A New Year

I realized a couple of days ago that we will reach the new year before many of you do. We will start the New Year somewhat the same as last year, sick. It was the flu that was making the rounds this time last year. I have had small fever and been congested and coughing for a couple of days now and a couple of the kids have to. Angie received her drivers license in the mail today, as soon as I feel up to it we will go get them translated, so that we can exchange them. Attached is a picture of the boys in Batman gear they received from a church in the states. We were really blessed to receive several offerings and gifts from others. We pray that you have a happy New Year. God Bless, JASON

Anniversary

Just a quick note to say today marks 1 year since our arrival in France. Thanks for the prayers and keep them up. God bless, JASON

Christmas Day +1

On Christmas Eve, Lilia brought a devotional about Christmas and did a wonderful job, then Angie read a pop-up book to the kids about Christmas. We let the kids stay up watching "White Christmas" which all but Andrew lasted through. We had a wonderful Christmas Day. The kids were spoiled of course, but not too bad. Everyone slept until 8:00 which was nice. This year we handed out the presents to all four of them one at a time. That made it a little more enjoyable and not a hurry to open up and assemble everything that has been opened right away. The food was great. For breakfast Angie made eggs, sausage, and pancakes and for lunch and supper we had chicken and dressing, mashed potatoes, corn bread, and salad (leftovers from Christmas Eve). The rest of the day was then spent assembling and opening and explaining and demonstrating. It was fun. I will try to post pictures of the kids in future posts with their toys. Now we are looking forward to New Years. I just realized that we will reach the new year before many of you do.

Christmas Eve Eve

Christmas Eve Eve was a term we coined when we where kids for this day, two days before Christmas. We received a large package this morning from my sister and brother-in-law and their church near Palestine. The kids were really excited about it, mostly because it was big. As with all of our packages we gather around and say a prayer of thanksgiving for those who sent it. This package came via UPS and they charged taxes, which has never happened before. Andrew loved the packing peanuts. The weekend passed well, the new Williams family ate lunch with us after church. We have been making several runs to the store to pick up stuff and wrapping presents in between. The Pascall family is visiting us tonight for supper. They will be leaving for Senegal in a week. They have passed a lot of stuff down to us, all of their winter clothes that they will not be needing anymore. Since being here in France I have learned a lot about Africa. Pictured is our language school class, there will be three new students arriving in January that we look forward to getting to know. God bless and Merry Christmas Eve Eve, JASON

School break.

Angie went to a concert Thursday night with some of the teachers and students from school, She had a wonderful time.

School has finished for the rest of this year. Angie beat me by several points again, but I am used to it. We said "goodbye" to several students that will not be returning the new year. Our prayers go out to them and their various mission points and ventures. We have reached level B1. I will have to find the paper that describes exactly what that means.

At three this afternoon, I meet with man who is the works closely with many Christians organizations in France. I found out from talking with him which organization would line up with our goals and beliefs so that I can pursue getting our invitation for a residence visa through them.

As Angie and I where on the way to school to pick up the kids we were passing a building where there are usually several mentally handicapped people. Angie had crossed this way before when a girl had asked to go home with her and when Angie said "no thanks". The young lady burst into crying and tears. I have seen the girl several times always crying, loudly. Today as we were just about to walk by, Angie saw this same girl approaching. She mentioned for us to cross to the other side of the street but it was too late. Suddenly this voice shouts out next to me in French (loud enough to make me jump), "I must go home!" She repeated this several times when her attention was draw away by another person we crossed the street. After giving this person the same demanding statement she started crying and continued down the road. Then I hear her say, "Monsieur, Madame?" And I see her crossing the street and she makes the same statement to us again. I was just going to say "No", when Angie spoke in her sweet voice, "Be careful walking in the road, are you ready for Christmas?". The lady made a few brief remarks that I couldn't make out and then crossed back to her side of the street. And she started singing her phrase, "I must go home." over and over again, in a completely happy and content voice. What a change can be made by just a few kind words.

I was blessed yesterday with two occasions to help others, one elderly women to climb some stairs and another lady move her trashcan off the street. I feel really good when I have the opportunity to help others. The elderly women's entire countenance changed and she was happily talking to us and telling how nice it was of me (I did have all the kids with me, they probably were the reason for the nice comments).

Attached is a picture of Caleb on his birthday, Wednesday, with the cake he picked out for himself. God bless, JASON

Angie has returned.

Angie is back and almost recovered. It is good to have her back and she had a wonderful time in Colorado, shopping and visiting. She got her drivers license, that was the main purpose of the trip. I must catch you up on a few Micah-isms. I was giving a bath the other day and said, "Why are your ears so dirty Micah?" He replied, "Because I eat chicken and play outside." And today while we were walking to school he had been quite for most of the walk when he suddenly said, "If I pulled the cats tail I would say sorry."
We took our final test of the semester today. It was difficult and I can not even guess what I made on it. Caleb turns 6 years old tomorrow. I have the urge to make him a lemon cake. Angie had a meeting with Lilia's teacher today. He was real impressed with her progress. Often she does better on vocabulary and spelling test than all the other french students. One of the new language school students child will be in her class starting Thursday. Caleb as well will have one of the their kids in his class. They are both very excited about it. We meet with Caleb's teacher Thursday, and I am really looking forward to finding out how he is doing. We can not get any information out of him. Tomorrow we will celebrate Calebs birthday, take the kids to the Library and get a replacement cell phone (ours has slowly deteriorated after it was washed). God bless, JASON

Angie in Colorado.

Angie made it safe to Colorado. She missed a flight in Paris and again in Chicago but arrived just a little later. I escorted the new family back to Massy from the Airport. They had 8 bags left behind in Atlanta that are supposed to arrive today. They were pretty tired but the trip went well. Wednesday we sang at the Nursing home. It went well and the residents seemed to enjoy it. There was a write up about it in the local paper today. I am preaching in Chapel today. I will post my sermon later. It is cold this morning, the windchill was 23. Tonight we have a multi-language Christmas concert. I plan to go but the kids may get sleepy and fussy because it starts at 8:30, but we will last as long as we can and leave early if needed. God bless, JASON

Snowy Day

The weekend went well. We had a good time with our guests. We took them to church with us Sunday and Angie translated the services as best as she could. The speaker spoke real fast and so it was hard to keep up with the translation. Yesterday the temperature dropped down to around freezing and it stayed right about there all day. Right now it is snowing outside. I am staying home with Andrew who had a small temperature this morning. We have a busy week ahead of us. This evening Lilia has piano practice and Angie will get her haircut and take a test that she will miss at the end of the week. We also have a couple coming to visit for a little bit after the kids go to bed tonight. The husband is french and the wife is Canadian, but she doesn't speak french so it has been difficult for her to make friends. Wednesday, I have a meeting with our teacher to go over my sermon for Friday. Also Wednesday our school choir is giving two concerts at nursing homes in the area. I hope I can get a video clip of it to post. Tomorrow, Angie leaves for Colorado and so I will escort her to the airport. There is a new missionary family arriving at the airport about the same time and so I will travel back with them to school. They have five children and a lot of luggage and so I am thankful for this opportunity to help. Friday night we have a concert at the language school of people singing Christmas songs in different languages. Saturday the kids have a practice for a Christmas program they are bringing Sunday afternoon. It will be harder to accomplish all this with Angie gone, but it will keep me busy so I won't have a lot of time to miss her. Attached pictures are Angie and Nikki, Lilia and Gemma, and the snow falling. God bless, JASON

Just us guys.

Our friends, Nikki and Gemma, arrived from Scotland and Angie and Lilia are touring Paris with them. We became friends with them at a Missions Seminar a few years ago in North Little Rock, Lilia and Gemma really got along well. They are from New Zealand. Micah didn't stop talking for the first two hours they were here yesterday. So it is just us guys at home now. I took a nice nap with Andrew, good quality time. Caleb always asks to have "boy time", meaning we all get on the floor and wrestle, until somebody gets hurt or Angie makes us stop. Angie is not here, so you can deduce what that will mean. We are going to have hot dogs for supper, one of my favorite meals. Tomorrow they expressed interest in going to one of the French churches for worship and a new cultural experience. Attached picture demonstrates how they get furniture into there apartment buildings. This wide ladder has a lift that runs from top to bottom. God bless, JASON

December Arrives.

We had a wonderful weekend. Saturday we had a thanksgiving dinner with our friends. It was great. Sunday services went well, the Pastor spoke from John 8 about two ways of not understanding, not understanding and asking for and explanation, and not understanding and therefore not believing. Actually what he said was, "Je ne comprende pas, Aide-moi
à comprendre, ou je ne comprends pas donc je ne crois pas", but you get the idea. We picked up some stuff after church for Christmas, including the Christmas tree (le sapin de Noël). Yesterday (Monday) we set it up because we had a lot of homework to do Sunday night. It looks nice but we did not put the lights on it yet so I will post a picture later. I'll end with another Micah moment. He was talking in his sleep the other night and said clearly, "I didn't do it. God bless, JASON