Starting out the New Year

After seeing some super hero movies, here are the boys with a
hammer, sword, and shield.  The have them all painted now.

Arianna has gotten to where she loves wearing
everybodies shoes, sometimes she has trouble
getting them on, but she seems to walk well in
them no matter how big they are. 

The kids got right back into the swing of things with school.  Lilia has moved up into a higher level swimming class, so she is there everynight of the week, though she didn't go Tuesday might because she had homework.  Wednesday, the Irish lady we know, made us and Irish Stew.  She had seen a recipe in one of our cookbooks and explained that it was not right.  What she made us was excellent and we really enjoyed it.  The kids started basketball practice on Wednesday, as did I.  I think they took to it better that I did, because I was sore for a few days following.  I think I had a little too much Turkey, or maybe it was the Irish stew.  At basketball practice I found out that one of my teammates, had lost a baby last week, the baby passed away one hour after birth.  We sent him a card and are praying for him and his wife.  Thursday night bible study went well.  We had three present an picked back up into the study on John after a break from the holiday's.  This past weekend, we met a lady at the church in Carcassonne, who was really happy to meet us.  She has been living in Limoux for a year and had been praying to meet some Christians who live there as well.  You could tell how pleased she was at the church in Carcassonne after meeting us.  She plans on attending the Bible Study thursday night even called me Sunday night so that we could learn a little more about each other.  I also spoke to a lady at church who has a son who plays basketball in Bordeaux, we are having a bastketball outreach planned for the spring of next year.  I was hoping to have a contact with a basketball player in Bordeaux, because I know the pastor of a church in Bordeaux and was hoping to have a basketball match there.  This will be a busy week.  Saturday I have a basketball match, and Angie and Lilia will be going to the youth meeting in Carcassonne.  Sunday, I will be leading the services in Carcassonne as well. The church in Carcassonne is meeting in a new place in order to have a little more space.  Outgrowing your meeting place is a good problem to have, one that I hope we will have recently.  Angie has had a headache off and on the last couple of days, she is now off of caffeine to see if that helps.  God bless, JASON

Lake at Puiverts

Tuesday morning I attended a funeral for one of the ladies who attended the church in Carcassonne. She had no family that could be found and there was just a small group of friends there.  Tuesday afternoon, we went to the lake with some friends.  It was a small lake, what I might even call a pond, but it was nice.  There was a nice play area for the kids and the beach and swim area was not too big.  It was cool and cloudy so there was not a lot of people there. Arianna did not care much for the water so she spent most of her time hanging out with the grown-ups or sleeping.  The kids swam while we played petanque.  I happened to win every game, a shock because this was only my second time to play.  We breaked for lunch, and played a little more in the afternoon.  We really enjoyed the drive there and back.  It was a nice relaxing day. 

Bugarach

We saw this pretty view at the
horse show last week.

Another week behind us.  This was the kids last week of school.  It ended well.  Micah ended with all A's on his report card.  Caleb had more of an average grade.  Andrew had a lot of compliments from his teacher as did Lilia.  We are looking forward to a good summer.  Bible Study went well Thursday evening, we are still in the first chapter of John.  Several people stopped by the market on Friday morning, I did give away one Bible after assuring the person several times that it was free.  Recently in the news there has been a lot of talk about a cult that has moved its way into the area.  The are a New Age group believing that the world will end in 2012 and that a local peak (Bugarach) will be a place of safety.  You can read the wikipedia article by clicking here.  I hope that this will not affect our credibilty any.  The French organization for cults has already issued a proclamation warning people about his groups and will attempt to limit their growth.  They are worried about the posibilty for mass suicides and also swindling. Hopefully we have already distinguished ourselves in the area well enough.  We rearranged the house a little this month.  My office is now in our bedroom to give me a quiet place to work during summer.  As a result Arianna found a new place to play (pictured).  Last night I attended a meeting for our basketball association.  They are planning on growing next year and expanding into other cities as well.  It was a good occasion to meet some new people and to get to know my team members better.  Arianna surprised us by sleeping all night a couple of nights ago.  She made up for it the next night by waking up four times. We have a little pool for her in the backyard and she enjoys playing in it and watching the boys splash in their pool.  I received a call from the director for the Tour de France de la Bible.  I am excited about this opportunity.  God bless, JASON

Swimming break.



At our friends pool, the water was cold, but we had fun.



A view of the sunset from our back porch.

Arianna did not like to cold water, she ended falling asleep.

Bible Study went well Thursday night.  We learned some new songs and had some visitors thanks to school being out.  Friday morning, I had a good time at the market.  Actually only one person stopped by, my language helper, but I still feel it was worth the three hours.  Friday, I enjoyed basketball practice and I felt like I played really well, mainly because I frustrated our coach who was trying to cover me.  Saturday was a busy day.  Lilia went to a birthday part at lunch, we spent the afternoon swimming at a friends house, and in the evening we attended an end of year show for one of our friends who does horseback riding.  Sunday services went well in Carcassonne.  I brought the kids devotion time, I felt like I did not do a very good job, however Angie and the kids thought it was good.  I watched the kids while Angie took a nap Sunday afternoon.  It reall warmed up this weekend and got up over 90 degrees.  This morning, I have gotten a lot of paperwork done.  I responded to some letters some kids from the states have written for their Sunday School class.  I also finished filing out our french tax form.  It is now time to go get the kids for lunch.  Remeber to say a prayer for my sister and brother-in-law who are leaving today for a three week trip to Thailand.  Pary for my parents too, who are watching their 5 kids.  God bless, JASON

Sleep walking



Arianna enjoys playing in her bed.

 

Andrew at the end of school program.

 The past weekend went well.  We divided the kids up between us.  I took Arianna and Micah to Caleb's swimming lesson, he had the end of school swimming party.  Meanwhile Angie took Lilia to watch Andrew's end of year program.  We joined them after the swimming was over.  Afterwards, Angie and Lilia went to the youth meeting in Carcassonne.  Sounds like it was a great time.  They did a photo scavenger hunt at the Walled City of Carcassonne.  They had to take pictures of certain things and whoever had the best won.  Sunday we attended the an English speaking church in Mirepoix, about 30 minutes west of us.  We enjoyed the services and fellowship.  It is basically an Anglican church, but the members are from several different denominations and are mostly English who live in France.  I did get several presents for Father's day, mostly clothes, which always useful.  Monday we had a guest over, a lady that I meet at the Market on Friday.  She is Christian, and has a wonderful testimony and sweet spirit. She has some beliefs that are different than ours, but we still hope that we can fellowship with her and minister to her.  Yesterday, the first day of summer, was the warmest day of the year so far.  I think it actually got up to about 90, even though the forcast said 82 for a high.  In the evening we had a three thunderstorms roll in, one after the other.  It was a rare treat.  It also cooled things off.  It was still real warm in the gym when I had basketball practice.  I am still enjoying practice and we are hoping to invite some of the guys over during summer.  There is one more story I need to share.  While Angie was putting away some clothes she noticed that the boys closet was wet.  After an inspection, we discovered that one of the boys had slept walked and thought their closet was the bathroom.  We suspected Micah and after school confronted him about it.  Caleb, however, spoke up and said, "I think it was me". He went on to explain that he needed to go to the bathroom, it was dark and he looked around until he found and door and then . . .went.  He said he thought it was a little too close to his bed.  We all had a good laugh about it.  The fun part came a little later.  Andrew was looking for a drink in the fridge when he found some pineapple juice in a jar. He brought it to us to see what it was.  I immediately saw a golden opportunity.  I called Caleb and Micah to us and told them that someone had gotten up during the night and thought that the fridge was the bathroom and that I wasn't upset, I just wanted to know who it was.  The boys were speechless.  I asked for the jar and took a drink and said, "It is you Caleb I can tell."  I wish you could have seen the look on his face and Micah's.  His eyes were big.  After a few moments he said, "No, because everybody's tastes the same."  We couldn't hold it any longer and had to laugh.  Tuesday we had another friend over for lunch. She is going to be returning home during summer, the first time in 14 years.  We will miss her over the summer, but we are happy that she has the opportunity.  Pray for her because her home country is having political troubles and she is a little worried that once she arrives it will be difficult for her to leave again.  Angie is currently visiting with a friend in Carcassonne, getting a little break from the kids.  God bless, JASON

Swimming competition

It has been a good week.  Temperatures got up to 90 on Wednesday, but we had a cool front blow through and today the high is 70.  There has not been basketball practice this week, which I am missing, I am planning on inviting another one of my teamates over with his family.  Lilia had a field trip on Tuesday and Caleb has one today.  There were 5 at the bible study last night.  Wednesday was the busy day this week.  Lilia has been making preparations for entering Junior High next year.  She wanted to try out for the swimming team.  Wednesday morning from 10 to 12 they had a test of physical capabilities for everyone who wanted to try out for sports.  We then grabbed a quick lunch to get her to the swimming pool at one that afternoon for her swimming test.  As soon as we arrived we met another parent waiting with her child and they were British.  Then two other British parents arrived.  I was excited to know that she will have other English speakers in her class.  The try out started, I admit that I was a little nervous after they said they would not accept everyone.  They did some warmups - the had to swim for 10 minutes straight, Lilia swam about 400 meters.  They then had some timed swimming with various styles.  Lilia did 50 m backstroke in 1 min 30.  I don't know if she will make it.  Some other girls that were there have been doing swimming for a while.  One girls did the 50m backstroke in 23 seconds, and did twice as many laps a Lilia in 10 minutes.  Lilia doesn't seem worried about it either way.  She has been sore.  Wednesday we also let the kids play on a slip and slide that some friends bought for us.  They really enjoyed it, after I explained to them what to do. A funny thing happened during Bible Study.  Arianna bit her finger and breathed in so hard that she passed out for a couple of seconds.  Looking forward to a nice cool weekend.  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 

Da Da

These are some pictures of the Carnaval from Sunday.  Tuesday evening's Basketball practice went well.  I am trying to put in more effort and do the best I can.  As it says in Ecclesiastes 9:10 "Work hard at whatever you do."  It paid off because our team won the scrimmage.  Wednesday Caleb took an all day trip into the mountains for his Wednesday sporting event.  Micah and Lilia did their swimming lessons.  Lilia is progressing well and her instructor has asked her to stay at it and join in the competition next year.  I don't know what she wants to do.  She seems to enjoy it.  Arianna was saying "Da da" all day yesterday.  It was music to my ears.  In the afternoon, Andrew, Micah, and I got our haircut.  Micah attended a birthday party at McDonalds.  I had a good talk with my parents last night. Andrew had slight fever yesterday as well, and as a result is home from school today.  Looking forward to my language session with Eric this afternoon and the Bible Study tonight.  God bless, JASON