Anniversary

We had a very Merry Christmas.  We had a theme this year of family gifts.  Meaning, we focused more on having gifts that the whole family would enjoy.  The kids didn't seem to mind or even notice really.  I left for part of Christmas day to attend the Christmas morning service at the church in Carcassonne.  Sunday morning I brought the message, it was my first Sunday morning message in French.  I think it went fairly well.  We enjoyed hearing the evening service of our sending church, Walnut Street Baptist Church, Hillsboro, Texas.  Over the weekend we did have the opportunity to catch up with some friends on Skype.  Monday was restful, I did take the kids to Carcassonne for a litte while to give Angie a break.  Took a few minutes during that time to wish happy 37th wedding anniversary to my parents.  Today is an anniversary for us as well.  We just finished our third year in France.  I didn't really realize that until I asked the kids how many Christmas' we had spent in France and after some consideration they said, "three".  We arrived on French soil on December 28, 2007.  I am looking forward to seeing God's blessings for this fourth year and the following ones.  Enjoy some snapshots from Christmas day at our house.  God bless, JASON

Christmas Eve

All the "kids" at our Tex-mex dinner.

The Christmas season has been going great.  Tuesday we did some Christmas shopping as a family.  We also picked up some Christmas cards and enveloppes to stuff for the church in Carcassonne.  We worked on them as a family and it only took a couple of hours to stuff 100 Christmas Cards.  Wednesday and Thursday morning I helped the pastor in Carcassonne pass them out.  It was fun, good time of fellowship, getting to see the area, and placing cards in mailboxes that share about the true meaning of Christmas.  Thursday evening, we watched some fireworks in town and then we had supper with our friends from Magrie.  We served Tex-mex and had a great time sharing about Christmas in Texas.  We also got to explain what a redneck was.  This morning Caleb and went to the market and distributed about 80 bible verse calenders. There were not a lot of people there and it was cold.  Caleb really enjoyed it.  This afternoon Angie is going to pass out gifts to our neighbors and visit with some friends.  I will take the kids to Carcassonne and pick out some more fish for the aquarium and also stop by downtown Limoux and let the kids have a turn on the obstacle course they have set up.  I am looking forward to tommorrow.  We had planned on Skyping with our family, but Skype was down yesterday because of server trouble.  Hopefully we can try tonight.  I pray that you have a very merry Christmas and that you take time to think about the greatest gift ever given, Jesus.  Enjoy my favorite Christmas song, What Child is This.  God bless, JASON

Christmas vacation starts.

Arianna's Chrismas dress

Friday night I had my last basketball practice, we will start again in January.  I'm hoping that my ankle will be 100 % by then.  Saturday we had the Christmas Dinner outreach in Carcassonne, the kids did an amazing job on the skit.  I didn't get very good pictures because the lighting was bad and I couldn't change the setting on the camera with one hand.  There were a good number there and just a few chairs were empty.  Sunday we stayed with some friends after church and attended the english Carol Service.  It was a good time, and all in English.  We sang 5 christmas carols.  We only knew one of them, yes even the Christmas songs are different in England it seems.  There was one funny moment during a moment of open prayer time, I was praying and in the middle, I said in French, "Seigneur" instead of "Lord".   Today, we got the house straightened up and Angie went to do a little shopping.  Another interesting event occured while she was gone, I was chasing a small lizard out of the house who likes to crawl in through the door jam and he ran up the leg of my pants.  The kids all had a good laugh about it, the lizard did not survive.    God bless, JASON

Weather Predictions



Lilia played with Andrew's hair,
grow up quick Arianna !

I painted this last year.

Monday through Wednesday was spent preparing for the sermon that I will preach in Carcassonne the day after Christmas.  I prepared it well in advance so that I would have plenty of time to look over it.  Wednesday at Lilia and Micah's swimming class, Santa Claus showed up, wearing snorkelling equipment.  All the little kids were really excited.  As always, I have been having trouble getting an accurate weather report.  I usually check two or three to get a idea of what the weather will be and even at that they can be wrong.  The forecast was for rain yesterday, and freezing temperatures and snow today.  What we ended up with was snow all morning Thursday, though thankfully it didn't stick.  I was able to get some Christmas items mailed to the states.  This morning it was 50 degrees when I woke up.  We did have the rain however, which meant that  I didn't go to the market.  That gave Angie and I our first chance to do some Christmas shopping together.  This afternoon I am doing some paperwork, and soon I am going to make some pumpkin soup from some pumpkins that were given to us.   The temperature has been dropping all day, so we may end up with snow this evening.  I pray that the weather clears tommorrow afternoon for the Christmas meal and program in Carcassonne that everyone has been looking forward to.  We had only one at the Bible Study, but it was still an excellent time.  Sunday afternoon there is a Carol Service in English at the church in Carcassonne that we will be attending.  Today is the last day of the kids school and so it is the official start of the holiday break for them.  It is also Caleb's birthday today, he is 8 years old.  Attached song, may not be to your style of music and it may reveal my age, but when I was a teenager, it was my Christmas theme, I would play it every Christmas. God bless, JASON  

Crystal

I am glad that last week has passed.  It ended well.  The Bible Study was good.  The market on Friday morning went well.  They had closed downtown because they were setting up stuff for Christmas, and so I put my stand up in another place.  I ended up next to an young man who was selling crystals.  We had a nice time talking.  He has traveled all over and then, after two angels talked to him, he built a temple in a town near Limoux.  He sells crystals and gives seminars about how to use them and the special powers that they hold.  Needless to say, it was an interesting visit.  Other than that, I met a former missionary that was interested in the Bible Study and also handed out a few Bible Verse Calenders as well.  It was cold but worth the time.    I also met someone online, who had seen my Youtube videos and wanted me to help with his translation of a song.  I did what I could and got that back to him. 

Friday night, Caleb had a friend from school come over.  This was the first time Caleb had a friend over. They had a really great time.  I went to choir practice in Carcassonne, came back and picked up Caleb and his friend, and we dropped his friend off before going to basketball practice.  My ankle is continuing to get better.  I try to take it easy while I play though.  Saturday we had Caleb's birthday party.  His birthday is the 17th, but last Saturday was the best time we could find for his party.  We had a wonderful time.  We finally bought him a top, Beyblade, that he had been begging for these past months.  They were sold out at the store, but we found a good deal online.  Sunday passed well.  After church we rested since everyone had been up late the nights before.  We listened to the services of our home church on Skype that evening.  Today I have been catching up on emails, correcting past lessons, working on future lessons, and even found a few minutes to watch the highlights of a few NFL games.  I saw on the news recently that a teenager armed with swords had taken kindergarten kids hostage, and their teacher, at a school in eastern France.  Thankfully it has ended with no one getting hurt.  The Christmas song I have picked for this blog I heard recently and it brought back a lot of good memories.  I was listen to Christian Christmas Radio online.  You can check it out at http://www.klove.com/ , on the home page click the red box that says Klove Christmas Radio.  There you have it, 24 hr christmas music.  God bless, JASON 

Winter weather?

This week is progressing good.  It seems that we fought off the invasion of last week.  I have my lesson prepared for next week.  My ankle is doing better.  I went to Basketball practice last night but took it easy.  We got the Christmas decorations up.  The kids are excited about Christmas.  Andrew goes on and on about the tree.  Speaking of Andrew, we were coming home from school one day and Andrew was talking about his friend, Manu.  As he does often, he repeated the name several times while he was thinking of what to say next.  Micah couldn't wait and said, "Your new what!".  Think about it for a little bit and you will get it.  The weather has been nice here but freezing everywhere else in France it seems.  Last week there were record low temperatures in several cities in the North, odd for so early in the year.  Yesterday, Paris was shutdown but several inches of snowfall during the day.  They had to set up roadside shelters for all the stranded motorists.  Yesterday it was 65 degrees here.  It has cooled off some today and the wind is blowing.  I am looking forward to seeing what this winter brings.  Last year we had above average snowfall. The kids are hoping for it again.  The song below is "Une fleur m'a dit".  It is a cute childrens song about finding a flower in the snow and rescuing it, and the flower telling that it is Christmas. Our kids are singing the same tune but with Christian lyrics for the Christmas program in Carcassonne.  God bless, JASON

Invasion

My view of Arianna

This weekend was particularly busy.  Friday night I had choir practice with the church in Carcassonne.  When I arrived I got a call from Angie that Andrew, Micah and Caleb had lice, an invasion.  There had been signs up at their school since the beginning of the year, so with four kids in school, it was just a matter of time.  Saturday was spent washing laundry, hair, bagging up dolls, combing. . . the whole works.  We did take a break for the kids to practice their Christmas program in Carcassonne.  Sunday we ate after church and then I stayed and attended the businesss meeting.  The church in Carcassonne is searching for a new meeting place.  I made it back home by five, got the kids homework done and ate supper, which left bedtime.  Today I went shopping, worked on my lesson.  I tried to stop by the pharmacy and pick up an ankle brace, but I forgot almost all of them are closed on Mondays.  I got a few groceries and returned home.  Worked on my lesson some and am currently watching Arianna, while Angie sleeps in.  Arianna just lays in her bed next to my computer, as content as can be.  She looks and around, tries to suck on her fingers, and makes noises.  The Christmas song for this time is Petit Papa Noël.  Once again, I could not find one with English subtitles, but here is one sung by an American, Josh Groban, on French TV.  He starts singing about halfway through.  God bless, JASON

Christmas season is here.

I had a good meeting with the pastor in Carcassonne.  The Bible study went well last night also.  It was cold at the market this morning.  We even had some snow falling periodically.  There were not many people at the market and we did not get to make any new contacts, but we did see two men that we had met previously and talk with them at length.  It was cold.  Angie had purchased these hand warmers that are interesting.  Little gelatin sacks with a piece of metal inside, you bend the metal and the sack heats up and stays warm for about an hour.  Afterwards you just boil it to reactivate it.  It says it will work for 1,000 times.  Interesting.  As you can see in the picture my ankle looks worse, but it is feeling much better.  I just have a slight limp.  Tonight we have choir practice in Carcassonne, tommorrow is practice for the kids christmas program.  Sunday afternoon there will be a meeting of the church members in Carcassonne to discuss several issues involving the future of the church.  Remember them in your prayers.  They have been such a help to us.  I will try to attach a Christmas song at the end of these posts in December.  Below is "Il est né le Divin Enfant", one of the most popular traditional French Christmas songs. I could not find a version with English Subtitles, so here is the English version, "He is born the divine Child".  You can find the french version on YouTube as well.  God bless, JASON

Ouch!

If you are like most people, then the first thing that you looked at is the picture to the right.  Yes, at basketball practice Tuesday night, I rolled my ankle and sprained it.  Not the worse that I have had, but I will be limping for a week or two. I hope I recover well, because there is a Saturday game on January 8th that I hope to play in.  I heard/felt two pops when it occured.  It was the ankle that I wasn't wearing a brace on.  A brace will be on the list to buy soon.  The hardest part was pushing in the clutch on the way home.  As a result, Angie has ran all the errands for today.  Caleb to his sports practice, Lilia and Micah to swimming, Caleb's dentist appointment, shopping, and then Caleb's basketball practice.  I did get up and wonder into the garage to help get out the Christmas decorations.  It is just swollen and has not even changed colors like some of the more serious ones have.  Hopefully we will find the time Saturday to set up the decorations.  I am ready for Bible study tomorrow.  We will have a meeting with the pastor of the church in Carcassonne in the morning.  I am going to help get the kids tucked in.  God bless, JASON