Sunday in Barcelona

Part of the group in Barcelona.

Preparing to speak in Barcelona.

About to cross the border into Spain.

Time for your close-up.

Last week finished well.  Warmer weather arrived and we had nice contacts with people as a result.  We met one family who had come to our Thanksgiving meal as they walked by outside.  We invited them in and had a good visit.  They asked several questions about the Bible Study.  Also they will be moving into a house not to far from ours.  Bible Study went well Thursday night.  There was a long discussion afterwards after someone asked a question concerning the importance and purpose of church attendance.  I went to the market again on Friday, after missing the last three weeks for various reasons.  It went well, with several good contacts.  I always focus on the good, but don't think that there are not any negative reactions.  One lady walked by the other day and noticed the Bibles and said, "I don't believe in that, if God exists, I just wish he would stay up there (pointing up)."  I pray that God will somehow reach them. Our services in Barcelona were wonderful.  We left at 8 am and arrived at 11:15. (services started at noon) I shared about our work in France during the Sunday School time and then preached a message.  We enjoyed wonderful fellowship over the meal afterwards and stayed until late in the afternoon. It was encouraging and even the kids were well behaved.  Yesterday we had a visit from a lady who comes to our Bible study who wanted us to meet her daughter.  Lilia had a friend spend the night last night so we also got to visit briefly with her dad.  Today we are having two guests for supper.  I am truly excited about what God has done for us these last couple of months.  I also want to mention a prayer request.  A good missionary friend of our, Alvin, who serves in Scotland, was recently diagnosed with brain cancer, doctors give him 6 to 8 months.  He is 49 years old.  Pray for him, his wife, and their work in Scotland.  God bless, JASON

Blowing against the flow.

The weather has changed drastically the last few days. Monday and Tuesday, it was cold and windy. We happend to be parked by the river and the wind was blowing white capped waves on the river, and even more amazing was that it was blowing against the flow of the river. It actaully looked like the river was going in the wrong direction. Now it is sunny and mild. We have been trying to get Andrew nursed back to health. He still is not sleeping well, but has not had fever today. It affects everyone's schedule when he is off schedule. Today I gave the short lesson before the prayer time at the church in Carcassonne. I loved studying, preparing, and sharing God's word. I will attach the lesson later. It was over the prayer of Jabez (I Chronicles 4:9-10). I feel like I have not accomplished some things that I have needed to get down as a result of Andrew's sickness. Angie wakes up with him during the night, and I keep an eye out for him during the day so that Angie can get a nap. I am looking forward to our Thanksgiving kickoff. I am really just looking forward to the holiday season in general. Angie and I want to get the boys bikes for Christmas. I can see all of us riding as a family. We have been keeping our eyes open for good deals. Looking forward to Friday. If it is pretty again I need to do some more work on the yard to get it ready for company. Attached is a picture of the river Aude that runs through Limoux. God bless, JASON

House Hunting

Angie made a trip this past weekend to look at houses in Limoux. She had a real nice trip. We rented her a small car and thankfully she had a friend from the language school that was kind enough to accompany her. We had some friends from Limoux that offered them a place to stay the night. Be in prayer for this elderly couple because they are unsaved and God has really put them into a position to need Him. Angie was able to view two houses and found the second one really what she was looking for. It was a good size and in a nice location and had a pretty large yard by French standards. We will start the paper work and see what happens. God has been opening the doors for us in wonderful ways. We have found a car, and well on the way to finding a house, there is a good church in the area we can minister with while we wait for our work to get started, we have several contacts in Limoux already and many opportunities to make other relationships.

In other news, Caleb had a field trip to view the museum of national history in Paris. It was a pretty day for it. It got up around 80 today. Of course realize that there is no A/C in any of the buildings. Some of the students from the south were mentioning how hot it was. I was picking on them for being from the south where it gets up to over 100 every summer. Another student was England came by and complained. I mentioned that he was going to serve in Africa after school, he should be wearing a coat. A front is supposed to come through tonight and cool things off. It did get warm, but I didn't mention it to anyone that I noticed also. God bless, JASON

Back into the swing of things.

School has gotten started back up like there wasn't even a break. In fact, we have a test on Thursday.
Angie has been sick. She has a sore throat, achy joints, and a intermittent fever. She has missed school these last two days. Join me in praying for her quick recovery.
Spring seems to have left again. The high was only 58 today. It has been rainy, and there was even a little hail. The sunshine and spring weather are supposed to be back next week. I was walking the kids back to school after lunch today and it started sprinkling on us. Micah asked, "Is it raining?" I replied that is was. He then said, "It must be Monday." I don't know how he comes up with these things.
I am expecting a phone call tomorrow from a French Association that we might be looking to granting us the invitation to work here in France. I am looking forward to it but also am a little nervous because it is difficult to speak French on the phone, actually I think the harder part is to understand what the other person is saying more than speaking.
I have not mentioned in a while the young man, Clint, a member of our church who was severely burned (85%) recently, he is doing well, but still has a lot to face. If you would like to follow his progress more closely you can go to my Dad's blog, the link is to the right.
Andrew 's potty training is going real well. I am pleasantly surprised. What he really likes is the applause everyone gives him after a successful trip. Now he goes and tells everyone afterwards so that they will clap for him. God bless, JASON

The 7th Day

Today is the 7th day that Angie has been away from me. She is doing well. Yesterday morning they went to the ocean and that afternoon they killed and plucked a chicken. It is good to know that she is getting a good African experience. Today she will be attending services. A little ironic that soon after we can understand all that goes on in the service in French, she will be in a Swahili service and not understand a word. I think everyone should experience a worship service where you do not understand what is being said. It is a good growth experience and a test of worship. For those who would like to contact us, my Magic Jack is up and working. It gives us a US phone number. If you would like the number just ask. And also a prayer request. A church member of our sending church Clint, around 20 years old, fell into a fire and has burns over 85% percent of his body. He needs your prayers as does our church, as my father and his family will be with him this Sunday morning at the Hospital. God bless, JASON

English

As I have mentioned before, other than French we are also learning "English" (British english). There are quite a few differences, For instance, If I said, "I left the nappy and the dummy in the pushchair next to the cot." translated into English (American), "I left the diaper and the pacifier in the stroller next to the baby bed." That is quite a difference. I need to go write an email to a French pastor in the south of France. I have found that it is a lot easier to write in French if you go directly into French, meaning you use the vocabulary and sentence structure that you know. The other way is to think what you would say in English and then try to translate it to French. I always run into things that can't be translated. We are considering going to the south of France after language school to start our church plant. There is a lot of work to do if that is the case. I have been feeling God's leading there, we would need to take another trip there to survey the area more. Pray for us, that God would make his will clear and guide us to where we can best serve him. Pictured is Lilia with a flower she picked at the Language school garden. God bless, JASON

Prayer requests.

Just needed to make note of a couple of prayer requests. We had good services sunday morning with Yvain and Virginie, afterwards they expressed some confussion and concerns about our ministry ideas and plans, be in prayer as we prayer about these. ALso pray for a dear friend of mine who is going through a difficult family crisis. Also be in prayer for me as I am scheduled to bring a short lesson to the school next week, all in french. Merci en avance. JASON

The results are in.

Pictured above is a local school parade, marching for protection of the environment. It was interesting, they stopped traffic for about 20 minutes and threw confetti everywhere. Ironically, I do not think the confetti is that good for the environment.
The test is finished thankfully. If you must know Angie made an 84 and I made an 81 (she beat me). That brings our semester average to Angie 89.5 and Jason 89.25 (she beat me again - but I guess if she always beats me then the average would be beating me as well- hmm). So according to the school handbook we are now at a language level of "A2-1" which means we "can understand and use familiar everyday expressions and very basic phrases aimed at the satisfaction of needs of a concrete type. Can introduce him/herself and others and can ask and answer questions about personal details such as where he/she lives, people he/she knows and things he/she has. Can interact in a simple way and provided the other person talks slowly and clearly and is prepared to help." Sounds pretty basic though.

We had several students who are leaving for their perspective fields and we all had prayer for them. It is amazing to me the strength of God's love and faith in him. We have at the school people from various countries and backgrounds all united by a desire to serve God and learn french. One student left a successful medical practice in England, where he even met the Queen, to go to a small carribean Island and live without Air Conditioning to share the love of Christ with the people there. One student leaving today, moved here and learned french hoping to work in an elderly home for french speakers. What an awesome way to serve the Lord. I am looking forward to finishing school and moving on the our main focus here, to share the love of Christ through evangelism and discipleship - starting new churches.

In Exodus 3:7 God tells Moses that he has seen the affliction of his people and heard their cries and knows their sorrows. I have experienced some of that here as well. I have seen the strugles of the people around me, knowing what a difference a relationship with Jesus would make. I have heard their cries for help, I see them walking in sorrow, searching for peace and fulfillment through worldy things. What a difference Jesus would make in their life. I pray and hope that establishing churches here will multiply the amount of disciples of Jesus exponentially so the people here can be delivered from their taskmasters as well. Remember in the next chapter, Moses' complaint, "I am slow of speech and slow of tongue"(4:10). I have experienced that a lot recently. But God did make mans mouth and he has given us the command to go, because he will be with us and teach us what we shall say (4:11-12). He also gave us an Aaron not someone to speak for us but someone to teach us the language (4:15) so we can best communicate with the people here.

Our Father, We thank you for all that you are. Your power, grace, and amazing love for us; for this ministry you have called us to; continue to strengthen us and help us learn the language so that we can reach out to your people here, people that you have created to worship you and bring you honor and glory. It is our desire to deliver them from their taskmaster of sin and direct them to you and give you all the glory for it. Thank you for providing a wonderful support group behind us and laying a path before us. We pray that we will use all the gifts that you have given us to accomplish the things that you have for us to do. Help us to follow you with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. Deliver us from weakness and temptation so that we will not get in the way of your blessings, but that we may be in good fellowship with you and recognize your leadership and your Spirit's guidance in our lives. Thank you Father for the wonderful ways you have blessed us so far. For the strength to serve you another day. Au nom de Jésus Christ, Amen.

The UPS guy drives a mercedes.

It is weird to see the UPS guy and all the big trucks being Mercedes. Here if someone has an American made car they are usually thought of as being rich, examples that I have seen are Pontiac Firebird, PT Cruiser, Hummer, Cadillac. They are several Ford cards sold here. They have some European commercials that you may (or may not) find funny. Examples http://youtube.com/watch?v=aJGtCe_26EQ http://youtube.com/watch?v=X-MZaV9uz6M CULTURAL WARNING: These are european commercials - content is not for animal lovers, or those with light stomachs!! Another cultural thing, We have a couple of German students in our class. We are always picking on them about having beer in their water thermos in class. Another student bought a beer and poured it in his thermos while he was out on break. I wasn't there we he returned and got a drink, but they said he was suprised.

Another funny word today, the French word for a dresser is commode. So, you put your clothes in a commode. There was another humerous moment, but I will let Angie share that one. Another strange thing: Words here as I said earlier are masculine or feminine. We found out today that the word feminine is masculine, try and make sense of that. I had to pray in French today. After I finished, I looked at the teacher to see what comment she had. She said," Wow". There was a moment of silence as the students, including me, didn't know how she meant it. Another student said, "Did God understand it?" She did end up meaning it positively.

Congrats, Krys (we see your name everywhere, it is a chain optometry store here, spelled the same way) for answering the last quiz, question. I will do more of those later. We had good services Sunday, attendence of 9, including my family. Angie and I both have been having many people come up to us and speak french, so we must be adapting some. We are learning more and more. JASON