All French.

The Bible Study, Thursday evening, was well attended. There

was a first time visitor so I spent some of the time reviewing last weeks lesson.  Meaning I had to stray from my notes,  that is always more difficult.  Friday, my throat was still bothering me, so I didn't set up the stand at the market.  Angie and I spent most of the day working on finances and getting a financial plan for the coming months.  On Saturday, I noticed that it would be rainy for the next few days, so I herded the kids outside and played the game, "Tickle Monster".  It consits of me chasing the kids and tickling the one that I catch. They seem to really enjoy it and it gets them some good excercise, and me too.  Thankfully, I remembered to turn the clocks back before going to bed. Sunday, there was a conference at the church in Carcassonne in the afternoon, so after services, I took the Angie and the kids back home and returned for the conference.  It was very informative.  A former Catholic, who was even an instructor in a Catholic school, who had converted to Christianity, gave his testimony and spoke about the Bible and Catholicism.  Sunday evening, seeing as it was Halloween, I wanted to scare the kids with some scary stories.  Didn't happen. Even with just candle light, the kids could not be scared.  Especially Micah, who was analyzing the stories and predicting what would happen next.  Monday we ate lunch with our friends and had a really good visit.  Five hours of french really gets you messed up the rest of the day.  There was French words and phrases popping out the rest of the day.  That is good though and I would like that to happen more often.  Today we are preparing for Lilia's birthday party that will happen in a few hours.  Her birthday is tomorrow, but they start school tomorrow.  This will be the first birthday party, entrirely in French, that we have had.  Lilia will be 11 years old.  Wow.  Everyone told me that time would go by fast once I had children.  They were right.  Well, I am going to help make the final preparations for the party.  Enjoy the pictures showing what the kid have been up to the last few days, painting, playing Legos, and enjoying Arianna. 

 God bless, JASON   

 

Homiletics Conference

Arianna's first trip to Church.

The conference Saturday in Toulouse was excellent.  It was great to be able to meet other pastors in the area and the conference was filled with good information.  Sunday services went well.  I taught the older kids Sunday School class and also led the music.  Sunday I also finished moving the furniture from the neighbors house.  We have found out that we should have new neighbors at the end of the month.  Monday I attended the rest of the conference.  There was good fellowship and sermons entitled, "The man of God", and "The Preaching of the Man of God".  It was neat to meet several Americans while I was there.  I made it back home just in time to take Caleb to swimming.  Today it is working on the lesson for next weeks Bible study and other office work.  I will need to do some shopping this afternoon or perhaps watching Arianna so that Angie can shop.  Arianna slept real good Friday night, but not so well Saturday and Sunday night.  She has started smiling at us which is real cute.  Strikes are still occuring in the area.  The Total refineries are still on strike which has people worried about fuel shortages, but so far the media has been assuring us that Total has at least a weeks reserves left.   Other than that, we are preparing for some friends who will be visiting with us next week.  They are an American Missionary family serving in Romania.  They have four children that are about the same ages as our children. 

 We will enjoy spending a few days together with them.  Our kids will be out of school for a week and a half.  The weather has turned cold.  I turned the heaters on for the first time yesterday as the inside temperature dropped to 60 degrees ( 16 C).  I laid awake in bed this morning and my mind wondered to when we first arrived in France and what our plans where.  Seems that we are far from where we started but I am enjoying the ministry that God has given us.  Not only planting a new church but assisting an already established church.  Please continue to pray for France and for God's blessing on our ministry here.  God bless, JASON







Art and the Bible

The weekend went well. The biblical art exhibit was interesting. They also had some very old bibles on display. Sunday I went to church services with Lilia, Angie stayed home with the boys who all had coughs. Andrew is still not feeling well. After services I went to a Evangelical church conference. It was real good. It took an hour train ride to get there, but it was worth it. There were hundreds of booths set up. I got a good sense of bible literature available in France. Seminaries, language schools, missionary booths, book stores, and gifts are some of the other booths listed.
I am leaving Thursday for a trip to Colorado to get my drivers license. I will be returning Sunday but there are still some things that I need to get done to help Angie. Angie had me laughing hard earlier. She had prepared a meal with some boneless skinless chicken breasts. Caleb found a bone in his first and later I found a small piece of bone in mine. Angie said, "I should have though about checking for bones when I saw the feather in there." She was serious too. Angie stayed home with Andrew today, hopefully he will be all better soon. It is not bothering him too bad, but it is hard to miss school. We watched Evan Almighty this evening with the kids, cute movie. When Micah finds something funny in a movie, he laughs so loud, it gets everyone else laughing. God bless, JASON