As an overseas missionary I can’t even work in the Philippines to support myself and it’s been a huge struggle for me for many years. I mean I WORK HARD devoting myself to whatever the Lord asks me to do, not prioritizing taking care of my own needs, which has been a painful sacrifice but one he mentioned twice recently that he’s seen and taken note of. Amen.
Recently he asked me to plan a nice Pizza Franchise restaurant and then I met a man who worked in Franchising for 30 years and we developed a workable plan very quickly but I needed urgent money for rent, food, bills and can’t wait to raise the investment capital–I was facing many urgent needs and the Lord said, “TRUST Me” and kept directing me to work on the restaurant until the plan was done and ready for funding to take the next step. And then he said to make T-shirts on line. … T-shirts? Well, I used to teach graphic design at Uni in HK, and ran some magazines so I know my way around photoshop alright, but it was a daunting task! I finished up the resto plan and finally just took his word to heart and just pressed in and in a matter of days figured out an entire work flow just on my own. God gave me ideas for graphics, a way to make them often using AI, and then a platform to host my items that first linked to Etsy but finally to my websites.
I quickly was able to set up nearly over 300 items: T-shirts, Sweaters, Throw Blankets, Coffee Mugs! and then worked to transfer them to the website platform, a 15 minute task … but the normal 2-minute WordPress install took 2 hours on tech support to fix. Then the link to move products from one folder to a new one took 7 hours in tech support to remedy and it’s still a mess. How can something so simple go so horribly, horribly wrong?! So … ouch. … So I was hoping to start it live tonight before the 12-hour blackout scheduled for the morning kicks in and just maybe I can still get it done by 2 am, … but for now I can only say with certainty that the Inspirations Store is in Countdown to Launch in … 3 … 2 … … 2 …. …. …. 2? Well, it’s almost ready to go! I hope you will love it as much as I enjoy making it!
A Preview:
What God has given me is first Philippians 4:8. And there is SO MUCH Beauty and Wonder he made for us to enjoy that we need to be more mindful to “Think on these things.” … Song birds to Seahorses, Tropical Beaches and Kitten Kisses. And so this is an underlying theme in most of what we are producing. There are things God made for us to enjoy freely and we need to remind ourselves sometimes to praise him for simple pleasures while we “Think on these things.” Just try it and see what happens! Praise the Lord!
Have HEART
One major Series of Designs we are spending so much effort on is a HEART series with special words from God such as “Love” “Faith” “Joy” “Peace” … do we ever have enough of these things? We made some fantastic designs and are printing them on THREE TYPES of T-SHIRTS, two or three types of SWEATERS, full size THROW Blankets!! Coffee MUGS, Travel Mugs, three kinds of Desk/Mouse pads some with LED illumination and wireless chargers, wall canvas ART posters and a few tote bags and notebooks even, but just a few! Our main focus will be T-shirts, but also for the key designs a series of 5 or 10 or 14 matching items!
Working Hard
I already produced over 100 custom artwork designs and if each design can be on 5 to 10 to 14 products, you can tell I’ve been busy! And will be busy for a while to come!
‘God is Love’ Watercolors Series
Another design series is “God is Love,” an inspirational watercolor series of seven designs with Jesus hugging a small boy, a grandmother, a young lady, a baby lamb. Such a beautiful series! 
Another is Striking Scenes of Philippines Beauty, like waterfalls, storm clouds and bioluminescent ocean waves but also Natural Beauty of all sorts: Arctic Wolves, Bengal Tigers, Dragonflies, Dolphins, Cosmic Clouds and the like.
Then we can’t leave Aslan out of it, can we? So without stepping on anyone’s copyright we have a series of LIONS and LUCY designs, which you will LOVE. ‘Lions and Beth at Rest’ sleeping in his lap in a heavenly scene. Or little Benji looking into a mirror and seeing his true reflection, that kind of design!
Then we have SING A NEW SONG series, the first is up and is a SONG BIRD and pretty lady reminding us to “Sing a New Song unto the Lord.” We have three new series coming that are in the works including the Gospel Cat Series, some Favorite Verses and other Natural and even Heavenly Scenes. Soon! Very soon!
We also have a few Angelic Warrior Designs but they are so striking and beautiful I don’t want to promote them highly or people may take it wrong. We created some Filipina War Angel artwork and it is STUNNING! Something your Warrior Princess will DEFINTELY Appreciate.
A few designs are also Scripture Illustrations, like Psalm 42, or Psalm 91, but also VISIONS I’ve seen of the Lord that I am trying to recreate to share, such as seeing God as FIRE and as a Fountain of Living Water, and other visions as well. AI can’t even IMAGINE what the Holy Spirit has already shown me! Truly breathtaking.
And oddly enough God also said to include artwork on Cars and Airplanes and things like that. Whatever is Excellent or Honorable or Praiseworthy, even a Corvette C3, GT-40 and Shelby Cobra? Seriously? Whatever is Excellent! Including Sports Cars! Wow! I guess not everyone wants to look at a poster of a cute puppy dog or a ‘kitten kisses’ t-shirt. And to me that’s actually really fun!
But overall the main idea of the artwork in our store is NOT to promote ourselves, our name, our ministry or our books. Nothing like that is planned even, and while that’s not bad, we found more inspiration in promoting God’s Glory, the Beauty of His Creation and things like thinking on “Hope” “Peace” “Praise” and things that make you say “Amen”!
Ready for Launch …
So the store is already on Etsy but I think I will rename that soon, and will tell you soon what it is. And the link to our websites has been fraught with unreasonable delays and weird problems but is in the countdown to launch in a mater of days or even hours!
We are calling this “the Inspirations Shop at PMB” … the location will be under our main domain and I will tell you IN A MATTER OF DAYS when it is ready to reveal. I was hoping to have it done by tomorrow but the Woo Monster just won’t let it go!
So I’m so excited to share these inspirational designs with a wide audience and yes it is a lifeline to our missionary income which lately has become near crisis levels of cash flow, but even in all this we are more than conquerors!
So stay tuned for the imminent launch and I hope it will be able to bring some much needed Beauty, Inspiration, Hope and Joy into everyone’s lives, and feed a few missionaries in the process. : ) Amen!