Repaving

Angie took the kids to the park.

One of the road work tractors.

Arianna was showing Angie the sugar cube that she
had found and quickly eaten.



We had our first frost and the kids snuggled up to watch a
movie.



Wow, another week has passed.  Our road is still being worked on.  Let me hit some highlights from this past week.  Arianna had a doctors appointment, she is doing fine, a little smaller for her age, but has been that way for some time.  She got a shot, but didn't even cry.  Bible study was good.  We had two present. At the market  I was able to have coffee with the person who came to the Bible study the week before.  We had a real good visit. Friday, Angie dropped me off at the market so that she could pick up some boxes for us, only to find out that they were repaving our road and she could not get back up.  So we hanged out in town all day.  We picked the kids up at lunch and took them to McDonalds, which they really enjoyed.  I guess that it has been over a month since we had last been.  Lilia is doing real well in school and in her swimming class.  She has her first competition November 30th.  Today I helped the Pastor in Carcassonne move their stuff into their home.  I'm going to take the kids swimming tomorrow and Wednesday I am driving to Paris to pick up some friends who just started language schools.  They are also from Texas and are going to be doing church work in France as well.  They have three kids and we are looking forward to spending some time with them.  The kids are enjoying the vacation.  The played outside most of the day.  Enjoy the pictures.  God bless, JASON

Computer Bug

The hallway in our future house.

The view into two bedrooms.

The back yard.

The side yard.

I'm not sure what this is.

Micah playing with some legos that my parents sent.

Seems like Arianna wanted some cereal.

Looks like she wanted to have some milk with it.

As I predicted the road is not finished yet.  I did get to say "hi" to the major a couple of days ago, as he was inspecting the work.  What has got us perplexed, is that it doesn't look like they are going to pave it.  Our neighbor said they should be finished in two days.   On Tuesday we got a box from my parents.  We enjoyed all the goodies.  Tuesday we also went and looked at our new house, we will be moving in the end of November.  We took some pictures (attached above).  I spent quite a bit of my time this week working on computer problems.  My computer locks up at random, more often when it is not being used.  I spent at least a day, trying several different things to get it to work right, but nothing seemed to help.  It seems like it will need to have windows reloaded.  Now it is just a matter of doing it.  Interestingly enough, I am not the only one recently to have computer problems.  Our church was struck by lightening and "killed" several computers, my mom's computer had a serious virus, and several others as well.  Someone at our church said something like, "Steve Jobs dies and all the computers crash".  I also had some troubles with out toilet.  I wonder if another inventor/inovator passed away this week. In other news, basketball practice continues to go well, but I didn't play very well this week.  I might need to find some time to practice with the boys a little.  Thankfully my main purpose is not the playing time or the excercise, it is meeting and getting to know my fellow players.  We have been wanting to invite some people over, but we are waiting for our road to be finished.  Thursday night, the Bible study went well, we had a first time visitor, and he seemed to enjoy the songs, prayer, and Bible lesson and discussion and said he would love to come back.  Friday morning at the market, there was not a lot of activity, but I did speak to a man who has a stand that sells bags and purses.  We talked for probably a hour, if you add it all up.  I also talked quite a bit with Philip, the man who came to the Bible study, we even enjoyed a cup of coffee together.  Friday afternoon we got a call from our landlord saying that someone wanted to some see the house, we got in touch with her and she ended up coming at 4 that afternoon.  That meant the afternoon was spent cleaning.  She came but didn't seem too interested.  I felt bad because she had to walk up our road wearing black, in high heels.  Friday afternoon Lilia was invited to a birthday party by one of her English friends at school.  She spent Friday night with the friends house.  She came back with excited stories involving painting fingernails and having cucumbers, avacadoes, and yogurt on her face.  Doesn't sound like much fun to me, but I am glad that she had a good time.  We let the boys have a friend over to fill the void at the house, so they had a good time as well, they played with legos for a good while.  This morning, I finished preparing for the services tommorrow, I will be leading the singing and giving the reading and devotional, and the devotional for the kids.  I really enjoy giving the kids lesson.  It captures a wide audience, because the kids tend to listen better, and the adults listen as well, so you reach everyone.  I pray that you have a blessed weekend.  JASON

Good days.

The last few days have been good.  No one came for the Bible Study last night, but we knew that many would be gone on vacation.  The market went well this morning.  One Muslim stopped by and asked for a Bible.  He said that he had seen several times on television people mention things about what was written in the Bible and that he would like to read for himself. I pray that he finds about the love of Jesus.    I have just about finished making all the parts of the VBS video that I am putting together.  It has been fun, I am think about putting a gag reel at the end.  We just noticed that Andrew's passport will expire this month and that means that we will be making a trip to Marseille to get it renewed.  God bless, JASON

Change in the Weather

Those strawberries are the reddest I have ever seen.

Tree in front of Andrew's school.

The Bible study went well last night.  We had a lesson on salvation, but there was a lot of good discussion concerning different topics.  There were six that came.  Angie had a lesson with the kids during most of the Bible study.  They really enjoyed it as well and could not wait to show me what they had done.  The market was good this morning, there was only four people who stopped by the stand. One lady was very excited to hear about our work. She was baptized by a baptist church in the north of France and she eagerly took my card and said that she would call and was interested in the Bible Study as well as the prospects for a church in Limoux.  Angie went and watched Andrew go swimming with his class.  He really enjoys it and is not scarred to get into the water.  She had a nice conversation with another mother while they waited.  She stopped back the market and we went and picked up a few items (pictured).  This has been one of the warmest Aprils on record here in France.   We have also not had much rain, but there are still penty of flowers.  The weather is changing as there has been a strong wind blowing these last couple of days and heavy rain is in the forcast for tonight and tommorrow.  Arianna has a tooth clearly showing now.  She slept good last night, after waking up every two hours the night before.  Hope that you enjoy your Easter weekend.  Historically in France you eat a Egg and Asperagus omelet on Easter. We might give that a try.  Also remember Angie and her family in your prayers, one of her uncles passed away this week.  God bless, JASON 

Going backwards

I made a lot of forward progess this week, except where blogging was concerned.  The past week was good.  Basketball went well as did my time with my language partner.  We cancelled Bible Study as several were unable to attend due to various reasons.  Friday the weather was perfect and I enjoyed the Bible Stand at the market.  We had several stop by and there was a crowd there.  Friday afternoon I had a conseilling session with a young lady that went well.  She has even asked to have a Bible Study on Wednesdays.  Saturday we got a garden planted.  The boys planted one and I planted another.  Neither one of them may grow anything, but it was fun.  We planted lettuce, squash, melons, parsley, tomatoes, and one other thing that I can't remember at the moment.  Services were good Sunday.  We had  visitors on Sunday afternoon.  A family that we met online after reading their blog came over for a couple of hours.  They are British but have lived in several countries all over the world working with a non-profit organization.  Today, I just sent out the monthly report and am trying to clear my inbox.  Arianna has been doing much better.  One day this past week, she was just happy and playing on the floor when Angie remarked, "She is happy. . .I don't know what to do."  She has started crawling, but goes better backwards than forwards.  I hope that you have a good Monday and a good week, and that you make a lot of forward progess as well.  God bless, JASON

Indoor Hockey

There were three at the Bible Study Thursday.  Friday morning the market was busy as well, as the weather was nice.  A young muslim man stopped by, which surprised me, he noticed the Arabic Bibles that were on the stand I had set up.  He refused the things I offered him and asked if I was a Jehovah Witness, and the moved on.  I gave a large print Bible to the lady, Mona, who runs the stand next to me.  She was very grateful and insisted that Angie come and pick something out for herself from the clothing stand.  The weekend went well. Services were good Sunday.  Angie stayed home with Lilia, Andrew, and Arianna, who were all plagued with colds.  Poor Arianna was just gettting a

routine when this cold set in a few days ago.  At least she is upset for a good reason now.  I wonder if there are any young children that actually enjoy getting their nose wiped.  Sunday evening a brief thunderstorm rolled through.  Storms like that are rare here in France, at least compared with how often they occured in Texas.  For a moment we all stood at the window watching.  Andrew was kind of anxious, but the storm didn't last but a few minutes.  Last night after, Angie let the kids play a game of indoor hockey.  They really enjoyed it.  It wasn't long before all the kids were hot and exhausted. God bless, JASON  

Changing Quick

Last week finished well.  We had three present for the Bible Study.  In spite of

 the threatening weather, I set up the stand at the Market.  It went well and there was not any rain.  I was able to hand out one tract and one Bible.  The weekend passed well.  We enjoyed the services in Carcassonne, France and in Hillsboro, Texas.   Monday started two weeks out of school for the kids.  Lilia is signed up this first week for a sports camp of sorts.  She goes the same hours that she would normally go to school to the gym and participates in different sports.  She wanted to spend time with her friends and I hope that she is able to meet girls her age from other schools because they will all be in the Jr. High together next year.  In the afternoon we went to pick up a piece of furniture (pictured) from the pastor in Carcassonne.  It was a nice piece that I thought would fit into our car, it didn't, but we were able to borrow a trailer and get it here.  Thankfully we have a little more storage in our kitchen now.  Arianna has been eating cereal once a day now.  She really enjoys it.  She was real good for us

 for a few days, but now her teeth are bothering her.  She seems to change like the weather.  It has been interesting the last few days with sudden downpours of rain, followed by sunshine.  We saw a beautiful rainbow yesterday (pictured) with some of the brightest colors I have seen.  I will work on my Bible Study lesson today, answer a Bible question that my language helper had, and work on a question that someone asked at the market (I gave them an oral answer, but wanted to write it down as well).    I wanted to attach this video of Andrew eating the other day.  We still have been laughing so much at meal times.  It would be impossible to tell all of the funny things that happen and that we hear at the table.  We did get Andrew to re-enact how he started eating. JASON

It's free

Arianna's passport picture.

We have been blessed with beautiful weather these past few days.  Monday and Tuesday, I prepared next weeks lesson so that I could give it over to me new language helper, Eric.  We had a good time together.  He did well in correcting my pronunciation and helped me with words that had a strong American accent.  Wednesday and Thursday I finished this weeks lesson.  Bible Study was good last night, there were four that came.  We are almost finished with our study on the sermon on the Mount.  Yesterday at lunchtime we had a lot of laughter at the table.  We were talking about being right handed and left handed.  To confuse everyone I said, "I can hold up my right hand with my left."  Micah said he could make his right hand his left and just help his right hand up on the left side of his body.  Soon afterwards Angie was opening an ice cream cone for Angie when it slipped out of his hand and landed right in front of Andrew, who said, "Splash!".  Micah tried to stick the top of his cone in his mouth and had it shoot out, he then tried eating it from the bottom up.  My parents printed out this blog in a blog that they sent us for Christmas.  Angie was reading it and came across the time when Micah said he wanted to go to the lake and chase dogs.  We were reminding him about it and asked why he said that.  He replied, "Because the fish will jump in the water so I can chase them."  That's as clear as mud.  I was at the market this morning and one of the ladies that stopped by the stand, just couldn't grasp how all the stuff that was on the stand was free.  I explained several time that she could take whatever she wanted and that it was free, but it was as if she couldn't grasp the concept.  She mentioned that she didn't have any money and had to leave. A man stopped by later and talked my ear off.  He notice the word "Biblical" on the stand and that got him started on the Biblical diet.  I don't think he took a breath between stories for he next 30 minutes. However, I enjoyed talking with him, more like listening to him.  I am going to work on my Sunday School lesson now.  Next week we have some missionary friends from Romania that are going to visit with us.  We are really excited about it.  Also the local inexpensive grocery store, Lidl, is having American week.  We have already visited one time and picked up peanut butter, ranch dressing, muffin mixes, pancake mixes, 1000 Island dressing, and other American things.  Awesome.  I hope you have a good weekend.  God bless, JASON

Games

Last week went well. Having our paperwork done and

 turned in was a relief.  While there were freezing temperatures and snow in the states, we enjoyed warmer temperatures.  The Bible study went well last week, three were present and we continued our series of studies on the Sermon on the Mount (currently in Matthew 7).  Friday we had a nice family night with the kids.  We had bought a marble obastacle course, where you build up these . . . perhaps a picture would be better than words.  Friday morning, I had a great time at the market.  It was warmer and there were a lot of people out.  Several people stopped by the stand and I passed out a bible, some tracts, and a gospel of John.  I also spoke with a few people who had stopped by before.  Saturday night we had a basketball match.  We lost and I only played about 20 minutes of the whole game, but I did score four points and had three rebounds.  It was at least another chance to hang out with team-mates and get to know

I was proud of my parking job.

 them better.  Sunday services in Carcassonne, went good, Angie stayed home with Arianna and Andrew.  Angie is still trying to get over a cough.  The other kids and I stayed for the meal afterwards and enjoyed visiting.  Sunday night, Angie and I both stayed up to watch the superbowl.  The team I was hoping would win did.  It was nice that Angie stayed up, it was much funner laughing at what the commentators said together.  I think there were only four commercial breaks.  I have a new language helper coming tomorrow, so I am going to get an early start on my lesson.  God bless, JASON

Several contacts

Andrew is excited that he will not longer be the only one
who has hand to his mouth.

Arianna wearing her new hat from my parents.



Lilia had been wanting her hair cut like this
for a couple of years.



Arianna sleeping next to me just now while Angie takes a walk.

There were two present for the Bible Study, thursday night.   One couple was out because of surgery, and another person had a guest.  Friday was a really interesting day.  The Bible stand at the market went well.  I first met a lady who attends the Assembly of God church in town.  After hearing who I was and why I was there, her reply was, "But there is already a church here".  After that point the conversation improved, as I assured her that I was not in competition, I just wanted to see people starting and building a relationship with Jesus.  A middle aged man stopped and got a Bible, he said that he had been looking for one since he heard some things and the books of Timothy and Revelation.  As always I encouraged him to read it and return with questions for me.  Friday afternoon, Angie had a friend that she made at the community meeting last Sunday visit with us.  The converstation was great.  I hope that we have the chance to get to know them better.  Our plumbing was stopped up that afternoon.  I worked on it a little, to no avail, and called the landlord.  After a couple of hours the city worker came by and had us up and running.  While I was picking the kids up from school, Angie got a telephone call from a man who had received one of my cards in a Bible Calender that I had handed out.  It seems he thought that we were Jehovah Witnesses and wanted to give us a piece of his mind.  Finding out that we were not really surprised him.  He ended by saying that he most likely will not come to the Bible Study.  Saturday the package that we had been waiting for these past few weeks came in.  The kids were sooooo excited!  They enjoyed playing with all their Christmas toys from my parents.  Also Saturday, Angie and Lilia got their hair cut. Lilia is turning into a young lady so quickly.  Today we have a few calls to the states planned.  This next week will be a little different because of our appointment in Marseille to get Arianna's birth certificate, passport, and social security number.  I hope that you enjoy the rest of this day.  God bless, JASON

Coffee and Basketball

Arianna reaches out for mommy.

Arianna loves holding and chewing on her blanket.

The kids about to open a package from the grandparents.

Waking Arianna up in the morning.

Let me think about the last time I have blogged and what has happened since then.  We had a good Bible Study Thursday evening, two were present.  Friday morning I met a man at the market I have spoken with several times.  He even came to church with us one time.  I have not seen him during the Christmas break even though I tried to contact him several times. It was good to see him, we took a break and had coffee together and a good conversation.  Friday night we had basketball practice leading to our game on Saturday night.  This was the first and only game I will play in this season, because the rest was on Sunday morning.  The game was good.  We lost by thirty points, but our team was only started two years ago and the majority are new this year, like myself.  I had two rebounds and 8 points.  Coffee and basketball have proven to be good ways to build relationships.  Sunday morning services were good.  We planned on having a restful afternoon because we didn't get back home after the game until almost midnight, but we received a phone call from saying that there was a get-together the community center for the new year.  We enjoyed last years so we packed up the family and drove down the hill.  We had a good time, we were able to meet a family from town and exchange contact information.  The was one funny part for the evening where Caleb got dragged up front to dance with this lady.  He resisted and it was clear he didn't want to be there. All the rest of the family had a good laugh at his expense then Micah ran up to join in the dance.  Monday which is my day off, we shopped and I also scheduled an appointment to get Arianna's birth certificate, social securiy number, and passport.  We will have to drive three hours to Marseille to accomplish all this.  After I made the appointment on the phone, I couldn't help but tell Angie, "Angie, they spoke English!"  Wasn't really expecting that.  Today, we took Arianna for her 4 month appointment.  We will eat lunch with some friends.  After school our kids are having some classmates come over, followed by basketball practice.  God bless, JASON

Christmas Eve

All the "kids" at our Tex-mex dinner.

The Christmas season has been going great.  Tuesday we did some Christmas shopping as a family.  We also picked up some Christmas cards and enveloppes to stuff for the church in Carcassonne.  We worked on them as a family and it only took a couple of hours to stuff 100 Christmas Cards.  Wednesday and Thursday morning I helped the pastor in Carcassonne pass them out.  It was fun, good time of fellowship, getting to see the area, and placing cards in mailboxes that share about the true meaning of Christmas.  Thursday evening, we watched some fireworks in town and then we had supper with our friends from Magrie.  We served Tex-mex and had a great time sharing about Christmas in Texas.  We also got to explain what a redneck was.  This morning Caleb and went to the market and distributed about 80 bible verse calenders. There were not a lot of people there and it was cold.  Caleb really enjoyed it.  This afternoon Angie is going to pass out gifts to our neighbors and visit with some friends.  I will take the kids to Carcassonne and pick out some more fish for the aquarium and also stop by downtown Limoux and let the kids have a turn on the obstacle course they have set up.  I am looking forward to tommorrow.  We had planned on Skyping with our family, but Skype was down yesterday because of server trouble.  Hopefully we can try tonight.  I pray that you have a very merry Christmas and that you take time to think about the greatest gift ever given, Jesus.  Enjoy my favorite Christmas song, What Child is This.  God bless, JASON

Crystal

I am glad that last week has passed.  It ended well.  The Bible Study was good.  The market on Friday morning went well.  They had closed downtown because they were setting up stuff for Christmas, and so I put my stand up in another place.  I ended up next to an young man who was selling crystals.  We had a nice time talking.  He has traveled all over and then, after two angels talked to him, he built a temple in a town near Limoux.  He sells crystals and gives seminars about how to use them and the special powers that they hold.  Needless to say, it was an interesting visit.  Other than that, I met a former missionary that was interested in the Bible Study and also handed out a few Bible Verse Calenders as well.  It was cold but worth the time.    I also met someone online, who had seen my Youtube videos and wanted me to help with his translation of a song.  I did what I could and got that back to him. 

Friday night, Caleb had a friend from school come over.  This was the first time Caleb had a friend over. They had a really great time.  I went to choir practice in Carcassonne, came back and picked up Caleb and his friend, and we dropped his friend off before going to basketball practice.  My ankle is continuing to get better.  I try to take it easy while I play though.  Saturday we had Caleb's birthday party.  His birthday is the 17th, but last Saturday was the best time we could find for his party.  We had a wonderful time.  We finally bought him a top, Beyblade, that he had been begging for these past months.  They were sold out at the store, but we found a good deal online.  Sunday passed well.  After church we rested since everyone had been up late the nights before.  We listened to the services of our home church on Skype that evening.  Today I have been catching up on emails, correcting past lessons, working on future lessons, and even found a few minutes to watch the highlights of a few NFL games.  I saw on the news recently that a teenager armed with swords had taken kindergarten kids hostage, and their teacher, at a school in eastern France.  Thankfully it has ended with no one getting hurt.  The Christmas song I have picked for this blog I heard recently and it brought back a lot of good memories.  I was listen to Christian Christmas Radio online.  You can check it out at http://www.klove.com/ , on the home page click the red box that says Klove Christmas Radio.  There you have it, 24 hr christmas music.  God bless, JASON 

Christmas season is here.

I had a good meeting with the pastor in Carcassonne.  The Bible study went well last night also.  It was cold at the market this morning.  We even had some snow falling periodically.  There were not many people at the market and we did not get to make any new contacts, but we did see two men that we had met previously and talk with them at length.  It was cold.  Angie had purchased these hand warmers that are interesting.  Little gelatin sacks with a piece of metal inside, you bend the metal and the sack heats up and stays warm for about an hour.  Afterwards you just boil it to reactivate it.  It says it will work for 1,000 times.  Interesting.  As you can see in the picture my ankle looks worse, but it is feeling much better.  I just have a slight limp.  Tonight we have choir practice in Carcassonne, tommorrow is practice for the kids christmas program.  Sunday afternoon there will be a meeting of the church members in Carcassonne to discuss several issues involving the future of the church.  Remember them in your prayers.  They have been such a help to us.  I will try to attach a Christmas song at the end of these posts in December.  Below is "Il est né le Divin Enfant", one of the most popular traditional French Christmas songs. I could not find a version with English Subtitles, so here is the English version, "He is born the divine Child".  You can find the french version on YouTube as well.  God bless, JASON

Busy for an awesome God.

Lilia seems bothered by her brothers
hovering over her.

Lilia's birthday party went very good.  There were 9 guests. It ended up lasting several hours.  That evening I had basketball practice.  I had the opportunity to speak with some of the players.  Just chit-chat really, but still an ocassion to build the relaitionship.  I even stayed a little afterwards talking with some of the guys. Wednesday the kids started school back.  I worked most of the day on the lesson for Thursday, I had it ready earlier, but added quite a bit.  Thursday, I made the final preparations for the bible study.  We had a good turnout. Eight people came and we had a good time of study, prayer, and fellowship.  Angie said afterwards that my French was really good.  I think what probably helped was having gone over my lesson several times during the previous days.  Friday morning, I set up the stand in the market.  It was a beautiful day, getting up to around 65 degrees and sunny.  I made several contacts.  One man stopped by and talked for a minute or two.  A lady took a

gospel of John.  Another man stopped by and asked some questions about the different bibles I had on display.  Near the end another man stopped by and we talked for about 25 minutes.  I confessed to know Jesus as his saviour.  He has had four wives and has five children.  He has only been to church once, and that was the Catholic church.  He does read his bible.  I'll call him Monsieur B.  Be in prayer for him, he took one of the invitation cards for the Bible Study.  Friday afternoon, I started working on the lesson for next weeks Bible study.  Friday night meant basketball practice again.  Usually there are a lot more people on Fridays.  It went well. What surprised me was we played a short game, first team who scored twelve points wins.  I scored 8 of the twelve points.  I was surprised as well.  This morning I am finished up the lesson for next week and the Sunday school lesson for Sunday.  For the Sunday School lesson we are starting a series studying the life of David.  I am looking forward to the study.  After lunch, I will need to get a few things done around the house.  We have a birthday party to attend later this afternoon and then I am meeting with Cédric, my language helper this evening.  I wanted to also share a blessing.  Our ministry needs were larger this month because we had to pay about $1000 for our visas.  Thankfully God knew this in advance, as our supporting churches gave almost that exact amount above normal this past month.  Isn't God awesome! - JASON

Basketball

Tuesday night at basketball practice the coach mentioned that

 the next game had been moved to Saturday.  I was hoping that I would be able to play, but I needed to get my paperwork done and have a Doctor's note.  Thursday only one person came for the Bible Study.  We enjoyed a time of fellowship and prayer together.  Friday, I set the Bible stand up at the market.   It was cold in the morning.  In fact it was our first frost.  Thankfully the stand was in the sunshine after an hour or two and things warmed up nicely.  I did have a couple of good contacts during the three hours I was there.  There was a man who talked with me about 20 minutes.  He was a former catholic who had converted to Muslim because of the hipocrisy he had seen among the catholics.  I gave him the information about the Bible Study and he seemed interested.  We will pray and wait to see the fruits.  Friday afternoon I had my Doctors appointment which I passed.  We had practice Friday night.  All the kids were looking forward to watching daddy play basketball Saturday night.  Saturday morning I went and helped out with the Bible

Stand at the market in Carcassonne.  I had a good visit with the pastor while there.  Friday night we headed to the game, but found out that my paperwork didn't have enough time to go through and get approved so I could not play.  I did end up running the clock and scoreboard however.  I think that Angie met and talked with all the wives and kids in the audience.  It was great that she was able to meet some of the families.  We hope to be able to invite some over this week.  Our visitors that had planned to come are not going to be able to make it. Sunday services were good at Carcassonne, the house was packed.  The church has begun to look into options for having more space.  Saturday night Arianna slept 10 hours straight. She has been cute and smiling quite a but.  I will add some pictures of her.  God bless, JASON 

One or two.

I have not been as sore after these last few basketball practices.  Unfortunately, most of the games are Sunday morning, so I will not be able to attend.  The practices have been g

Grape harvestor seen often this time of year.

ood.  I have learned probably half the player's names.  I have been waiting for it to rain for a few days now.  I moved a 1000 liter tank from our neighbors house to ours and have it hooked up to our gutter system so that it should catch the rain water.  This will give us water for the plants and other outside uses.  I am hoping that it will save on the water bill.  Thursday's Bible study went good. There were 5 who joined us.  We are continuing a series on the Sermon on the Mount.  Our market stand went good Friday morning.  Thankfully the weather was nice.  We had several good contacts.  I spoke with two older Frenchmen who said they already had a Bible.

The boys helping to set up our stand.

 I asked them if they read them and they said, "How can we read something that is American."  That confused me and I remarked that the Bibles were in French.  I asked Edouard afterward what they could have meant.  He thought it might be because they thought we were Jehovah Witnesses or that the printers of their Bible were American.  I think I will put a sign on our Stand stating who we are.  I am finishing up the Sunday School lesson now.  Arianna is sleeping some better, the last few nights she went to sleep at 1 or 2 in the morning instead of 3 or 4.  God bless, JASON  

To market, to market . . .

I don't know if I mentioned in the last post that we did not have Bible Study Thursday evening.  We did have a good visit with the pastor and his wife from Carcassonne.   Friday I started my monthly report, which I will finish today.  I also talked with another American missionary in France who is working near Paris.  He gave a lot of good advice concerning the paperwork and process for getting you childs birth certificate and passport.  We had a good time at the market Friday morning.  We arrived at 8:30, the boys helped me carry everything.  Edouard and I found a good spot and set up the booth.  During the three hours that I was there.  We talked to about 5 people.  One elderly man stopped and talked with us.  So sad that he had no clue about where he would spend eternity, and acted as if he didn't care.  He was 93 years old. Edouard continued as I took the kids home for lunch. He had a couple of good contacts as well.  I am looking forward to next week.  Friday evening I enjoyed basketball practice.  I wasn't as sore as the time before.  Caleb went with me and had a wonderful time shooting baskets.  He told me afterwards that he wants to go with me every time.  Saturday, we went shopping, I needed some shoes for playing basketball which we found at a great price as a result of an "end of series" sell.  We also stopped and looked at a pet store with the kids, we are thinking of getting a few more fish, because our big aquarium is lacking acivity with the few fish in it.  After returning home, I went with a few of the kids to look at the large art exhibit here in town.  It was really impressive and there is a lot of talent displayed.  The most exciting events was the arrival of our paperwork for our visa, we now have an appointment with the immigration office.  Angie planned on going to church Sunday morning, but the four hours sleep that she ended up getting changed her mind.  I went with the kids and enjoyed the services.  There were several first time visitors in the services.  When we returned home, Angie had just woke up, we grabbed lunch and then I took a nap for a couple of hours.  When I woke, I found that we had some guests come by.  We took another walk down to Magrie to see the art and while I was there I bought some churros, which everyone loved.  Today, it is back in the office, I hope to get the report sent out soon.  Arianna has her one month doctors visit this afternoon.  Attached pictures were taken at the art exhibit. God bless, JASON

Spring has arrived.

It was a beautiful day today. The temperature got up to around 19 and the sun was shining (about 66 Faren). Thursday Angie went with Yvain, Virginie, TJ, Gary, and Judy to the fruit market and to the mall. She found some great deals at the open air fruit market, like 4 kilos of onions for one euro. They went out to eat as well. At the restrooms in the restaurant at the mall you had to enter a code on you recent to be open the bathroom door. Free public restrooms are scarce. I stayed home with the kids, which I enjoyed more than shopping. Yesterday we went to a local fair (Foire du Trone). It took a train, tram, and bus for us to get there. It was nice, a little more expensive than we expected. Thankfully there was no entrance fee only pay per ride. The kids had a lot of fun. Reluctantly I put Andrew on a ride driving the cars (pictured) around a little track. He looked serious the entire ride, but when it came time to get off he would not let go of the steering wheel. I had to literally pry him off. There was quite a bit of cultural things around. You had to pay 50 cents a person to use the restrooms. There was a lot of pictures of women and men "scarcly clad" everywhere, at a kids fair of all places. It was nice getting out and getting some sun. We had everyone over for supper afterwards. Today was nice and relaxing. Just doing some around the house stuff. Looking forward to the services tommorrow. God bless, JASON