Christmas guests

The Sunset from the Walled City of Carcassonne

This is actually the work of a marker in the hands of a
teething child.

 Christmas went well at the Clark house.  The days leading up to Christmas were busy preparing things and keeping the peace between the kids.  Friday I went with Micah and Andrew to distribute some Christmas tracts.  We woke up early on Sunday and opened gifts.  Caleb and I left at 8:30 to travel to Barcelona, where we attend the services of the church there.  We had a wonderful time and I was shocked by how much of the services I was able to follow with what little I remember of Spanish, and what sounds close to the words in French. Caleb was real good in the services and even went right in to Sunday School as well.  We brought the visiting pastor, who is doing a conference for the missionary in Barcelona,  and his wife and daughter to our house to spend a few days.  The Estrada family is from Mexico City and even though we have only met them once, several years ago, and have a few friends in common, we get along real well.  Amazing how Christ can unite people.  Monday Angie took them around Limoux and shopping, and that evening we went to the to the walled city of Carcassonne, saw a beautiful sunset while we were there. Tuesday we visited the country of Andorra.   It was a pretty two hour drive and the snow in the Pyrenees was a nice sight.  I'll have to post pictures from there later, because they were on the cell phone.  Today Angie took them shopping in Carcassonne, where they found some good deals.  We plan on makings some Tortillas tommorrow. Yeah!  God bless, JASON

To Paris and back

Indoor hockey was a big hit.

Kids of all ages participated.

The Cross family.



Arianna made a new friend, should we tell them that
those remotes are not plugged in?



We had a good vacation.  On Monday and Tuesday we relaxed around the house.  On Tuesday I went swimming with Lilia, and she wore me out.  I also had my language session.  Wednesday, I left to pick up our friends in Paris.  The trip went well, I took a scenic detour to avoid some tolls.  I arrived at our friends house and stayed the night and then we left to come back to the south.  Our visitors, the Cross family, are new missionaries in France.   They are from Texas and have just started language school, and we wanted to welcome them and give them a little break from Paris, and all the struggles that come with language learning and entering a new culture.  We had a wonderful time with them.  We arrived at the house Thursday evening, the trip went well, just a couple of car sickness episodes.  We planned to have the Bible study, but no one came, busy with the vacation themselves I imagine.  It rained Friday and Saturday.  To occupy everyone and burn some energy we played indoor hockey on Friday, and I took all the kids swimming at the pool on Saturday.  On Sunday we went to church together, at supper at a members house, and then went to tour the walled city of Carcassonne.  Monday morning we left to return to Paris, hit a little traffic, but had no other problems.  Tuesday, I drove back. Wednesday, the kids had a full day of school, which normally they do not have.  They seemed excited about getting back to school.  I have been busy, these last two days with emails, reports, and lessons.  I took the boys to get a physical so they can play basketball.  Angie is having coffee with a friend in town.  And I'm getting back to work.  Also I wish a happy 12th birthday to Lilia today.  God bless, JASON

Indian Summer

I took these pictures of Arianna at the party, I don't know why but I really like them.

Birthday surprise party.

We have been enjoying an indian summer.  The temperature has climbed into the 80's everyday, which is abnormally warm for this time of year. Monday we had a surprise birthday party for Angie at our friends house. She had a good birthday and is still younger than I am :)  I was wondering why it worked out that we did not get to have the Bible Study last week. Well, now I know why.  We found out early in the week that some people were coming to look at the house on Wednesday.  So Monday and Tuesday we gathered up some boxes and filled up about thirty of them with items that will not be neccessary over the next couple of months. Angie showed the house Wednesday evening while I took the kids to the store and over to McDonalds.  Seems like both families that came, liked the house.  Thursday night Bible Study went well, we held it at our friends house, here in Magrie.  After promising to redo our road for the last two years, they have started this week, which might mean the road being muddy or partially closed.  Oddly enough, they worked Monday, Tuesday morning, and about an hour on Friday morning.  I do not think that they will make the October 14th deadline.  I did have a few people stop by the booth on Friday morning.  Friday afternoon,  laid down to take a "short" nap, and got up two hours later.  Once again, I was a little down that I had let that amount of time get away.  Of course, God knows all, Arianna, who is still getting over a cold, woke up at 2 in the morning and stayed awake until 4.  So we hung out. We talked, played, sang, ate a donut and two hotdogs, and she even chewed on a raw onion for a while, before going back to sleep.  Today, we had lunch with an Irish family we met last week.  We took a wrong turn and had a nice scenic drive getting there,  but we had a great visit and meal together.  At the end, Caleb had a fall on the bike and got a significant amount of road rash.  It took a good while to get him calmed down (meaning about an hour).  He will be sore for a while and have something to show off to his friends at school at least.  God bless, JASON 

Meetings

Visiting at the park.

Feeding the ducks.

The Rutherfords serving in Romania.

The Bible Study went well Thursday evening.  We had two first time visitors.  A lady came that met me at the market.  She brought a friend from her that was from Israel.  They seemed very excited about the work and were looking forward to meeting with us next week.  The market went well on Friday morning.  There were just a few regulars who stopped by the stand.  Saturday we had a picnic at the park with a couple of other parents.  We had a good time and were able to visit with them. We also recognized a lady that Angie had met in the Doctors office waiting room while she was pregnant.  We were able to talk with here some and exchange contact information as well.  Sunday services went well.  We spent the afternoon preparing the house for our friends from Romania coming in.  We did get to catch the services at Walnut Street, there was another preacher filling in for my father, who was preaching revival services for another church.  The fill-in preacher was pastor of the church were I was an intern and he did an excellent job.  Our friends arrived without problem and we enjoyed spending the evening catching up with them.  On Monday we took them to the Walled city of Carcassonne, ate at KFC, and did some shopping.  They left this morning to head back to Romania.  Only a few more days of vacation left.  Enjoy the pictures and God bless, JASON

Good times

All the kids at the dinosaur museum.

The group at church, Sunday.

We had a lot of good times with our friends.  The Manary family arrived Saturday afternoon and stayed with us until Wednesday.  On Saturday we went and saw the Dinosaur Museum and Hat Museum.  Saturday night Arianna, slept bad and had Angie and I up most of the night.  We all made it to church Sunday, but cancelled our plans to see the Walled City of Carcassonne afterwards.  We ate at KFC and returned home.  Monday afternoon we went to see the Walled city which everyone enjoyed.  Angie and I liked it as well, probably because the kids were in school and not begging us to buy souvenirs.  Tuesday we had a good restful day before they left Wednesday after lunch.  We were very grateful and encouraged by their visit and our kids just loved have new playmates for a few days.  What is really touching is that they were willing to drive here, which took three days.  Just had my language session with Eric.  It is going well, we are working on reading with the right rythym and intonation which is interesting.  French is actually boring rythmically.  Every syllable is pronounced the same and the voice does not change tones as often as it would in English.  It is a hard thing to get the brain to do, but it will come with time and practice.  Eric even had a question about the lesson.  Looking forward to the Bible study tonight and the market tommorrow, weather permitting. God bless, JASON

Friends are coming

The weekend went well and we are already well into the week.  Monday we celebrated Valentine's Day by getting some gifts for the kids (pictured).  I have continued enjoying the contact with the basketball team and am considering having an end of year party at our house for them.  I had another language session with Eric that went real well.  He has a lot of work to do on my accent, but we are making progress. The exciting news this week is that some friends are coming.  Our missionary friends, the Manary family, are already on their way to visit with us for a few days.  They have a long drive of about 25 hours ahead of them.  We are looking forward to seeing them. They have four kids about the same ages as ours.  We met them while on deputation several years ago and have had chances to see them again on furlough and at the Greece Retreat.  We are looking forward to spending about 5 days with them.  It will be nice just to talk with them and share stories.  We are getting the house ready now.  Bible Study is tomorrow and I am still planning on going to the market on Friday, weather permitting.  We had the chance to visit with our neighbors some today.  The weather has been nice and people are getting our more.   

Fireworks at Carcassonne

The early part of this week we took a trip to Carcassonne to do some shopping and then we ate a picnic lunch at the lake near Carcassonne. I also prepared the lesson for the bible study next week. I am glad that I am a week ahead. Wednesday some friends from the language school came and visited with us. They are staying in Toulouse and we decided to go see the fireworks in Carcassonne together. The Bastille Day fireworks in Carcassonne is an amazing event. It is also a celebration of the burning of the walled city in 1898. It lasts only about twenty five minutes but fireworks are shot from all parts of the castle and it is amazing to see. It ends with 1200 fireworks going off in 6 seconds. We planned to arrive early, the show starts at 10:30 pm, but the town of 30,000 swells to 700,000 with visitors from all over the world. So we arrived at 8:00 and set up a picnic blanket on the street. We ate and played games with the kids and watched people arrive. We were able to meet an american family from Toulouse that was seated near us. There was one interesting moment when someone who had been waiting in a good spot for 5 hours had someone else come stand in front of them. It started to get energized when one man pushed another, but 6 police officers arrived so everything calmed back down. The wait was not too bad. The street lights went off, the show started and it was amazing. The castle was lit up red and the fireworks were the best I have ever seen. Off course I have attached pictures, but it does not do it justice. Afterwards we walked the mile back to the car and waited until midnight before we drove off. It only took and hour to get out of town, which was not too bad. We are now looking forward to the bible study tonight. God bless, JASON

My eye.

The week has been another interesting one. Here are a few highlights. One day Micah shut Caleb's finger in the closet door, attached is a picture, can you find the one that was hurt? You can click the picture to enlarge it. Wednesday we had the new pastor in Carcassonne over for supper. We had a scary moment, waking up in the morning, after a few minutes the water stopped working. I had Lilia check the mail and sure enought there was a note from the water company, that had been delivered the day before, stating that water would be cut off today. Quelle surprise! Thankfully it was working by noon. We enjoyed the meal and fellowship with the new pastor and his family. We discussed a lot of good options for the future of the work here in Limoux and the church in Carcassonne. It was nice to see Lilia playing with their one year old and having such a good time. I hope it is a sign of how she will get along with her new baby sister who will be arriving soon. I have attached a picture of Angie that I took at a rest stop on our last trip to Paris. (Do not let her know that I posted it here.) I postponed the language session with Cédric. It has been warm these last few days. Thursday was the warmest, and we knew that with the people that came from the Bible study it would get warm. It was 84 inside before they arrived, but God blessed and there was a nice breeze that came in and clouds as well. The clouds have stayed for today as well. We visited with one of the ladies from the bible study yesterday morning. She was not able to make it to the bible study because she had a job interview in Montpellier. We enjoyed the visit. She ownes several horses and invitied us over Sunday afternoon. Lilia is really excited about that. There were 5 who came for bible study last night. A new couple from Limoux came, who are pentecostal but do not attend church the pentecostal church in town. A pastor comes from Bordeaux and has services with them once a month. Now for the title of this blog. My eye started watering again today. That's right, the same thing that happened a couple of weeks ago. I took medicine and had a nap and it hasn't been bothering since. I hope that it behaves. Tomorrow is the welcoming service for the new pastor in Carcassonne. Many pastors and churches in the area are invitied. I am looking forward to the services and hope that many attend. I would like to meet some more pastors in the area. "Pastors in the area" would mean anyone within two hours of Carcassonne. Churches are more spread out here in France. In the morning, I would also like to get started painting the new room that was added on. I am off to do some reading. I would like to finish reading through the New Testament in the French bible today. The kids are playing good and Angie is taking a nap, so I should be able to get some good reading in, as long as my eye cooperates. God bless, JASON

Good-bye

The Paris trip went well. We enjoyed the drive. As normal we take out time, stop every two hours or so and let everyone stretch. We saw some interesting sights on the road. We saw a corvette pulling a camper trailer, and a truck carrying two olive trees that looked a hundred years old. We said goodbye to some friends and met some new ones. The theme seemed to be something that I heard another missionary mom say to her kids, "Tell them good-bye, you will probably never see them again". That seems to be the case sometimes. After our return we received news that one of Angie's uncles had passed away. Evidently he had taken some pain pills from a friend that conflicted with some prescriptions that he was on and he passed away in his sleep. A reminder of the fragility of life, I spoke at his wifes funeral a few years ago. She passed away as a result of an aneurism. Do pray for their family who is dealing with this unexpected loss. The summer vacation is off to a start. Caleb and I went to Carcassonne to meet the new pastor and his family and also do some shopping. The other time was spent working in the yard and catching up with the office work. I made an attempt at making a special desert for the kids last night, a strawberry chocolate milkshake. After I passed it out to the excited kids, the first reaction came from Caleb, who said, "Berk (French), this tastes like beach sand". After sampling myself, he was exactly right. I do not know why the salt container ressembles so closely the sugar container. Attached picture is Lilia with her friends. God bless, JASON

Before we knew it

The Neighborhood party went real well. There were only two families that came. Our neighbors, who also worked on the garage, and the family that comes to the bible study that we know well. It worked out perfectly because it was not up to us to keep the conversation going, we could just listen and add comments here and there. It was a lot less stressful that way. Before we knew it, it was 9 in the evening. Saturday we also decided that we would visit a church near Toulouse. Angie had mentioned to me that she wanted to find some english speaking kids for ours to play with occasionally. We contacted a pastor that we had connections throught the language school and visited in their services. We had a good time, we even met the man who started the church 32 years ago. After services we ate with the Pastor and his family, who are missionaries from America, invited us to their house for supper. We enjoyed the time getting to know them better. They have been in France for 11 years and had a lot of good advice concerning life in France from the American Missionaries perspective. We discussed a lot about ministry in France as well. Once again before we knew it, it was 5:00. We enjoyed the 2 hour drive home, nice scenery and the kids all took naps. Coquelicot. This is the name of a wildflower, called a poppy in English, that we have seen all over in France. We pulled over this morning and picked some for Lilia. She said their teacher told them to bring some to school. I am wondering what they need them for. As it is almost the first of the month, I will be getting our finances in order and working on our monthly report, which if you would like to receive just let me know. How about another Micah quote, I haven't posted one in a while, but he is still coming out with them. This morning he suddenly said, "Let's have a picnic by the lake, we can chase squirrels and run over dogs." God bless, JASON

Last time for the year.

Sunday marked our two year anniversary in France. The Lord has truly blessed beyond what I thought was possible. My apologies for trying to limit God with my plans. It has been wonderful. I have my report done and have sent to to my dad for approval. I have my lesson almost all completed for the prayer meeting tomorrow. Today we had Yelena over for lunch and we practiced some songs for the Bible Study that hopefully will take place next week. Today we went and spent some time with some friends from the church in Carcassonne. We had a wonderful time together. The kids were able to play on some of the games and we walked and saw some lights. We then went to their house for pizza and discussed some about the upcoming year concerning Sunday School. We will be helping the church in Carcassonne in their Sunday school program. A break-through happened throug the evening. I said the prayer in French and did not have to pause to think about what I was going to say next. Okay, so it's not that big of a deal for you, but I felt like real progess has been made. Lilia is having two girlfriends stay the night tonight. We are going to try and invite some friends over for a New Years eve celebration tomorrow. Pictures are the kids taking a break from all of the fun they had this evening. God bless, JASON

Back in France.

We finished out the retreat well. We left the Island of Aegina Thursday and took a bus to Corinth. We looked at the ancient city and then looked at the 3 mile canal that was dug to cross the land and connect the two seas together. The ancient city was very interesting and well preserved. I had not put the pictures on the computer yet and so I'll have to attach some later. We flew out Friday and arrived back at our house at 11 last night. Today we are getting clothes washed, getting some groceries stocked back up, banking, and paperwork. Overall the retreat was great. I feel very much worth the expenses. I would like to thank all the churches and individuals who gave over $36,000 to help pay for the expenses for this trip for the missionaries. Attached is a pic
ture of us and our missionary friends from Kenya, the Taylors. We had a lot of good times and made some more good memories with them. God bless, JASON

Christmas Eve Eve

Christmas Eve Eve was a term we coined when we where kids for this day, two days before Christmas. We received a large package this morning from my sister and brother-in-law and their church near Palestine. The kids were really excited about it, mostly because it was big. As with all of our packages we gather around and say a prayer of thanksgiving for those who sent it. This package came via UPS and they charged taxes, which has never happened before. Andrew loved the packing peanuts. The weekend passed well, the new Williams family ate lunch with us after church. We have been making several runs to the store to pick up stuff and wrapping presents in between. The Pascall family is visiting us tonight for supper. They will be leaving for Senegal in a week. They have passed a lot of stuff down to us, all of their winter clothes that they will not be needing anymore. Since being here in France I have learned a lot about Africa. Pictured is our language school class, there will be three new students arriving in January that we look forward to getting to know. God bless and Merry Christmas Eve Eve, JASON

Jason's Flying

Jason left today for Colorado to get his driver's license there so it will exchang directly with the French one. Jason's should arrive in Colorado around 8:30pm mountain time. You know flights always make me pray more. Especially when it is me or Jason flying. Anyone else do that too? Then I have to remind myself that I am in God's hand no matter where I am.
The kid's schools were on strike today and Andrew and Micah are a little under the weather. I have had Andrew home all week. But as soon as Jason was out the door the phone rang and it was the kids school saying that Lilia and Caleb could come. Caleb's teacher was not on strike and neither was Lilia's french teacher and she could just stay in that class. So I thought ok here we go. The call was at 9:35 and when I told the kids we all realized we hadn't done their homework the night before. So we got that done quick, got shoes on, and walked them to school at 10:30. I thought ok the kids can eat at the cafeteria and I can go back home and take care of these two little guys. But no! There is no cafeteria today because they are on strike. So I took the little guys to a park by the school for the hour until school was let out for lunch at 11:30. Then we came home and got all warm and I called my friend Lauren and asked if she could walk them back to school. She said yes and was also kind enough to offer to come this afternoon and watch the little ones while I go get Lilia and Caleb. It is nice to have good friends who can help you out when you need it. GOD BLESS, Angie

Olympics.

Things have continued to go well for us. I thought that things would get boring during August, but they have not so far. Yesterday, I walked to the post office but gave that up because there was a large line to wait in. I went to the store and after lunch we took the kids to the park for some excercise. We are watching the daughter of our friends and language school classmates. She is in the hospital for minor surgery. It is great to be able to serve. Angie helped teach me that and continues to do so. She always thinks to offer them food or tea. This morning I finished the post office. We were mailing some post cards for a language school student who left before she could get them sent. Also today I have done some research over things to do when our guests arrive later this month and in October. I am also searching for a list of churches in France. I was able to watch the Olympic Basketball team play Sunday afternoon. I enjoyed it. The last I watched was the dream team in 1992. Those were the days. TheyUSA Basketball team lost in Athens 2004. That is why this years team has been dubbed the Redeem Team. They seem to have taken it more seriously. They won against China by 30 points. Spain and Germany seem to be the other big contenders. Sometime me or Angie, or both of us need to go to Cora (like superwalmart) to pick up some larger items for the house (diapers and such). I enjoyed doing some bible study yesterday.

E-sword is the software that I use on the computer. Is is the best free software I have seen and better than many pay programs. If you have not seen it check it out at

http://e-sword.net/index.html . Attached is a picture I took of a weather report on TV. God bless, JASON

August.

August has begun. August was named after Augustus the first emporer of the Roman Empire. Yesterday I went and visited with Yvain. They have decided not to have church with us anymore. They gave several smaller reasons, the biggest I feel was that they do not like the idea of us being church planters. They wanted someone to come and pastor them indefinitely. This is not how we are feeling led. They also expressed a desire to leave France for Canada or at least move to the south of France. We will miss their fellowship but ultimately it is their decision. If you would like further details you can email me, there is too much information to put here. I am glad that they are continuing to have services on their own, and this will open the door for God to show us where he wants us to serve after language school. Tonight we are having a student from the Language school eat supper with us. I think she is the only student still living there. She will be leaving in a few days. She was Lilia's piano teacher and like the other students we will miss her. We are still looking forward and making preparations for the Eastern European Missionary Retreat, it will be a wonderful time of Retreat – Restoration – Refreshment – Recreation – Relationships –Revival and Reentry. What I am looking forward to the most is sitting with friends, face to face, and talking. Another subject - I have had six people in the last two weeks ask me for directions and I was able to help them, in French. I look forward to the end of the year and seeing how far we have progressed. I see it has been a while since Angie has written and I will see if she has anything to say next time. Thanks and God bless, JASON

Bon Week-end

We are having a good weekend. Saturday was busy, which is good. Caleb and I went to the store to try and exchange some shoes that were broken. I did not have a receipt, so I doubted that they would exchange them, and they didn't. But, the good news is that I was able to fix the shoes myself when we got home. We also stopped by McDonalds to get a snack for Caleb for being good at the Doctors office. He wanted a chocolate shake. I told the cashier (in french) that I wanted a small chocolate shake. She confirmed that it was a small and went to get it. I paid and on the way out looked and we had received a small coke. Language learning can be frustrating. Caleb was not discouraged, beacuse he always begs us to have a coke and so he enjoyed it just the same. We went to the grocery store after that and I tried to find some horse meat to buy, but could not. In the afternooon we arranged a babysitter and Angie and I along with Lilia went into Paris to see Debra and Carmen taylor (pictured). Debra's husband pastors my Aunt's church in Mississippi. They were here on a girl scout tour of Europe. We enjoyed supper with them and their group and afterwards went on the boat ride tour on the Seine river. It was nice. We were able to see the eiffel tower light up at 10:00. They brought us the biggest jar of peanut butter I have seen and several other good stuff, like ice tea bags. The only rough part was when we were going home everyone was trying to leave Paris it seemed. I have never seen a subway car that packed before. People were holding bags over the heads because it was so crowded. We waited 15 minutes and took the next one which was a lot less crowded. Today (Sunday) we had to cancel services because of parking issues. There is a big market on our street, kind of like a garage sale. Yvain and Virginie could not find and parking within walking distance, and the garage sale lasts all day. WE offered to go to there house but she said it was a mess because they are going to be moving in a couple of weeks. I sent them questions for the lesson and Angie has now gone shopping on the street. She will find several things for Andrew's 2nd birthday which is this week. Hope your services are not postponed for parking issues and even if they are, you have a blessed day. JASON

Soiree.

We invited our language school teacher and her husband over for dinner Monday night. It went real well. Angie and I and the kids spoke french for the entire evening, several hours. Suprisingly it wasn't too difficult. Afterwards we breathed a small sigh of relief and talked a little without having to think a lot before hand. The weather has cooled off a little here and there is thunder rolling in the distance. I like bad weather myself. I looked forward to moving here because I knew they got more rain than we did in East Texas. So far we had not had any big storms because the weather has been cool still. I'm looking forward to seeing some good storms this summer. Thankfully the exchange rate has taken a turn in our favor. Over the last week it has dropped 5 cents. If it stays this low or gets any lower I may make a large withdrawal to put into our bank account here just to have while the exchange rate is good. God bless, JASON

A sigh of relief.

We breathe a sigh of relief now. We finished our first semester finals today. Glad that it is over. After Friday we get off for two weeks. Tommorrow we have an appointment to have our visa's looked over (carte de sejour). They claim that we left some paperwork out. Angie and I found a couple of babysitters and will travel to the suburb south of us tommorrow. Pray that it all goes well. There are some students that moved here in August that have still not received their carte de sejour and they are leaving in June. That is the way with the French government they seem to take their time with things. It is okay with me. I just walked Lilia and her friend back to her friends house. They took turns saying different French words the whole way. They have an extensive vocabulary and they both have the accent "parfait". It will take a long time for me to acquire I imagine. Above are a couple of pictures of our kids getting caught. Lilia's trash can full of candy wrappers, and we were wondering how all the candy was disappearing. And Andrew getting into Momma's purse at a friends house. God bless, JASON