Happy New Year

A couple of picturs I took in Andorra.

The kids on Christmas morning.

The Estrada family.

Our time with new friends finished well.  On Thursday they showed us how to make Tortillas, the real way.  They were very good.  Lilia said that they were better than chocolate.  We also had a visit from our friends from Magrie.  Their daughter is leaving soon to spend 6 months in Australia to improve her English.  She will be staying only a hour from a good pastor friend of mine.  I took the Estrada family back to Barcelona on Friday, we saw a pretty rainbow on the way down.  Andrew and I stayed for lunch with the pastor in Barcelona.  We enjoyed getting to know them better. I was able to follow the gist of most of the conversations, the pastor speaks fairly good English.  He has invited me to come speak for them in February, which I am already looking  forward to.  It will be nice to have the family with me as well, so they can meet all of us.  Saturday the kids played outside a lot, they are enjoying the basketball goal that they got for Christmas.  We did not let them stay up to midnight, because they were already tired, but we did let them stay up later than normal.  Angie and I saw the New Year in together.  We celebrated our fourth year in France this past week.  What an amazing God that we have, to get to the end of the year and see how good he has been to us, not just this past year, but our entire time in France, and our time together, and out entire lives.  Surely those reading this can realize the same thing, I pray that each of you know my King and Savior.  I try not to get too preachy in this blog, because the goal is to keep everyone up to date with our family and life here in France.  But, I do think it is important to share the greatest love in my life, Jesus Christ, and I hope that it is evident even as you read about our daily life in France.  If you do not know Jesus and you would like to, you can contact me by email at abainfrance@hotmail.com.   Sunday services were well.  There were a half dozen first time visitors at the church in Carcassonne.  One young couple were from Australia, he is playing Rugby for Carcassonne.  I stayed for the meal and business meeting with Lilia and Micah.  We enjoyed the rest of the day and hearing the services of our sending church over skype.  Monday was somewhat surreal, the kids realizing that it was their last day of vacation.  They were excited as well about school starting back.  I am enjoying my first day back in the office for a while.  God bless, JASON

Anniversary

We had a very Merry Christmas.  We had a theme this year of family gifts.  Meaning, we focused more on having gifts that the whole family would enjoy.  The kids didn't seem to mind or even notice really.  I left for part of Christmas day to attend the Christmas morning service at the church in Carcassonne.  Sunday morning I brought the message, it was my first Sunday morning message in French.  I think it went fairly well.  We enjoyed hearing the evening service of our sending church, Walnut Street Baptist Church, Hillsboro, Texas.  Over the weekend we did have the opportunity to catch up with some friends on Skype.  Monday was restful, I did take the kids to Carcassonne for a litte while to give Angie a break.  Took a few minutes during that time to wish happy 37th wedding anniversary to my parents.  Today is an anniversary for us as well.  We just finished our third year in France.  I didn't really realize that until I asked the kids how many Christmas' we had spent in France and after some consideration they said, "three".  We arrived on French soil on December 28, 2007.  I am looking forward to seeing God's blessings for this fourth year and the following ones.  Enjoy some snapshots from Christmas day at our house.  God bless, JASON

Anniversary

That's right 12 years ago today, I saw an angel, rightly named Angie, walking down the aisle of our little church to meet me. I'll never understand why God granted me such a wonderful wife. But I like it. We met 13 years and two weeks ago at McDonalds. In memory of this day, we ate lunch at McDonalds after church today. I have attached a picture of us way back when, soon after we met. Two were present for the Bible Study thursday. There are still people on vacation. August is the big vacation period in France. Some take off the whole months and some businesses are not open in August. (now Monday) Today I fixed the drain pipe underneath our Hot water heater. It would not drain at all and I had to put a bucket underneath to catch the drips from condensation inside the tank. I am glad to have it fixed. Didn't take too long to fix, in fact it took longer to clean up afterwards :) We have been invited to our neighbors for an apertatif at 7:30 this evening. I am looking forward to getting to know them more. They came to our neighborhood party that we hosted at our home. They are a really sweet couple. Tomorrow I will be helping with a Bible exposition at the church in Carcassonne. I will explain more about that later. Interesting fact that the aperatif is before the meal. We are meeting them for an aperatif at 7:30, that gives you an idea about how French people usually eat supper later. God bless, JASON

Another Anniversary

We have arrived at another anniversary of sorts, it has been one year since my first blog. The blog has been very helpful. I spoken to a missionary who had been on the field for several years and he could not remember much of what happened during that time. We have an online diary of sorts. I enjoy reading other peoples blogs as well. It helps me keep up with a lot of friends from seminary and family.

The weather has remained unusually cold. It was about 15f (-10c) this morning when I woke up. I went to the translator office this morning to pick up my driver's license. They were not ready, so I went back this afternoon and got them. I took a nap with Andrew after lunch which was enjoyable. I just haven't been able to catch up on sleep since school started. I am awaiting a call from another missionary here in France. There is a lot that I feel like I need to get done this week and weekend. I have attached two pictures of the snow. It still has not melted. In fact it has become slippery on the sidewalks now. I found out that you use different muscles for walking on slippery surfaces, because I am sore. God bless, Jason

Anniversary

Just a quick note to say today marks 1 year since our arrival in France. Thanks for the prayers and keep them up. God bless, JASON

Ten years later.

Angie and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary yesterday. Ten years ago 8/8/98 we were married. We looked back at that day and talked about how we had no idea that we would be were wear now. For the special day, Angie took Andrew to the Doctors office and I took the other kids to the language school garden and let them play. That doesn't sound very fantastic, so I will just say that we spent our tenth anniversary in Paris, France. We did get to watch to opening to the Olympics on TV in french. It was nice. Watching the olympics in French could be a good language learning help, not only do you pick up on a lot of sports vocabulary, but they give a lot of personal information about the players. The personal information if what you use a lot in casual conversation. "Hi, my name is . . ., I have . . . children, I am from . . ., etc." Today Angie went and picked up the medicine for Andrew. Six days worth of fever medicine and antibiotic for 8 dollars. Not a bad price. Attached are pictures of us and Angie's family at our wedding. God bless, JASON