Nodding Off

Saturday I, Angie, went to an "attic empty" or garage sale as we would call it. I was visiting the stand of some friends who are raising money for their daughter to teach in India for a year after high school. I love garage sales. I ended up buying a bath chair with suction cups on the bottom for Arianna for the lovely price of 3 euros ($5). She loves bathtime. Then I picked up Emmanuelle for bible study at our house with Jason and Lilia. They were on the story of Noah in the series through Genesis. Then Jason took Emmanuelle home on the way to Caleb's swimming lesson. After lunch, I did a little grocery shopping and then we let the kids get their little pool out. Arianna loved sitting in her swing and watching the kids play. At supper we noticed that she was so tired she was nodding off in her chair. We got the camera in time for the final nod. Today we enjoyed French mother's day. After church everyone left very quickly for a change. We saw another garage sale in town but this one had BMX bikers and skateboarders entertaining. So we stopped and took the kids to see. We were pretty impressed with some of the bikers doing flips. We bought an item that a friend had been looking for for one euro($1.40). Can't beat that price. We've also been trying to decide what to do for Andrew's 5th birthday. Can hardly believe it is just one week away. Hope you all had a blessed day as well. God bless, ANGIE

Swimming competition

It has been a good week.  Temperatures got up to 90 on Wednesday, but we had a cool front blow through and today the high is 70.  There has not been basketball practice this week, which I am missing, I am planning on inviting another one of my teamates over with his family.  Lilia had a field trip on Tuesday and Caleb has one today.  There were 5 at the bible study last night.  Wednesday was the busy day this week.  Lilia has been making preparations for entering Junior High next year.  She wanted to try out for the swimming team.  Wednesday morning from 10 to 12 they had a test of physical capabilities for everyone who wanted to try out for sports.  We then grabbed a quick lunch to get her to the swimming pool at one that afternoon for her swimming test.  As soon as we arrived we met another parent waiting with her child and they were British.  Then two other British parents arrived.  I was excited to know that she will have other English speakers in her class.  The try out started, I admit that I was a little nervous after they said they would not accept everyone.  They did some warmups - the had to swim for 10 minutes straight, Lilia swam about 400 meters.  They then had some timed swimming with various styles.  Lilia did 50 m backstroke in 1 min 30.  I don't know if she will make it.  Some other girls that were there have been doing swimming for a while.  One girls did the 50m backstroke in 23 seconds, and did twice as many laps a Lilia in 10 minutes.  Lilia doesn't seem worried about it either way.  She has been sore.  Wednesday we also let the kids play on a slip and slide that some friends bought for us.  They really enjoyed it, after I explained to them what to do. A funny thing happened during Bible Study.  Arianna bit her finger and breathed in so hard that she passed out for a couple of seconds.  Looking forward to a nice cool weekend.  God bless, JASON 

Motor Show

First Youth meeting, you can see the Castle in the back.



All the monster trucks were US models, this was the first
monster truck in Europe.



Even the Limousine on two wheels.

Self proclaimed largest monster truck in the world.

Andrew and Arianna were playing good together.

Angie and Lilia had a real good time at the youth meeting.  They enjoyed it and took lots of pictures.  Saturday night the kids and I had a wonderful time at the Motor Show.  I was impressed by some of the stunts.  I enjoyed embarrassing Lilia by singing along with the country music they were playing as well.  The show ended late but everyone had a good time.  Sunday services went well.  I gave the kids lesson and I think it went well.  I made the illustrations myself, and I am no artist.  I have put the lesson on my French blog, you will find the link to the right.  The pastor has been doing a series on the 7 saying of Christ from the cross.  Sunday afternoon all the kids were supposed to take a nap, but ended up only one did.  We enjoyed listening to the evening services of our sending church.  My father is doing a series from the book of Jonah.  Today everyone is back to school.  Angie visited with an English lady who lives in town this morning and this evening we were invited to eat supper with some friends.  During lunch today, we were talking about taxes and Andrew said, "We have a car so we don't pay for "taxes" (taxis).  Enjoy the pictures.  God bless, JASON

La vie en "roses"

She is as pretty as a flower.

We have had a good week.  The weather has been wonderful all week long.  It has been dry however, about two weeks since it last rained, and this is usually the wetter time of year.  Several people were out with traveling and so we ended up not having anyone for the Bible study.  We did have a Sunday School lesson for the kids instead.  Angie taught and I kept the nursery.  The market went well Friday morning.  It started off a little slow.  Nobody came the first hour, one person stopped by the second, but there were several more that came the third hour.  Friday night, we had basketball practice outside because the gym was being used, Angie took the kids to the park during my practice.  Today we did quite a bit of yard work, weeding and mowing.  I did find the opportunity to take a bike ride with Caleb and take some pictures.  One of our neighbors stop by and gave us some cherries from their garden.  She mentioned that roses are one thing that grows exceptionnally well here, as you can see in the pictures.  Another neighbor stopped by this week gave us a lot of clothes from her daughter.  Lilia was excited about that.  Currently Angie has taken Lilia to a youth meeting in Carcassonne.  I am excited that Angie is getting this opportunity. They needed to have at least one women there so Angie volunteered.  She always does a great job with people of all ages, being a natural "people person".  The grand event this evening is the Monster Truck show that has come to town.  The kids are excited, they even claim to have the largest monster truck in the world.  I'm sure the boys and Lilia will enjoy it.  I will make sure and include some pictures.  Enjoy you weekend.  God bless, Jason

Young People

Our four oldest children with my Father's parents, several
years ago. 

We had a good weekend and this week has started well.  We enjoyed the services Sunday at Carcassonne, the was a missionary from Algeria in the services.  She was a converted Muslim.  Monday, Angie visited with a friend from Carcassonne, while I enjoyed my day off, by doing some of the things on my "to do" list.  Today Andrew is taking a field trip to an Australien Park and a circus.  He is very excited about it.  He reminded everyone he came across that he had to be at school at 8:30 or the bus would leave without him.   Not to worry, we did make it on time.  Time to get the lessons prepared for this week.  There is the Bible Study Thursday night, lesson with the young people Saturday morning, and I am also doing a short lesson for the kids in Carcassonne on Sunday.  There is a youth meeting in Carcassonne on Saturday.  Angie is part of the planning committee and will attend.  I am glad that she can have this opportunity, she does so well with people.  We have had guests for lunch the past couple of days, and today we are invited to eat dessert with a friend after lunch.  Arianna is getting her top two teeth in and is unhappy about it at times.  She enjoys chewing on things.  God bless, JASON

L'accident

"L'accident" is french for "the accident".  Yes, French is a difficult language :)  Tuesday afternoon we had some visitors who planned to drop by.  We received a call from the husband saying that they had a wreck and had backed into a ditch.  I immediately drove down to find that had accidently backed off a small cliff, about 30 feet, on our road.  Thankfully they were not seriously injured, just bumps and bruises, even though one was pinned in the car for an hour before released.  We are thankful that they were okay.  The city had been promising to redo our road for a couple of years now, yesterday they had the surveyors looking at it.  We also had a few occasions to speak with some of the neighbors as a result.  The Bible study went well Thursday evening.  We had a good number thanks to several from Carcassonne, including a couple who are passing through that are planning to be missionaries in Mali.  They stopped by as well during the market on Friday morning.  The market went well, I passed out one Bible in English, and one in French.  Today, (Saturday), I had bible study with the teens this morning and this afternoon we visited with the new missionary couple some more and also worked on getting a youth meeting started with the Church in Carcassonne.  I don't know if I mentioned it already, but we did get our French Driver's licenses in the mail.  Looking forward to services tomorrow.  God bless, JASON

Open House

Another week has passed.  The vacation ended well.  We had nice

weather.  Wednesday we painted Arianna's old room and moved Lilia into it.  Arianna now shares a room with Andrew, Caleb with Micah, and Lilia has one all to herself.  It was a lot of work but looks nice and she will feel better about inviting her friends over now that they have a place to escape the boys.  There were three for the bible study Thursday evening.  Friday, at the market,  I met the wife of a couple that I had met last year.  There are retired English missionaries who several years back started an english bible study in their home.  They meet on the second Sunday of each month.  Angie and I had discussed attending one of the English services in our area and so we went Sunday and had a wonderful time.  It was held in a little village about 10 minutes from us. There were a dozen there and we enjoyed meeting everyone and visiting. The study went well and we stayed for lunch afterwards.  The couple is also preparing to move and passed down a lot of stuff to us, which we were pleased to have, a lot of toys, blankets, and baby stuff. The

kids started school back yesterday.  They seemed excited to go, and we were able to meet some of the parents that we had the chance to get to know better during the vacation. This morning I got my inbox cleared out, prepared to materials for a church who plans on having us be the missionaries for their vacation bible school.  The weather has warmed up and flowers are blooming everywhere.  Highs are in the 70's and lows in the 50s.  We have already started opening windows in the evenings to cool the house off a little after supper.     One of the attached pictures if of a moth that flew in one evening, the other is off the English bible study Sunday morning.  God bless, JASON

Meetings

Visiting at the park.

Feeding the ducks.

The Rutherfords serving in Romania.

The Bible Study went well Thursday evening.  We had two first time visitors.  A lady came that met me at the market.  She brought a friend from her that was from Israel.  They seemed very excited about the work and were looking forward to meeting with us next week.  The market went well on Friday morning.  There were just a few regulars who stopped by the stand.  Saturday we had a picnic at the park with a couple of other parents.  We had a good time and were able to visit with them. We also recognized a lady that Angie had met in the Doctors office waiting room while she was pregnant.  We were able to talk with here some and exchange contact information as well.  Sunday services went well.  We spent the afternoon preparing the house for our friends from Romania coming in.  We did get to catch the services at Walnut Street, there was another preacher filling in for my father, who was preaching revival services for another church.  The fill-in preacher was pastor of the church were I was an intern and he did an excellent job.  Our friends arrived without problem and we enjoyed spending the evening catching up with them.  On Monday we took them to the Walled city of Carcassonne, ate at KFC, and did some shopping.  They left this morning to head back to Romania.  Only a few more days of vacation left.  Enjoy the pictures and God bless, JASON