Countdown

Since I have a few minutes, I'm going to work on a blog because I do not know when I will have the next occasion.  Last week I had a good AVF training in Lyon.  The food was great, the sites amazing, the training was very professional, a good time of sharing as well.  The only worry was while I was on the train to Lyon, they announced that we would not be arriving at 6:45pm but would be late, and later they said it would be at 2am.  Thankfully they changed again and we only ended up being two hours late, but that did give everyone a scare. 

 

 

 The training laster Thursday and Friday, I got back late Friday night, but we woke up early to attend our inter-AVF picnic.  It was a good time.  We arrived early and had a walk for two hours and saw some beautiful sites.  And then had lunch together. 

 

After the picnic, Angie and Lilia headed directly to the youth meeting.  I took the boys and Arianna back home, because Andrew and Caleb had been invited to a friends house.  After we got back together to eat with some friends in Carcassonne we met through basketball, and we stayed visiting until midnight.  Sunday afternoon everyone but Lilia got a good nap in before our English services.  Monday night we had our Annual meeting for the basketball club.  Tuesday, I had the annual meeting for the Regional AVF at Montpellier.  Wednesday I returned to Montpellier to take Lauren to her visa appointment, and continued to Avignon to help a friend move into a new apartment, and then pick up some stuff from her cousin in Montpellier to take back to Limoux, as university is finished for summer, many students must move out.  Thursday, we helped hand out flyers again, we have passed out over 3000, and hope to have a good turnout.  Angie and Lilia are at a swimming competition yesterday and today.  I'm trying to get things done while watching the kids, doesn't always work out.  I did manage to finish a report, do some translating, prepare a flyer for our Ranch friend, and answer a lot of emails.  God bless, JASON

One month past, one more to go

I see that the last blog was a little over a month ago.  And we have a little less than a month until we make our trip back to the states for summer. 

The kids put on a puppet show from their bed.

I show that last time I blogged  was the 18th of April. That following weekend (Easter), I had Referee training all weekend long.  I missed Easter services, but I did get to share with a muslim friends on the ride to and from the training about  Easter.  The monday after Easter is a holiday in France.  We had some friends over for supper and had a good visit with them.  Tuesday, I had AVF as usual, and Angie had to take two of the kids to the dermatologist.  Two of the boys have a few little bumps that ended up being some kind of virus, and they needed to be burned off with dry ice.  Thursday Lynn and Brenda arrived, thankfully Lauren was willing to pick them up at the airport for us.  Lynn spoke in our Friday night Bible Study and we spent most of Saturday with them.

Micah and Arianna and Yousef at the park.

 What followed was two weeks of spring break with the kids.  We had a good time, got to visit a little more with Lynn and Brenda, enjoyed some good Bible studies.  The weather turned for the worse during the vacation and it was chilly and rainy most days.  Lynn and Brenda left the first of May.  Sunday I went to the organization service for the church in Barcelona.  It was a great service and it has been great to see and share with them growing together and organizing. I met the pastors sending pastor, and another missionary that is now serving in Spain as well.  From what they said, this is the first ABA church in Spain.

 The one pretty day, was Thursday, we took the kids for a walk around a lake, and to play basketball at a local park.  They had a good time.

 After the vacation finished things really took off.  We really jumped into preparing for the team that we have coming in June.  Besides four meetings (including one with the Mayor), helping a handicaped man get ready to move, basketball, I was able to get a website up and running so that people could register for the English classes online.  We also created, had printed, and handed out about 1500 flyers as well.  The following weekend Lilia had a swimming competition on Sat. and Sunday.  I had my last training session for the referees (I passed!) on Saturday.  Sunday the boys had their last basketball tournament as well.  Needless to say we were all over the place last weekend.  We did meet some new visitors from Australia at church Sunday, one who will soon be moving to the area with her family.  We also manged to squeeze in the English services.  Though it was a tiring weekend, it was very fruitful and blessed.  God bless, JASON