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

Friday again.

We have had a busy but productive Friday. Today is Andrew's birthday. He is now three years old. We will have a party with his friends at the language school garden tomorrow. He is pictured above playing soccer, he has a good level of skill already. He has already got it down to say three and hold up the three fingers when someone asks how old he is.

Last week we sent our papers by email to the real estate agent in Limoux. We never heard anything from him. We called earlier in the week and left messages but received no call back. Angie called and got a hold of the secretary today. She said that the could not open the PDF files. Okay. Angie asked why they didn't but the lady had no answer. So we got them faxed this evening.

In slightly less amazing news, Barak Obama arrived at Orly Airport today, just about 2 miles from where we live. He plans to be here for the D-day festivities in the North. I do not think that he plans on coming to the birthday party.

This weekend I have a lot of school work to do. We have a test Monday and Tuesday. The big language test on Wednesday. I have a short lesson to bring Monday and the chapel service to do Friday. And on top of that our usual homework. But right now it is time to enjoy a movie with the birthday boy. 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

Another week has passed.

It has been over a week since my last blog. My apologies. This week has been packed full it seems like. Saturday we got our Visa renewal paperwork filled out and sent off. Services went good last Sunday, we volunteered to keep the nursery, which we will be doing tomorrow. We have had a lot of homework this week from school, which has kept us busy in the evenings. Wednesday morning, I had a meeting with my teacher to look over my sermon for Friday, Angie went shopping, Lilia had a dentists appointment and I had a phone call with a member of Greater Europe Mission for over an hour, and all that was before noon. Afterwards I went to Paris and met Chad, his wife and two kids. He is a pastor who is going to Kenya to visit their Missionaries - the Taylors, who are good friends of ours. We had a good time in Paris and then headed to our place to eat. On the way here there was an announcement that there had been an accident at the train station nearest our house. We excited one stop earlier and walked. Come to found out someone had jumped in front of the coming train and committed suicide. We enjoyed a good meal and visit with them. Thursday night, I finished the last touches on my sermon and went to bed early. Friday we had some language school friends over for lunch. The sermon went well. This was the first sermon in French that Angie has heard me preach. It is the fourth one I have given at the language school but Angie has never been able to make it for various reasons. I will post the sermon soon. Friday night, several couples and individuals volunteered to watch all the kids so the parents could go out. The ended up watching 14 kids. Angie and I and another couple, took a train to Antony (next town up, about a mile up the road) and ate at a restaurant there and took the bus back. We had a good time and visit and really appreciate those who gave us this opportunity by watching our kids from 6 to 10. Brave. This morning I got our finances all straightened out for the month and got a door hung in the bathroom. Caleb lost one of his bottom teeth this morning as well. I am thankful because it had been annoying him. I will attache a picture that Chad drew of Lilia while he was here. It only took about 20 minutes and he did a good job. God bless, JASON

Inauguration perspective.

We got into a conversation in class yesterday about the inauguration. The person who covered the event for France TV (I think it was the prime minister) made several observations that showed the difference in thinking between a christian nation and a secular one. He alluded to it making no sense to swear on a bible. He said that Rick Warren was a conservative pastor. He also said that Aretha Franklin's singing was like the "incantations" that they sing in church. Certainly points out the different point of view. I fell down the stairs at the language school yesterday as well. Thankfully just some bruises and nobody saw me. I had a good conversation this week with a representative for Greater Europe Mission. We had a good visit. Please join us in praying for he Lord to show us which organization He has for us to partner with to get our residence visa in France. We went to the zoo again to see the animals but they it didn't work out once again. They said that it was the city that claimed that without discussing it with the circus first. But we did get to walk around and see some animals from outside the fence. We saw seals, lions, tigers, leopard, and a huge cow. They kids then got to play at the park for a little bit. The park is next to a big hill and it is really cold with the wind blowing. A pastor friend of ours will be visiting some this next week with his family, we look forward to seeing them. Attached is a picture of Andrew over a year ago, when we at a conference and he fell asleep after eating. God bless, JASON

One thing leads to another.

We got several things done today. Soon after I woke up, I went to school to have student/teacher time. You can sign up for these moments throughout the week. They are one on one time with the teacher answering any questions and helping out in any way you need it. They are very helpful. I was asking about pronounciation on a couple of songs. Tomorrow, I will be leading the music during our chapel service and want to pronounce things right. After that I went to the Post Office to mail a book to some missionary friends in Kosovo. I only had to wait about 20 minutes. Afterwards I practiced the songs for tomorrow some. After lunch, macaroni and cheese and hot dogs, I worked on Angie's computer. I got it connected to the internet and it has been giving us some problems with internet explorer. I decided to download the firefox browser and then had to update a couple of other items, which required me to download winzip. One thing led to another. But a success, because I am doing this blog on Angie's computer. Afterwards I had a phone call with a man from an organization that we are considering partnering with. Then, I went to the grocery store and helped Angie make supper, gave two boys a bath. Angie has gone to help out a new student with some homework. I will start my homework after this and then gather some visa paperwork together.
A couple of items for prayer, we are currently searching for a group to invite us into the country for us to get our resident visa, prayer that we will find the organization that God will want us to have. Also be in prayer for our schooling, we are in our last six months stretch, pray that we will learn all that we can and also that the funds will be present to finish paying for school in a timely manner.
I will finish up with a Andrew quote this time. The 2 1/2 year old walked in with a small blanket wrapped around him like a cape. "Are you Batman?" I asked. "No", he said, "I cold". God bless, JASON

Awesome!

The first great news is that Caleb accepted Christ as his savior Thursday night. The evening devotional that we had was when Abraham was asked to offer his only son Isaac. He asked several good questions afterwards and was obviously feeling convicted. When I went passed his room later that night he was praying in his bed. He told us in the morning that he had asked Jesus to save him. Awesome!

The cold weather is still hanging out. Wednesday was the coldest day in Paris since 1987. Caleb asked on the way home from school if there would be snow tomorrow, when I told him there would be it was sad because he was tired of being cold, he said.

At the kids school they showed a video in Lilia's class about a boy who wanted to dance ballet and fell in love with his best (boy) friend. Afterwards that had discussion where they told the class that that was okay. Lilia said she didn't like it because of the language too. A little idea of what they will face in public school in France. At our school we learned a new verb tense this week, conditional passe. I hope we are close to running out of verb tenses. Friday I went with another language school student to Leroy Merlin (like Home Depot or Lowes), we had a good time just wondering around. Saturday Angie took several of the new language school ladies shopping. January and July are the big sale months in France. Almost everything in the stores at 50-60% off. Angie is good at helping the new ladies at the school get settled. She helps with paperwork, comforts them about cultural things, listens, offers advice when asked, and . . . she just helps in many ways. God has truly blessed me with a wonderful helpmate. Attached are picture of Lilia with a snowball she brought home and Andrew's hair that everyone had fun playing with Friday night. 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

Joyeux Anniversaire

We have had another blessed week. School has been going well, we had our first test and like usual Angie made higher than me by just a couple of points. I told her the night before while we were studying that she didn't need to study. She just needed to make sure I studied because she would always make just above my grade. Lilia told us a funny story after school one day this week. They were playing rugby in school and Lilia's team was supposed to hold the ball and the other team would try and tackle them, just tackle them and not take the ball. The boy who tackled Lilia (I know this sounds rough) took the ball away from her. So Lilia goes to tell the coach what he did. She tells it like this, "I told the coach the boys name and then I forgot what to say (in french) so I looked down at my shoes and laughed and then I remember how to say it." It was funny hearing her tell the story.

Today is Micah's birthday. He is now four years old. Unlike most kids it was not a big deal to him. This morning he didn't even want Lilia and Caleb to sing happy birthday to him. He wasn't overly excited and begging for stuff either, which was nice. We had another family from the language school who also had four kids over at the house and they played well together. Interestingly four of the kids ended up getting themselves stuck in a room. Somehow the door was jammed and the knob would not turn. I think it must have happened from the boys trying to get in and the girls trying to keep them out. I pried, tried credit cards, screwdrivers, took the door knobs off and still could not get it open. The younger two inside started to get fussy so I finally kicked the door in. After looking at the door knob assembly it somehow had come loose (do not try to picture this unless you are a little familiar with french doorknobs, which are a little different than us ones) and would not turn. It was a little hard to tell what damaged I had done when I kicked it in and what damage was pre-"me". I think I've got it fixed and will try it later to make sure. I'm going to get some homework done now and work on my devotional for Monday. I plan on visiting services tommorrow at the church that meets at the language school. Pictured is Micah with famous Romanian skateboarder and missionary kid, Brandon Rutherford, and some birthday pictures. God bless, JASON

Back to School

School has started up again. We have quite a bit of homework to catch up on. The kids did not seem to miss much. The lessons are going well again. There are a lot of new students that we want to get to know more and we have plenty of time. This week Angie is responsible for setting up and cleaning up the coffee break. Next week it will be my turn. I brought the music for the service this afternoon. It is nice to get back into a routine, as long as that routine brings honor and glory to God. The exchange rate has been real good, considering the last few months. I hope that the current financial woes of the stock market don't affect it much. I paid some of our language school tuition. I have also started researching prices and types of cars. The is a Pontiac Minivan at our language school that the secretary is willing to sell for 4,000 euros. It is ten years old and has 230,000 km. It has been sitting for several years and I'm not sure that that price would be worth what we could get out of it. Well supper is ready, so I'm going to eat, a popular french pastime. God bless, JASON

Preparing for another trip.

Lynn and Brenda are at the airport now. We enjoyed our time with them. We had many good conversations and fun times. Monday we visited Notre Dame and Sacre Coeur. Tuesday we took the kids to school and then went to the Louvre. Come to find out it is closed on Tuesdays. We walked from there down Champs Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe and then over the the Eiffel Tower. It was a little over 4 miles but a scenery filled walk. Tuesday evening Lynn and Brenda took the kids to McDonalds and let me and Angie go out to eat, very brave of them. Wednesday we rode a tour boat on the Seine (bateau mouche). Thursday we had school and afterwards ate at Pizza Hut. Lynn and Brenda headed to the airport this morning. Now we need to get packed up to go to Greece tommorrow. Tonight we have meetings with Lilia's and Caleb's teachers. Yesterday I met with Lilia's and Caleb's French teacher and had a good visit. She, like many teachers here, is very direct, to the point of being rude. She praised Caleb for his intelligence, pronunciation, memory, and then said, but he colors like a baby. After the meeting was all over I asked Caleb if he heard all that she said. He said, "Yup, she said need to color better." I found out that since they did away with school on Saturdays, they have the option of keeping kids a half hour later each day if they need extra time. I will be taking my computer to Greece and hopefully have time to update the blog during the week. I will also try to post picks of our trips into Paris as I go. God bless, JASON

Commencement

Another good weekend has passed. We had good services yesterday, Bro. Lynn brought a good lesson that even the kids followed well. We had a couple from a language school come eat with us Saturday night. They used to service in Kenya and knew a lot of people that the Raburns knew from there time there. We shared a lot of stories and had a good time. We met some knew students that arrived Sunday at language school. One young man had just spent some of the summer in east Texas, our home. Two young ladies also arrived, one of which was from North Little Rock, where Lynn and Brenda call home. It is amazing how small the world is. We saw on the list of students that name of a student that had gone to high school with Angie, it ended up not being the same guy, the world is not that small. School starts for us on Thursday, but we are going to go to the orientation Tuesday to meet some of the new students. I had the some of the same situations experienced when we arrived, except I played a different role. This time I greeted them in French and they said, "Uh . . . English please." We plan on visiting Paris today. We looked at going to Normandy Wednesday, but at short notice it was too expensive for the rental car. Looking forward to a good week ahead of us, things are going to get a little busier, which I like. 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

Trips into town.

We have already made a couple of trips into Paris this week. Tuesday Angie went with some girls from the Language school. They went to the largest Christian books store in Paris. It was about half the size of a movie store in the US. That shows somewhat the spiritual state of France. Yesterday I went into town to buy a new bow for my saw, I dropped mine last week and it broke. I went into an area of town (Rome street) that has several dozen music stores and found what I needed. I had a good trip, Lilia and Caleb went with me, it took about 3 hrs. The bow cost 75 euros (little over $100). Last night I found out about a mother and daughter from a church in Texas who were stranded by their tour group in Paris when the mother fell and shattered her knee. I called and made sure they are okay and Angie is now going to check on them. I can imagine how difficult it would be to be in their situation. School is continuing to go well. There are a couple of students who are teachers and other professionals who simply are here as a vacation and language polishing trip. It would be a good time. The school handles room and board and plans activities. It would be a nice three week trip in a good christian and safe environment. Check out their website if you would be interested. http://www.lescedres.com/ God bless, JASON

Summer School

Summer school is off to a good start. We have classes in the mornings and at night. There are 53 students which is a good number, many of the are missionary kids whose parents send off to learn a little french, have a little vacation, and make friends. I met an older man there who was very interesting. At the age of 59, God called him to the East African nation of Djibouti, a largely Islamic nation. When asked what his work was he replied, "to walk with God and answer questions." When asked further, he was the only Doctor for 70,000 people. I liked his simple response, just to walk with God and answer the questions that others ask about him and his faith. I have really enjoyed the lessons so far, we have learned a lot of slang and abbreviations that are important for normal conversation. Right before our vacation, Lilia was talking in her sleep, speaking french. Here is a link for a french movie called "Bienvenue chez les ch'tis". http://youtube.com/watch?v=Ypl0qgdAt2c It broke the record for highest grossing movie in France (previous record holder Titanic). It seems real funny and I can't wait for it to come out on DVD. If you do a search on youtube with the title there is a version with english subtitles. God bless, JASON

What's next?

Final exams are finished, all goodbyes have been said, What is next? We received our grades from the last semester. Drum roll please. On the exam, Jason made 82.5 and Angie made 85. For the course Jason made 87.75 and Angie made 88.5. As usual Angie just beat me again. As far as a general overview of what happens next. School ends for the kids on July 4th. We will then leave for a weeks vacation to the south of France. We return and I get started with summer school which will last three weeks to the first of August. School starts again the first of September. The second week of school we will go to Greece for a Missionary Retreat. This next school year we will also be working on securing our visa for next year and searching for housing to have when we finish school. We finish school in June, make a trip back to the US for several months to check on everyone and then return again to France. Of course during all of this time we will be working to help get the church a firm footing here and training new disciple makers and hopefully a pastor as well. Wow, sounds like a lot, that helps get it straight in my head. Thanks for the thoughts and prayers. God bless, JASON

Final Exams.

We had our final exams yesterday. Also someone is working on getting our shower fixed where some tiles had fallen off. They discovered the problem was moisture and so are installing a vent as well. The should be done with it this morning because after they took all the old tiles off it was moist behind them and they wanted to let it dry over night. They exams went well, I think. It took a lot more time than the last exam. I suppose that every exam after this will be longer as well because it all adds more to what you know. It took us about 2 hours. I have really little idea as to how well I did on it. It is nice to get it behind you. Last night we had the end of school BBQ. It was enjoyed by all. About 80 showed up, students and teachers with their families. The food was good and the fellowship was good as well. It is difficult with 25 kids running around ages 1-12. I will include some pictures. The larger picture is of our class, the two ladies in white on the front row are our teachers, the presents we gave them and sitting in the baskets. It was a good chance to say goodbye to some students who would be leaving. The kids had a wonderful time and played together almost the whle time, they did take a few minutes to eat. After it was over Caleb said, "But Daddy I didn't see the big BBQ." I had the re-explain what the BBQ was. We did not get home until about 8:30 and the kids were exhausted and dirty. We gave them a wipe down and put them down. Big soccer matches coming up this week in the Euro 2008 games. So far I'm thinking Russia and Germany have the best chance of being in the finals. God bless, JASON

Overview

We are ending another busy and blessed week to start another. We were blessed to recieve this week and several large boxs containing gifts and letters from a church in Corsicanna, TX where we were once members. Pictured is our boys with all the stuff set on the table before them. We enjoy getting things from the states and always gather around as a family and unpack the boxes piece by piece. We are very thankful for those that show so great love to us. Wednesday we had several parades pass by our home honoring this weeks Fêtes des Musiques (music festival). Thursday we had Lilia's school music program. It was really good with singing and acting parts. I am happy with my level of understanding French. I can almost understand all that I hear. Of course, I don't know every word but with what I know and context I get their meaning. And today we had an end of school fair at Lilia's school. It was a lot of fun. The kids sang a few songs and they were many activities for the kids. We made it all morning long. There were a lot of friends from the language school there. The kids got their faces painted (pictured). Coming up this week we have our semester exams Tuesday at school and a BBQ that night to say farewell to those not returning in September. Thanks for all the comments. JASON abainfrance@hotmail.com

The weekend already.

It is hard to believe that the weekend is here already. I am not sure what all happened this week. We had the normal amount of homework and tests, but things seemed busier. I think it might have been all the birthdays. Caleb had a friend's birthday party Wednesday. Andrew had a small family only birthday party Thursday. Last night he had a joint party with another two year old from the language school. Friday at school he had one with his classmates in the nursery. Monday we had a joint birthday party and going away part for students in our class. Thankfully this week ended a period of many family injuries. Micah had a huge knot on his head that has finally gone away. Andrew had a cut on the end of his big toe that has healed. Lilia's leg is better and she went to school this week. Angie had a little cold last week that she has recovered from as well. I am looking forward to services Sunday. We pray that you have a good weekend, God bless, JASON

Another blessed service.

Services were blessed again today. We had Matt Critcher visiting with us from Arkansas. I was a joy to have him and he brought a great lesson. We had great fellowship for several hours afterwards. The weather has cooled off here. It is supposed to get down to 44 degrees tonight. I'm looking forward to school this week. Last week we had a large test, and speech to give, and I preached during assembly time Friday, so it was hectic. Adding to that was Angie getting a little under the weather and the boys having no school thursday because of the strike. There was a protest outside of our apartment today. I received a flyer and could make out that they were unhappy with Sarkozy and were forming a new political party. I though about going to their meeting just for the socialization and French language acquisition. I killed a mouse in the garage yesterday. We are having some visitors possibly stopping by from Mississippi at the end of the month. We are looking forward to seeing them. Matt was graciously delivered my musical saw and several other items that we missed from the states. Pictured is Matt and the strikers outside. God bless, JASON