Friday, April 17, 2015

Spring in the Air

For the winter break, we took a trip up into the mountains to sled with the kids.




This is just a random picture the camera took by accident.
Wow, what to say since my last post in mi-Febuary.  Our Bible studies are doing well.  French Sunday morning service has continued growing.  We have more than doubled in the amount of visitors attending.  The kids Bible study hit a high of 10, and has had nine several times since. I have been having come good conversations with atheists, catholics, Jehovah Witnesses, and others.  We have found a new house and will most likely be moving into it in the middle of June.  It is a little bigger, has two bathrooms, and is better laid out for having guests.  The kids are excited about it having a pool, I am more excited that it comes with a built in chicken coup.  Last year I did a wedding at a caste a couple of hours away, I left my name with the owner/operator as a reference for other people wanted to get married there.  This year I have been contacted by three couples who are interested in having me do their ceremony.  How cool is that? The kids are on vacation again, and we have been enjoying some beautiful weather.  On top of the usual responsibilities we are getting ready for a basketball team and an English teaching team to come in June.  We are trying to start packing and cleaning out, while also trying to keep the house clean for people who want to come look at it.  It's a juggling act.  Also we are getting ready for Lilia to start school in the States in August. Having said all that, I would like to insert here that I will be more faithful about keeping the blog updated, but to be honest, that is probably not going to happen until the month of August.  Angie, Lilia, and Arianna will be flying to the states to get Lilia settled in and I will be staying here with the boys.  Let me throw you a few random pictures. God bless, JASON
Angie has done some good work in her scrapbooking class that she gives.

We had an NBA evening for some boys from Caleb's basketball team.

Micah had a b-ball game near the meditteranean, Angie took some pics.

We had the Morales family, pastor in Barcelona come visit for a week, had a great time with them.

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

A New Year 2015

Our year got started off real well.  We had an Australian family arrive the first of the month.  I met them at the airport to help them get their luggage back to their rental house.  They plan on staying at least a year in France, and we are excited to have other believers attending our English Bible study.  We also enjoyed visiting with Ashley, who is a missionary in Kenya, and Holly, in Russia.  They were coming to visit Lauren, and we enjoyed getting to know them and spend a little time with them as well.  While they were here, Angie took Lauren's English class and I taught the kids Bible study to give Lauren more time with here friends.  The 6th, we enjoyed an event called the Gallettes des Rois. I have explained this event before, which celebrates the Wise Men arriving to see Jesus. It was a good time to reconnect with all the AVF people after the Christmas break.
New Year's Day we always measure everyone to see how much
we have grown, or not grown.
We had several people over to the house at the start of January as well.  We have a couple over on Thursday night, and had a really good visit with them.  On everyone's mind was the recent terrorist attacks that had taken place in Paris.  Saturday afternoon we had the Australian family over.  Sunday afternoon, Angie and I were invited by some friends for some homemade donuts.  We enjoyed the visiting, and the donuts of course.  Thanks to Lilia for babysitting.  Saturdays in January were taken up with Basketball.  Micah joined the club in Villemoustaussou. They had games almost every Saturday.  I was refereeing as well.  The 21st, Lauren's parents arrived, and it is always a pleasure to see them again.  We have known them even before we came to France through their Church in North Little Rock that has been very active in our ministry and training missionaries.  I took Lauren's kids class while she went and picked them up from the airport.  We had a good chance to discuss with Lauren's parents the possibility of Lilia staying with them and attending High school.  I'll share more about that in next months update. Thursday, the 22nd, the AVF had a trip to Toulouse together, and I enjoyed visit the beautiful downtown area.  
Visiting churches in Toulouse.  
The 25th, we were invited to celebrate Australia Day with our new friends.  We had a great time and got to meet a lot of people.  In other news, we are busy planning for teams that are coming this summer.  We are having a basketball camp, and an English camp.  There are a lot of things to do to get ready for this teams, but they are always worth it, as we get to present our field to other people and at the same time reach out to people here.  To get a little ahead.  Lilia had a swimming competition the first of February.  You'll have to guess where she is in the picture below, cause I have no idea.  God bless, JASON