Visitors from afar.

Lynn and Brenda Raburn arrived today. I met them at the airport this morning. We have already been having a wonderful time. We have been trying to keep them awake, but they only got a couple of hours sleep on the plane between them. We walked them around Massy a little bit and now they have gone with Angie to the store. I am looking forward to supper. Angie is a great cook and even better when she has guests. That is why I never hesitate to invite people over, but don't tell her that. Lynn and Brenda brought us all kinds of goodies. Angie had put in a large order on walmart.com that they brought and they also gave us loads of peanut butter and grape jelly and syrup, books. It was great. The kids were loving every minute of it. I am a little sleepy myself, I was up at 5:30 to get to the airport. It only took an hour and 15 minutes to get to the airport by train. It took Lynn and Brenda about 40 minutes to get through customs and claim their luggage which I thought was pretty good. They explained though that the French customs area was more disorganized than about 30 third world countries that they have been in. I thought all countries had everyone in a large line about 8 people wide weaving around a room about the size of a large gym, but evidently not. Attached picture is of the kids enjoying their peanut butter and jelly sandwich. God bless,

Liberation.

We were blessed with another goodweekend. Saturday there was a parade of antique military vehicles and come to find out it was the 60ish anniversary of the liberation of Massy. Someone remarked how that unlike Britian and the USA, France has not had a major conflict since WWII and so it is still fresh on their minds. Services went well Sunday. I had a good couple of calls with my parents this weekend which we enjoyed. I love modern technology that gives us the ability to freely call home and talk with our parents and see them at the same time. We visited the language school today and when we returned we had a letter from the prefecture (government office) that said we have an appointment to pick up our carte de sejour (visa) on wednesday. We will need to find someone to watch the kids for us. The rest of this week will be spent refreshing my mind on all things french. I did some work sheets today to get my mind back to thinking French. I am looking forward to the end of this school year when I will have it all behind me. We will also be preparing this week for Lynn and Brenda Raburn to come visit with us. They have been our missionary mentors and good friends since we first felt called here. I am looking forward to having some good conversations about . . . just plain stuff. Attached is a picture of Caleb and Micah with their skateboard and Andrew in the bath where he likes to make sounds with his ears under the water. God bless, JASON

To the dump, kind-of.

Last couple of days have passed good. We had some larger items that needed to throw away, but were too large to put into the trash. On every third thursday they have free curb pick up for larger trash items. We didn't know if we needed to call and schedule and so Angie asked the nieghbor about it and they said you just set it out there and they will pick it up. Works for us. Somewhat different that what we are used to. In Texas you would just throw it into the back of your truck and haul it to the dump. Yesterday we went to the language school to play and some friends of our who were students last year had stopped by for the night. They were traveling to Morocco where they will be working. Their son and our kids played for a while and we decided to order some pizza and eat together. We had a good time. There are some interesting pizza types here. One that we ordered had artichoke hearts on it. I didn't try it but Angie seemed to think that it was very good. At the language school there is a table of stuff that is give away. Yesterday there was a skateboard on the table. Micah had been asking for a skateboard for months. We picked it up for him and he was excited. After every ride he would run up and give me a hug and a kiss and say thanks. This will lead to many future injuries, but for now I'm enjoying it and he is also. Attached is a picture Angie took of Paris. God bless, JASON

We are in France.

I have to remind myself of that fact sometimes. We have been having a good time this week. We took the kids to the park and let them play a couple of times. They have been playing real good together. Angie went and bought all the boys shoes for schools and some clothes. The school supply list should be small. The government purchases some of the school supplies. I need to check out and see of the air matress works today. That would be a good opportunity to get a nap. Tommorrow Angie mentioned taking the kids into to do something. There is a large and nice park that we could take them too. I'll have to look today to see the best way to get there. I also need to make sure that the subway is running for all of it. This time of year they sometimes shut down lines for construction and maitenance. Sadly I have not been able to catch another USA Olympic basketball game. There has always been French Atheletes competing, I did see 16 seconds before they switched to another event. I have not missed much from what the score card is saying. Yesterday I was reading in 1 Peter and chapter 1 verse 7 interested me. Summarized it says that the trial of our faith is more precious that gold. Gold even if it is purified with fire does not last, but our purified faith will result in glory, honor, and praise when Christ returns. Do you have faith in Jesus? Is your faith growing through trials or is it suffering. It is amazing to look back and see how our faith has grown through trials that where our faith will take us in the future. Pictured are the boys with there new shoes and Caleb and me relaxing. God bless, JASON

The weekend.

We have been blessed with a good weekend. Yesterday we checked the mail on the way to the park to find out that our local department store was having a sale. Normally 10% of three items purchased goes toward future purchases. Friday and Saturday it was going to be 20%. We had been waiting to purchase a few large things for such a special sale. We picked up an airmatress to use as a guest bed. We also picked up a new stroller. Ours had broken that morning. We also picked up some meat as well. The local stores do not usually carry bigger amounts of meat, so we usually try to pick up some while we are there. Things went well today. I asked Lilia to bring a devotion this morning and she did a really good job. I have been praying and talking with Caleb. He will turn six in December and is the age Lilia was when she was saved. He is a little slower than she was but still I have been trying to make clear how to go to heaven. He has asked good questions about it. He has also asked questions that are not to good. Those moments are funny afterwards. They say something bright that gets you all proud and then they keep talking. Like, kid, "Daddy, I want to be a Doctor when I grow up". Daddy, "Wow, thats great!". Kid, "Or a dinosaur."

I have been told that a hard part of missions work is going home. I am beginning to see that more and more. When we left the country we created a snapshot of life there, including friends, families, locations. When we return we will find that all of that has changed. Places no longer look the same, people and relationships have changed. We have had friends and family that have passed away, lost loved ones, married, divorced, left. It will make it a little difficult to jump back into to where we were when we left. Pictured is my younger sister followed by Angie's younger brother, who both had weddings in the last couple of months. Angie's brother Mike, married Kate, and my sister Sarah, married Justin. Congratulations to both couples. God Bless, JASON

Olympics.

Things have continued to go well for us. I thought that things would get boring during August, but they have not so far. Yesterday, I walked to the post office but gave that up because there was a large line to wait in. I went to the store and after lunch we took the kids to the park for some excercise. We are watching the daughter of our friends and language school classmates. She is in the hospital for minor surgery. It is great to be able to serve. Angie helped teach me that and continues to do so. She always thinks to offer them food or tea. This morning I finished the post office. We were mailing some post cards for a language school student who left before she could get them sent. Also today I have done some research over things to do when our guests arrive later this month and in October. I am also searching for a list of churches in France. I was able to watch the Olympic Basketball team play Sunday afternoon. I enjoyed it. The last I watched was the dream team in 1992. Those were the days. TheyUSA Basketball team lost in Athens 2004. That is why this years team has been dubbed the Redeem Team. They seem to have taken it more seriously. They won against China by 30 points. Spain and Germany seem to be the other big contenders. Sometime me or Angie, or both of us need to go to Cora (like superwalmart) to pick up some larger items for the house (diapers and such). I enjoyed doing some bible study yesterday.

E-sword is the software that I use on the computer. Is is the best free software I have seen and better than many pay programs. If you have not seen it check it out at

http://e-sword.net/index.html . Attached is a picture I took of a weather report on TV. God bless, JASON

Anniversary and Andrew

I bought Jason a manly umbrella for our anniversary. He needed a different one. This umbrella was all black (no pink on this one) and it had a flashlight built in to the base of the handle which was a fun guy gadget. But it felt like I didn't really get him anything I guess because it was a last minute purchase with no forethought. I also got raspberry filled pastries that sort of resembled doughnuts (closest thing I've seen) And I got the stuff to make this salsa he likes but that's all. Andrew has been sick so I took him to the doctor yesterday. I had to get out of my small comfort zone I have established here. Since the majority of businesses shut down this month I had to take him to a new doctor. I had to call for the appointment and get directions a little over the phone. I always feel pressured calling a doctor's office because the doctor usually answers and I feel like I am taking up all of his time. But this doctor was friendly and took plenty of time for me. I could go between 5 and 7 pm without an appointment (rendez-vous). I had to wait a while when I got there while Andrew slept but the doctor was nice again and took time for us when it was our turn. We did almost everything in French. (except me calming Andrew, he got upset when the I put him down on the table but he finally calmed down) Then at the end at the desk the doctor asked where I was coming from. I said the US and he was like Oh English! I speak English. Turned out he was French Italian born in Egypt. Anyway we had a nice talk partly in English (nothing spiritual) and then I paid and left. It got a little confusing when I spoke in English. (maybe it was my accent!) But it was nice. I walked home and did not get rained on though it was threatening. We got the medicine this morning because by the time I got home all the pharmacies were closed. The doctor said it was just a cold and hopefully he will be well soon. ANGIE

Ten years later.

Angie and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary yesterday. Ten years ago 8/8/98 we were married. We looked back at that day and talked about how we had no idea that we would be were wear now. For the special day, Angie took Andrew to the Doctors office and I took the other kids to the language school garden and let them play. That doesn't sound very fantastic, so I will just say that we spent our tenth anniversary in Paris, France. We did get to watch to opening to the Olympics on TV in french. It was nice. Watching the olympics in French could be a good language learning help, not only do you pick up on a lot of sports vocabulary, but they give a lot of personal information about the players. The personal information if what you use a lot in casual conversation. "Hi, my name is . . ., I have . . . children, I am from . . ., etc." Today Angie went and picked up the medicine for Andrew. Six days worth of fever medicine and antibiotic for 8 dollars. Not a bad price. Attached are pictures of us and Angie's family at our wedding. God bless, JASON

Bring the rain.

It has been raining today. It started about 5:30 this morning with a lot of lightning and rain. I like the rain, the only negative is that the kids are stuck inside. To help them burn some energy I had them take all of their toys upstairs to their room one at a time. They enjoyed it and were breathing heavily by the time they had finished. I seemed to have worked. Lilia and Angie made lunch for us today. We had grilled french toast peanut butter and jelly. It was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich dipped in egg and grilled. It was real tasty, we dipped them in maple syrup. I think we may fire up the oven tonight since it is cooler and have pizza tonight. I think the Olympics start in a couple of days. I may actually be able to watch some this year, the last I remember watching much of them was in 1992 Barcelona (the Dream Team of course). Andrew has had fever for three days now. If he still has some tommorrow we will take him to the Doctor. He seems fine otherwise. He does not sleep well at night though. God bless, JASON

August.

August has begun. August was named after Augustus the first emporer of the Roman Empire. Yesterday I went and visited with Yvain. They have decided not to have church with us anymore. They gave several smaller reasons, the biggest I feel was that they do not like the idea of us being church planters. They wanted someone to come and pastor them indefinitely. This is not how we are feeling led. They also expressed a desire to leave France for Canada or at least move to the south of France. We will miss their fellowship but ultimately it is their decision. If you would like further details you can email me, there is too much information to put here. I am glad that they are continuing to have services on their own, and this will open the door for God to show us where he wants us to serve after language school. Tonight we are having a student from the Language school eat supper with us. I think she is the only student still living there. She will be leaving in a few days. She was Lilia's piano teacher and like the other students we will miss her. We are still looking forward and making preparations for the Eastern European Missionary Retreat, it will be a wonderful time of Retreat – Restoration – Refreshment – Recreation – Relationships –Revival and Reentry. What I am looking forward to the most is sitting with friends, face to face, and talking. Another subject - I have had six people in the last two weeks ask me for directions and I was able to help them, in French. I look forward to the end of the year and seeing how far we have progressed. I see it has been a while since Angie has written and I will see if she has anything to say next time. Thanks and God bless, JASON

August Vacations

We had a good weekend. Saturday Angie and I took the boys to the grocery store. Lilia went to a friends house. It is rare for all of us to go to the store. The local Cora is usually very busy and difficult to navigate with kids. We had a good time and the store was not as busy as normal. Services went good Sunday, we had a lesson over Ephesians 3: . I like how Paul explains that
"is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think". "Exceeding Abundantly" could be translated from the greek as "super-duper-abundantly". I liked explaining to the kids that God has the ability to do great things and chooses to do what is best for us. As always we enjoyed hearing and seeing Walnut Streets services live via Skype. Many businesses are closed around Paris for the month of August. The Sandwich shop next door to us and a Bakery around the corner have both closed for the month. I would like to take the kids to Paris a couple of times this month to see some sights, but we will have to see how that goes after the first trip. Summer school ended well, one of the students was a missionary kid from Kenya. I was wondering if he could take some gifts to the Taylors, our missionary friends who just moved to the East coast of Kenya, but he lives near Nairobi. But this week he is traveling to eastern Kenya for vacation and so he was willing to take the items. It worked out real well. The Taylors arrived a few weeks ago and have not received their container yet so I know they are missing some things. I had better get busy with the days activities. God bless, JASON