Catching up with people.

Arianna and her friend are ready to walk.

Lilia enters the clouds.



Some of the local wildlife.

The boys run up ahead.

With the kids getting bigger, it was time to get some more
dressors.  Thanks IKEA!

Someone else took this picture in Turkey,
Andrew drinking out of the pitcher,
wearing his turkish hat, we me
oblivious in the background.

Greetings!  Another week has gone by.  We have been blessed to have had the opportunity to see almost all our contacts this past week.  We had visitors Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Saturday and Sunday.    Friday morning market went well.  It was good to catch up with everyone.  Same for the services in Carcassonne, we had a great time, though I found out when I arrived that  I was supposed to be officiating.  Oops.  Thursday night we had a friendly basketball game with the team in Castelnaudary. We had a great time. We lost by ten points but played well considering we had two new players to our team. I scored 4 points. First part of the week, we got setttled back in, shopped, and hosted guests.  Wednesday basketball went good again.  Thursday we celebrated Micah's birthday and we bought them a Wii. We thought about getting him a Nintendo DS but they ended up being more expensive. A good thing about the Wii that I didn't know is that it can also play DVDs and surf the web.  I had a good time with Micah.  We gave him the game but not the console.  I told them that he could play it in the DVD player.  After several failed attempts I finally brought out the console, to many delightful cries and sighs of relief.  The following market went well, really windy again, as a tropical storm spins in the Atlantic, sending us rain and wind.  Saturday night we were invited to a BBQ with friends in a forest up in the mountains.  We had a great time.  The kids enjoyed wandering on the paths and the food and fellowship was good.  Services went well in Carcassonne, Angie offered to be a translater for an Australian couple who is expecting twins any day now.  The husband is a rugby player in Carcassonne. Sunday afternoon we made a visit and had a couple come visit us, and still managed to hear most of our sending church services on Skype.  Looking foward to this week.  Tuesday night will be our restart of the Bible Study.  God bless, JASON

Micah opening some presents, his official party will be this
Wednesday.

Arianna falls asleep on Angie's new rug, Angie's birthday present.

Visitors and Coaching

Coach Jason

The group in Barcelona.

Notre Dame de Marceille in Limoux

We have had a good visit with Lynn and Brenda.  We had a good visit with the church in Barcelona (Andrew and I).  We enjoyed the services and meal afterwards and then headed back with Lynn and Brenda.  They arrived without their  checked bags which were left in Turkey. They got one of them by Wednesday but the other one will have to follow them to their next destination.  Angie got her bag on Tuesday.  We got the kids in school in Monday.  Andrew was the only one who gave problems.  Micah did fuss a little, but found a couple of kids he knew in his class.  Andrew however had to be pried, crying from his momma.  He did fine after lunch and the rest of this week.  It has been a fun filled time of doing homework, filling out paperwork and such.  Lilia as usual, is taking care of all her stuff, she brings me a paper every now and then and says "Sign here".  We got Lilia and Caleb enrolled in swimming again.  We are looking for Andrew a soccer team. Micah and Andrew are also in basketball. I had my first coaching session Wednesday night.  It went well.  We had a good group of kids, already twice as many as last year.  I hope that they stick with it.  I worked with the group ages 5 to 9.  There were 9 in this group.  Thankfully we got some new balls and a new goal as well.  We drove the Raburns to the airport in Carcassonne this morning where they are heading to Scotland.  We enjoyed their visit, didn't go see a lot of stuff, but had some fun visiting together.   As you see in the pictures, Angie took them to see a church, built in the 1100's, Notre Dame de Marceille.  Looking forward to this weekend and to the market in the morning.  God bless, JASON

Retreat in Turkey

Angie caught this hummingbird in our front yard.

Angie and I at the mineral formations in Hierapolis. (Micah
wondered why the snow didn't melt)

Arianna and I walk through the cascading water.

The boys enjoy one of the pools.

They don't seem to be admiring the view.

Angie at the ruins of Laodecia.

Well, we did not stay back in France for long, not long enough to get over jet lag.  After some frantic unpacking and packing, we left for the airport in Marseille at 2:30 Sunday morning.  We we made it to the airport and two planes later was in Ismir, were we met some good friends from Kenya, and boarded a bus for the city near there to spend the night.  We enjoyed seeing all of our missionary friends there.  In the morning we all caught a bus for a 3 hour ride to Pamakkale (Hierapolis). The retreat was excellent, great preaching, fellowship, and teaching.  I enjoyed sharing with the men in one session.  The kids had a great time in VBS, swimming, and playing with their friends.  The food was good, and we finally got caught up after jet lag.  We did take a touristy tour of ancient Hierapolis, with its hot (more like warm) baths and formations.  It was very beautiful as we scaled the mountain of running water, kids playing all the way.  After sad goobyes we again headed back to France.  A couple of flights and long lines found us in Brussells with a 7 hour layover, where I mentioned to Angie that we had never lost a bag with all our travels and that we were probably over due.  Later arriving in Marseille, we solved that statistical problem, when Angie's bag did not arrive. Hopefully they will get it back to us soon.  We are one again unpacking and preparing for the first day of school on Monday and the Raburns visiting with us.  I will pick them up in Barcelona tomorrow, and attend services there.  God bless, JASON 



They must have a lot of kids.

Kids sing on the their VBS songs.