Outreach, Shopping, Hiking, & the Accident

Thursday I went to help out the church in Carcassonne with outreach. They had a door to door outreach in the morning. We paired up and went into the North African section of town and visited several apartment buildings. Things went well, we used as an opener and Bible Exposition that is being held at the church in Carcassonne during the week. Many were not home, several were clearly not interested, some did not speak French, some took some tracts and literature, some seemed real interested. Thursday afternoon I worked on finances. Our church has decided to help pay off the rest of our language school expenses and so I was working on getting the money into the account. It ended up not working out. Thursday night I went back to Carcassonne to an open air preaching they were having at the entrance to the walled city, a very popular tourist attraction year around. It was neat to watch the reaction of everyone to the preaching and singing. Many whispers about us being a kind of sect, most ignored us, some looked for a little bit, a few paid attention and stayed, some even talked with us (some foreigners).
Friday, I took Caleb for a father/son hike. We had a great time, we hiked up to the top of the hill behind our house. It was a difficult course considering our house is at 800 ft and the hill tops out at 1300 ft but he had no problems. He really enjoyed spending the time with daddy. Near the top he asked the ultimate question. “Dad, what happens to me if you die up here?” Friday afternoon we went to IKEA and got a few more things for the house.
Saturday – I cleaned up a lot in the yard today. Angie went and got the kids some school clothes. The exciting even happened while we were preparing for supper. Lilia walked into the living room with her cup of water. Suddenly she walks back in the saddest crying voice says, “I'm so dead.” I walked around to see that she had spilled water onto my laptop. I got it dryed up as best as I could while Lilia went to her room crying. Angie said, “I'll get my hairdryer to dry it out.” I held the laptop while she ran the hair dryer. Suddenly I smelt something burning, sure enough she had melted a half dozen of the keys to the keyboard. Evidently I am typing this on the keyboard so everything worked okay. I trimmed the melted edges off the keys and everything seems to be running fine. Keyboard just looks a little different. I had to assure Lilia that everything was okay and I was not mad before she would finally calm down. I will probably order a new keyboard just to be safe because the “ctrl” key is getting stuck even though it is not being pushed.
Services went good on Sunday. We enjoyed a visiting speaker who had been a missionary in France for 50 years. In the afternoon he gave a conference on Jean (John) Calvin that was very informative. We met a couple at the Church in Carcassonne this morning who had just moved to Magrie, the same town that we live in. Amazing. God bless, JASON

Internet

I have spent the last few days working on getting our internet and phone service turned on. Monday we went and found out that you have to have your phone line turned on with France Telecom before getting internet. Tuesday I went to France Telecom and found out I needed some documents. Today I went and turned the documents in and the phone should be activated Monday. Then we should be able to start the process to get our internet. We went to the Bible study last night at Carcassonne. There is a group visiting this week who is going to do some evangelism in Carcassonne and I plan to go help tomorrow. I will let you know how it goes. Attached picture is of the Basilica in Barcelona. God bless, JASON

After Barcelona

So to update you all since the last blog. We made it home fine from Barcelona and that same night Jason went and wrapped up everything with the short term house rental. He got our last items from the house and cleaned it and went through the house with the owner. He paid for the electricity we used with our dryer and got our securtiy deposit back. So all went well there and our boys did not destroy anything too noticably! Whew. The next day I went and bought a few more things for the house and discovered some new shops for housewares at good prices. Jason stayed home and put together a dresser, shelf and nightstand. Thursday he went to the prayer meeting at the church in Carcassonne and afterward met with the pastor to discuss some future planning. Friday we put together a desk, bookshelf and desk chair. Saturday Jason went for a long walk up the hill behind our house then further on up the next much bigger hill. He said it was really beautiful up there and you could see for miles. Lilia and I did a last dash of shopping before everthing closed at 7pm in Carcassonne. Although we were pleasantly surprised, the housewares shop closed at 7 the next clothing shop we went into closed at 7:30 and the next book store and craft shop, after that closed at 8. Then we went down to the grocery store which I figured closed later and shopped there until 8:30. It was great we found some really good deals.
We had a nice service this morning with the Pastor back off of vacation. Afterward they kindly offered me some of the dishes and things they had there that they are not using at the church. Also, Yelena asked me if we could visit privately some time. So I said sure how about today. That worked for her so we met this afternoon and had coffee. You know sometimes your mind can get to wondering-- what does she need to meet for. Is it going to be good, bad, a reproach... Turns out she just wanted to be friends and she just needed someone to share with and asked me to pray for her. I told her of course, and I was honored that she would ask me. It has been a good day.Thanks for you prayers. God Bless, ANGIE

Barcelona Trip

We are currently in Barcelona Spain. We spent the day here looking at sights and will be running them back to the airport in the morning. We have had a good visit with them. Tomorrow we will also get the vacation house cleaned up because we turn the keys in Thursday. We have continued picking up odds and ends for the house. It is slowly taking shape. It has been in the 90's the last couple of weeks, but thankfully there is a good breeze in the evenings. Thursday I will meet with the Pastor in Carcassonne and get a schedule or plan to what we are going to do in the future. I am excited about what God could have in store for us. God bless, JASON

Take a break.

We have enjoyed a break from shopping. I used to not be able to imagine Angie needing a break from shopping :) We went today with Lynn and Brenda to look at the walled city of Carcassonne. We enjoyed it. It was nice to get out with the kids and take a leisure stroll through an ancient city. God bless, JASON

Home Furnishings

Saturday - Our last few days have been spent shopping. We have alternated between several stores Conforama, Ikea, Dartie, and But, looking for the best prices. So far we have purchased beds and matresses for the kids and a refrigerator. We are still looking for the best option for the kitchen cabinets, going to check out Ikea today. The most important thing about today is I walked the aisle at church 11 years ago today. Not what you think. I walked out of the church. . . . with Angie. Thats right, our 11 year anniversary. What a blessing it has been!
Sunday – The group that visited in the services in Carcasonne returned this Sunday and the services were translated into Dutch for them. After services we ate at McDonalds with a newly married couple that has just moved to Limoux. We had a wonderful visit.
Monday – We purchased our bed and washing machine. Today I put all the beds together and while Angie and Lilia went to Ikea to pick up bedding. It took several hours for both of us to get finished. We spent the night here in the new house.
Tuesday – Spending the day getting ready for Lynn and Brenda to arrive tomorrow. For those who may not know. They are a part of our “missionary family”. They are veteran missionaries who have personally worked with us since our call to the France. They have helped out immensely and we are really looking forward to their visit. They are coming through on their way to put on the Greece retreat for Missionaries in September, which we will be going to. We picked out couches and a small breakfast table today.
Wed. - I left the house at 4:30 this morning to get down to Barcelona at 8:00 to pick up Lynn and Brenda at the airport. I really liked the airport, it was small and not to busy. We made it home and had lunch. Then Lynn and I went to bring a load of stuff from the vacation home to our new home here in Magrie.
Today Angie and Brenda went shopping while Bro. Lynn and I put together an Armoire. Attached is a picture of the new place. God bless, JASON

Home

We have a house! We signed all the papers yesterday. The owners were real nice. Today we are working toward getting insurance, gas & electric swapped over, kids registered in school, and may even pick up some appliances. We are excited. Here is a picture of the home. Ok, for some reason I can't load a picture at this time. Pictures to come. God bless, JASON

House hunt approaches the end.

Our house hunt is nearing the end. A few days ago we visited again the house in Magrie and we received a call yesterday saying that we can come by Wednesday to sign the papers. So here we go. We still are trying to not get too excited just in case it does not end up working out. Services went well at church. A group of about 20 tourists from Holland visited in the services. We had to bring out all the extra chairs. Angie stayed at home this morning with a head ache and tired. The younger boys were real tired as well because some storms came through last night and they stayed up watching. Lilia, Caleb, and I enjoyed the services and lunch at the church afterwards. I will try to keep you updated as soon as we find out about the house. God bless, JASON