Electricity

The last few days have been interesting to say the least. It rained all day Tuesday and most of the day Wednesday and is raining right now. Tuesday the power went off a few times during the day, so I started saving the Bible Study handouts that I was preparing. I had almost finished it Monday, but was still changing and adding some things on Tuesday. I knew that the power could go out any moment so I was saving it everytime I changed something. Wouldn't you know that power went out when it was being saved. Wednesday I tried to open the document and got an error. After an hour of working with it, I surrended to the fact that it was lost. I even downloaded an ASCII reader, the document in ASCII was all zeros. Wednesday the power was never on long enough for me to get restarted on it. It was kind of humerous later, because the power would always go out at the most inconvient time. Would you like some more examples? I thought you would. How about when it went out halfway into our microwave popcorn being popped. Yeah, we got 15 popped kernels out of that bag. How about right when you start clothes drying? Twice, right when I got the computer booted up all the way? Right when Angie sat down to read a book? Right when Andrew's Nintendo DS batteries went dead and it needed to be charged? I could go on and on. Right after we went and bought McDonalds because we had no power to cook it came back on. We enjoyed the day in spite of the electrical problems. So far today it has stayed on. I am trying to get the handout done for tonight and then get the lesson typed up, which I would have done Tuesday and Wednesday. I think I will add a sunny picture of some wildflowers:   God bless, JASON

Thawed out.

The snow finally stopped falling late Saturday night. We ended up with over 7 inches. It was nice while it lasted. Sunday, Angie and the kids stayed home, while I walked to the car and braved the icy roads to go to the church in Carcassonne. I really enjoyed the servcies. Their current pastor will be retiring soon and his replacement was visiting Sunday. I enjoyed hearing him speak. He will be moving here in June and we have offered him to stay in our house if needed while he is trying to locate one for him and his family. Tuesday he came and visited in the morning with us. I am really impressed with him and looking forward to getting to know him and his family better. We are trying to decide our plans for returning to the states. We do not know if we will leave mid-june and stay to the end of August, or if we will May and stay to July. We received a Christmas package from Angie's parents today. Loaded with fudge and other goodies. Angie has gone shopping with Lilia, January is a month of sales on almost everything. I am hoping that we will have the Bible study this Friday. I am giving an introduction to the Bible. I also pray that we will have a good number come. I heard this morning of the large Earthquake in Haïti, our prayers go out to all who are affected by this tragedy. Tomorrow I am giving the prayer meeting at the church in Carcassonne since the pastor has taken a short trip to England. Sunday I will lead the services and Angie will teach the younger kids Sunday school. Attached picture is the kids playing a board game. Enjoy the day that God has given you. 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

Le lundi.

We had a good Monday. I usually like Mondays, I'm charged from Sunday and ready to dive into the week. Services went well yesterday at church. There was a visiting missionary to Cameroon. He gave a short presentation of the work and preached a message. I understood almost everything he said, but I could not follow the overall outline. I gave a short lesson in class today. I think it went well. I took it to my teacher before class to correct it and she starting correcting the scriptures that I had printed at the top, it was funny. Angie gave her testimony in class today as well. We had a great meal for supper. Angie had bought a rotisserie chicken and we had potato wedges with homemade cheese dip and green beans (french cut - naturally). Angie would never admit to it but she is a good cook. It is hard to believe that this month is winding down already. There seems to be a lot of interesting things happening in the US recently. Economy, hurricanes, politics . . . I try to keep up with what I can and keep the family informed, kids included. I want the kids to have an idea of what is going on in the US while they are gone. Attached is a picture of olive trees and palm tree in Greece. God bless, JASON

un cours difficile (Difficult lesson)

We had a hard lesson in class today. It was so difficult that I can not explain the reason. It took our teacher several times to explain. She eventually just told just to remeber the that is the way it is and not to try and figure out why. There is a saying that we here frequently, "C'est comme
ça." "That's the way it is". Here are a couple of examples, and the literal translation and the meaning.

Ils ont monté l'escalier à pied.
They have climbed stairs on foot.
They climbed the stairs by foot.

Ils sont montés au huitième étage.
They are climbed to the 8th level.
They climbed to the 8th floor.

Ils sont sortis de la voiture.
They are exited of the car.
They exited the car.

Ils ont sorti les bagages.
They have exited the baggages.
The took out the baggage.

Ils ont passé les vacances à Lyon.
They have passed the vacations at Lyon.
They spent the vacation in Lyon.

Ils sont passés par la Suisse.
They are passed by the Switzerland.
They passed Switzerland.

I can't even explain why that is so hard to get. When do you use être (to be) or avoir (to have)?
Just one of those language learning things. That's the way it is. ALSO, I uploaded me singing some praise songs in French on Godtube.com it should be available within the next 24 hrs, do a search for "il est exalte". God bless, JASON