le Tour de France of the Bible

Another sponsor who threw out packs of sausages to the crowd.

Part of the caravane of sponsors.

The official starting point (man in center with white hat
spoke with me for a while about what we were doing).

Here I am wearing the banner.

The crowd waiting for the racers to exit their buses.

Their personalized car.

This weekend we enjoyed the tour de France.  We hosted a group called "le Tour de France de la Bible" that goes to the starting and finishing points of each stage of the tour de France and does outreach usually in participation with a local church. Limoux was selected this year as the starting point for the 15th stage of the race. There were activities all weekend long. We prepared as a family by putting personalized labels on all the tracts, Bibles, magazines, cds and everthing else that we were handing out.  The group arrived Saturday evening and we had supper together. One couple stayed with us, while the three others stayed with our friends down the hill.  We enjoyed a good time of fellowship.  The couple left early in the morning to work at Montpellier, the finishing point.  We started out at 9 in the morning and arrived at 9:30 at Limoux were we started handing out tracts.  I volunteered to wear the banner, which attracted a lot of attention.  It was not as easy as you would expect, with wind gusts, and obstacles overhead.  Several people, thinking that we were part of the Tour would even came and ask us questions about the race.  We mingled in the crowd and looked at some of the activities. Lilia, who went with some friends ended up being on Television, you can see it by clicking here.  She is 15'16" into the video on the far right with a pom-pom.  We did pause and enjoy the caravane (a parade of sponsor vehicules that are decorated and give away free stuff ) that was a little bigger this year than last year.  Afterwards we walked some more and made a tour around the charter buses and even saw a few races preparing.  They had expected a crowd of 50,000 but I dont think that many came.  We did distribute 2,000 tracts, and several Bibles, cds, magazines, and balloons.  There was one member of the church in Carcassonne who was coming to help, he ended up not making it in time because of road closures. He did make it in time for lunch afterwards.  The cyclists departed at 12:50 and soon afterwards we walked back to the car.  We enjoyed a lunch together at our house and then I ran them to the train station in Carcassonne.  I think it went real well.  God bless, JASON

The team that helped us, from Congo, Holland, & France.

The family, preparing the tracts.