Vacation with the kids.

Playing "Croque Carrote" on family night.

Monday, I took time to play with the kids individually. We had a good time.  Angie and Lilia went shopping.  Tuesday, I cleaned around the yard and in the garage.  We had basketball practice Tuesday night, there were only six there, but we had a good time.  The coach invited Caleb to join the basketball group for his age.  I'll have to talk to him about it.  There were some gas shortages in the area.  One in three stations are out of gas.  However the vote to raise the retirement age passed and so the strikes should be ending soon.  Wednesday, I cleaned out the inbox and in the evening went to a conference at a gypsy church about an hour from here.  I enjoyed the services, they are doing a series through Colossians, which the pastor is Carcassonne is presenting.  I was a little under the weather yesterday.  I had a sore throat and a headache.  After a good nights rest I am feeling better now.  We are preparing for the Bible Study this evening. We are also starting to make plans for Thanksgiving.  We enjoyed inviting everyone over last year.  This year the problem is that we know more people and will not be able to have everyone over that we would like.  One option is to have two meals, but that would be a lot of work.  We will talk and pray about it for a while before we decide. We met our new neighbors.  They are a couple with four kids, ages 18, 13, 3, and 1. They will be moving in withing a few days.  We look forward to getting to know them better.  Time to go beat out some rugs for Angie.  God bless, JASON

Basketball

Tuesday night at basketball practice the coach mentioned that

 the next game had been moved to Saturday.  I was hoping that I would be able to play, but I needed to get my paperwork done and have a Doctor's note.  Thursday only one person came for the Bible Study.  We enjoyed a time of fellowship and prayer together.  Friday, I set the Bible stand up at the market.   It was cold in the morning.  In fact it was our first frost.  Thankfully the stand was in the sunshine after an hour or two and things warmed up nicely.  I did have a couple of good contacts during the three hours I was there.  There was a man who talked with me about 20 minutes.  He was a former catholic who had converted to Muslim because of the hipocrisy he had seen among the catholics.  I gave him the information about the Bible Study and he seemed interested.  We will pray and wait to see the fruits.  Friday afternoon I had my Doctors appointment which I passed.  We had practice Friday night.  All the kids were looking forward to watching daddy play basketball Saturday night.  Saturday morning I went and helped out with the Bible

Stand at the market in Carcassonne.  I had a good visit with the pastor while there.  Friday night we headed to the game, but found out that my paperwork didn't have enough time to go through and get approved so I could not play.  I did end up running the clock and scoreboard however.  I think that Angie met and talked with all the wives and kids in the audience.  It was great that she was able to meet some of the families.  We hope to be able to invite some over this week.  Our visitors that had planned to come are not going to be able to make it. Sunday services were good at Carcassonne, the house was packed.  The church has begun to look into options for having more space.  Saturday night Arianna slept 10 hours straight. She has been cute and smiling quite a but.  I will add some pictures of her.  God bless, JASON 

Homiletics Conference

Arianna's first trip to Church.

The conference Saturday in Toulouse was excellent.  It was great to be able to meet other pastors in the area and the conference was filled with good information.  Sunday services went well.  I taught the older kids Sunday School class and also led the music.  Sunday I also finished moving the furniture from the neighbors house.  We have found out that we should have new neighbors at the end of the month.  Monday I attended the rest of the conference.  There was good fellowship and sermons entitled, "The man of God", and "The Preaching of the Man of God".  It was neat to meet several Americans while I was there.  I made it back home just in time to take Caleb to swimming.  Today it is working on the lesson for next weeks Bible study and other office work.  I will need to do some shopping this afternoon or perhaps watching Arianna so that Angie can shop.  Arianna slept real good Friday night, but not so well Saturday and Sunday night.  She has started smiling at us which is real cute.  Strikes are still occuring in the area.  The Total refineries are still on strike which has people worried about fuel shortages, but so far the media has been assuring us that Total has at least a weeks reserves left.   Other than that, we are preparing for some friends who will be visiting with us next week.  They are an American Missionary family serving in Romania.  They have four children that are about the same ages as our children. 

 We will enjoy spending a few days together with them.  Our kids will be out of school for a week and a half.  The weather has turned cold.  I turned the heaters on for the first time yesterday as the inside temperature dropped to 60 degrees ( 16 C).  I laid awake in bed this morning and my mind wondered to when we first arrived in France and what our plans where.  Seems that we are far from where we started but I am enjoying the ministry that God has given us.  Not only planting a new church but assisting an already established church.  Please continue to pray for France and for God's blessing on our ministry here.  God bless, JASON







Rain has come and gone.

The big news Sunday and Monday was the rain. We got about 6 inches in two days. This may not sound like much compared to some other countries, but that is the equivalent to 4 months worth here. Our driveway started washing away, but thankfully there was enough to still drive by. Monday was shopping day and paperwork. Tuesday was getting my lesson ready. Tuesday night Basketball practice went well. I acutally had a couple of mini-conversations with some of the guys. Wednesday, I took the kids to their swimming class, and finished working on my sermon. Thursday, I took our car to the dealership for its 40,000 km check-up. It had a few filters replaced and the oil changed. I left directly from there to go to Montpellier for my appointment with the French Office of Imigration and Integration (OFII). It took about 2 hours to get their and then 45 minutes to find the place. The streets were horrible. There was construction going on as they are expanding the Tram. Some streets were closed and some streets that were once one direction, were now the other direction. My GPS actually started to yell at one point. I finally parked and took off walking. It still was a 45 mintue walk. After asking 4 people for directions it ended up being right across from the train station. The appointment went well, I had x-rays taken, met with the doctor and then with the "Visa lady". I also found out about Angie's visa. Normally they schedule husband and wife together so I was thinking there was a problem. You cannot get in touch with them by phone or email so I had to wait til my appointment. Come to find out that Angie's paper was stuck to the back of mine and they did not notice it. Wow. They said they would hurry and try to get her an appointment in a couple of weeks. I met a couple of people there, an american couple with a young baby, and a newly married couple from Chili. I actually gave the Chiliean couple a ride home because they missed their train because of the strike. That is another subjet all together. President Sarkozy is trying to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62. This has made many people upset. College and high school kids are striking because there will be less jobs if people work two extra years. Others are striking because their work conditions are hard and they don't want to endure it for two more years. Transportation has been slow as there are a lot less trains running. All but one Total refinery has been closed (hoping that there are not any gas shortages). Anyways it is nice to have the visa paperwork done (at least for me). I made it back home 30 minutes before the Bible study. We took a break from the sermon on the mount to look at the healing of the man born blind. There were three present not including us. Today I need to get gas (done), look at a friends computer (done), work on getting a bill paid (done), blog (doing), make a trip to the dump, move some furniture, and not forget to get the kids. Basketball practice is tonight and tomorrow there is a conference at a church in Toulouse on Homiletics that I will be attending. Enjoy some rainy day pictures and God bless, JASON

 

One or two.

I have not been as sore after these last few basketball practices.  Unfortunately, most of the games are Sunday morning, so I will not be able to attend.  The practices have been g

Grape harvestor seen often this time of year.

ood.  I have learned probably half the player's names.  I have been waiting for it to rain for a few days now.  I moved a 1000 liter tank from our neighbors house to ours and have it hooked up to our gutter system so that it should catch the rain water.  This will give us water for the plants and other outside uses.  I am hoping that it will save on the water bill.  Thursday's Bible study went good. There were 5 who joined us.  We are continuing a series on the Sermon on the Mount.  Our market stand went good Friday morning.  Thankfully the weather was nice.  We had several good contacts.  I spoke with two older Frenchmen who said they already had a Bible.

The boys helping to set up our stand.

 I asked them if they read them and they said, "How can we read something that is American."  That confused me and I remarked that the Bibles were in French.  I asked Edouard afterward what they could have meant.  He thought it might be because they thought we were Jehovah Witnesses or that the printers of their Bible were American.  I think I will put a sign on our Stand stating who we are.  I am finishing up the Sunday School lesson now.  Arianna is sleeping some better, the last few nights she went to sleep at 1 or 2 in the morning instead of 3 or 4.  God bless, JASON  

To market, to market . . .

I don't know if I mentioned in the last post that we did not have Bible Study Thursday evening.  We did have a good visit with the pastor and his wife from Carcassonne.   Friday I started my monthly report, which I will finish today.  I also talked with another American missionary in France who is working near Paris.  He gave a lot of good advice concerning the paperwork and process for getting you childs birth certificate and passport.  We had a good time at the market Friday morning.  We arrived at 8:30, the boys helped me carry everything.  Edouard and I found a good spot and set up the booth.  During the three hours that I was there.  We talked to about 5 people.  One elderly man stopped and talked with us.  So sad that he had no clue about where he would spend eternity, and acted as if he didn't care.  He was 93 years old. Edouard continued as I took the kids home for lunch. He had a couple of good contacts as well.  I am looking forward to next week.  Friday evening I enjoyed basketball practice.  I wasn't as sore as the time before.  Caleb went with me and had a wonderful time shooting baskets.  He told me afterwards that he wants to go with me every time.  Saturday, we went shopping, I needed some shoes for playing basketball which we found at a great price as a result of an "end of series" sell.  We also stopped and looked at a pet store with the kids, we are thinking of getting a few more fish, because our big aquarium is lacking acivity with the few fish in it.  After returning home, I went with a few of the kids to look at the large art exhibit here in town.  It was really impressive and there is a lot of talent displayed.  The most exciting events was the arrival of our paperwork for our visa, we now have an appointment with the immigration office.  Angie planned on going to church Sunday morning, but the four hours sleep that she ended up getting changed her mind.  I went with the kids and enjoyed the services.  There were several first time visitors in the services.  When we returned home, Angie had just woke up, we grabbed lunch and then I took a nap for a couple of hours.  When I woke, I found that we had some guests come by.  We took another walk down to Magrie to see the art and while I was there I bought some churros, which everyone loved.  Today, it is back in the office, I hope to get the report sent out soon.  Arianna has her one month doctors visit this afternoon.  Attached pictures were taken at the art exhibit. God bless, JASON