending a lot of our spare time focusing on practicing our skills to better our products. Although we didn’t sell from the get go, the Lord has allowed some sales towards the end of the year. We still have a long way to go, and with each passing day, our skills have been getting better. By God’s grace, Shaun’s job is allowing him to spend adequate amounts of time whittling away. Many of our products have had their start during this time.
As we move forward, we won’t slow down. Shaun will be focusing on a handful of different designs for his spoons. He is hoping to be able to “perfect” them by the process of repetition. Lord willing, with this practice, Shaun will be able to speed up his carving time, thus resulting in more products. (Now who wouldn’t want that?!) In the meantime, Elisabeth has been practicing her typography and bettering her lettering/handwriting to aid her in pyrography.
New Products
We have some new ideas in our heads that we’re hoping to elaborate on this coming year. Shaun is wanting to try making some wooden rings, and Elisabeth is going to try her hand at resin products. Hopefully, we’ll get to a point where we can combine the two and make unique and elegant pieces of jewelry.
With the expansion of our products, this will also give us the opportunity to broaden our understanding of the tools we use. Every tool serves a purpose, and we would like to deepen our knowledge of them so they can be of better use. We’ve only just scratched the surface in the extensiveness of their possibilities, and we look forward to seeing how it’ll help improve our skills and products.
One of the things we are starting to realize is, contacts are a great resource. On our adventures around town, we’re always keeping our eyes open for people and places we can either learn from or gather resources from. So far in the UK, Shaun has found some contacts, through friends and family, where he can gain access to fresh wood, which is important for what he does.
New Homeland
The main event of the year is the upcoming potential move to the U.S. Before we move, there are things that need to be rounded off on this side of the pond. We would like to leave our local church in a Godly manner and to be a blessing to them as much as we can. In addition, we also desire to spend as much time with Shaun’s family before we make the big move. It will be a sad and hard time to leave the ones we love here in the UK. However, we know we will be joining more of our loved ones in the U.S. of A!
Please pray with us as we seek the Lord’s will in everything leading up to this. Pray the current petition will be approved and that we will be able to have a quick and smooth visa process, if that be the Lord’s will.
