Thanksgiving in France.

Our Thanksgiving meal went good. It was definitely unique. I can't remember ever working so hard to prepare for a Thanksgiving and I know that I have never had an order of services written before. Our British friends from Carcassonne came early to help out. Everyone else arrived between 10 to 30 minutes late, which is the French custom. I started out with the history of Thanksgiving. I said, "Thanksgiving; ça veut dire « l'action de grâce » historiquement est un jour de fête chrétienne durant lequel on remerciait Dieu par des prières et des réjouissances pour les bonheurs que l’on avait pu recevoir pendant l’année avec nos familles. Notre famille ne peuvent pas venir, donc pour ce soir, vous êtes notre famille. En 1620, 120 de pèlerins Puritains britanniques ont quitté l'Angleterre à cause de la persécution, ils sont arrivés septembre 1620 à la Baie de Plymouth au Massachusetts. Ils y fondent la Colonie de Plymouth et la ville homonyme. Mais les débuts de la colonisation furent difficiles et la moitié des arrivants périrent. Ces derniers ne durent leur salut qu'à l'intervention des amérindiens en particulière un autochtone nommé Squanto qui avec l'aide de sa tribu, offrit aux anglais de la nourriture; il leur montrât des nouvelles plats comme le pop-corn, puis leur apprirent à pêcher, chasser des animaux comme les dinde sauvage, et cultiver du maïs.
Afin de célébrer la première récolte, à l’automne 1621, le gouverneur décréta trois jours d'action de grâce. Les colons invitèrent alors le chef de la tribu et ses hommes à venir partager leur repas, en guise de remerciement pour l'aide apportée. Durant ce festin, des dindes sauvages furent offerts. Y compris les 47 pèlerins dont 4 femme et 90 amérindiens. En 1941 la fête est devenu officiel par le gouvernement; les administrations et la plupart des entreprises étant fermées ce jour-là. Cela reste un temps pour . . . manger avec la famille, remercier Dieu, donner nourriture aux sans abri, regarder des grands matchs du football américain, voyager, commencement de Noël. . . cette célébration est désormais plutôt laïque en Amérique du Nord." Our kids acted out the parts. Lilia and Caleb where the pilgrims, Micah was the indian and Andrew was the Turkey. When the indian meet the Pilgrims, they shook hands and "fait la bise", kiss on each check. The kids came up with that on their own. When Andrew came in as a turkey, everyone "aweeed" and he got a little shy. He was supposed to run out when I mentioned that they ate the turkey but he was clinging to mom instead. Afterwards Angie introduced the dishes, which was a chore in itself. Dressing = la farce, which also means a practical joke, cranberry sauce = la sauce de canneberge, sweet potatoes = patates douce, buttermilk pie = a pie made from buttermilk (doesn't sound very good once you think about it), pumpkin pie = tarte à la citrouille (pie made from an orange vegetable?). We went around and everyone gave something that they were thankful for, and then I led in prayer. The food was well received and we had many good remarks. Converstation was good. I announced as well our Bible study starting The kids were well behaved. Ending up having 20 people including our family. The party broke up around 10:30. Today we are recovering and resting and eating leftovers. A friend from the church in Carcassonne is coming over to look at some plumbing issues this afternoon. Afterwards I was considering taking the kids to a Rugby match in Limoux. The first picture was Andrew helping to make the dressing, others were taking during the evening. We pray your Thanksgiving were all a wonderful and that you took time to give thanks to God. 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