The Consulate

Last week went well. We stayed busy with visiting family early on. Wednesday, Angie and I had Dentists appointments. Thursday we headed down to Houston. We stayed with our friends, and former missionary to France, now helping plant a church in Houston. We visited the consulate Friday morning. All in all, it was a good visit. It was a little tense having the kids there in the little room for two hours. We were missing some documentation that we will have to fax to them, but other than that, no big problems. We needed to have open ended airline tickets for each of us so that in case we do not get approved an extension in France we hasve proof that we can make it back to the states. It seems to be a hassle and a lot of money just to have sitting in airline tickets, but it's required. We paid $136 per visa (6 total). Saturday we visited some more friends. Sunday I shared in the Sunday morning services at a church in Brownwood, Texas. The Pastor and his family were our neighbors in Seminary and still remain close friends of ours. Monday I sent in all our tax information, hopefully that is done. This morning I visited my missions treasurer in the hospital as he is awaiting gall bladder surgery. There are two inches of snow on the ground outside. This has been a record year for snowfall in Texas, the most on record. We plan on heading to Henderson this weekend. I will be helping my father replace my grandparents hot water heater, as well as visiting some friends in sharing with two churches in Sunday. Attached pictures are one we took this past Sunday and one we took just before we left over two years ago. Thank you for the prayers on our behalf. God bless, JASON

More details

As mentioned we left an evening early from our home because of all the snow, and we spent the night in Barcelona. We arrived at the airport at time and unloaded at our terminal, and said goodbye to Rebecca who had came along and was returning our car. When we entered we discovered that our airline was not at terminal 2 as I had found on the internet, but on terminal 1. We jumped on the shuttle and made it over to terminal one. Come to find out that because we were not as early as usual and because we had booked the flights a little later we had to split up a little on the plane. Lilia and Caleb sat in front of me and Micah, and Angie and Andrew sat two rows behind us. The plane ride went well, we were afraid that the plane would be packed because it was headed to Newark, which was closed the two previous days because of snow. It was not however, and Angie even had an empty seat on her row that allowed her to lay Andrew down comfortable. The other kids really enjoyed selecting and watching their own movies. Micah took at nap on my shoulder. The steward dropped a drink in Micah's lap, but it didn't seem to bother Micah too bad. There was strong wind when we arrived at Newark and Andrew got sick. Just after we landed Micah told me that he didn't want to go to the US and that he wanted to go home. That was a surprise, right after thought he got sick on my shoe, and that explained it. All was well after that. From Newark to Dallas, Angie sat with Micah and Andrew on row 5, Lilia on row 8, Caleb row 18, and me on row 19. I was right behind Caleb and as soon as he sat down he started talking to the lady next to him. He talked for about twenty minutes straight and then fell asleep. I think everyone had a good nap on that flight. We arrived at Dallas and were met by my parents and my little sister and her husband. We had a good drive back, the roads were clear, but there was heavy fog. The kids have been waking up early thinking it was time to get up. Saturday we enjoyed the fellowship at the church. Sunday I enjoyed sharing about our progress and preaching in the morning and evening service. After the evening service we shared some cookies and gifts from France with our church.

We have a good week planned ahead of us. We will be visiting Angie's parents this evening or tomorrow evening. Wednesday, Angie and I have dentists appointments. Friday we will be at the consulate in Houston. Attached pictures are of the family at the airport in Barcelona and myself preaching at our home church. God bless, JASON

Arrived Safely

We made it to Texas safely. The flight was long and mostly uneventful, except for the blizzards, some air sickness, turbulence, and seating issues. I will expand on that more later. We are headed to bed. It is midnight here, which means to us it is 7:00 am, a long day. Thanks for your prayers for our safe travel. God bless, Jason

The return.

We will leave in a few minutes for the airport. We have had quite a bit of snow today so we have decided to leave tonight and stay in a hotel in Barcelona. From there we will layover for a few hours in Newark and then arrive in Dallas a little after 9pm. Please pray that the flights go well that the kids act sane for most of the trip, or at least when people are looking. God bless, JASON

Countdown

We had a great weekend. Saturday, Lilia wanted to have a friend over. I talked to her mother on the phone and arranged a meeting place. We planned to meet at LIDL, but no one showed up. Come to find out that they thought I said at school. So it didn't work out. We did have a good visit from friends in Carcassonne. Saturday evening we had supper with out friends in Magrie who are from the Reunion Island. We had a wonderful meal and visit with them. Sunday services went real well. We stayed for the meal afterwards even though we had planned not to. Micah and Andrew have had the cold and so we planned on returning home, when one of the church members heard this, he insisted that we stay because after all this is cold season and we are all supposed to have colds. We really appreciate the church in Carcassonne and all the help and prayers that they have offered up for us. It is amazing seeing God's hand in our ministry here. He called us to a place to start working where we would have another church not to far away that we could learn from and help with while we are getting started. He has placed good christian friends in the same village that we are in, they moved in just a few weeks after we did. God is truly amazing. Sunday afternoon everyone but Andrew took a nap, opposite of what usually happens. He slept during church. I stayed up last night an watched the Superbowl. I enjoyed it. Maybe it was because I understood more of the French this year but the commentators were very interesting. The tried to explain what a wide receiver was, who the safty is, what is means to be "shy" a few inches, what "who dat" means. . . They did a good job.  The kids have started the countdown to our departure. We are looking forward to making a trip back and seeing friends and family. I have been able to schedule several appointments with churches already. God bless, JASON

Past week

I just realized that it has been a week since my last blog. A lot has been going on. Let me summarize. Last weekend past well. Tuesday I took our car in for its 20,000 km maitenance. They changed to oil, gave it an inspection, and even hooked it up to the computer. Wednesday was a pretty day, it warmed up and the sun was shining, we spent most of the afternoon outside working in the yard. Wednesday we made a new friend, who came over for supper and singing afterwards. She is a new Christians that moved to the area a few months ago. We raelly enjoyed the evening and she expressed interest in coming to the Bible study, but could not come on Thursdays. Thursday Angie went to her first Doctors appointment, all was well. They even did a sonogram, the baby is only 15 mm long, but Angie was able to hear his/her heartbeat. The Bible study went well, we had a total of 7, including myself, Angie and Lilia. We examined the 7 feasts of Israel.

The kids are doing well. Andrew and Micah have had colds. Caleb was sick Monday and stayed home from school Tuesday. I think his sinus' are bothering him. He came home from school Monday and fell asleep on the couch, and slept until 8:30 the next morning. Lilia has been having a rough time this past week. In addition to the vaccinations, she got one of her ears re-pierced last Friday, beacuse it had closed. Wednesday she had two spots burned off her foot. This morning while eating her cereal, one of her baby teeth broke into three pieces. We took her to the dentist this morning, they deadened the area, and they pulled out the pieces.

I will be spending the majority of this next week with preparations for our departure. We are having a couple of families stay in our house during our absence. I need to get instructions made up for them. I need to prepare our visa paperwork for when we get to the states. I will prepare our taxes so that we can get that sent in as well. I also need to write a sermon, in English, for speaking at our sending church our first Sunday back. Meanwhile I am also trying to book speaking engagements. I'd better get to it. Attached picture is Andrew enjoying the little 4-wheeler the neighbors passed on to us. God bless, JASON