School days return

Arianna playing.

Well we are off and running now.  School has started, the boys enjoyed their first days.  I had no problems with any of them not wanting to go.  They all walked right in.  Micah had a short field trip even.  We went to a birthday party Monday afternoon.  I have been even more occupied with taking the kids to school now.  Lilia's school starts and 8 and the boys start at 9.  Lilia gets out earlier than the boys and at different times on different days.  I have given up trying to keep up with it.  I just ask as I am dropping her off, what time she wants to be picked up.  To shorten amount of trips we make, Lilia is eating lunch at school.  I will be looking forward to moving to town and her being able to walk.  Speaking of which, we will sign the lease this afternoon.  We also have a Doctors appointment for one of the kids and a meeting at Andrew's school to attend, followed by Bible study this evening.  Earlier this week we also had a slight scare.  We got a call from one of our missionary friends in Romania, telling us that there was an explosion at at nuclear waste treatment plant not too far from here (not too far being relative considering that it is a nuclear waster plant, it is about a two hour drive from here).  Thankfully it was not a nuclear incident. Just an explosion in a furnace, causing one death and several injuries.  There was no radiation leak.  Arianna is doing great, I think she enjoys having a little break from the boys while they are at school.  Angie and Arianna are suffering from colds, but I guess that season is approaching.  We are still having beautiful summer weather, lows in the 60's highs in the 80s.  The grape harvest has begun, which means almost every trip we take to town ends up with us stuck behind a tractor pulling a trailer full of grapes.  That is a price we pay for living in the largest grape producing region of the world.  This seasons grape harvest is a large and early one.  Warm weather we had in April caused the grapevines to bloom early, then cool wet weather in July slowed them down.  I heard this morning that my younger sister had her baby.  Baby girl was born at 11:59 during the night their time, 7 lbs 5 ozs, 19.25 inches, Naomi Elizabeth Bachman.  Mom and baby are doing good, my parents are enjoying grandchild number 11.  I will be looking forward to meeting this new addition to the family when we return to the States this summer.  God bless, Jason

Angie snapped this shot of the village where they had the
youth meeting with the church in Carcassonne last saturday.

Toothless

This was taken in January,
Arianna has changed.

The weekend finished well.  We enjoyed the services with the church in Carcassonne and hearing the services of our sending church in Texas as well.  Our sending church is having Missions Month, which we are excited about. The kids have returned to school.  Micah lost another tooth yesterday.  He takes these teeth serious.  This morning the tooth was still under his pillow, and he said he knew it would be because he didn't go to sleep fast enough last night so the "little mouse" didn't come.  I did some research yesterday for a trip we are planning in August to visit Normandy.  It looks like it will be a lot of fun.  I also cleaned out my inbox as well.  There was an email from a pastor in Haiti that had emailed me in January that I finally was able to respond to.  Lilia has been really interested in the situation in Japan.  They have talked a lot about the earthquake and tsunami in class.  Our prayers go out to all those who are suffering there.  I just read that the island of Japan has moved 8 feet.  Arianna has continued about the same.  She has happy moments, but also moments where she screams and nothing seems to appease her.  She has cute moments, thankfully. Angie is excited about a 35 mm camera she bought. She just tried it out and is excited to get the film developed to see how it worked.  I need to go get the kids for lunch now.  God bless, JASON     

Preparing for School

We had another good weekend. Saturday night I assisted at the Bible Exposition. I have included several pictures. Seems every day there are several that enter and give us to opportunity to get to know them and usually they leave with some tracts and/or bibles. Services were good Sunday. Caleb woke up with a bad cough so Angie stayed home with him and Andrew. She didn't mind to bad, because she is at the point where she is uncomfortable most of the day. The last few days we finished getting Lilia and Caleb's room in shape. We bought all the kids school supplies and got the all labeled with their names and packed in their backpacks. Tuesday morning I watched over the Bible Exposition. I got to meet and speak with a former member of the church who was visiting from England. Today we had some friends from Carcassonne eat lunch with us. I finished up a sermon today. I am a couple weeks ahead for the Bible Study, so I decided to prepare a full fledge sermon this week, which I really enjoyed. My lesson is ready for Thursday, it will be the second in the series of the sermon on the mount. Tomorrow I will have my French conversation hour. Some of our regulars are back in town so we should have several at the Bible Study. Friday we are meeting someone to pick up some clothes that Angie bought off of ebay.fr. She got some real good deals 52 items for about $100. The boys will have some nice school clothes. Enjoy to rest of your day. God bless, JASON

Les Grandes Vacances

Such is the term for the summer break here in France. Today was the kids last day of school. Lilia stayed home this afternoon and I took her to meet a couple of friends at the pool. We are going to Paris this weekend to say "hi" and "goodbye" to a few friends. I will be leaving the computer behind (i'm going to hide it, so don't get any ideas) so this will be a good get-a-way weekend. School ended well for the kids. We only had one come for the Bible study tonight, which I expected because many are getting away for the weekend and/or have end of school meetings and events. We will return Sunday afternoon and are looking forward to greeting the new pastor of the church in Carcassonne who will arrive Monday. God bless, JASON

Courtesy

My birthday went well. Lilia got a call from a friend inviting her to go swimming Friday evening. After she looked at tme with the big puppy dog eyes, I let her go. She had a wonderful time. Saturday I put together my Barbeque grill and even cooked some saucisses de Toulouse (Toulouse sausages)(pictured). They were excellent. We decided to purchase a gas grill in case the power goes off we will be able to cook and in winter we will have gas for heat. Saturday night Lilia realized that she had forgot a homework assignent, so we called her friend that she had went swimming with and her mother volunteered to copy the assignement and bring it over for us as a matter of courtesy because she knew Angie is expecting. We had a good visit with her mother for about an hour and we praise God for the opportunity to make this contact. Sunday services went well. In the afternoon I visited in the services of the other church in Limoux. They are an Assembly of God church that has been here for 27 years. They have about 50 membors and a nice meeting place. I was glad for the opportunity to meet the pastor, and as a common courtesy, to let him know that I was here. Monday morning we made our weekly shopping trip, and in the afternoon Angie went to her doctors appointment. Angie's blood pressure was still a little high and so the Doctor requested her return for more blood tests and for a extended blood pressure test. Tuesday, I took the car to the dealership to get the washer fluid pump replaced, while Angie got her blood tested. We met up and went to see an end of school dance presentation that Caleb's class and several others classes put on. Tuesday afternoon and evening I worked on the lesson for Thursday night and Angie went to the Bible Study in Carcassonne. Currently Angie is taking the kids to their swimming lesson, and the end of school party that will follow. Hopefully she will be able to make some contacts with people. I am preparing material now for my language session and soon I need to go work on lunch. It has rained the past four days and so I have not been able to use my grill again. I think it is supposed to clear up tomorrow. God bless, JASON

School End

Thing seem to get busy as school draws to an end. Monday we got our main shopping done for the week. Tuesday I ran some errands in town after dropping the kids off, and worked on my lesson in the afternoon. Tuesday after school, Lilia and Caleb had an end of the school year musical concert (pictured). It was very enjoyable, but we did not get done until almost 7:00 so I was unable to make it to the Bible study in Carcassonne. Wednesday I finished the lesson, while Angie went swimming, a friend of Angie's went along with her to give her some company. We all ate lunch afterwards, which I had made. It was an attempt at a Chicken Pot pie, which Angie likes. It turned out a little to spicy for the kids, but the adults enjoyed it. The kids enjoyed it as long as enough Crême Fraiche, was added. I had a good session with Cédric. We are going to go together to visit the pentecostal church here in Limoux on Sunday afternoon. I am looking forward to meeting the pastor there, I had not been able to get in touch with him. Wednesday evening we practiced the music for the Bible study. Two others came and we enjoyed the praise and fellowship with them. It is amazing how much you seem to have in common with someone, just because you serve the same Savior. The Bible study will be this evening. One of the ladies who has been coming has asked us to pray that her daughter will come this evening as well. The lesson will be on baptism. Someone once said, "Over the centuries Christians have debated what baptism accomplishes, to whom it should be administered, and how much water should be used." We will be examing those three areas and more. Looking forward to it. The weather has been cooler this week. There has been a 70% chance of rain everyday this week, but we have only received a little sprinkle. There has been a strong wind and cooler temperatures. God bless, JASON

A routine.

We are finally starting to settle into a type of routine. Routines are good as long as they are good routines. Tuesday night Angie went to a meeting with all the teachers and parents at Lilia's school. We have been busy getting paperwork and kids pictures for the school as well. I had to purchase insurance for the kids for while they were at school. It was inexpesive just $15 a piece for all year, but still one more thing to get accomplished. We have been transfering money to finishing paying off the language school which goes slow when you can only move 1000 euros a day. The exchange rate seems to continue to rise as was expected. Yesterday we purchased a stove, which we are real thankful to have. To celebrate we bought some frozen pizzas and made some french fries. Today I have spent the good part of the day getting paperwork and catching up on reading. The pastor of the church in Carcassonne gave me a list of books to read to help build biblical vocabulary. I got caught up reading one today. I find you have to read slowly to catch the context and of course I usually have to look up a couple of words on each page. I am really looking forward to getting internet hooked up soon. It will make a lot of things easier, including looking up the meaning of words Currently I am sitting at McDonalds using their free WiFi. I think the McDonalds in the US should take a lesson from them. Attached picture is the judgement area in Corinth, where Paul spoke in Acts 18. God bless, JASON

Back in School.

The kids have started back to school. It was almost like starting all over again. The same excitement and nervousness was experienced. Angie and I went yesterday and signed up with an internet, TV, and phone provider, it should arrive and be hooked up by weeks end. Thankfully it comes with free calls to several different countries. Today we have been searching for a stove. We found some good prospects online (leboncoin.com) and will call them this evening. Now it is about time to go get the kids. The attached picture is the head of Nike (click the picture and read the plaque) what are the odds of seeing him in Greece. God bless, JASON

Tomorrow

The kids start school tomorrow. We went to the Mayors office today to make sure that they were all registered right. Come to find out that Lilia and Caleb were registered for the wrong class and Micah was not registered at all. Hopefully when we get there tomorrow everything will be worked out. After school we will leave for Barcelona and spend the night and then fly out for Greece. The kids are really looking forward to both events as are we. I'll will update you from Greece where we will have Wifi in the hotel room (yippee). God bless, JASON

Snowy first day of school.

First day back at school today and it snowed all day long. It started just before we left, by days end there was a good three inches on snow on the ground. Of course the kids, and even us adults on occasion, had a wonderful time. It may last a couple of days, I will be sure to post pictures tomorrow. It is not supposed to get above freezing tomorrow, so maybe it will last a day or two. The first day went well for us. We didn't have to be there because this day is orientation for the new students, but we like to meet everyone and help out when we can. We helped get the lunch meal set up and after school, I went with another students to get some paper work translated. I took our driver's license to have them translated. After school, I let the kids play in the snow for a little and then we came home to hot chocolate. No homework yet, so a wonderful first day indeed. How about another Micah quote? After hearing a girl express a lot of things she knew about snow, you could see Micah's gears turning in his head, finally he said, "Well, see how fast I can run", and he took off. I gotta run as well. God bless, Jason

Liberation.

We were blessed with another goodweekend. Saturday there was a parade of antique military vehicles and come to find out it was the 60ish anniversary of the liberation of Massy. Someone remarked how that unlike Britian and the USA, France has not had a major conflict since WWII and so it is still fresh on their minds. Services went well Sunday. I had a good couple of calls with my parents this weekend which we enjoyed. I love modern technology that gives us the ability to freely call home and talk with our parents and see them at the same time. We visited the language school today and when we returned we had a letter from the prefecture (government office) that said we have an appointment to pick up our carte de sejour (visa) on wednesday. We will need to find someone to watch the kids for us. The rest of this week will be spent refreshing my mind on all things french. I did some work sheets today to get my mind back to thinking French. I am looking forward to the end of this school year when I will have it all behind me. We will also be preparing this week for Lynn and Brenda Raburn to come visit with us. They have been our missionary mentors and good friends since we first felt called here. I am looking forward to having some good conversations about . . . just plain stuff. Attached is a picture of Caleb and Micah with their skateboard and Andrew in the bath where he likes to make sounds with his ears under the water. God bless, JASON

Our children.

Just a little information about our kids. This picture taken before school one day this week.

Lilia is doing very good. She has been picking up french a lot faster in the last few weeks. She has also been taking piano lessons from one of the other language school students. She is very talented. This week she was making up her own song on the piano, with both hands playing different notes and tempos. I am impressed.

Caleb is also learning quickly. He enjoys sharing what he has learned each day. He is very musical as well. He can already sing about 20 songs and chants in french. Yesterday at lunch he taught me a round that we sang at the same time. He is still very popular at school with all the other students. He is sensitive. We watched a movie with the kids the other day and during a sad part he said, "This makes my heart sad".

Micah seems to be doing well. Fully potty trained (Yeah!) He likes school, I am not sure about his level of speaking. He doesn't talk a lot at school. He likes to play by himself even at home. He does know several songs and words, but he doesn't usually speak it to me. The teacher said that he was very calm and daydreams some.

Andrew likes his school. He is learning a few more english words. He told me yesterday that he wanted to "sit down". His sin nature is also kicking in good. He stomps his leg at times when he is upset. He is real cute when he is sleepy and laughs a lot.

One other note, I did add some videos of Angie and I singing some French Christians songs on youtube and Godtube. Just copy and paste the links below into your address bar, and click 'view more by same . . ' to view some more of them.
http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=581ccf2e167e543c3cbc&page=9&viewtype=&category=mr

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olZSWwVW5R0
Enjoy and check back as we learn more ourselves we hope to post them. 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

Kids Recital

We have had a good week. It seemed to have passed real fast. I was thinking one day I'll have this blog available in French as well. This week the kids did not have school and we did, so the school put together a daycare for them. It was real nice, they were able to play with other missionary kids and they learned songs and memorized verses in French. It was real cute. So far I have found that writing in French takes more space that english. I was talking with a German student at school and German is a lot longer. He wrote a letter, one page from and back, and then translated it into English and it took only one side of one page. It gets interesting in class when you are trying to get the teacher to explain what a certain word is in French, while trying to use what little French you know. This week marked the point of no more English, or German, or any other language while at School. This has made the conversations a little simpler. It helps us speak with the German students, because French has become our common language. I am really looking forward to having it learned. JASON

An average day.

Ok so far, this is what an average day is like for me. I arise from slumbler, discovering which of my sons has ended up in bed with me. We usually get up between 6:15 and 6:40. I get ready and get breakfast for the kids and get the kids ready, while Angie gets ready :-) We leave the house about 8:00. The kids school starts at 8:30 and the can arrive by 8:20. I take the older kids while Angie takes Andrew and heads to Language school, Les Cedres. I drop off Lilia at her school, walk the block over and take the boys to their class. It is then a hurried walk to Les Cedres to make it their by 8:35, when class starts. Morning classess are learning new things with a break at 10:15 for coffee, hot chocolate (my favorite), or hot tea. We finish school for lunch at 11:20. I leave to get the kids again, and Angie picks up Andrew from the Daycare downstairs and heads home. We usually gett back home around 11:45. Lunch usually consists of Sandwiches. The kids have a few moments to play and we leave to drop everyone back off at 1:00. Chapel time at the Language school is at 1:35. It consists of songs, prayer, scripture reading, and devotional (all in French). I have come to enjoy this time, especially the songs (tommorrow i will help accompany with my guitar). In the afternoon we usually have review and grammer and oral comprehension or phonetics. Class is over at 3:50, we have a few monents to collect ourselves as the kids get out of school at 4:30. We all meet back at the house. Usually the kids have a snack at the house, if they do not get one on the way back. This is the time where we run any errands we may have, bank, grocery store, etc. We go to the Grocery store every couple of days for the neccessities. Supper is anywhere from 6:30 - 7:30. After supper we try to get the kids in bed by 7:30 and then get to our homework and laundry. Electricity is cheaper at night and so we try to save night for the lanundry to run (we have a dryer now, a condensation one). Bedtime for Angie and I can range from 9:30 - 11:30. Thats all in a days work. JASON

School and Strikes

Things are still going well. We received a few of our tests back today. We both passed. Angie did better than I did. There are several sounds in French that we have trouble distinguishing, for those familiar with french the "et" and the "est" for an example. I imagine one of these days it will become second nature. Some of the German students in our class shared this video with us http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TviUh0yJ6Vs It was funny. It is good to be in a class with other who are having the same struggles. Angie met with Lilia's teacher today after school for a two week evalutation. She knows Lilia well. She said she is very smart and competitive but doesn't want to learn sometimes. We have known that for years. I received a paper today from Caleb and Micah's teacher. Thursday there will be no school because the teachers and all the public transportation is going on strike. Our first strike. The weather cleared earlier today. It got up in the 50's and the ground almost dried up. So far I have seen puddles ever since we arrived. By this afternoon it was misting and a cold wind was blowing. It loks like it will be a cold morning. Actually though I think it is colder in Texas right now. God Bless, JASON

School is in session.

School has been going well. We have learned a lot the last few days. We have almost surpassed what we learned in one semester of college French. The homework load has just begun to increase. I learned that French is spoken by one fourth of the worlds countries, and soon, hopefully, by two more people. The kids are doing well in school. Lilia is learning quite a bit, she catches little phrases and can play several games in French. She has a girl in her class from England which has been a big help when she is in the French class with the other kids. With Caleb it has been a little tougher. Not that he does not enjoy school, but that he is a sensitive one that doesn't like being away from Mom and Dad. He had to be convinced to go to school the last two days. He enjoys it once he is there. Thankfully boys have a similar language in crashes and other sounds. Micah has no problems at all, he is very easy going and doesn't care what's going on. He has a boy in his class that speaks English as well, and doesn't even know it. He will pick up the language pretty quick. Andrew seems not to mind the daycare at the language school. He only cries when he is sleepy. Every time we go to pick him up he is playing by himself with toys. He is pretty content. In case you were not aware we and the children and get two hours off for lunch in which most parents pick their kids up and take them home for lunch. It is good to be able to spend a leisurely lunch with the kids. We walk over and pick them up and bring them home, eat, and walk back and drop them off and then walk over to the language school. It ends up being a good hour just walking every day. It is kind of good not to have to really exercise but just to live and get good exercise. It is not just us, I only know one student at the language school that has a car. And if a Parisian had car they would probably still walk on good weather days. Speaking of weather it has been in the 30's and 40's with some rain and wind, everyday! At least it has not rained hard and not while we have been walking. God did bless with Virginie (one of the believers here) coming through here surgery a lot better than even the doctors expected. On an MRI two months ago she had severe scaring internally (stage 4 indometreosis) and they thought they would have to clean out with laser surgery and remove most of her female organs. When they opened her up for the surgery yesterday she had “unexplainably” improved and they did not have to remove any organs. Praise God. He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think! JASON