Cold Market morning

I like how Angie is holding two bottles. 

Lilia's and Peter's card house at the youth meeting.

Micah finds an interesting way to clean the underside of the table.

Arianna tries on Andrew's coat.

We had a good week last week.  Things were busy but we accomplished a lot.  Bible Study went well Thursday evening, we had one new visitor.  The lesson went well and a lot of good comments were made.  The market Friday morning went real well.  I spoke with a man from Sweden who has lived in Limoux for 10 years, a man from Israel who had been to our Bible study once but we had not seen since, two of me fellow basketballers stopped by, a young lady wanting a Bible and to know about churches available in the area, and I visited with a few regulars.  It was cold but worth it.  Saturday we met a neighbor boy who came to play with our boys. I was able to speak briefly to his mother. Angie and Lilia went to the youth meeting in Carcassonne on Saturday as well. They had a good time. Saturday evening I was able to make my second basketball game of the year.  We lost the game by a few points because of a poor second half.  I did not play much, but did manage to score 6 point, block two shots, and get a couple of assists and rebounds.  Not too bad for an old man.  Services went well Sunday.  I lead the services which I enjoyed.  I had fun with the kids lessons which I will post on my French blog.  Sunday afternoon Lilia had two school friends come over to work on a project.  We were able to meet both of the parents and spoke for a while with them.  One of Lilia's best friends this year is a girl who was adopted from Thailand several years ago.  Lilia and her get along real well being that they are both third culture kids.  This week I need to make a trip to carcassonne to change our address for our car registration.  I made this same trip twice last week.  The first time, their computers were giving them problems, and we I went again Friday afternoon I discovered that they close at three.  It might get done this week, baring computer problems and early closures.  I was able to start the process of getting Arianna's name changed on her French birth certificate.  They made a mistake and put one "n".  We will see how much of a complicated process that is.  It was -4 degrees celsius this morning when I dropped the kids off and went to fill up on gas.  The exchange rate is getting better, however the price of gas (diesel) has jumped up to 1.40 euros a liter.  They makes it $6.76 a gallon to save you some time on the math.  Makes me thankful that we are in town now.  Enjoy the pics and God bless, JASON

Mixed Time

The past days have been well spent with a good mix between playing with the kids and preparing for the Bible Study.  With the kids we have played Badmitton, went on a hike, played ball, and several indoor games as well.  I got tickled at Andrew while we were hiking, he just loved running down the hill.  He would throw his arms out and run as fast as his little legs would carry him.  He was full of joy.  He had found a magazine on the side of the road and he carried it with him the entire time.  Caleb and Micah were content marking all the rocks with an arrow in case we got lost.  Yesterday I also got the yard mowed.  It looks a lot better now.  Angie took the kids to the park this morning while I had my language session with Eric.  We found out that I was mispronouncing words with "ui" like "cuisine".  I was pronouncing it more like "oui".  Slight difference, but noticeable.  I just got a call from the lady I met at the market last week, she is coming to the Bible study this evening.  We will be studying about Easter.  Enjoy some pictures that we took during the day yesterday. God bless, JASON

Pétanque and Le Cross

Micah is on the far right.

The crowd approaches.

Lilia in the purple.

Caleb in the blue with the hat.

Lilia, purple shirt, helped registering students.

Wow, we are just finishing a busy weekend.  Let me catch you up from the last blog point.  (For your information if you see a highlighted work, it is a link, meaning that if you click on it it will open another window with more information related to the highlighted word.)  Tuesday was spent studying and preparing for lessons.  Wednesday afternoon, I had a lesson for Lilia and another teenager in Magrie. Thursday morning after my language session, we walking to the Magrie Mayors office and picked up Angie's visa.  An answer to prayer, just to have it in hand.  Thursday night we had two for the Bible Study.  Friday morning at the maket  I talked with several regulars and also met a lady from a village about 20 minutes from Limoux, she was already Christian and we knew some of the same people.  We talked for a while and she seemed interested in the prospects of having a work in Limoux.  Friday afternoon, my counseling sessions went well and the week finished with basketball practice.  Thus began the busy weekend.  Saturday morning there was the "cross des mille enfants", it was a long distance race with over 1300 children from schools in the area.  Micah, Lilia, and Caleb participated.  I had a choice of either serving as one of the volunteer crosswalk guards, or getting pulled into racing along with the kids.  That's right, I chose being the crosswalk guard.  I attached several pictures of the event.  After that finished we grabed lunch and prepared for having some guests over for an "apéritif" (snack before the evening meal).  We had a great visit with them, I play basketball with the husband and there kids go to school with ours.  Sunday we left immediately for a BBQ (french style) put on by the basketball coach for celebrating their last game of the season.  We arrived just as everyone else did and had a great time.  I during the afternoon, everyone asked about why I was here and what my work entailed.  In typical french fashion, it took about three hours before all the eating was done.  Afterwards, we played a game of  Pétanque, briefly explained a French game kind of a mix between horseshoes and bowling.  My team won. By the time the BBQ was over it was almost seven.  We ate a quick supper and helped the kids get the homework finished before calling it a day.  It was a great weekend.  We had the chance to build some great relationships. I also want to attach a music video.  I try to help you get a glimpse into French culture.  This music video won two awards.  The artist is Ben l'Oncle Soul and he won two awards for this song entitled Soul Man.  I was surprised by the style of music.  There is an English Version and also a version with French subtitles if you want to cheat.  (see youtube) Below is the original.  God bless, JASON

Christmas vacation starts.

Arianna's Chrismas dress

Friday night I had my last basketball practice, we will start again in January.  I'm hoping that my ankle will be 100 % by then.  Saturday we had the Christmas Dinner outreach in Carcassonne, the kids did an amazing job on the skit.  I didn't get very good pictures because the lighting was bad and I couldn't change the setting on the camera with one hand.  There were a good number there and just a few chairs were empty.  Sunday we stayed with some friends after church and attended the english Carol Service.  It was a good time, and all in English.  We sang 5 christmas carols.  We only knew one of them, yes even the Christmas songs are different in England it seems.  There was one funny moment during a moment of open prayer time, I was praying and in the middle, I said in French, "Seigneur" instead of "Lord".   Today, we got the house straightened up and Angie went to do a little shopping.  Another interesting event occured while she was gone, I was chasing a small lizard out of the house who likes to crawl in through the door jam and he ran up the leg of my pants.  The kids all had a good laugh about it, the lizard did not survive.    God bless, JASON

Holiday Weekend

I keep thinking to myself that I had just updated the blog, but now I realize it has been several days. We enjoyed the long weekend. Monday was a holiday, Pentecost, and the kids had no school. We spent a lot of the time enjoying the outdoors, the temperature was perfect this past weekend. Services went well Sunday. I taught the class for our boys and I think it went well. At the end I asked if Caleb understood me and he said he did. Tuesday we sent the papers off to begin the process for our visa (carte de sejour). I am hoping that it will go quickly and smoothly. After we receive our carte de sejour, then we can get our French Drivers license and Angie can get a carte vital, which reimburses medical expenses. This evening I will have my language session with Cédric. I have many questions for him, from the meaning of a song to phrases in my bible study lesson. Tomorrow Caleb has no school because his teachers are on strike. They are going to close his building and combine their classes with Lilia's building. Parents and teachers are worried that it will be too crowded so they are demonstrating against it. We were able this week to meet our next door neighbors officially. They are a young couple from Spain. They often have family and friends stay with them. They speak French, Spanish, Italian, and some English. I hope that we have the opportunity to have them over. Attached pictures are of the kids enjoying this past weekend. Playing a game on family night, enjoying their first banana split, and playing in the sprinkler. God bless, JASON

Two States, same day

Things have continued to go well. My sister's new baby, Elijah, was born Friday, finally. He was a week late. We have been trying to keep the kids caught up on their homework. We had been waiting for an email from Caleb's teacher giving his assignments. We got the email a couple of weeks ago, but it just had a few assignements. We printed them and had him work on a few. Then a few days ago we told him to get his homework out, and he brought us a big stack of papers out of his backpack that the teacher had made copies of. Evidently he "forgot" about all of those. We enjoyed the weekend. Sunday we shared with two churches in Palestine and one church in Virginia. That was made possible by phone. The pastor in Virginia had me call during the morning announcements at his church as a "surprise". As a first for me, I shared in four services, in two different states in one day. Attached picture is our kids with their cousins (before the new addition came). They had a wonderful time spending all last week together. God bless, JASON

Revenge of the mouse.

Wednesday I took the kids swimming and they had a great time. It was a lot of fun watching them. The swimming pool here in town is really nice, they even have a small pool for toddlers with water slides and fountains. Thursday was an interesting day. Angie was finally feeling back to normal and while enjoying the view outside, thanked God for all the nature around us, she did not know what would happen in a couple of hours. I dropped the kids off at school and came home and got to my reading. After a little while I hear Angie walk into the room and give a little shreek and then look for whatever is close that gets her off the floor, in this case a small stool. Sure enough there was a mouse in the house. My thought was just to by some traps from the store, but she insisted that the mouse had to go now. So we commenced to chasing the mouse out from behind furniture towards the door. While the chase was on he happened to run into an empty cereal box beside the trash can and I had him. It was then that I had the wonderful idea of showing him to the kids, so he was transfered to a bucket to await the childrens return at lunch. I brought them home and they were excited. Andrew quickly tired of watching a mouse sit in a bucket so he started shaking the bucket for a little more action. I called them to lunch. Andrew finished quickly and went right back outside to shake the bucket. So I decided it was best to let the mouse go. My idea (and Caleb's) was to give him to the nieghbor's cat, but Angie said to let him loose in the field next to our house. So me and the kids walked him down there and released him. He took of running, circled back, ran past me and right into a wasps nest that was built into a wash out (pictured). Chaos. I calmly instructed the kids to "RUN!". Lilia was stung first as she stood there screaming and starting at the wasp on her arm. (Angie heard the scream at this point and thought the mouse must have run over her foot). Finally the kids get the idea and start heading back to the house all crying. Angie catches on that something big is happening and exits the house to meet the children. Micah still had wasps on his clothes. Lilia and Andrew were stung once and Micah, twice. Angie put salt on the wounds, which I was not sure was a good idea, she was trying to draw the stinger out. I made the good'ol vinager and baking soda mix that helped so many times in my youth. It seemed to go better with the kids. Caleb and me were spared the stinging but suddenly Caleb starts crying saying he was bit and he did happen to have a mosquito bite on his neck. Suddenly I notice a wasp on Micah's head and slap it. That got him all upset again as his little brain was trying to figure out why Dad had hit him. It was a pretty stressful moment for all the kids. Lilia cried the loudest and longest. We put a movie on the calm them down and get them to rest. Lilia and Caleb calmed down enough to go back to school, but Micah stayed home. At least we discovered that they are not allergic. I think Andrew must have shook the bucket a little too much and the mouse wanted revenge. I went back later and took the picture. No worries though, I have purchased the bug spray and will be rid of them soon, we will have our revenge. As I am typing this Angie is reading the newspaper and found a section advertising prostitutes. That is a shock. Can't wait to see what God has instore for today, I have told Angie to be more careful about thanking him for the nature all around us. God bless, JASON

Christmas Day +1

On Christmas Eve, Lilia brought a devotional about Christmas and did a wonderful job, then Angie read a pop-up book to the kids about Christmas. We let the kids stay up watching "White Christmas" which all but Andrew lasted through. We had a wonderful Christmas Day. The kids were spoiled of course, but not too bad. Everyone slept until 8:00 which was nice. This year we handed out the presents to all four of them one at a time. That made it a little more enjoyable and not a hurry to open up and assemble everything that has been opened right away. The food was great. For breakfast Angie made eggs, sausage, and pancakes and for lunch and supper we had chicken and dressing, mashed potatoes, corn bread, and salad (leftovers from Christmas Eve). The rest of the day was then spent assembling and opening and explaining and demonstrating. It was fun. I will try to post pictures of the kids in future posts with their toys. Now we are looking forward to New Years. I just realized that we will reach the new year before many of you do.

Weather and Post Office

Winter seems like it has set in this week. All week long it has been a low of around 32 high of 39 and chance of rain every day. As of right now it is 39 degrees, 87% humidity, with sunrise at 8:19 am and sunset at 4:58 pm. I went to the post office this morning to mail some newspapers. I ordered these for an acquaintance in the states who wanted to send newspapers from the worlds largest cities of the day after the election. So I picked up twenty copies of Le Parisien Thursday and sent them back out today. I waited for an hour at the post office today. You take a number and wait your turn, there were thirty in front of me when I arrived. There was a lot of mumbling complaints but everyone seems to put up with it. We are having our friends over today for another thanksgiving meal, I am looking forward to it and have just eaten a light lunch in anticipation of supper. Attached is a picture of the kids enjoying a chocolate banana milkshake that I made them. God bless, JASON

Denver, Colorado

I had a great time in Denver. I arrived, my cousin, Andrew picked me up from the airport, and I spent the night in my Aunts house, not far from the airport. My thanks to Aunt Jean for letting me stay with her. Friday morning, I mailed something for a friend in France, got my drivers license and bought a large amount of stuff from Wal-mart. I stayed there about an hour and a half. That was probably the longest time I had spent in Wal-mart by myself. I picked up some things for the kids Christmas, some medicines, some spices and candy that we could not get here, shoes for all the kids and other misc. items. Everything except the medicine was cheaper at Wal-mart. Medicine is cheap in France because of the socialized health care. Angie bought a prescription to other day that was $50 for a months supply, here she got three months worth for $5. Sorry, we are not taking orders. Other interesting things about the trip, people were talking English, customer service was better than here, I had Dr. Pepper and ranch dressing, and there were a lot of pickup trucks.

Friday evening I ate with my cousin, Andrew, and three of his 5 kids. We enjoyed good conversation and American pizza. It was great to see them again and I was encouraged by their faithful service to the Lord. Saturday, my Aunt Jean and I went to see my Aunt Peggy in Vail. It was a pretty drive and a nice visit as well. We attended early services at the church my Aunt attends. It was great to be present at a ENGLISH worship service. The songs and the message were great, I almost teared up at one point, but held it in. The flight back went good as well. I had a close connecting flight in Washington and just made it without having to run. I only slept for about an hour and a half, and now have been working on trying to get caught up on homework. The trip was great but it is also great to be home with Angie and the kids. Attached picture is of the boys playing with their train set. God bless, JASON

The weekend.

We have been blessed with a good weekend. Yesterday we checked the mail on the way to the park to find out that our local department store was having a sale. Normally 10% of three items purchased goes toward future purchases. Friday and Saturday it was going to be 20%. We had been waiting to purchase a few large things for such a special sale. We picked up an airmatress to use as a guest bed. We also picked up a new stroller. Ours had broken that morning. We also picked up some meat as well. The local stores do not usually carry bigger amounts of meat, so we usually try to pick up some while we are there. Things went well today. I asked Lilia to bring a devotion this morning and she did a really good job. I have been praying and talking with Caleb. He will turn six in December and is the age Lilia was when she was saved. He is a little slower than she was but still I have been trying to make clear how to go to heaven. He has asked good questions about it. He has also asked questions that are not to good. Those moments are funny afterwards. They say something bright that gets you all proud and then they keep talking. Like, kid, "Daddy, I want to be a Doctor when I grow up". Daddy, "Wow, thats great!". Kid, "Or a dinosaur."

I have been told that a hard part of missions work is going home. I am beginning to see that more and more. When we left the country we created a snapshot of life there, including friends, families, locations. When we return we will find that all of that has changed. Places no longer look the same, people and relationships have changed. We have had friends and family that have passed away, lost loved ones, married, divorced, left. It will make it a little difficult to jump back into to where we were when we left. Pictured is my younger sister followed by Angie's younger brother, who both had weddings in the last couple of months. Angie's brother Mike, married Kate, and my sister Sarah, married Justin. Congratulations to both couples. God Bless, JASON

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

Massy

Our town of Massy is very nice. I was looking at the scenery when I took the boys to school yesterday. It is also, as I recently found out, a wealthy town. I discovered this when telling Yvain about seeing and early 70's model Camaro, yellow with black racing stripes. He explained then that is a rich suburb. The boys were rained out of their field trip to the woods. I noticed there were no posts to answer the last quiz. French has the same amount of vowels that we have but they have 16 different vowel sounds. JASON

Liaison

The hardest thing about about French so far is the Liaison. That is the "slurring" of words together. For example, "Qu'est-ce c'est?" (What is that) sounds like "keskuhsay". You have to pay a lot of attention to the Liaisons. If you miss one speaking to a French person they may not even understand you. That has happened a couple of times in class where the teacher didn't understand what we were saying because we missed the Liaison.

QUIZ question for you: As you may know French has masculine and feminine nouns. Therefore I pose the following question. If I would say, "I am an American", I would say. "Je suis americain (masculine)." But if I said, "My nationality is American" I would say "Ma nationalité est americaine (feminine)." Any know why please respond with a comment.

Angie is in the Living room watching Star Academy (the French version of American Idol) and Celine Dion was just on there as guest. The Lord blessed us in a special way. Andrew (1 1/2 years old) hurt his arm again last night. Back at Thanksgiving he dislocated his Radius bone at his Elbow. It happened again last night, when I was helping him up. We knew that is what it was because he was not using in the same way as when it happened last time. So today we planned on making the appointment with the Pediatrician that we use here, who speaks English. However when Angie arrived at the school this morning to ask them about making an appointment, the principal said that one of the Language students is a Doctor (medecin). It happened to be Ian whose daughter is in the class with Lilia. He looked at it, found out that it had already popped back into place and explained more stuff to us. It worked out great.

Micah and Caleb sat in class with us Thursday (juedi). They did real well, and I was proud of them, and shocked. They both have been going to school okay for us now. I did have a funny experience one day this week. I walked Caleb to his classroom door and let him in and walked away, thankful that it went well. Suddenly I felt a tug and there he was behind me in tears. He said, "Daddy that was the wrong classroom." Oops (oh la la). Thankfully he calmed down quickly and I again dropped him off, at the correct room. Thank you for taking time to read and God Bless (Dieu vous bénisse), JASON