Last time for the year.

Sunday marked our two year anniversary in France. The Lord has truly blessed beyond what I thought was possible. My apologies for trying to limit God with my plans. It has been wonderful. I have my report done and have sent to to my dad for approval. I have my lesson almost all completed for the prayer meeting tomorrow. Today we had Yelena over for lunch and we practiced some songs for the Bible Study that hopefully will take place next week. Today we went and spent some time with some friends from the church in Carcassonne. We had a wonderful time together. The kids were able to play on some of the games and we walked and saw some lights. We then went to their house for pizza and discussed some about the upcoming year concerning Sunday School. We will be helping the church in Carcassonne in their Sunday school program. A break-through happened throug the evening. I said the prayer in French and did not have to pause to think about what I was going to say next. Okay, so it's not that big of a deal for you, but I felt like real progess has been made. Lilia is having two girlfriends stay the night tonight. We are going to try and invite some friends over for a New Years eve celebration tomorrow. Pictures are the kids taking a break from all of the fun they had this evening. God bless, JASON

Fruitcake

Christmas day ended well. We played with the kids, talked with both of our parents on Skype. I made some Fruit cake as well. I guessed at all the amounts, but it came out well. The color was a little of because the graham crackers (actually cookies) were a lighter color, and the only marshamellows we could find were pink and white. But it tasted good never-the-less. Saturday I got our financial reports done and spent the rest of the day straightening and playing with the kids. It rained all day long. Sunday was nice and sunny. Services where good in Carcassonne, the sermon was over Simeon from Luke ch. 2 and what we could learn from him. Afterwards we went home with Neil and Helen, a British couple who have a vacation home in a village not too far from Carcassonne. We enjoyed a good meal and visit together. They served fruit cake for dessert and it was very good. We all sat outside and watched the kids play and enjoyed the sunshine. We made it back in time to hear the services from our Church in Texas. Tomorrow I will work on the monthly report to be sent to all our supporting churches. Angie's cough which had seemed to almost have disappeared was worse today and yesterday. Please join me in praying that it does not get any worse. Attached pictures are of our meal and a view of the Pyrennes Mountains just south of us. God bless, JASON

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all. This week has passed quickly. Tuesday night we went to the English Carol service at the church in Carcassonne where I was blessed to have the opportunity to bring a devotional - in English. I made some wassail for the service, everyone seemed to enjoy it. I remeber having it as a child and I always enjoyed it. Here is the recipe that I used. 2 quarts(2 liters) of apple cider, 2 cups(500 ml) orange juice, 3 1/4 cups(26 oz) pineapple juice, 1/2 cup (125 ml) lemon juice, 3 cloves, 3 cinnamon sticks, 1/2 cup sugar. Mix it and boil it and it is ready. Wednesday we spent most of the time with the kids and taking turns running to the store for things. Thursday I brought the lesson for the prayer meeting in Carcassonne. Before bed, Angie read the kids the Christmas story. Which brings us to Christmas day. We have been letting the kids stay up a little late for the last few days and so they didn't wake up until almost 8:00 this morning. Isn't that great! Andrew got up first and came to us and asked for some breakfast. Lilia was next and she woke everyone else up and reminded everyone that it was Christmas. After presents, Angie made a wonderful breakfast and we have been playing with the kids ever since. I am excited because we got the boys Legos. I always loved playing with Legos when I was young and ended up with quite a collection. It seems they have the passion already. They really enjoyed putting them together with us. Micah immediately tore his apart and starting making something else. I had better get back to the family. I pray that you have a wonderful Christmas day and that your thoughts are turned as well to the reason for the season. . . Jesus Christ. God bless, JASON

The weather outside is frightful.

The great news is Angie is continuing to improve. Yesterday she was able to smell the food that I cooked. Her voice is still a little raspy and she coughs occasionally. Today she is getting out to do some Christmas shopping. I just spent some time painting with the kids. All the kids seem to be better today as well. I hope all the sickness is behind us for a while. Angie was sick for three weeks. Yesterday we had another snowy morning. What I would call a blizzard came through after I dropped the kids off for school and covered the grounds and the roads in snow. I did not want to try to make it up our road, which is steep, so I parked at the bottom and walked up. I could tell by the footprints in the snow that three others had done the same thing. The snow didn't fall for long and I was able to drive all the way home after lunch. It has been cold. The temperature has not gone over freezing in the last few days. We celebrated Caleb's birthday, which was Thursday. He turned 7 years old. He was feeling a little better thankfully by the time we had the party. I am looking forward to the time off now more since Angie is better. Tuesday evening I will be speaking at the English Carol service in Carcassonne. It has been a while since I have spoken publicly in English. Hope that you weekend is blessed and that you find time to worship God. God bless, JASON

Snowy Day

Pictures from around our house on Monday. There is also a chance of snow today. It is currently 27 degrees so I think it is possible.

Tis the season.

Friday night, we let the kids watch a new movie. Saturday was spent getting the Christmas tree up and decorated. Of course the kids loved it. We take time to remeber where each ornament came from and what some of them mean. We also had our friend Yelena over to visit with us. Saturday night, Andrew had fever, so I went with the three older kids to church in Carcassonne. Services were well and enjoyed the visiting and fellowship afterwards. A church member gave us some fig preserves and some apple prune jelly. What we have tried so far has been very good. Monday morning there was a layer of snow on the ground when we woke up. It continued to snow all morning and into the afternoon. We ended up with several inches of snow on the ground. The kids enjoyed it, and we even let Andrew get out and play in it a little. I will attach pictures of it later. Today Caleb has a fever. Andrew is doing fine but we are keeping him home from school just to make sure he is fully recovered. Angie still has been coughing a lot. She did venture out yesterday with the rest of us to buy Caleb some shoes for his birthday. This sickness going through the family seems to have slowed everything down. I am getting a lot of good reading done in between running the kids to school or shopping. I do hope that everyone is healed by Christmas break. Attached are the picture of our tree and the lights on the outside of our house. God bless, JASON

Shopping

The week has been going well. Angie is finally starting to get over the cough that has stayed with her after the flu. We took her to the doctor Wednesday to get some medicine. We decided to postpone the Bible study one more week just to make sure she is not contagious. Thursday after school I took Caleb and Micah to get their hair cut. The ladies cutting their hair, remarked at how well they sat there. They do look a lot better. This will be a good oportunity to build a relationship because with out family of six, we will be spending a lot of time there. We are starting to see some Christmas lights going up around town. I was thinking of adding some because our house is in a good spot for the lights to be seen from the main road. So I started shopping around for good prices on outdoor lights. In the States if you wanted the best prices you would just go to Wal-mart, but here there is not really one store that has the best prices on all things. We usually go to three different stores during the week just for our grocery shopping. Looking forward to Christmas this year. We raelly do not have any big plans. I'll be speaking at the English Christmas service in Carcassonne. Sometime I would like to take the kids ice skating, they just set up a rink in downtown Limoux. There is a carnival going on in Carcassonne for the rest of the month that we might take the kids to. We have just a few more family members in the States that we need to get gifts form and have not started shopping for our family here. When Angie is fully recovered we will get to the shopping. Attached is a picture of the fog in the valley this morning and of a rainbow Angie and Andrew saw a few days ago.

The sick and the napkin.

Last week seemed to drag by. Angie was sick all last week. . . fever, achy, cough. We ended up cancelling the bible study that we had planned for Friday night. I know that it must be difficult for those single parents to raise children on their own. I have just been running all over the place. Thankfully, Angie has been there to point me in the right direction with phrases like, "Those clothes don't match", "It is time for ya'll to leave", "We need more groceries", "The kids need a bath" , "Don't forget . . .". She has been a lot of help even though she just kind of alternates between her bed and the couch.
It rained all day Friday, and Saturday I found out that quite a bit of the rain and entered into our garage where we store a lot of stuff in boxes. Needless to say, a lot of wet, it took a while to rearrange everything, but at least I know better where everything is at.
Sunday Caleb and I went to church. We had a meal afterwards consiting of soup, salad, quiche, new pototatoes, potato casserole, fruit, chicken, 3 cheeses, and 3 desserts. Good eating. Afterwards we attended the business meeting, which was my first business meeting to attend in France. I enjoyed it, there were a lot of good questions and the atmosphere was light and included plenty of laughter. We were made associated members of the church. The story behind that is we would like to participate in the teaching and preaching but there is a rule that only members can do those things. This rule was made because some people believe just by participating in the service and helping, they would merit a place in heaven. So for us and another couple who visit during the summer, we are already members of another church, so they made a special case for us, a kind of stamp of approval, so that we can aide in the ministry aspects of the church. We of course will not be allowed to vote during business meeting and such. If that has just confused you even more, then email me or make a comment and I will try to explain further. The church in Carcassonne has helped us already in many ways.
There are several things I need to get done this week. I need to get some things mailed. I need to get a letter written to our former internet service provider. They claimed to have not received the modem that we sent to them. After calling them, they instructed that we write a letter and fax it to them explaining the situation. Lord willing, we will have a Bible study this week. I am just about to go email someone to ask if they would be willing to be my conversation partner.
One thing that happened at the Thanksgiving meal that I forgot to mention. Micah, who can not stand to have a mess, had some food on his fingers and yelled out, "Napkin". Unfortunately napkin in French is a feminine hygiene product. I did not think about it until later. So since then we have worked on several other possible names to us in place of napkin. God bless, JASON

Laughter.

Saturday we had a good visit from a church member in Carcassonne. He looked at some plumbing issues we had and we talked for a while afterwards while his two daughters played with our kids. Sunday services went well. Monday I finished my monthly report. Tuesday was mostly dealing with finances. I received an e-mail stating that our old internet provider has not received the equipment that we were supposed to (and did) send back after our cancellation with them. I called to try to get the situation worked out before they charge us. After wading through the option I was told it would be a ten minute wait. After about 5 minutes and automated message came on and said that in fact the call volume was too long so I would need to call back later. No problem.

We have been having a lot of laughter recently. A lot of it is due to our sudden inability to speak proper english. During supper last night, I was instructing Caleb, that we should not ask for "dirt" before the meal is finished. Lilia said she could write with her "gauche" hand. Andrew mentioned that he was Lightning McQueen, to which Micah replied, "Well I'm a queen." It all made for a lot of laughs. It has been like that at supper time for about a week now. A couple of nights ago, one of the kids was talking in their sleep in French. Andrew walked in the kitchen one day while Angie was cutting up a red bell pepper and said loudly, "Bob!". Veggietales fans will understand that one.

Angie is not feeling well, a little achy and fever, but so far I do not think it is the "Grippe A". The weather has been cold, windy, and rainy for the last few days, so maybe she is just "under the weather". Tomorrow will be mainly the kids swimming class and in the evening, we will have Yelena over for supper and maybe even some singing. It is hard to believe that December is already here. The attached picture is one we took of Andrew at a church we visited while raising support. He had fallen asleed in his high chair. They are still so cute, especially when they are sleeping. God bless, JASON

Thanksgiving in France.

Our Thanksgiving meal went good. It was definitely unique. I can't remember ever working so hard to prepare for a Thanksgiving and I know that I have never had an order of services written before. Our British friends from Carcassonne came early to help out. Everyone else arrived between 10 to 30 minutes late, which is the French custom. I started out with the history of Thanksgiving. I said, "Thanksgiving; ça veut dire « l'action de grâce » historiquement est un jour de fête chrétienne durant lequel on remerciait Dieu par des prières et des réjouissances pour les bonheurs que l’on avait pu recevoir pendant l’année avec nos familles. Notre famille ne peuvent pas venir, donc pour ce soir, vous êtes notre famille. En 1620, 120 de pèlerins Puritains britanniques ont quitté l'Angleterre à cause de la persécution, ils sont arrivés septembre 1620 à la Baie de Plymouth au Massachusetts. Ils y fondent la Colonie de Plymouth et la ville homonyme. Mais les débuts de la colonisation furent difficiles et la moitié des arrivants périrent. Ces derniers ne durent leur salut qu'à l'intervention des amérindiens en particulière un autochtone nommé Squanto qui avec l'aide de sa tribu, offrit aux anglais de la nourriture; il leur montrât des nouvelles plats comme le pop-corn, puis leur apprirent à pêcher, chasser des animaux comme les dinde sauvage, et cultiver du maïs.
Afin de célébrer la première récolte, à l’automne 1621, le gouverneur décréta trois jours d'action de grâce. Les colons invitèrent alors le chef de la tribu et ses hommes à venir partager leur repas, en guise de remerciement pour l'aide apportée. Durant ce festin, des dindes sauvages furent offerts. Y compris les 47 pèlerins dont 4 femme et 90 amérindiens. En 1941 la fête est devenu officiel par le gouvernement; les administrations et la plupart des entreprises étant fermées ce jour-là. Cela reste un temps pour . . . manger avec la famille, remercier Dieu, donner nourriture aux sans abri, regarder des grands matchs du football américain, voyager, commencement de Noël. . . cette célébration est désormais plutôt laïque en Amérique du Nord." Our kids acted out the parts. Lilia and Caleb where the pilgrims, Micah was the indian and Andrew was the Turkey. When the indian meet the Pilgrims, they shook hands and "fait la bise", kiss on each check. The kids came up with that on their own. When Andrew came in as a turkey, everyone "aweeed" and he got a little shy. He was supposed to run out when I mentioned that they ate the turkey but he was clinging to mom instead. Afterwards Angie introduced the dishes, which was a chore in itself. Dressing = la farce, which also means a practical joke, cranberry sauce = la sauce de canneberge, sweet potatoes = patates douce, buttermilk pie = a pie made from buttermilk (doesn't sound very good once you think about it), pumpkin pie = tarte à la citrouille (pie made from an orange vegetable?). We went around and everyone gave something that they were thankful for, and then I led in prayer. The food was well received and we had many good remarks. Converstation was good. I announced as well our Bible study starting The kids were well behaved. Ending up having 20 people including our family. The party broke up around 10:30. Today we are recovering and resting and eating leftovers. A friend from the church in Carcassonne is coming over to look at some plumbing issues this afternoon. Afterwards I was considering taking the kids to a Rugby match in Limoux. The first picture was Andrew helping to make the dressing, others were taking during the evening. We pray your Thanksgiving were all a wonderful and that you took time to give thanks to God. JASON

A forkful of medicine.

The last few days have been mainly spent preparing for Thanksgiving. Angie has decided that she needs to prepare all the dishes in advance, just to make sure that they are good. We found a turke, or rather pieces of a Turkey. The butcher said that a whole turkey would not be available until the 10th of December, so we took the pieces. We have received several replies of people that will be coming. I have attached a picture of what the invitations looked like. There was a map on the reverse side. We plan on borrowing a table from the church in Carcassonne and have already borrowed some chairs from friends. We had a couple of visitors over yesterday. Angie's friend from Carcassonne came over in the morning and in the afternoon we had a visit from the pastor in Carcassonne. Today I will finish preparing my lesson for the prayer meeting in Carcassonne tomorrow. I will also get my thoughts arranged for the Thanksgiving explanation on Friday night. We plan to have the kids act the story as I narrate. It should be fun.

I have not included any sayings recently from Micah. Don't think that he has stopped coming out with all there intersting remarks. He has been waking up in the middle of the nights to go to the bathroom. He always does some funny things in his sleepy state. Once he walked in to the living room and glanced at the TV where Angie and I were watching a cartoon. He then remarked, "This is not a mommy and daddy movie." Yesterday morning as I was giving him a spoonfull of his cold medicine, he said, "Why don't you give me my medicine with a fork?" Yesterday evening we were able to get on Skype and let them talk to their cousins, which was interesting. Conversation seemed to center on movies, guns, dinosaurs, school, and football. Well I am about to head out to get the kids ready for their swimming class. I am praying that this class will permit us to get to know people in the community. Pray with us that we can use this as an outreach. God bless, JASON

Turkey?

Thursday and Friday, I got the invitations finished, and also finished all my research on Thanksgiving. All that is left is to write it out in. My former language school teacher gave me the idea to use the kids in a kind of play. I think that is a good idea and will see if we can get them to act out the Thanksgiving story. The only snag we may run into is the Turkey. Turkey here is not widely eaten until Christmas, we may not be able to find one for Thanksgiving. We will try though.
I am getting excited as the day approaches for us to start a Bible Study. I am also humbled, realizing what a great job I have to do for God. Summed up the job is to make disciples. Followers of Christ. It involves teaching, modeling, encouraging, leading, praying, enpowering, etc. . . To make disciples, is such a great privelege and responsibility. I pray that God gives me the strength and wisdom to do things His way and I pray that He will get glory and honor from it. Of course thinking back, every one who is a Christian, should be about that same purpose - making disciples. It is a position I should have held since my "rebirth", since I was born into His family. I have failed in regards to that for many years. If I had been making disciples since my salvation as I should, I would already have over 25 solid years of experience. Now I must just strive to be a better disciple maker in the future. Please pray for the future of our work here, that we will have disciples made who will then make disciples themselves. God bless, JASON

Thanksgiving preparation.

I have never started preparing for Thanksgiving this early before. Angie has gone shopping to make sure that we can find everything we will need. I have done some research on the history of Thanksgiving and started working on the invitations that we will mail out. Bible study went well last night and we had a lot of good discussion. We are studying the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith. It is interesting the see the ideas that have remained the same and those that have changed over the years. Lilia and Caleb were excited to have swimming again this morning. The few days will be busy with getting all the preparations underway for our meal. It will take place Friday evening, the 27th. Please be in prayer for this event.

This day is also the 10th anniversary of the Texas A&M University bonfire collapse. The annual event had been a tradition for 90 years. In the early morning hours of Nov. 18th the 40 ft (12m) structure collapsed killing 12 students and injuring 27 others who were working on the structure. One of the victims, Jamie Hand, was Angie's friend in high school and they had played on the softball team together for years. Our prayers go out to the families of the victims on this day. Pictured is the bonfire event from 1993. God bless, JASON

From flowers to hair.

The weekend went well. Friday morning at the large market in Limoux, I picked up Angie some flowers (pictured) to go in a new vase that she had bought. The market in Limoux is very well attended and there are at least a hundred venders selling all kinds of things from food to clothes. Friday night family night went good, attached is a picture of the kids settling in for a movie. Saturday Andrew did not have any fever. It is nice to have him somewhat back to normal. Sunday services went good at Carcassonne, they were some visitors. Sunday afternoon, Angie planned on cutting the boys hair. After Andrew she proclaimed that she would not be cutting the boys hair anymore and that we would take them to a professional. Son Andrew ended up being the only one getting his cut (pictured) We have been having wonderful weather this weekend and today. We had planned to have visitors over tomorrow. A couple that we met when we first came to Limoux we invited over but they had to cancel because a family member of theirs is gravely ill and they are staying home awaiting a phone call. This morning besides doing a little grocery shopping, mailing, finances. e-mails and the such, we stopped by a place to get a quote for the price of installing cabinets in our home. The owner of the home said that they would reimburse us half the cost if we decided to have permanent cabinets installed. As of right now we are using several cardboard boxesm and though they work well, they are not very economic or long-lasting. This week I will need to get our invitations to our Thanksgiving meal prepared and do some research on getting a web site set up here in France. I have been picking up a lot of vocabulary recently. A couple of times I have seen new words that I thought were just mispellings. For example I saw "las" in the hymn book at church which I thought was a mispelling of "là", an adverb meaning "here" or "there", but it actually is a word meaning "weary". Also I found saw "çà" which I thought was a mispelling of "ça" which means "this" or "that", but it is actually another word meaning "hither". Ahh, the joys of language learning. God bless, JASON

Blowing against the flow.

The weather has changed drastically the last few days. Monday and Tuesday, it was cold and windy. We happend to be parked by the river and the wind was blowing white capped waves on the river, and even more amazing was that it was blowing against the flow of the river. It actaully looked like the river was going in the wrong direction. Now it is sunny and mild. We have been trying to get Andrew nursed back to health. He still is not sleeping well, but has not had fever today. It affects everyone's schedule when he is off schedule. Today I gave the short lesson before the prayer time at the church in Carcassonne. I loved studying, preparing, and sharing God's word. I will attach the lesson later. It was over the prayer of Jabez (I Chronicles 4:9-10). I feel like I have not accomplished some things that I have needed to get down as a result of Andrew's sickness. Angie wakes up with him during the night, and I keep an eye out for him during the day so that Angie can get a nap. I am looking forward to our Thanksgiving kickoff. I am really just looking forward to the holiday season in general. Angie and I want to get the boys bikes for Christmas. I can see all of us riding as a family. We have been keeping our eyes open for good deals. Looking forward to Friday. If it is pretty again I need to do some more work on the yard to get it ready for company. Attached is a picture of the river Aude that runs through Limoux. God bless, JASON

Cat Flu

Andrew was sick all weekend, starting Friday night. He had a temperature and no appetite. Him not being hungry was a real sign that he was sick. I took Lilia and Caleb to church Sunday and we enjoyed the services. Monday we got Andrew to the Doctor. Thankfully it was not the swine flu or any other flu, but most likely an ear infection. He is doing a lot better today. Our schedule was all messed up with Andrew not sleeping well. He ate most of his sandwich for lunch today and I fed the rest to a cat that stops by the house. I wondered if the cat would get sick from Andrew. Angie mentioned that we could end up with a new strain of sickness. Tomorrow is Veterans day in France. There is a small ceremony in every town. If Andrew is up to it, I would like to go to the one in Magrie while Angie takes Lilia and Caleb to their swimming class. Attached picture is one we took last Friday, you can tell Andrew was already starting to feel bad. God bless, JASON

Bi-lingual kids.

A few nights ago while I was washing the dishes, I have a conversation with Lilia, all in French. It was amazing to see her ease at talking. You could not tell a difference in her speed and comfort-ability. It was just as she was speaking English. We were walking to school one day and I was heading to drop off Micah and then Lilia when we heard a couple of boys say something to each other. Lilia and I could not make it out, but Micah heard what they said. Andrew went to the Doctor a few weeks ago for a check-up. He was a little shy at first, but lightened up and started following whatever the doctor said. Toward the end of the meeting the Doctor jokingly said that it was because he was so mean that the kids do what he says. Andrew replied right back and said "Non." He knew what the Doctor was saying and knew from the tone that he was just playing. All that from a 3 year old who barely spoke English when we arrived.  Caleb has never had problems with the French and he reads well in French. Angie gives Lilia and Caleb english lessons, for about 30 minutes a day during the Lunch break. She started yesterday letting Caleb read books to her. So Caleb read his first book in English. He was so excited he wanted to read it to everyone as a bedtime story. Friday night was our family night and we watched the movie "Up" ("Là-haut"). We had a wonderful time watching it together. It was an excellent movie I would recommend to people of all ages. We had to pause and rewind a few times because everyone was laughing so hard. Yesterday we also enjoyed a brief visit with the pastor in Carcasonne when we went there to do a few errands. We need to invite several people over this next week. God bless, JASON

Au revoir aux vacances.

We have said goodbye to the vacation. We had a good visit, I have attached pictures of some of our guests. The Columbine family with their two daughters, the Davey Family, and the Williams Family with their five. School started Wednesday for the kids. Angie and I have been getting things back in order. Yesterday was mostly spent grocery shopping. God answered our prayers is a amazing way as the exchange rate lowered three cents in three days last week. It actually had me scared. I had noticed that it was worse everytime I checked it, so . . I stopped checking it. Problem solved. I rechecked three days later and it had dropped three cents so I thougth there must have been something big happen. I was worried a terrorist attach and some major legislation passed. Didn't find anything. Must have just been a market rally. I really need to get working on some French exercises. We had just started a new book at the language school and we have several chapters in it left that we can work on. I need to get caught up in reading my French book and French Bible. God bless, JASON

Lilia's Birthday

Yesterday we celebrated Lilia's 10th birthday with our guests. Her big item was a bike. She had been asking for it for a while. She unwrapped a riding helmet first and didn't put together that it was a bike helmet until I walked in with her bike. She didn't seem to mind that it was black, so it could be passed down to her brothers as she out will outgrow it. Today we enjoyed the services at church. A friend loaned us a car while they were out of town to use so that we could all go. It worked out good, because half-way there Andrew got sick to his stomach and so Angie returned with the boys and I went on in the other car. Services went well. I did the announcements, prayers, and led the singing. I think I was understood. I know that I messed up on the tenses of many verbs. It is bad when you realize right after you say it that it is wrong, but I think it better to continue on as long as the idea is understood. We had Dominos pizza for lunch (Lilia's request) and now we are having a restful afternoon. God bless, JASON

Vacation in full swing.

The vacation has been good so far. Monday Angie got the shopping done. We have managed well to stay in our budget. Tuesday we had the visiting pastor and his family over. We had a real good time with them. Their kids and ours played together all afternoon. Angie left this morning to get our friends from Massy. I had planned on going, but this morning she decided she would like to so she and Lilia have left and will return tomorrow. Attached pictures are Lilia and Caleb reading their Bibles before we left for church (for Caleb's sake they chose French). God bless, JASON

Father/Son hike II

Voici - the pcitures from our hike Saturday. It was cool seeing the fall colors coming through. Got some good pictures looking over Limoux on this hike as well..

Week End Beginning

Saturday I worked on getting the garage cleaned up. We hauled off a load of cardboard to be recycled. It still needs some arranging. I also vacuumed out the car. Caleb, Micah, and I went on a walk for a few hours and got some good pictures of Limoux that I will post later. Services went good Sunday, we had a visiting preacher who did a good job. I spoke with my parents for a while last night on skype. It has been nice having internet again. The next couple of days will be spent straightening up and getting reports done. Congratulations to my older sister who just found out they are expecting a boy, which I accurately guessed. Pictured is a rainbow we caught last week. God bless, JASON

Swimming translation

I forgot to mention what happened while during Lilia and Calebs swimming class. There was a scheduled power outage at the house so we all went to the pool as a family to watch Lilia and Caleb's swimming class. I noticed in Caleb's class that one boy was not doing what everyone else was. I then saw Caleb say something to the teacher, swim over to the boy and talk with him, then I saw the boy join the rest of the group. Afterwards Caleb explained what happened. The new boy did not understand what to do because he spoke English. So Caleb ask if he could explain it, he swam over to the boy and explained what to do. I was proud of him. Caleb's teacher asked to speak with me today. She was just wanting to make sure that Caleb was doing okay with his homework. She wanted to make sure that he had some French interaction over the holidays. She was a little worried about him having trouble with the French in the future. I think that she is not used to having an English kid in the class. He seems to be doing just fine. He did mention that sometimes he doesn't not understand everything the teacher says. Lilia said neither does she or even the French kids in her class. Today was the start of a week and a half of from school. We plan next week to go back to Massy and get some good friends of ours and bring them down for the weekend. We are looking forward to visiting with them and I am sure they need a break from language school as well.  God bless, JASON

Fall

The weekend has gone well. We are enjoying the fall weather, cool at night pretty during the day. Most of the early part of this week was getting the internet completed and getting caught up on emails. Saturday, I planted some flower bulbs in the garden. I finished reading two books this week as well. One dealing with answers for Muslims, the other was dealing with atheism. They were both in English, which is how I got them read so fast. I forgot to mention that we took Lilia and Caleb to the doctor last week for a check-up that they had to have for the swimming program. We found out that one of Caleb's legs is longer than the other and that Lilia could have scoliosis, abnormal curvature of the spine. Nothing serious, but we will probably take Lilia for x-rays just to make sure. Tomorrow I am leading the prayer meeting again and am looking forward to it. The kids have been cute and funny the last few meals. The stories are too long to include and without context it wouldn't be the same. So, just trust me, they are funny. God bless, Jason

We got connections.

Finally we are connected to the internet. I called this morning to see what the hold-up was and they said it should be up and going by Monday. This afternoon I went and visited with a couple who help in an English speaking church that meets in a town about twenty minutes from here twice a month. I volunteered to be available to fill in if needed. They were a really nice couple and oddly enough a man was there working on there internet (same company as ours). On the way back to get the kids, I called Angie (who had a friend over) and found out that internet company called and we were online. After getting home and setting up a few things, here we are. YES! I will wait until tommorrow to get the internet phone and TV hooked up. I am anxious to see how everything will work with this slower speed. Tonight is family night so we will work on it tommorrow. We turned our heat on last night. It seems fall has arrived. Last night it go down to 35. Pictured is one of our house plants that bloomed recently. God bless, JASON

Father Son hike Pictures (Randonnée)

Caleb and Micah and I went on a hike together last week. Here are some pictures. This one of the boys in a tree we found.

As you can see we found a really nice trail. We didn't know that it was there. But it was well marked and easy to walk. One day we will have to find the start of it.

There is a good picture of the town of Magrie. You can see the church in the center of town on the right side. Our house is just a little left of center, the third from the top.

Here are the boys who successfully hiked the mountain. We ended up being gone a lot longer than we planned because we found the trail. But the boys loved every minute.