Rencontre d'amour

Past two days have passed well. In school we have studied about sharing stories about love. "Coup de foudre" (literally hit of lightning) is the french phrase for love at first sight. For homework Angie and I had to write the stories of how we met. It was fun and interesting to see the different points of view.
It seems winter has arrived. There was a cold wind blowing today. It is supposed to get down to forty the next couple of nights and only warm up to 60. What seems to make it colder to me is the wind. We dragged out the winter coats and bundled everyone up. I still have been holding out on turning the heaters on. God bless, JASON

Another Birthday.

Angie's birthday was Friday. I purchased some eclairs and took them to school for our class to enjoy. It was a slow day at school thankfully. We had about 3 hours of homework on Wednesday Night and an hour on Thursday night. We started to watch a movie last night dubbed in french. It was about the crashing of a 747. Jimmy Stewart was in it. It was dubbed in French of course and it had been a while since I had tried to watch a dubbed movie. Normally it is just kids cartoons. I was surprised by how much more I caught on to. We stopped and went to bed with only about 30 minutes left in the movie. I imagine they escaped from the underwater plane okay. I am looking forward to my parents coming to visit. Last time we talked to them they said goodbye and see you in a few weeks. I didn't realise that it was that close. I have a lot of things I am looking forward to doing with them. Just sitting and talking with the kids will be fun. My Dad and I are planning to hike into Paris. I would like to take part of the same path we took earlier, walk to the Louvre, the Arc de Triomphe, and La Tour Eifel. It would be a nice walk, especially since we would not have to hurry. Now I am going to see what Angie is doing in the kitchen. Thanks again for the prayers for us and continue to pray. We are in the process of looking toward getting our French drivers license (more on that later), and deciding where we will go after language school. Our prayers go out to those who are having financial trouble in the US. We had several churches that had to drop supporting us because of financial hard times. We know that God is in control and has infinite resources. God bless, JASON

Le lundi.

We had a good Monday. I usually like Mondays, I'm charged from Sunday and ready to dive into the week. Services went well yesterday at church. There was a visiting missionary to Cameroon. He gave a short presentation of the work and preached a message. I understood almost everything he said, but I could not follow the overall outline. I gave a short lesson in class today. I think it went well. I took it to my teacher before class to correct it and she starting correcting the scriptures that I had printed at the top, it was funny. Angie gave her testimony in class today as well. We had a great meal for supper. Angie had bought a rotisserie chicken and we had potato wedges with homemade cheese dip and green beans (french cut - naturally). Angie would never admit to it but she is a good cook. It is hard to believe that this month is winding down already. There seems to be a lot of interesting things happening in the US recently. Economy, hurricanes, politics . . . I try to keep up with what I can and keep the family informed, kids included. I want the kids to have an idea of what is going on in the US while they are gone. Attached is a picture of olive trees and palm tree in Greece. God bless, JASON

Joyeux Anniversaire

We have had another blessed week. School has been going well, we had our first test and like usual Angie made higher than me by just a couple of points. I told her the night before while we were studying that she didn't need to study. She just needed to make sure I studied because she would always make just above my grade. Lilia told us a funny story after school one day this week. They were playing rugby in school and Lilia's team was supposed to hold the ball and the other team would try and tackle them, just tackle them and not take the ball. The boy who tackled Lilia (I know this sounds rough) took the ball away from her. So Lilia goes to tell the coach what he did. She tells it like this, "I told the coach the boys name and then I forgot what to say (in french) so I looked down at my shoes and laughed and then I remember how to say it." It was funny hearing her tell the story.

Today is Micah's birthday. He is now four years old. Unlike most kids it was not a big deal to him. This morning he didn't even want Lilia and Caleb to sing happy birthday to him. He wasn't overly excited and begging for stuff either, which was nice. We had another family from the language school who also had four kids over at the house and they played well together. Interestingly four of the kids ended up getting themselves stuck in a room. Somehow the door was jammed and the knob would not turn. I think it must have happened from the boys trying to get in and the girls trying to keep them out. I pried, tried credit cards, screwdrivers, took the door knobs off and still could not get it open. The younger two inside started to get fussy so I finally kicked the door in. After looking at the door knob assembly it somehow had come loose (do not try to picture this unless you are a little familiar with french doorknobs, which are a little different than us ones) and would not turn. It was a little hard to tell what damaged I had done when I kicked it in and what damage was pre-"me". I think I've got it fixed and will try it later to make sure. I'm going to get some homework done now and work on my devotional for Monday. I plan on visiting services tommorrow at the church that meets at the language school. Pictured is Micah with famous Romanian skateboarder and missionary kid, Brandon Rutherford, and some birthday pictures. God bless, JASON

Poème

We studied in class a poem called "Le Message" by Jacques Prévert. After we analyzed the vocabulary and style we had to write one of our own, below is what Angie and I wrote. If you can't read what they are saying, trust me you are not missing much. Enjoy and God bless, JASON

Le Changement
Le portfeuille que quelqu'un a perdu
L'argent que quelqu'un a trouvé
La moto que quelqu'un a achetée
L'accident que quelqu'un a eu
La souffrance que quelqu'un a ressentie
La vie que quelqu'un a changée
L'appreciation que quelqu'un a gagnée
L'education que quelqu'un a recue
Les oeuvres de charité que quelqu'un a commencées
Les familles que quelqu'un a touchées
Le portfeuille que quelqu'un a perdu
L'argent que quelqu'un a trouvé.
Jason Clark

Les Jours
Le lit où quelqu'un s'est reveillé
La salle où quelqu'un s'est habillé
Le sac à dos que quelqu'un a rempli
Les chausseurs que quelqu'un a misés
La rue que quelqu'un a prise
Les cours que quelqu'un a suivis
Les livres que quelqu'un a lus
Le sac à dos que quelqu'un a vidé
Le devoir que quelqu'un a fini
Les chausseurs que quelqu'un a enlevées
Les vetements que quelqu'un a changé
Le lit où quelqu'un s'est en dormi.
Angie Clark

Back to School

School has started up again. We have quite a bit of homework to catch up on. The kids did not seem to miss much. The lessons are going well again. There are a lot of new students that we want to get to know more and we have plenty of time. This week Angie is responsible for setting up and cleaning up the coffee break. Next week it will be my turn. I brought the music for the service this afternoon. It is nice to get back into a routine, as long as that routine brings honor and glory to God. The exchange rate has been real good, considering the last few months. I hope that the current financial woes of the stock market don't affect it much. I paid some of our language school tuition. I have also started researching prices and types of cars. The is a Pontiac Minivan at our language school that the secretary is willing to sell for 4,000 euros. It is ten years old and has 230,000 km. It has been sitting for several years and I'm not sure that that price would be worth what we could get out of it. Well supper is ready, so I'm going to eat, a popular french pastime. God bless, JASON

Home Sweet Home

We are back at home. We arrived yesterday, got settled and had a long nights rest. We left our Hotel in Greece at 5 am. The kids were exhausted by the time we returned. We really enjoyed our time there. Now it is back to school work and errands. Our prayers are with our friends in Texas who are dealing with Hurricane Ike. The weather here has cooled off while we were in Corfu. It got down into the 40s last night. Attached is some pictures of the Resort in Corfu, the kids in the airport watching a movie on the laptop, the missionary kids at VBS. I would encourage any missionary to come and enjoy the fellowship, rest, and biblical encouragement. God bless, JASON

Corfu, Greece

We are having a good time in Corfu. The trip was a little rough at times. Caleb got his fingers stuck in the door of the Subway. Bruised and cut his little finger pretty back, I had to jerk them out. We checked with the Doctor here just to make sure it was okay, he prescribes Iodine and Ice and charged 50 euros for his time. The flights went well with the kids, it is handy being able to open the laptop and put a movie on for the kids in the Airport to make the layover hours pass faster. We got some interesting looks but the other missionaries liked it and understood. We have been having good fellowship, learning and relaxation. There is a large group of french people here and so we have been able to keep a little french speaking going. One of the best things I have liked about here is I feel that it is okay to act like a tourist here. In France we are always trying to fit in, but this is a vacation spot, so I can let the kids be loud and speak English without having a problem. The sessions have been good and I have already learned a lot. I had the privilege of bringing the message this morning. The kids have immediately made friends with all the other missionary kids they didn't know and rekindled friendships that they have already made while we were on deputation. I am having to pay for this Internet connection so I will write back more later from the house on Saturday. Attached are pictures or Sacre Coeur and from Sacre Coeur (large old catholic church). God bless, Jason

Preparing for another trip.

Lynn and Brenda are at the airport now. We enjoyed our time with them. We had many good conversations and fun times. Monday we visited Notre Dame and Sacre Coeur. Tuesday we took the kids to school and then went to the Louvre. Come to find out it is closed on Tuesdays. We walked from there down Champs Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe and then over the the Eiffel Tower. It was a little over 4 miles but a scenery filled walk. Tuesday evening Lynn and Brenda took the kids to McDonalds and let me and Angie go out to eat, very brave of them. Wednesday we rode a tour boat on the Seine (bateau mouche). Thursday we had school and afterwards ate at Pizza Hut. Lynn and Brenda headed to the airport this morning. Now we need to get packed up to go to Greece tommorrow. Tonight we have meetings with Lilia's and Caleb's teachers. Yesterday I met with Lilia's and Caleb's French teacher and had a good visit. She, like many teachers here, is very direct, to the point of being rude. She praised Caleb for his intelligence, pronunciation, memory, and then said, but he colors like a baby. After the meeting was all over I asked Caleb if he heard all that she said. He said, "Yup, she said need to color better." I found out that since they did away with school on Saturdays, they have the option of keeping kids a half hour later each day if they need extra time. I will be taking my computer to Greece and hopefully have time to update the blog during the week. I will also try to post picks of our trips into Paris as I go. God bless, JASON

Commencement

Another good weekend has passed. We had good services yesterday, Bro. Lynn brought a good lesson that even the kids followed well. We had a couple from a language school come eat with us Saturday night. They used to service in Kenya and knew a lot of people that the Raburns knew from there time there. We shared a lot of stories and had a good time. We met some knew students that arrived Sunday at language school. One young man had just spent some of the summer in east Texas, our home. Two young ladies also arrived, one of which was from North Little Rock, where Lynn and Brenda call home. It is amazing how small the world is. We saw on the list of students that name of a student that had gone to high school with Angie, it ended up not being the same guy, the world is not that small. School starts for us on Thursday, but we are going to go to the orientation Tuesday to meet some of the new students. I had the some of the same situations experienced when we arrived, except I played a different role. This time I greeted them in French and they said, "Uh . . . English please." We plan on visiting Paris today. We looked at going to Normandy Wednesday, but at short notice it was too expensive for the rental car. Looking forward to a good week ahead of us, things are going to get a little busier, which I like. God bless, JASON