Weather and Post Office

Winter seems like it has set in this week. All week long it has been a low of around 32 high of 39 and chance of rain every day. As of right now it is 39 degrees, 87% humidity, with sunrise at 8:19 am and sunset at 4:58 pm. I went to the post office this morning to mail some newspapers. I ordered these for an acquaintance in the states who wanted to send newspapers from the worlds largest cities of the day after the election. So I picked up twenty copies of Le Parisien Thursday and sent them back out today. I waited for an hour at the post office today. You take a number and wait your turn, there were thirty in front of me when I arrived. There was a lot of mumbling complaints but everyone seems to put up with it. We are having our friends over today for another thanksgiving meal, I am looking forward to it and have just eaten a light lunch in anticipation of supper. Attached is a picture of the kids enjoying a chocolate banana milkshake that I made them. God bless, JASON

Thanksgiving.

We had a Thanksgiving meal yesterday at the Language school. It was Wednesday but we chose that day because there was no school, while we did have school today. The meal went well, there were over 50 students and teachers present and six kids. It was the first time I had had a thanksgiving meal with food from Korea, South Africa, Germany, France, and America. Angie made chicken and dumplings which went over well. It was hard to explain what they were to people. How can you explain what a dumpling is to people who do not have biscuits? Boiled bread just doesn't sound good. I made sweet ice tea which went over real well with the southerners. We had a good time of testimony as well. It is amazing how God has worked in each of the lives of the ones there to get them to the point that they are now. That works for all of us but we often do not look back to realize it the part God has played in it. My thanks go to God for all he has done in my life, for blessing my with my family and friends, for calling me to his service, and for providing for all my needs, most importantly my need for a Savior. We are going have another Thanksgiving meal on Saturday with our friends and their four kids. I'll end this post with another Micah quote, he brought me a shirt to wear for a gown the other day and I asked, are you sure this is a gown shirt? He looked at me and in confidence said, "Of course, it has a helicopter on it." What was I thinking? God bless, JASON

Denver, Colorado

I had a great time in Denver. I arrived, my cousin, Andrew picked me up from the airport, and I spent the night in my Aunts house, not far from the airport. My thanks to Aunt Jean for letting me stay with her. Friday morning, I mailed something for a friend in France, got my drivers license and bought a large amount of stuff from Wal-mart. I stayed there about an hour and a half. That was probably the longest time I had spent in Wal-mart by myself. I picked up some things for the kids Christmas, some medicines, some spices and candy that we could not get here, shoes for all the kids and other misc. items. Everything except the medicine was cheaper at Wal-mart. Medicine is cheap in France because of the socialized health care. Angie bought a prescription to other day that was $50 for a months supply, here she got three months worth for $5. Sorry, we are not taking orders. Other interesting things about the trip, people were talking English, customer service was better than here, I had Dr. Pepper and ranch dressing, and there were a lot of pickup trucks.

Friday evening I ate with my cousin, Andrew, and three of his 5 kids. We enjoyed good conversation and American pizza. It was great to see them again and I was encouraged by their faithful service to the Lord. Saturday, my Aunt Jean and I went to see my Aunt Peggy in Vail. It was a pretty drive and a nice visit as well. We attended early services at the church my Aunt attends. It was great to be present at a ENGLISH worship service. The songs and the message were great, I almost teared up at one point, but held it in. The flight back went good as well. I had a close connecting flight in Washington and just made it without having to run. I only slept for about an hour and a half, and now have been working on trying to get caught up on homework. The trip was great but it is also great to be home with Angie and the kids. Attached picture is of the boys playing with their train set. God bless, JASON

Back in France.

I made it back to France without any problems. Everything that I had planned to get done was accomplished. I will blog more tomorrow about how the trip went. I have only slept a total of 2 hours last night, so I am tired and need to get quite a bit of homework done. Thanks for the prayers for my trip and for Angie. Thankfully all the kids were doing fine today and made it too school. God bless, JASON

He's on the Ground

Jason arrived safely in Denver and is now going to get some rest! Please pray for the DMV office visit to go smoothly tomorrow and a safe return also. Thanks, Angie

Jason's Flying

Jason left today for Colorado to get his driver's license there so it will exchang directly with the French one. Jason's should arrive in Colorado around 8:30pm mountain time. You know flights always make me pray more. Especially when it is me or Jason flying. Anyone else do that too? Then I have to remind myself that I am in God's hand no matter where I am.
The kid's schools were on strike today and Andrew and Micah are a little under the weather. I have had Andrew home all week. But as soon as Jason was out the door the phone rang and it was the kids school saying that Lilia and Caleb could come. Caleb's teacher was not on strike and neither was Lilia's french teacher and she could just stay in that class. So I thought ok here we go. The call was at 9:35 and when I told the kids we all realized we hadn't done their homework the night before. So we got that done quick, got shoes on, and walked them to school at 10:30. I thought ok the kids can eat at the cafeteria and I can go back home and take care of these two little guys. But no! There is no cafeteria today because they are on strike. So I took the little guys to a park by the school for the hour until school was let out for lunch at 11:30. Then we came home and got all warm and I called my friend Lauren and asked if she could walk them back to school. She said yes and was also kind enough to offer to come this afternoon and watch the little ones while I go get Lilia and Caleb. It is nice to have good friends who can help you out when you need it. GOD BLESS, Angie

Art and the Bible

The weekend went well. The biblical art exhibit was interesting. They also had some very old bibles on display. Sunday I went to church services with Lilia, Angie stayed home with the boys who all had coughs. Andrew is still not feeling well. After services I went to a Evangelical church conference. It was real good. It took an hour train ride to get there, but it was worth it. There were hundreds of booths set up. I got a good sense of bible literature available in France. Seminaries, language schools, missionary booths, book stores, and gifts are some of the other booths listed.
I am leaving Thursday for a trip to Colorado to get my drivers license. I will be returning Sunday but there are still some things that I need to get done to help Angie. Angie had me laughing hard earlier. She had prepared a meal with some boneless skinless chicken breasts. Caleb found a bone in his first and later I found a small piece of bone in mine. Angie said, "I should have though about checking for bones when I saw the feather in there." She was serious too. Angie stayed home with Andrew today, hopefully he will be all better soon. It is not bothering him too bad, but it is hard to miss school. We watched Evan Almighty this evening with the kids, cute movie. When Micah finds something funny in a movie, he laughs so loud, it gets everyone else laughing. God bless, JASON

Back from the dead.

"Dead" as in alive but worthless. Early Friday morning I woke up sick. I will not go into all the details but it required bathroom trips and feeling hot then cold then hot, every 20 minutes. I missed school Friday needless to say. What is hard for me being sick is that I accomplish nothing and end up feeling like a burden to those around me. One benefit about sickness is that I have always drawn closer to God during times of sickness, always a time of prayer and Bible study when sleep does not come. Maybe I just needed a revival and so God brought me a virus. Thankfully it did not last long and I was back to normal health by supper. I have a busy weekend planned. This afternoon there is a conference at the school concerning biblical art. Tomorrow in Paris there is a meeting of evangelical churches. There will be a lot of booths and information available. I will be going there with another language school student who is German, so French will be our language of choice. God bless, JASON

Interesting Facts about France II

*French people get an average of 39 days off from work a year.

*Hiking is the most popular outdoor activity, with 21 million participants.

*Average French person spends 44euros ( $56 current exchange) a year on books.

*Avg. French person consumes and average of 60 litres of wine per year, over 2 millions acres of land are used for vineyards.

*Avg. French person consumes 5.7 kilograms of coffee each year (12.5 lbs).

*Avg. French person drinks an average of 80 cups of tea a year (2000 for English).

*Average French person eats 7 kg of chocolate a year (15.4 lbs).

*Number one car brand in France is Renault (27% of cars sold in France in 2003).

*The French health care system was ranked first worldwide by the World Health Organisation in 1997. Average life expectancy at birth is 79.73 years.

*There are over 5000 restaurants in Paris.

*The education system in France ranks 25th best in the world.


* Pictured is a magpie, very populous bird in France.



*For more facts http://abainfrance.blogspot.com/2008/10/interesting-facts-about-france.html

Armistice

Today is Armistice day in France, celebrating 90 years since the end of World War I. This is more special this year in France because this is the first time that there is not a french WWI veteran alive. I did not know much about the first World War. There were 117,465 US casualties and 1,697,800 French casualties. There was a small parade in town today and a meeting at the local cemetery which has the graves for the WWI victims of Massy.
New Micah quote of the day, we have been working on him pronouncing his "L" sounds, he pronounces them as a "w". He is getting better at it but he has to focus and try. Last night we were getting them ready for bed and he asked, "Are you going to put me to sweep, Daddy?". Angie said, "Say sLLLeep". Micah then said, "I mean are you going to put me to bed?" Quick thinking on his part. God bless, JASON

MIddle of the Weekend

The weekend is going well. Lilia had a friend stay the night last night and so everyone was up a little later than normal, and as a good result everyone slept in a little this morning. Except Micah who was up at 5:30 for some reason. Caleb and I went shopping this morning. At lunch we discovered another Micah quote. He had just choked on some ravioli, but managed to pull through without any help. After he was able to speak he said, "Well . . . that was hot." After lunch we had fun with the boys who wanted me to tie them up with shoe laces. I have found that it is difficult to tie up a 2 year old especially. We took the kids to the park for an hour or two this afternoon, they had a lot of fun, while Angie and I watched and tried to stay warm on the sidelines. It has hovered around 50 degrees today, windy and cloudy. We had a good class Friday afternoon that taught about french holidays and traditions surrounding them. It was very informative and practical. We will probably not venture far for church tomorrow because it predicted to be cold and rainy. Now I am off to help Angie prepare some hot sandwiches for supper. God bless, JASON

Obama in France

The morning newspaper said that 85 % of french people liked Obama. I found this interesting and we spoke about it for while in class this morning. They are interested in the historical aspect of the election. France has never been segregated and yet there are prejudices such that a black president is not something that is possible yet in the foreseeable future. But they see the US, where segregation has only been illegal for 50 years have a black president, it interests them. We also discussed about pride. France does not seem to have a lot of pride for their country. You will not see a lot of French flags flying (except during a soccer match). French soldiers go to war because they have to, not because they feel that they are fighting for their nation. When asked here what I think of Obama, I reply that we will see in four years. I have heard many criticisms of George Bush, but at one time he had one of the highest approval ratings ever. He had to deal with some things that he couldn't control, i. e. the Sept. 11th terrorist attacks, Hurricane Katrina, the financial crisis. So in four years we will see what Obama has to face.

On another note, I feel like I have a lot to do. Homework, research, finances, etc. but this is Friday and I think I will relax and spend time with the family. Speaking of which, there is a two year old boy sitting next to me that needs to be tickled. God bless, JASON

Parents going home.

Mom and Dad have gone back to Texas, actually I think they are flying over Canada right now. Lilia and I dropped them off at the airport this morning. We had a wonderful time with them. I am hopeful that they can make the trip again in a couple of years. Since they are gone, we have to get back to work. I helped Caleb with his homework today. He had quite a bit. I have not started on mine. I am tempted to stay up and watch the elections tonight, but we will play that by ear. I am looking forward to getting back to language school. The more I can communicate with those around me, the more ready I feel to get going with God's work. I know that learning the language is God's will for us right now, but I can't help but looking forward to seeing souls saved, disciples made, and churches started here in France. God bless, JASON

Church and Louvre

We had good services this morning. My Dad brought a good lessons on the subject, Good Guy - Bad Guy, from III John. Afterwards we went to the Louvre. On the first Sunday of the month admission is free. It was a crowded but we had a good time. We saw the Mona Lisa and several other significant works of art. We made it back home in time to hear the services at Walnut Street. Bro. Harold Davis (http://baptistville.org/davis/Davis%20Website/index.htm) my childhood pastor, filled in for Dad and did an excellent job as was expected. After supper we put the kids right to bed. They were exhausted from the day. Tomorrow is Lilia's birthday and we will probably hang around the house and take the kids to the park. It is supposed to be sunny and a little warmer tomorrow. I have attached some pictures from the Louvre. The tall column with the Lion on top is from the palace of Darius (Daniel and the Lions Den) in Babylon. God bless, JASON

A day off.

Yesterday we took a day off from Sight Seeing. We stayed around the house for most of the morning. At noon I took Mom and Dad out to run a couple of errands. I took them shopping, our local large grocery store, Cora, ended up being about four times larger than their Wal-mart. We picked up some candy for the kids for Halloween. The best part of the day was Dad making a pot of his Chili for supper, French ingredients to make Texas Chili. We let the kids stay up and enjoy some candy and a movie. Today Angie and my mom are going to go shopping, while Dad and I hang around here with the kids. We may take them to a park if the weather clears up. Have a good weekend! God bless, JASON