Thanksgivingly ever after.

Thanksgiving meal was real good.  We spent two days in preparation,

 made the desserts on Thursday and then the main dishes on Friday.  One of the guests arrived early Friday to help out which was great.  We got everything ready on time and 15 guests came.  We got started at 7:30 and we had a wonderful time.   I gave a history of Thanksgiving and everyone shared something that they were thankful for, I led in prayer, and then we dug in.  The food was enjoyed and we had a lot less leftovers that I expected.  The favorite seemed to be the Buttermilk pie (grandma's recipe). Everyone stayed until about 11:00.  There were really good conversations.  We assigned seats so that we would have Christians sitting with non-Christians.  It went really well, even the kids were well behaved.  I hope that God will bless and we will see some fruit.  Angie and I stayed up until 2 in the morning cleaning and washing dishes.  I called my parents house and spoke to my mother

 for a little bit, wishing them a happy Thanksgiving.  As in the case in many families, you can have three or four Thanksgiving meals just to get around to all the family.  We went to bed and I slept the best I had ever sleep.  My eyes closed and I opened them back up and it was 8:30 and Andrew was standing beside the bed asking if it was time to wake up.  Saturday we finished washing dishes, took borrowed tables and chairs back to Carcassonne, started putting the furniture back in the living room.  Services went well today, we are taking part in the Christmas program with the churh in Carcassonne.  Lilia is playing Mary and Caleb is Joseph.   I hope that your Thanksgiving holidays went well. but that you keep up the Thankful spirit all year long.  God bless, JASON

Thank God!

These past few days have been about preparing for

 Thanksgiving.  Very little is known of Thanksgiving outside of those few countries who celebrate it.  We have invited 20 people to our house to celebrate with us.  It will be a wonderfuly opportunity to get to know others and to turn our thoughts towards giving thanks to God.  Saturday, the girls went to Ikea to pick up some household items, mostly more lights, and to get teh Cranberry sauce.  Monday we did more shopping.  The most expensive things that we had to get were the turkey and the sweet potatos.  Thankfully, some friends from Carcassonne gave a gift that has covered the expensives.  Tuesday I was able to work on my lesson.  Wednesday, Angie finished up the shopping.  What is on the menu?  Turkey, chicken and

dressing, sweet potatos, mashed potatoes, green beans, deviled eggs, cranberry sauce, rolls, banana pudding, carrot cake, pumpkin pie, and buttermilk pie.  Sounds great! We were running around so much that we didn't get a chance to lay the younger ones down for a nap.  They both found a place to sleep (pictured).  Andrew is on the chair and Arianna stayed asleep when I layed her on the couch after a little rocking.  Bible study is tonight and then tomorrow will be spent in preparation for Thanksgiving.  Enjoy the holidays and remeber to thank God for what he has done for you.  God bless, JASON 

Vendredi déjà ?

This week has been passing good.  We had 5 at the Bible study last night.  We finished making the invitations for our Thanksgiving get together (pictured) and handed them out.  Angie came and totally revised what I had, and I admit that she did a better job.  Looks like we might have 20 people present in addition to our family.  The market in Limoux went real well this morning.  We were able to make contact with several.  Lilia was excited this week because they were forming a council of kids to propose ideas to the mayors office about a need that the students had.  They voted for three students to represent the class.  She didn't win, but she got four votes which I said that she should be impressed with.  Caleb had visit the dentist this week, he had a temporary filling put in, unfortuntely there was no pain.  I say "unfortunately" because if it hurts, I think it would help him brush his teeth better and more often.  Speaking of teeth, Lilia has a loose tooth that is barely hanging on, but she won't let us touch it because last time we tried it hurt, and she does not handle pain well.  In fact she turned white and almost passed out. I told her I would pull it out tonight while she is sleeping, I bet that she will stay up late.  Tomorrow I need to work in the yard and work on the car some.  Angie cleaned the inside of the car real good but I need to work on the outside.  Someone (okay, it was me) hit the side of a tall curb and put a dent in the side, but I'm certain that I can pop it back out.  Caleb has swimming tomorrow and not Monday nights, we felt that he was too rushed to get his homework done.  I hope that you have a wonderful weekend and enjoy preparing for Thanksgiving.  God bless, JASON  

Weekly Update

Basketball pracite - I am in
the middle of the three in
yellow at right.

It has been a week since I blogged.  Let me attempt to summarize the week.  I took Caleb to try out the basketball group for his age (they have the same coach as my group). He really has been looking forward to going.  He had a good time and the coach was excited about the prospect of having a 6th player for that age group.  The catch for Caleb is that if he picks baskteball, we will take him out of swimming.  The bastketball for him would be on Wednesday nights.  Last week I also meet with the bank and got our home bank switched to Limoux instead of Massy. I'm not sure why we needed to, just for the checkbooks to be mailed there, I suppose.  Thursday was Veteren's Day in France.  Lilia was picked to read a part in the veterens day program.  There was probably a crowd of 200 present when Lilia read her part along with some other students her age.  She did a good job.  Arianna had a doctors appointment last week.  She was cute.  She smiled and cooed at the doctor, but when Angie changed her diaper right after he exam, she threw a fit.  She also didn't care much for the vaccinations either.  The next few days she wasn't herself, her eye would get stopped up and she didn't sleep well during the day.  She still does a good job sleeping at night.  The Bible study was well attended even though some were out as a result of the holiday.  Friday, I set up the stand in the markat at Limoux.  Edouard came and helped out this week, he had been unable to the last few because of health problems with him and his wife.  I met a man that I had first talked to a two weeks ago who stopped by.  He agreed to come to church Sunday.  There were three others who I was able to make contact with during the morning.  Edouard ate lunch with us afterwards.  The weekend went well.  I didn't get out and break up the garden spots like I had planned, but  I hope to get that done this weekend.  I did meet an American family at the grocery store. Today I started getting the invitations ready for Thanksgiving.  I realised that I forgot to mention about our Thanksgiving meal in our latest report.  We are going to try to have two meals this year so that we can invite more people.  It will be a busy time, but we really enjoyed last year and are looking forward to it again.  God bless, JASON

Gifts

Sarturday finished well.  I finished all the lessons and had a good time at a friends birthday party.  The highlight was that we received a package from my parents filled with goodies for the kids.  Pictured is the boys playing with their new transformers.  We received a package on Friday from friends

 as well that had asked us what we needed.  Inside was the biggest jar of peanut butter I have ever seen (pictured).  We are going to enjoy that.  We may even make some peanut butter cookies. Sunday Morning went well.  The church in Carcassonne is preparing for a big Christmas outreach.  They are going to rent a room and have a Christmas dinner with a kids program.  We started working on the program on Sunday morning during Sunday School, looks like it is going to be real good.  Services went well Sunday.  The building was packed again.  I would estimate that there were 45 people, there were no empty chairs.  The church has begun looking towards getting another meeting place.  It has been great seeing God bless the church there.  Be in prayer that another suitable meeting place can be found.  Sunday afternoon

we took it easy and spent some time together with the kids.  This week will be more like normal.  Caleb goes to school early on Mondays and Thursdays for extra time with his teacher, working with him on French.  This morning, he was ready to go with a coat on, the weather had turned colder during the night. I asked him how he knew that it was colder and that he needed to put a coat on.  He said, "It's complicated. . . when it gets cold, I can sense it.  It is kind of like a gift from God."  Cute.  Enjoy the pictures and God bless, JASON

Busy for an awesome God.

Lilia seems bothered by her brothers
hovering over her.

Lilia's birthday party went very good.  There were 9 guests. It ended up lasting several hours.  That evening I had basketball practice.  I had the opportunity to speak with some of the players.  Just chit-chat really, but still an ocassion to build the relaitionship.  I even stayed a little afterwards talking with some of the guys. Wednesday the kids started school back.  I worked most of the day on the lesson for Thursday, I had it ready earlier, but added quite a bit.  Thursday, I made the final preparations for the bible study.  We had a good turnout. Eight people came and we had a good time of study, prayer, and fellowship.  Angie said afterwards that my French was really good.  I think what probably helped was having gone over my lesson several times during the previous days.  Friday morning, I set up the stand in the market.  It was a beautiful day, getting up to around 65 degrees and sunny.  I made several contacts.  One man stopped by and talked for a minute or two.  A lady took a

gospel of John.  Another man stopped by and asked some questions about the different bibles I had on display.  Near the end another man stopped by and we talked for about 25 minutes.  I confessed to know Jesus as his saviour.  He has had four wives and has five children.  He has only been to church once, and that was the Catholic church.  He does read his bible.  I'll call him Monsieur B.  Be in prayer for him, he took one of the invitation cards for the Bible Study.  Friday afternoon, I started working on the lesson for next weeks Bible study.  Friday night meant basketball practice again.  Usually there are a lot more people on Fridays.  It went well. What surprised me was we played a short game, first team who scored twelve points wins.  I scored 8 of the twelve points.  I was surprised as well.  This morning I am finished up the lesson for next week and the Sunday school lesson for Sunday.  For the Sunday School lesson we are starting a series studying the life of David.  I am looking forward to the study.  After lunch, I will need to get a few things done around the house.  We have a birthday party to attend later this afternoon and then I am meeting with Cédric, my language helper this evening.  I wanted to also share a blessing.  Our ministry needs were larger this month because we had to pay about $1000 for our visas.  Thankfully God knew this in advance, as our supporting churches gave almost that exact amount above normal this past month.  Isn't God awesome! - JASON

All French.

The Bible Study, Thursday evening, was well attended. There

was a first time visitor so I spent some of the time reviewing last weeks lesson.  Meaning I had to stray from my notes,  that is always more difficult.  Friday, my throat was still bothering me, so I didn't set up the stand at the market.  Angie and I spent most of the day working on finances and getting a financial plan for the coming months.  On Saturday, I noticed that it would be rainy for the next few days, so I herded the kids outside and played the game, "Tickle Monster".  It consits of me chasing the kids and tickling the one that I catch. They seem to really enjoy it and it gets them some good excercise, and me too.  Thankfully, I remembered to turn the clocks back before going to bed. Sunday, there was a conference at the church in Carcassonne in the afternoon, so after services, I took the Angie and the kids back home and returned for the conference.  It was very informative.  A former Catholic, who was even an instructor in a Catholic school, who had converted to Christianity, gave his testimony and spoke about the Bible and Catholicism.  Sunday evening, seeing as it was Halloween, I wanted to scare the kids with some scary stories.  Didn't happen. Even with just candle light, the kids could not be scared.  Especially Micah, who was analyzing the stories and predicting what would happen next.  Monday we ate lunch with our friends and had a really good visit.  Five hours of french really gets you messed up the rest of the day.  There was French words and phrases popping out the rest of the day.  That is good though and I would like that to happen more often.  Today we are preparing for Lilia's birthday party that will happen in a few hours.  Her birthday is tomorrow, but they start school tomorrow.  This will be the first birthday party, entrirely in French, that we have had.  Lilia will be 11 years old.  Wow.  Everyone told me that time would go by fast once I had children.  They were right.  Well, I am going to help make the final preparations for the party.  Enjoy the pictures showing what the kid have been up to the last few days, painting, playing Legos, and enjoying Arianna. 

 God bless, JASON