Catch-up

The first part of this week has been spent catching up. We have tried getting our sleep pattern right. Monday night was wierd. Lilia and Caleb couldn't go to sleep until about 1 am. Andrew and Micah woke up at about 1 am and could not go back to sleep until 4 am. Monday morning, after dropping the kids off at school, we went grocery shopping. Then we returned home and did some more unpacking. We picked the kids up for lunch and enjoyed the meal with them. They seem to have all enjoyed being back in school and seeing their friends. Monday afternoon, I went and bought a lawmower. Apparently there has been a lot of rain, because our grass was high enough to make hay. I shopped around a little, alternated between electric and gas, and finally settled on a model. I decided gas, because I would need the extra horse-power. I purchased the lawnmower (pictured), returned home, assembled, dis-assembled, re-assembled, and started mowing. It was a slow going process that ended up keeping me busy until supper. The yard does look a lot better. Tuesday, the kids took some Double Bubble to the kids in their class as a gift from America. It seemed to have gone over well. Lilia said she had to teach them how to blow a bubble. We stopped by and spoke with one of our friends who was checking the mail for us while we were gone. We had a good visit. I weeded the flower garden. We had some pretty flowers that I had planted as bulbs that were now blooming (pictured). I also cleared my email inbox most of the way. Drving back into town to get the kids, I picked up a hitchhiker, Sedric, (I'm not sure how to spell it), lives in Magrie, and I give him a ride at least once a week. I mentioned before we left that we would like to have him over to eat somtime and he seemed surprised. I was glad to see him again. He is probably in his early 20's. I hope that we can build a relationship with him, and share with him about Jesus. After supper, I was prepared to got to the Bible Study in Carcassonne, but found Angie asleep in her chair. She was in a deep sleep, so I stayed. She had a good nap, but ended up staying up late as a result. She is gone right now taking Caleb and Lilia to their swimming class. So I'd better check and see what Andrew and Micah are so quiet about. God bless, JASON

Safe arrival.

We made it back home. The flights went well. We got to Dallas airport without any problems and flew to Newark. The landing into Newark was real rough like last time, but fortunately no one got sick this time. We had a four hour wait in Newark before boarding the flight to Barcelona. Our seats were all seperate, but thankfully the stewardess helped us so that we were closer together in two groups of three. We arrived in Barcelona getting from one to three hours of sleep. We made it quickly through customs to find our friends waiting for us. All the 11 bags made it fine. We loaded up in two cars and made the three hour drive home. We thank our friends who had supper for us and even picked up groceries. We found some things around town look different. We have new neighbors. The house was in order, except there was a leak in the addition and mold was growing everywhere. I had mentioned the leak to the man who did the work before we left so I will have to get back in contact with him. We made it through Saturday allright. Everyone was exhausted, I had a small fever, but we lasted to a reasonable bed time and everyone crashed in their beds. We have quite a bit of unpacking to do and some yard work besides getting everyone back to school and into the routine again. Thanks for the prayers for our safe travel. God bless, JASON

Goodbye again.

We have spent the last few days saying goodbye to friends and family. Today we have packed most of the day, with occasional trips to wal-mart to pick up some needed items. We leave the house tomorrow morning about 7 am, and arrive in France on Saturday at 9:15 am. I think that we are all looking forward to getting settled again. I will let you know as soon as I can when we arrive. Attached pictures is the kids playing at Angie's parents house. God bless, JASON

The Green

Friday I enjoyed playing a round of golf with my father. It has been several years since I had played last. It went well. I ended up just a couple of strokes behind my dad. We helped m parents clean up around the house and worked on the flower gardens as well. I have seen quite a bit in the news recently about the volcanic ash coming from an Iceland volcano causing delays in travel in Europe. As far as a I can tell the problems are staying more north of where we are. We will be flying in to Spain, so I don't think that there will be delay. We will be keeping an eye on it as the day approaches. We enjoyed spending the day at my grandparents visiting with my older sister and her family. We got a great picture of her new born smiling. The kids just said their tearful goodbyes to their cousins. I imagine that we will have more of those to come. I am looking forward to services tomorrow. We will be visitinn with a church Sunday morning that has supported us for a while, and Sunday evening we will be visiting a church that we were members of soon after we were married. The beginning of next week will be mainly spent saying final goodbyes to family in Henderson. We will then return to Hillsboro and finish getting packed. We came with only four bags and I think that we could have up to 8 for the return trip. My goal will be 7, but we will see how it goes. We will leave for the airport Friday morning to begin the return to France. God bless, JASON

A taste of Texas.

We have had another wonderful week. We have experienced some great experiences this past week. Last week, we went for a walk and I took our kids through a cow pasture. The got a taste of Texas as I showed them how to cross a barb wire fence (pictured) (really important, need-to-know information for young boys in Texas), how to recognize and avoid the thistle and bull nettle(pictured), and what those dark spots are and how to avoid them (pictured). The weekend passed well. Friday we celebrated my grand-fathers 86th birthday. We enjoyed seeing some family at the party. I have a lot of admiration for my grand-father, Jim Taylor. He pastored for more than fifty years. Saturday my father and I helped repair a leaking water pipe in my sisters house, and also ran a new electrical wire for her stove. They have a really nice yard and the her flowers were very pretty, in particual the Azaleas (pictured). Sunday, we visited in two churches and had a wonderful time sharing about our progress and work in France. At one of the churches I met a former professional rugby player. What are the odds? Rare in Texas. Andrew was stung by fire ants (pictured)this past week as well, that is a painful taste of Texas. Yesterday we visited with a Ladies group and shared with them about our work, and afterwards we had a wonderful taste of Texas foods as we enjoyed lunch together. The meeting was held at the church that I grew up attending, so we saw many friends and people I would consider family. We found out that there was going to be a funeral that afternoon for a lady that we knew and so we attended and was able to visit with some good friends of ours, some of which we had not see in 15 years. We ended the day visiting with Angie's younger brother and have now returned to my parents. We are now starting to make some preparations for heading back to France. We need to see how much luggage we are going to need. Enjoy the pictures and God bless, JASON

Blooming

The Easter weekend went really well. I participated in the Easter cantada Sunday Morning and my Father preached a wonderful message from Hosea 13:14. Sunday evening I was able to preach a message about the disciples on the way to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35). Monday was spent mainly on paperwork. Tuesday we visited with our missions treasurer and helped him and his mother with getting our reports ready to be mailed out. We enjoyed the visit. I greatly appreciate our missions treasuer. He is such a great help to us. Tuesday night, Angie and I went for an overnight shopping trip to Waco. We have a mental list of items that we need to pick up while we are here that are cheaper than in France. The wildflowers are blooming in central Texas. There are fields of blues and reds and yellows. The State flowers are the bluebonnets shown pictured, here in central Texas there are fields full of them. If I have an opportunity I would like to get a picture of the kids in a field of bluebonnets. God bless, JASON

A Good Week.

Wow, time passes quickly, doesn't it? Seems like just a few years ago, when my 10 year old daughter was born. I rejoice that it is passing because I look forward to seeing my savior. I mourn for those who will not be ready to stand before God in judgement. There will be many surprises in that day. Those who think that just because they have lived a "good" life they deserve to enter heaven. Those that denied the existence of God. Those who have accepted him as savior, but wasted years living for themselves instead of for Him. Are you ready for that day? Are you ready to stand before that one who died in our place and rose again many years ago? What will we say when we stand before our God and Savior?

We have enjoyed the last week. Sunday we visited with two churches and greatly enjoyed being in their services and sharing what God has been doing for us. Monday we went to the zoo (pictured) and ate supper with Angie's brother. Tuesday we visited with a pastor friend of ours and his family. We have been co-workers, neighbors, classmates, and remain friends. Wednesday we visited in the services of one of our sponsoring churches. Thursday, I was blessed to be able to take my grandfather (who will turn 86 this next Friday) to the doctor for his cancer treatment and take my grandmother for her hair apointment. They have been graciously allowing us to stay in their home while we are in the area. Today we are at my parents meeting the newest addition to our family. Elijah, who is the two week old son of my older sister. Tomorrow we are going to a family get-together, Angie's side. We look forward to seeing everyone there. Afterwards we will return to Hillsboro for services at our church, I will be preaching in the evening services. God bless, JASON