The recital, the fair, the train.

It is hard to believe that it is Saturday again. We were blessed to receive a gift box from a church in Henderson, Texas. As is our custom when we receive a package from the US, we unpack it all together and give a prayer of thanksgiving. We had Lilia's piano recital Thursday night. I was unable to attend because Caleb had a small fever that day. This morning we went to the fair at the boys school. It was a lot of fun. Angie voluntered to help run a booth where the kids would make omelettes. She burned herself pretty bad on the arm by accidentally touching the cooker thing on the top of it. We got her some medicine from the Pharmacy. It worked really well. This afternoon I was going to go help our friends move some stuff to their new apartment. Caleb and I walked to the local RER station and it was closed. I thought that was unusual, but they have been having contsruction to install an elevator. We took a bus to a larger station a mile or two south. The electronic machine for buying tickets there was not working. So we waited in line to buy tickets, there was a sign on the door that said the windows would open at 1:30, but they did not. Someone asked and apparently they were not going to open at all. So we did what any good Parisiane would, we decided to take the train without a ticket. Of course we would purchase our tickets when we got off and explain everything. We walked to the train platform (quai in French) and the train was sitting there empty. I checked the monitor which said no trains were running today. Grève! (strike!) So much for those plans, I feel bad for people who had bigger plans like going to the airport. It wasn't official until this morning so there was no warning. C'est la vie. Que sera, sera. I am looking forward to services tommorrow. Monday we go for our Doctors appointment for our Carte de Sejour (visa). Thanks for the prayers and offerings and gifts. JASON

What's next?

Final exams are finished, all goodbyes have been said, What is next? We received our grades from the last semester. Drum roll please. On the exam, Jason made 82.5 and Angie made 85. For the course Jason made 87.75 and Angie made 88.5. As usual Angie just beat me again. As far as a general overview of what happens next. School ends for the kids on July 4th. We will then leave for a weeks vacation to the south of France. We return and I get started with summer school which will last three weeks to the first of August. School starts again the first of September. The second week of school we will go to Greece for a Missionary Retreat. This next school year we will also be working on securing our visa for next year and searching for housing to have when we finish school. We finish school in June, make a trip back to the US for several months to check on everyone and then return again to France. Of course during all of this time we will be working to help get the church a firm footing here and training new disciple makers and hopefully a pastor as well. Wow, sounds like a lot, that helps get it straight in my head. Thanks for the thoughts and prayers. God bless, JASON

Final Exams.

We had our final exams yesterday. Also someone is working on getting our shower fixed where some tiles had fallen off. They discovered the problem was moisture and so are installing a vent as well. The should be done with it this morning because after they took all the old tiles off it was moist behind them and they wanted to let it dry over night. They exams went well, I think. It took a lot more time than the last exam. I suppose that every exam after this will be longer as well because it all adds more to what you know. It took us about 2 hours. I have really little idea as to how well I did on it. It is nice to get it behind you. Last night we had the end of school BBQ. It was enjoyed by all. About 80 showed up, students and teachers with their families. The food was good and the fellowship was good as well. It is difficult with 25 kids running around ages 1-12. I will include some pictures. The larger picture is of our class, the two ladies in white on the front row are our teachers, the presents we gave them and sitting in the baskets. It was a good chance to say goodbye to some students who would be leaving. The kids had a wonderful time and played together almost the whle time, they did take a few minutes to eat. After it was over Caleb said, "But Daddy I didn't see the big BBQ." I had the re-explain what the BBQ was. We did not get home until about 8:30 and the kids were exhausted and dirty. We gave them a wipe down and put them down. Big soccer matches coming up this week in the Euro 2008 games. So far I'm thinking Russia and Germany have the best chance of being in the finals. God bless, JASON

Catching up.

Here are just a few pictures from the last couple of weeks including fathers day, my birthday and Caleb with a popular haircut for kids here.

Overview

We are ending another busy and blessed week to start another. We were blessed to recieve this week and several large boxs containing gifts and letters from a church in Corsicanna, TX where we were once members. Pictured is our boys with all the stuff set on the table before them. We enjoy getting things from the states and always gather around as a family and unpack the boxes piece by piece. We are very thankful for those that show so great love to us. Wednesday we had several parades pass by our home honoring this weeks Fêtes des Musiques (music festival). Thursday we had Lilia's school music program. It was really good with singing and acting parts. I am happy with my level of understanding French. I can almost understand all that I hear. Of course, I don't know every word but with what I know and context I get their meaning. And today we had an end of school fair at Lilia's school. It was a lot of fun. The kids sang a few songs and they were many activities for the kids. We made it all morning long. There were a lot of friends from the language school there. The kids got their faces painted (pictured). Coming up this week we have our semester exams Tuesday at school and a BBQ that night to say farewell to those not returning in September. Thanks for all the comments. JASON abainfrance@hotmail.com

The birds flewy.

Language acqusition does some interesting things to the mind. For one, our english skills, such as they were, are going down the drain. I have had trouble thinking of words and spelling them. Just the other day Angie looked at the windows and saw some birds flying by and said, "Look the birds flewy by". It was hilarious at the time. Angie had a difficult experience. On the walk to pick the kids of from school, she caught up to a group of mentally challeged kids, mostly teenagers. She passed them by but one kept pace and walked beside her. The young girls started talking to Angie. Angie had trouble catching all that she was saying, ,but could get the idea that she wanted either Angie to go to her house and She wanted to come to our house. Angis just kept saying, "I don't know". Suddenly the young girl broke out crying and saying, "She won't come to my house!." Like really loud crying. Angie felt real bad, but what are you going it do? Things are winding down at school. We have finals next Tuesday. We learned some things very difficult today. I have learned Greek and Hebrew, but never had to speak them. It makes a big difference when you speak. We were learning the difference between passe composé (past completed action) and imparifait (past action), similar to the difference between "I have gone to the store" and "I went to the store." They use them at different times than we do and you get a better sense of meaning from it. Another difficult thing has been that certain verbs only are used with certain pronouns. For example you would only say "Telephone at or to someone" (téléphone à). It is hard especially when it is different then what you would normally use in English. It is just a matter of memory. We had the chance to meet with a couple of prospective students that might come to the language school. A couple from Riverdale CA and a couple from Houston TX. We had the Texas couple over for lunch. It was interesting because when we visited the school there was a couple of students from Galveston who had us over and who had four children like we did. The couple that we had for lunch also had four kids and were from Texas. We had a good visit and hopefully were a blessing to them, like so many have been to us. Well thanks for the thoughts and prayers. God bless JASON

The Lord's Day

Another blessed day today. Unfortunately it was just our family for services today. I guess that is how it is for a lot of church planters just starting. We had good services though. I was the only Father and so I got all the recognition for father's day. We learned a new song in French that spoke to me the lyrics in English are . . .

Over all the earth, You reign on high
Every mountain stream, Every sunset sky
But my one request, Lord my only aim
Is that you reign in me again

Chorus:
Lord reign in me, Reign in your power
Over all my dreams, In my darkest hour
You are the Lord of all I am,
So won't you reign in me again

Over every thought, Over every word
May my life reflect, The beauty of my Lord
You mean more to me, Than any earthly thing
So won't you reign in me again

I have times when I try to run my life and leave God out, when it is God that should be ruling in me. I imagine that every child of his has the same trouble at times. It was a nice song, nice tune as well. I might need to add it to Godtube and youtube once I get the pronunciation down. Angie has gone to help some friends clean their new apartment before they start moving things in. I received a text message from a believer who just moved here from Denmark that wanted to join us in our services. I am looking forward to next Sunday already. It has been a good day of prayer, worship, bible study and time with my family. Everyday should contain those activites. God bless,

Joyeux Anniversaire

Today is my birthday. I am now 30 years old. I have started to approach "the hill". To celebrate Angie and I went to a local mall, without the kids. Awesome. We browsed around for a while, Angie took me out to eat at McDonalds. The mall was huge, three stories about 190 stores. It took a 30 minute bus ride to get there but it was worth it. We drove through a part of town that had several gypsies' trailers. Later we had my birthday party, for the cake we had eclaires. Very good. We let the kids stay up and watch part of "Horton hears a Who". I was working on homework, but the parts I saw and the laughter I heard, it seems to be a pretty good movie. Just finished watching a soccer match. I enjoy watching soccer. The games are different than most sports games. They are usually low scoring, but the game is like a soap opera. It has it's ups and downs and personality. That is why people like it even though there are not that many scores. As americains I think we tend to looke forward to the scores and miss a lot of the game. If there are any other soccer fans out there reading this, here is a link you would enjoy
http://youtube.com/watch?v=31qv2oMPqls it is the Italian Soccer team practice. Anyway, I think I had better say goodnight to another birthday. Rumor has it that there may be a birthday party for me in our class tommorrow. God bless,

How do you pronounce the "R"?

We had a great weekend, followed by a difficult day at school today. We spent 50 minutes trying to pronounce the french "R" sound. It was very difficult for us english speakers. The Germans did not have any problem at all. I still have trouble doing it, but I know now what it is supposed to sound like. It is hardest when the R is in the middle of the word like "Paris" or at the beginning like "rois". We went around the classroom with everyone trying to pronounce each word. If you don't believe me and want a challenge visit http://www.fluentfrench.com/nllandfrenchrtrick.html and try for yourself. Download the mp3 and pdf and give it a shot. Bonne chance. JASON

The weekend already.

It is hard to believe that the weekend is here already. I am not sure what all happened this week. We had the normal amount of homework and tests, but things seemed busier. I think it might have been all the birthdays. Caleb had a friend's birthday party Wednesday. Andrew had a small family only birthday party Thursday. Last night he had a joint party with another two year old from the language school. Friday at school he had one with his classmates in the nursery. Monday we had a joint birthday party and going away part for students in our class. Thankfully this week ended a period of many family injuries. Micah had a huge knot on his head that has finally gone away. Andrew had a cut on the end of his big toe that has healed. Lilia's leg is better and she went to school this week. Angie had a little cold last week that she has recovered from as well. I am looking forward to services Sunday. We pray that you have a good weekend, God bless, JASON

Bon Week-end

We are having a good weekend. Saturday was busy, which is good. Caleb and I went to the store to try and exchange some shoes that were broken. I did not have a receipt, so I doubted that they would exchange them, and they didn't. But, the good news is that I was able to fix the shoes myself when we got home. We also stopped by McDonalds to get a snack for Caleb for being good at the Doctors office. He wanted a chocolate shake. I told the cashier (in french) that I wanted a small chocolate shake. She confirmed that it was a small and went to get it. I paid and on the way out looked and we had received a small coke. Language learning can be frustrating. Caleb was not discouraged, beacuse he always begs us to have a coke and so he enjoyed it just the same. We went to the grocery store after that and I tried to find some horse meat to buy, but could not. In the afternooon we arranged a babysitter and Angie and I along with Lilia went into Paris to see Debra and Carmen taylor (pictured). Debra's husband pastors my Aunt's church in Mississippi. They were here on a girl scout tour of Europe. We enjoyed supper with them and their group and afterwards went on the boat ride tour on the Seine river. It was nice. We were able to see the eiffel tower light up at 10:00. They brought us the biggest jar of peanut butter I have seen and several other good stuff, like ice tea bags. The only rough part was when we were going home everyone was trying to leave Paris it seemed. I have never seen a subway car that packed before. People were holding bags over the heads because it was so crowded. We waited 15 minutes and took the next one which was a lot less crowded. Today (Sunday) we had to cancel services because of parking issues. There is a big market on our street, kind of like a garage sale. Yvain and Virginie could not find and parking within walking distance, and the garage sale lasts all day. WE offered to go to there house but she said it was a mess because they are going to be moving in a couple of weeks. I sent them questions for the lesson and Angie has now gone shopping on the street. She will find several things for Andrew's 2nd birthday which is this week. Hope your services are not postponed for parking issues and even if they are, you have a blessed day. JASON