Gifts

Sarturday finished well.  I finished all the lessons and had a good time at a friends birthday party.  The highlight was that we received a package from my parents filled with goodies for the kids.  Pictured is the boys playing with their new transformers.  We received a package on Friday from friends

 as well that had asked us what we needed.  Inside was the biggest jar of peanut butter I have ever seen (pictured).  We are going to enjoy that.  We may even make some peanut butter cookies. Sunday Morning went well.  The church in Carcassonne is preparing for a big Christmas outreach.  They are going to rent a room and have a Christmas dinner with a kids program.  We started working on the program on Sunday morning during Sunday School, looks like it is going to be real good.  Services went well Sunday.  The building was packed again.  I would estimate that there were 45 people, there were no empty chairs.  The church has begun looking towards getting another meeting place.  It has been great seeing God bless the church there.  Be in prayer that another suitable meeting place can be found.  Sunday afternoon

we took it easy and spent some time together with the kids.  This week will be more like normal.  Caleb goes to school early on Mondays and Thursdays for extra time with his teacher, working with him on French.  This morning, he was ready to go with a coat on, the weather had turned colder during the night. I asked him how he knew that it was colder and that he needed to put a coat on.  He said, "It's complicated. . . when it gets cold, I can sense it.  It is kind of like a gift from God."  Cute.  Enjoy the pictures and God bless, JASON

On fire.

The seminar has been going very well. I think the expression "on fire" could be used here in regards to myself (i.e. to be very excited). I would recommend it to all missionaries and pastors, and church members. There is a wealth of information that is presented. Missionary finances, deputation, church planting, missionary kids, cooking on the foreign field, culture shock . . . the list goes on and on, as well as good preaching. We also love the opportunity to meet with other missionaries. After the classes on Friday, Andrew blackened his eye on the table. It looks real colorful now, if you want a picture email me or comment and I will send you one, because Angie will not let me post it here. He seems to kind of enjoy showing it to everyone. A man we were eating lunch with asked him today, what happened to his eye. Andrew replied, "table." We had a great weekend, visited in two churches. Lilia was sick Saturday night and our hosts, the Raburns, who are also putting on the seminar, volunteered to stay and watch her so that we could all go to church. I visited a revival service tonight with another missionary. Attached is missionary kids playing together (you can see our display in the background) and Bro. Raburn ( lynnraburn.com) speaking during the seminar. We heard that Limoux got another bit of snow. We hope that all our friends are staying safe and warm. God bless, JASON

The Consulate

Last week went well. We stayed busy with visiting family early on. Wednesday, Angie and I had Dentists appointments. Thursday we headed down to Houston. We stayed with our friends, and former missionary to France, now helping plant a church in Houston. We visited the consulate Friday morning. All in all, it was a good visit. It was a little tense having the kids there in the little room for two hours. We were missing some documentation that we will have to fax to them, but other than that, no big problems. We needed to have open ended airline tickets for each of us so that in case we do not get approved an extension in France we hasve proof that we can make it back to the states. It seems to be a hassle and a lot of money just to have sitting in airline tickets, but it's required. We paid $136 per visa (6 total). Saturday we visited some more friends. Sunday I shared in the Sunday morning services at a church in Brownwood, Texas. The Pastor and his family were our neighbors in Seminary and still remain close friends of ours. Monday I sent in all our tax information, hopefully that is done. This morning I visited my missions treasurer in the hospital as he is awaiting gall bladder surgery. There are two inches of snow on the ground outside. This has been a record year for snowfall in Texas, the most on record. We plan on heading to Henderson this weekend. I will be helping my father replace my grandparents hot water heater, as well as visiting some friends in sharing with two churches in Sunday. Attached pictures are one we took this past Sunday and one we took just before we left over two years ago. Thank you for the prayers on our behalf. God bless, JASON

Countdown

We had a great weekend. Saturday, Lilia wanted to have a friend over. I talked to her mother on the phone and arranged a meeting place. We planned to meet at LIDL, but no one showed up. Come to find out that they thought I said at school. So it didn't work out. We did have a good visit from friends in Carcassonne. Saturday evening we had supper with out friends in Magrie who are from the Reunion Island. We had a wonderful meal and visit with them. Sunday services went real well. We stayed for the meal afterwards even though we had planned not to. Micah and Andrew have had the cold and so we planned on returning home, when one of the church members heard this, he insisted that we stay because after all this is cold season and we are all supposed to have colds. We really appreciate the church in Carcassonne and all the help and prayers that they have offered up for us. It is amazing seeing God's hand in our ministry here. He called us to a place to start working where we would have another church not to far away that we could learn from and help with while we are getting started. He has placed good christian friends in the same village that we are in, they moved in just a few weeks after we did. God is truly amazing. Sunday afternoon everyone but Andrew took a nap, opposite of what usually happens. He slept during church. I stayed up last night an watched the Superbowl. I enjoyed it. Maybe it was because I understood more of the French this year but the commentators were very interesting. The tried to explain what a wide receiver was, who the safty is, what is means to be "shy" a few inches, what "who dat" means. . . They did a good job.  The kids have started the countdown to our departure. We are looking forward to making a trip back and seeing friends and family. I have been able to schedule several appointments with churches already. God bless, JASON

To have a secret in the drawer.

The weekend went well. Saturday we accepted some furniture from our neighbor, as she is moving. She gave us several nice pieces, we are already praying for whom the Lord will place in the house next. They are not aware of it yet, but they will be hearing about Jesus shortly. Angie did good on the Sunday school lesson, my part went good as well.

The title of this blog is a direct translation of a french phrase "avoir un polichinelle dans le tiroir", "to have a puppet or secret in the drawer". A better English translation would be "to have a bun in the oven". It means to be pregnant. Yes, you guessed it, we are expecting a baby. Surprise! We are surprised yet excited by this news. Angie will be due in early September. That is the reason why we are moving up our trip to the US to be from April through June. We told Lilia last night, after we told our parents, she was really excited. Afterwards I went to her room to check in on her and she said, "Daddy, I am so happy I have been crying." We told the boys this morning. Caleb said, "wow" and wanted to touch Angie's stomach. Micah ran and gave Angie a hug. Andrew said, "We are gonna have a present." The boys kept refering to the new arrival as "he", so I explained that it could be a girl; which none of them had thought about. Lilia liked that idea. So the news is out. Attached pictures are of Micah and Andrew at a week old, Micah at home and Andrew in the NICU. God bless, JASON

Tests are in, school is over.

School finished well. We finished and corrected the last tests. Students met for the last times and said our goodbyes and prayed for eachother. We also received the TCF test results. We both received a level B2. As always Angie's grade was better than mine in fact she was close to a C1 level. About these levels, A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2. They are levels of language speaking ability. A1 would be beginners who can just speak greetings and ask simple questions. C2 would be levels that most french have not even attained, more for French teachers. Our level B2 is described as

Intermédiaire avancé

Maîtrise générale et spontanée de la langue. La personne peut comprendre l'essentiel d'un texte complexe. Elle peut participer à une conversation sur un sujet général ou professionnel de façon claire et détaillée en donnant des avis argumentés.

I have no idea what all that means. No just kidding. . . General mastery and spontanaity with the language. The person can understand the essential of a difficult text. The person can participate in a conversation about a general or professional subject in a manner clear and detailled while giving their points of vue or argumentative opinions. Of course the learning will never stop. Our vocabulary will continue to grow, we plan on finding language partners to help our conversational skills continue to grow as well.

As of right now I am waiting to hear the final answer from the real estate agent. We really appreciated the help of the the school and our contacts in the south who we able to vouch for us and get the process moving again. The kids do not finish school until Thursday, we will spend the time between now and them packing, securing our housing, and researching more about a car loan. Attached pictures are from the church kermesse (fair or bazaar) for the kids. Andrew did not go but he did not want to be left out so we did what we could. God bless, JASON

And we're off.

Andrew's birthday party went real well. We had to change plans because it was raining so we had it at the house instead. It went really well and was well attended. Services went well this morning. I enjoy going to church. I have often heard people say that they can worship just as well at home, so why go to church. My first question to them is "Well do you? (have services at home)" Most of the time they do not. God however, commands and demonstrated by example that we need to go to church. Going to a place with other Christians to serve, worship, and learn. I heard once of a man who stopped going to church, whatever the reason. The pastor when to visit him one cold morning. The man let him in and without a word they sat down in the living room in front of the fire. The was an uncomfortable silence as either did not know what to say. Suddenly the pastor had an idea. He went to the fire place and racked one of the red glowing coals out of the fire and then sat back down. The coal faded to black in a matter of minutes. Then the pastor went back and put the coal back in with the others, it was just a matter of seconds before it was glowing red again. The pastor then got his coat to leave and as he walked out the man said, "Thanks for the sermon pastor, I will be back next Sunday." I enjoyed sitting in the French services this morning, I worshiped God, I learned more about him, and I served. I also enjoyed being in our home church's services through Skype.

Now that the kids are tucked in, we're off to the homework. Part of the homework that I will looking forward to is preparing some bible lessons in French. Enjoy the pictures from Andrew's birthday party and God bless, JASON

Limoux.

We had a great trip to Limoux. We picked up the rental car (an Opel Zafira - 7 passenger) Friday evening. We took the chance to take a couple of language school mothers shopping. Almost all the language school students do not own a car so when one of us have one everyone likes to be able to pick up some stuff from the store that you don't want to have to haul back. We left Saturday morning for Limoux. It only took us about nine hours to make the drive. Andrew got car sick twice (his expressions is - "I'm hot"). Other than that the trip went real well. The car got excellent gas mileage, it was diesel and cruising at 75 MPH (130 km /h) it got 42 miles to the gallon (5.5 liters per 100 km). The rental house was wonderful. About 5 km outside of Limoux, it had a nice yard with a creek running behind it, it was spacious inside with 4 bedrooms and a fireplace. Sunday we went to church in Carcassonne (about 25 km away) at the Èglise Évangélique Baptiste. We gave a ride to one of the members who lived in Limoux. The services went well and we had a meal afterwards. Lilia was excited because there were two girls there about her age. The meal was excellent, we ate salad, soup, rice, quiche, bread, cheese, dessert. The conversation was excellent and very informative. We made it home and rested the rest of the evening. Monday we went back to Carcassonne to get some more minutes for our cell phone, but they were closed. We stopped by McDonald's and got the kids lunch and checked the e-mail. Back in Limoux we went to the office of tourism and got a lot of good information. Tuesday we went shopping and checked out prices and picked up some things. The prices are significantly lower than in Paris and they have a good foreign foods section which sells Dr. Pepper among other things. Tuesday afternoon I visited with another pastor from Carcassonne and one of his members from Limoux. Keep in mind all of these conversations were in French, good practice but exhausting. Wednesday, Angie went out with the young lady we picked up for Church. They had a good visit and afterwards Angie stopped by a couple of Realtors and found out among other things that the rent is about half of what we are paying in Paris. While Angie was gone I was playing outside with the kids enjoying the southern France weather, when a couple stopped by, Jehovah Witnesses, what are the odds. I visited with them for about 20 minutes and learned some good information. Wednesday night we had a couple that we met last July over for Supper. They are a really nice couple, retired from Belgium. We had a really good visit with them, we picked up some new words for sure. Thursday, we took the kids to see a dinosaur and hat museum. We had a really good time, the kids loved all the dinosaurs. Some of the dinosaur bones came from Texas. That afternoon we visited with the young lady and her roommate at our home. They are musicians and we had a good visit and stressed the need for more workers in Limoux. Talking from the other pastors, I learned that they work several small villages in the area during the week as well. One pastor had a Bible study in a different village every day of the week, all started by word of mouth. Angie and I both fell sure that this is were God wants us to work. We came back Friday without problems other then Caleb who was car sick (his key word "my mouth hurts"). Thanks for the prayers for us during this trip. Enjoy the pictures (1- our car, 2- T-rex, 3-giant scorpion, 4-the road into Limoux), I will post more in the Future. God Bless, JASON

Hotdogs

We have had a good weekend so far. Friday we picked Lilia and Caleb up from school and let them play on a playground close by while we waited to go get Micah. Micah still stays 45 minutes after school on Thursday and Friday to work with his teacher and several other classmates on French. It has helped just the other day he thought of a word in french and could not come up with the English. That was a first. When he did arrive after school we continued to let them play because it was a little warmer than normal and we thought that some exercise would be good. Suddenly Micah claimed to need to go to the bathroom, one that could not be handled outdoors. Another family had stayed with us to let their kids play while I helped one of them prepare for his scripture reading that he had coming up at the language school. They offered to let Micah come over and use their restroom since they lived closer than we did. They ended up inviting us over for supper (hotdogs (my favorite) and hamburgers). Micah never did use the restroom. But now he has in his mind to conveniently need to use the restroom next Friday. We had a wonderful visit. We always ask about how the couple meet and ended up together. It is always a interesting story, and of course we share ours with them. We made it home late but it was a fun evening. It worked out well that the kids got a little exercises because today it snowed and sleeted almost all for most of the day. Thankfully it was not cold enough to let it stick. I am planning to go visit another church in the morning, a church of a French pastor I met through facebook. He visited in our home a few months ago and I would like to see him again and the weather is supposed to be better tomorrow. God bless, JASON

Vacation drawing closer.

Another week behind us, which means that we have only one more week before we get a break. That means seeing my parents. We have had a good week. As I already mentioned, a good visit with our guests Wednesday. Thursday we had fun doing our "job interviews" for the class. I think we both did well. Friday night we had all our classmates over at our house for a party of sorts. It was a lot of fun, everyone brought food and we talked for a couple of hours. There was a lot of laughter. We managed to keep most of the conversations in french since our teacher was present.
I am making plans to get our Colorado drivers license so we can swap for a french one. Its a long story, I will explain more later.
Tomorrow (Sunday) I am going to stay here with the kids and let Angie go to the church in Paris for the services as I did last week. We may decide to go as a family, but maybe not. We have been trying to keep some routine in the kids life. I have had a good day today. Did a lot of paper work. Angie gave the boys hair cuts, it will be my turn shortly. Thanks for reading and God bless, JASON

Dimanche (Sunday)

We are having a great day today. I visited with a Baptist church is Paris today. The father of one of our Language school teachers is the pastor. The services went well. They had the Lord's supper (my first time to see it here). They, like the church here is Massy, have a moment of prayer and praise, when anyone can say a prayer or short testimony or song. The sermons was good, I understood it. It was from the life of Shadrach, Meshach and Adednego. The three main points were 1. comfortable life 2. Problems 3. Never alone. After the service I had a good conversation with a young man from the south of France who is going to college here. I got back to the house about 3:45 and saw Lilia scrubbing the toilet and Caleb vacumming. Angie must have had a good lesson with them. I just finished some homework and helped Caleb get his finished. Angie is taking a nap and I am tempted to have one myself. Looking forward to the hearing the services at Walnut Street tonight via Skype, last weeks was a two parter and so we are anxiously waiting for part two. God bless, JASON

August Vacations

We had a good weekend. Saturday Angie and I took the boys to the grocery store. Lilia went to a friends house. It is rare for all of us to go to the store. The local Cora is usually very busy and difficult to navigate with kids. We had a good time and the store was not as busy as normal. Services went good Sunday, we had a lesson over Ephesians 3: . I like how Paul explains that
"is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think". "Exceeding Abundantly" could be translated from the greek as "super-duper-abundantly". I liked explaining to the kids that God has the ability to do great things and chooses to do what is best for us. As always we enjoyed hearing and seeing Walnut Streets services live via Skype. Many businesses are closed around Paris for the month of August. The Sandwich shop next door to us and a Bakery around the corner have both closed for the month. I would like to take the kids to Paris a couple of times this month to see some sights, but we will have to see how that goes after the first trip. Summer school ended well, one of the students was a missionary kid from Kenya. I was wondering if he could take some gifts to the Taylors, our missionary friends who just moved to the East coast of Kenya, but he lives near Nairobi. But this week he is traveling to eastern Kenya for vacation and so he was willing to take the items. It worked out real well. The Taylors arrived a few weeks ago and have not received their container yet so I know they are missing some things. I had better get busy with the days activities. God bless, JASON

The Lord's Day

Another blessed day today. Unfortunately it was just our family for services today. I guess that is how it is for a lot of church planters just starting. We had good services though. I was the only Father and so I got all the recognition for father's day. We learned a new song in French that spoke to me the lyrics in English are . . .

Over all the earth, You reign on high
Every mountain stream, Every sunset sky
But my one request, Lord my only aim
Is that you reign in me again

Chorus:
Lord reign in me, Reign in your power
Over all my dreams, In my darkest hour
You are the Lord of all I am,
So won't you reign in me again

Over every thought, Over every word
May my life reflect, The beauty of my Lord
You mean more to me, Than any earthly thing
So won't you reign in me again

I have times when I try to run my life and leave God out, when it is God that should be ruling in me. I imagine that every child of his has the same trouble at times. It was a nice song, nice tune as well. I might need to add it to Godtube and youtube once I get the pronunciation down. Angie has gone to help some friends clean their new apartment before they start moving things in. I received a text message from a believer who just moved here from Denmark that wanted to join us in our services. I am looking forward to next Sunday already. It has been a good day of prayer, worship, bible study and time with my family. Everyday should contain those activites. God bless,

Une grande surprise pour moi.

We had a suprise when we woke up this morning. About and inch and a half of snow fell during the night. The kids loved it. We had a longer than normal walk to school, as they stopped to play. It was the good kind of snow as well. Real powdery. It was not on the roads and sidewalks but everywhere else was a good blanket. Our services went well again Sunday. We continued learning aspects of the church and we are working on a church covenant. Yvain and Virginie are moving into a new apartment soon and so they didn't eat with us this time because they needed to pack more. I enjoyed watching the services at Walnut Street on Skype. Also, on a different note, we bought some frozen pizzas from the store and it had the ingredients and instructions listed in twelve languages. I couldn't even recognize all of them. Attached are some snow pictures taken from our apartment. God bless, JASON

March almost behind us.

Bonjour à tous. Another month is almost behind us. It seems hard to believe that we have already been in France for three months. We will finish our first trimester of schooling in a couple of weeks as well. I am happy with our level of language learning so far. Not just French, but I am learning to comprehend a lot of English (England english) as well. God has blessed us these three months. Our mail goal for this first year and a half is to learn the language and culture of France. Focusing on that now will help the ministry considerable later. God has blessed with allowing us to have contacts as well that we are trying to win for Christ. I believe this is just a taste of what is to come during the next few years. We are also going to have a church organized here soon. I have been teaching Yvain and Virginie about various aspects of Church. They are already familiar with some aspects after attending church for about a year in the US, but it has been a good review for them. Since they have this knowledge already, I believe God is leading them organize, we picked late April for the organization. Gary Orr the pastor of the church they attend in the US will come for the service. It means a lot to them to have him here for this. Please pray for them as Satan will try to attack these young believers and the new church with strong efforts to try and hurt the further work of God here. Since there will be a local congregation for those saved to be added to, to follow God and become disciples and disciple makers themselves, I think God will bless with more souls saved. Join us in praying toward this goal.

March being finished is also signs of warmer weather and less rain. Yesterday we saw a rainbow in the sky, kind of significant for the end or March. God bless and thanks for the prayers. JASON