Safe arrival.

We made it back home. The flights went well. We got to Dallas airport without any problems and flew to Newark. The landing into Newark was real rough like last time, but fortunately no one got sick this time. We had a four hour wait in Newark before boarding the flight to Barcelona. Our seats were all seperate, but thankfully the stewardess helped us so that we were closer together in two groups of three. We arrived in Barcelona getting from one to three hours of sleep. We made it quickly through customs to find our friends waiting for us. All the 11 bags made it fine. We loaded up in two cars and made the three hour drive home. We thank our friends who had supper for us and even picked up groceries. We found some things around town look different. We have new neighbors. The house was in order, except there was a leak in the addition and mold was growing everywhere. I had mentioned the leak to the man who did the work before we left so I will have to get back in contact with him. We made it through Saturday allright. Everyone was exhausted, I had a small fever, but we lasted to a reasonable bed time and everyone crashed in their beds. We have quite a bit of unpacking to do and some yard work besides getting everyone back to school and into the routine again. Thanks for the prayers for our safe travel. God bless, JASON

Goodbye again.

We have spent the last few days saying goodbye to friends and family. Today we have packed most of the day, with occasional trips to wal-mart to pick up some needed items. We leave the house tomorrow morning about 7 am, and arrive in France on Saturday at 9:15 am. I think that we are all looking forward to getting settled again. I will let you know as soon as I can when we arrive. Attached pictures is the kids playing at Angie's parents house. God bless, JASON

The Green

Friday I enjoyed playing a round of golf with my father. It has been several years since I had played last. It went well. I ended up just a couple of strokes behind my dad. We helped m parents clean up around the house and worked on the flower gardens as well. I have seen quite a bit in the news recently about the volcanic ash coming from an Iceland volcano causing delays in travel in Europe. As far as a I can tell the problems are staying more north of where we are. We will be flying in to Spain, so I don't think that there will be delay. We will be keeping an eye on it as the day approaches. We enjoyed spending the day at my grandparents visiting with my older sister and her family. We got a great picture of her new born smiling. The kids just said their tearful goodbyes to their cousins. I imagine that we will have more of those to come. I am looking forward to services tomorrow. We will be visitinn with a church Sunday morning that has supported us for a while, and Sunday evening we will be visiting a church that we were members of soon after we were married. The beginning of next week will be mainly spent saying final goodbyes to family in Henderson. We will then return to Hillsboro and finish getting packed. We came with only four bags and I think that we could have up to 8 for the return trip. My goal will be 7, but we will see how it goes. We will leave for the airport Friday morning to begin the return to France. God bless, JASON

More details

As mentioned we left an evening early from our home because of all the snow, and we spent the night in Barcelona. We arrived at the airport at time and unloaded at our terminal, and said goodbye to Rebecca who had came along and was returning our car. When we entered we discovered that our airline was not at terminal 2 as I had found on the internet, but on terminal 1. We jumped on the shuttle and made it over to terminal one. Come to find out that because we were not as early as usual and because we had booked the flights a little later we had to split up a little on the plane. Lilia and Caleb sat in front of me and Micah, and Angie and Andrew sat two rows behind us. The plane ride went well, we were afraid that the plane would be packed because it was headed to Newark, which was closed the two previous days because of snow. It was not however, and Angie even had an empty seat on her row that allowed her to lay Andrew down comfortable. The other kids really enjoyed selecting and watching their own movies. Micah took at nap on my shoulder. The steward dropped a drink in Micah's lap, but it didn't seem to bother Micah too bad. There was strong wind when we arrived at Newark and Andrew got sick. Just after we landed Micah told me that he didn't want to go to the US and that he wanted to go home. That was a surprise, right after thought he got sick on my shoe, and that explained it. All was well after that. From Newark to Dallas, Angie sat with Micah and Andrew on row 5, Lilia on row 8, Caleb row 18, and me on row 19. I was right behind Caleb and as soon as he sat down he started talking to the lady next to him. He talked for about twenty minutes straight and then fell asleep. I think everyone had a good nap on that flight. We arrived at Dallas and were met by my parents and my little sister and her husband. We had a good drive back, the roads were clear, but there was heavy fog. The kids have been waking up early thinking it was time to get up. Saturday we enjoyed the fellowship at the church. Sunday I enjoyed sharing about our progress and preaching in the morning and evening service. After the evening service we shared some cookies and gifts from France with our church.

We have a good week planned ahead of us. We will be visiting Angie's parents this evening or tomorrow evening. Wednesday, Angie and I have dentists appointments. Friday we will be at the consulate in Houston. Attached pictures are of the family at the airport in Barcelona and myself preaching at our home church. God bless, JASON

Arrived Safely

We made it to Texas safely. The flight was long and mostly uneventful, except for the blizzards, some air sickness, turbulence, and seating issues. I will expand on that more later. We are headed to bed. It is midnight here, which means to us it is 7:00 am, a long day. Thanks for your prayers for our safe travel. God bless, Jason

Past week

I just realized that it has been a week since my last blog. A lot has been going on. Let me summarize. Last weekend past well. Tuesday I took our car in for its 20,000 km maitenance. They changed to oil, gave it an inspection, and even hooked it up to the computer. Wednesday was a pretty day, it warmed up and the sun was shining, we spent most of the afternoon outside working in the yard. Wednesday we made a new friend, who came over for supper and singing afterwards. She is a new Christians that moved to the area a few months ago. We raelly enjoyed the evening and she expressed interest in coming to the Bible study, but could not come on Thursdays. Thursday Angie went to her first Doctors appointment, all was well. They even did a sonogram, the baby is only 15 mm long, but Angie was able to hear his/her heartbeat. The Bible study went well, we had a total of 7, including myself, Angie and Lilia. We examined the 7 feasts of Israel.

The kids are doing well. Andrew and Micah have had colds. Caleb was sick Monday and stayed home from school Tuesday. I think his sinus' are bothering him. He came home from school Monday and fell asleep on the couch, and slept until 8:30 the next morning. Lilia has been having a rough time this past week. In addition to the vaccinations, she got one of her ears re-pierced last Friday, beacuse it had closed. Wednesday she had two spots burned off her foot. This morning while eating her cereal, one of her baby teeth broke into three pieces. We took her to the dentist this morning, they deadened the area, and they pulled out the pieces.

I will be spending the majority of this next week with preparations for our departure. We are having a couple of families stay in our house during our absence. I need to get instructions made up for them. I need to prepare our visa paperwork for when we get to the states. I will prepare our taxes so that we can get that sent in as well. I also need to write a sermon, in English, for speaking at our sending church our first Sunday back. Meanwhile I am also trying to book speaking engagements. I'd better get to it. Attached picture is Andrew enjoying the little 4-wheeler the neighbors passed on to us. God bless, JASON

Change of Plans

It is not always a bad thing when plans change. This is very true in the case of Christians. When an unseen change occurs, you at once realize that this was the plan of God and occasionally you can even begin to see why as time progresses. We have changed our plans quite a bit recently. I can not begin to share with you all the ways that God has used this to his will and for our good. We now plan on returning to the US in February until April. This will be easier because the kids will miss less school, Angie will be traveling less pregnant, and it will be cheaper to fly this time of year. The only negative aspect is that it is short notice.

Tuesday I spent all day preparing the lesson for tonight. It was a lesson that I prepared during Seminary, but it still took all day to get it written in French. Wednesday, we started planning out the trip back to the states. Lilia and Caleb had swimming and in the afternoon, Angie went shopping. We had a friend over that evening to practice the music for the bible study. Today is final preparation for the Bible study.

We are looking forward to being back in the states. As of this moment I think I will enjoy the temperature differences the most. The purpose of this trip is not only to see family and friends but also to visit churches and pick up some more support. We have lost a couple of supporters over the last two years and we will also need more funds to support the growing ministry that we have. If you are interested in having us come to your church please contact us early so that we can manage our time well. We will miss being here, as this feels like home as well. We look forward to seeing some of you soon. The attached picture was taken the day before we left to come to France. God bless, JASON

Running an errand.

I ran several errands. First thing this morning I faxed some paperwork for our storage building in the south. I had some interesting conversations with the owner, because I did not know the French term for a storage building (box de location - if your curious). But I got all the paperwork finished and faxed. Then Lilia and I went at 9:30 to pick up the rental car that will get us by until our car arrives. We got back at the house at 11:00, we literally had to park a half mile from the house. As soon as I got home I went headed out to go to the dealership in Versaille to see about a loan. I left and found out the next bus to the train station didn't run for 20 minutes and so it would faster to walk. I walked the mile down there and just missed the train, so I had to wait 30 minutes to the next. By the time I arrived at the dealership I had missed the finance guy and had to wait 30 minutes for him to get back from lunch. Got home at 2:00 and helped Angie pack a little. We took the kids to see l'age de glace 3 (Ice Age 3) at 4:00. We made it in about 8 people before the cut off. It was packed but the kids seem to enjoy. It was interesting watching it in French. But some things were actually funnier. In the movie the dialogue goes, "Qu'est-ce que c'est (what was that)?", "C'est le vent qui parle(is the wind talking)", "Qu'est-ce qu'il a dit(what did he say)?", "Je ne sais pas, je ne parle pas le vent.(I don't know I don't speak wind)" Lilia laughed out loud for that. Tomorrow will be spent packing. We are getting close to being almost nearly starting to be finished. God bless, JASON

The trip home

So I made it home yesterday after twenty-four hours of traveling with 5 airports, 4 flights, and 1 train. Whew! It went pretty smoothly. Kenya dropped me at the Malindi airport where there was no security check. It was a good flight to Nairobi where I sent last minute post cards and bought a shirt for Jason that we had tried to find in his size in Malindi. Then I thought I was boarding at gate 4 so I waited there. There were more gates at the end of the hall and around the corner but I didn't look down there. After a while my destination still was not listed on the screen so I looked down the hall and the next gate wasn 't gate 5 it was 4B so I realized that was probably the gate I should be at so I went. When I got to the desk it was a mess. It was like I came in on the back side of the security checkpoint because the waiting room full of people was on the other side of the conveyor belt and metal detector. There was one man in front of me and about ten people came behind me. We lined up to send our bags through the conveyer belt but on the other side about 100 people were already lined up and had begun the process. At the same time the security guys were getting agitated because they could not find the manifest. Things were not looking too good. The lady behind me asked where the other people had just come from and they said Somalia. Oh! Now we understood. She said the security is tight when you come from there. She said once she came through that way and there was even a K9 dog to sniff everyone. No wonder the security guys were on edge. So we waited while they passed through security, came through the metal detector and around to our side to collect their items. Then they were told to wait on our side which was not very spacious until they told them where to go next. Finally they realised our side would not hold anymore people so they stopped the people on the other side so that we could go through. That made them oh so happy as you can imagine! Finally, we sent our items through and passed to the other side where the waiting room was and we waited. I guess they got everything all sorted out. It was confusing. I have never seen a security checkpoint in an airport that worked 2 directions. The flight to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania went well. When we got to the airport there we were looking for the direction to go for connecting flights. It was around 7pm when we got there. We had people telling us two different directions to go (and the airport is really small) They kept trying to send us to customs and I kept saying we are not staying in Tanzania we are connecting to Amsterdam. They said "Tonight?" I said yes. They were like oh! Come this way we have already locked the doors. They unlocked them and had us wait. Then they took our passports and boarding passes and tried to get us all sorted out. It was funny like they forgot they had more flights going out that night! It turned out the flight had about 200 or more people on it. In the meantime there was 6 of us for Amsterdam and 4 for Zurich. The Zurich people got to their place. Then the one man kept giving one girl in our group a hard time about her luggage. She looked very young and I wondered if it was cultural that he would speak to her harshly. Another man tried to take up for her a little and questioned the man about it. It turned out that this man was a professional or semi-pro golfer who had just played in a tournament in Nairobi. One of the other men waiting with us recognized him because he had played in some of the same tournaments. Anyway, for some reason the Kenyan staff had written to stop her luggage in Dar es Salaam. Also they had kindly charged her for extra weight on her baggage instead of an extra piece like they should have. It was cheaper for her because her extra box was very lightweight. They were trying to be kind but the next airport caught the error. One man came and she paid him $200 more dollars and he said he would bring the receipt. She and I had a really nice visit while we waited. Her name was Shirley. She works for a flower company in Nairobi and was on the way to an exhibition in St. Petersburg, Russia. She told me that Kenya is the second leading exporter of cut flowers in the world after Equador. One of her clients in France is a store at the market at the end of the bus line that runs by my house. (Of all the places in France!) Small world! She said the Tanzanians kept talking to her and every sentence began with "You Kenyans-" She said they didn't like Kenyans much or at least it seemed that way in this airport. Time passed and people began to line up and go through security and still no receipt. So I asked if she wanted we to go with her and we would get it. She said yes and we went. Everyone seemed to give her a hard time, one lady tried to send us back up to wait- speaking harshly to her again. She turned to go and I said no we should wait right here. They have your money and they owe you a receipt. So the security guys held our passports and let us go through to where the lady was and we stood in her sight and waited. It took about 2 minutes and we had it. Shirley said she was too soft and it was because they were afraid of me that they got it done so fast. I thought it was funny- I never said a word to the workers. I just told her not to leave but to wait there. I guess it worked. We got in line to go through security. The flight to Amsterdam was good. I think I slept 6 of the 9 hours. When we got off there was a passport check as we offloaded the plane at the end of the gate. That was a first for me. I said goodbye to Shirley after we exchanged emails. Then I changed to warmer clothes that had not been sweated on. Then I bought a backpack. I had a big purse but both the straps were very close to breaking on because of too much weight (literally hanging by a thread) and another tote bag that one strap had already broken on because of the weight! I was going to be in bad shape if anymore straps broke. So I put the tote bag in the backpack and carried the purse without using the straps. I bought a cup of coffee and waited for my 9:30 flight to Paris. I saw a lady with a Texas A&M shirt on and said hello to a fellow Texan. She still had much traveling to do. Thankfully I was almost home. I got to Paris. Took the one hour train ride from the airport to home and began to walk home. A man helped me with my bag down the stairs at the train station-a common thing to do here. Then he began questioning me about my trip. He was from Congo and asked me how Obama's place (Kenya)was, did I vote for him, etc. Just coming back from Kenya I noticed that the people there seemed to ask lots of questions about what you were doing and that sort so I was just thinking it was his culture to be so curious- It is not French culture to be so. But then he said something about going out for a drink sometime and I said No sorry I'm married. He was kind of shocked then I realized that I needed to cross the road so I said Au revoir! Waited one second and somebody behind me said Hi Angie.
It was some fellow students Katie and James. They had just gotten back from Greece and were on the same train. I said boy am I glad to see you guys! So I just kept walking and had a nice visit with Katie and James my rescuers. Then I noticed that the guy had crossed to the other side of the road where I was going. I was relieved they were there. I did not have too far to walk and I did not want that guy to see where I lived. I got home was greeted by 5 big smiling faces, gave and received some big hugs, passed out gifts and settled in. I'm home!
Thanks for your prayers, ANGIE

l'Ecole d'été

Summer School is drawing to a close. The three weeks have passed quickly. We have reviewed and learned several new things in the last few weeks. I have enjoyed what little time I have been able to spend with the other students. Having Angie and the kids at home keeps me from spending too much time at the language school. The Switzerland team won the award for most people present representing their country. USA and Great Britian following close behind. Other countries represented were Germany, Denmark, Norway, Canada and a couple of others. Each country represented presented their country during an evening. August is going to be a lonely month around here. Almost all of the students are will be gone and it will just be us. A lot of France closes down for the month of August for vacations. Most Doctor's offices and small shops. I hope to take the kids into Paris a couple of times to show them some sites. On our survey trip we saw a lot of the tourist sites in France. I have found that seeing touristy places gives you good insite into the culture of a country. Seeing the Eifel Tower you can get the sense of French Pride. Notre Dame gives you a sense of their Catholic Heritage that is now barely present. Attached is a castle on the top of a hill that we saw while on our trip. It seemed like every mountain top had one on it. God bless, JASON

French Doctors Visit

Angie and I had our visit with the Doctor to move along our Visa process. We had to leave the house at 6:45 so we arranged for a friend to watch our kids and walk them to school when it was time. That meant we had to get up about 5:30 to get everyone ready. We left, walked 10 minutes to the train station. Caught the train for 40 minutes. Got on a bus for 12 minutes (most packed bus I had been on). When then walked one more block to the office. There was a line extending out the door. After we sat inside we waited for about thirty minutes where almost everyone in the waiting room was falling asleep, including Andrew. They then called a group of about 10 inside to the doctors office. We were last of the 10 but we went first once inside. It was pretty standard stuff. They took height, weight, blood pressure, chest x-ray, past medical histroy and such. After we got inside it probably was over in 20 mintues. Then we made the trip back home and got back around 10:30. After lunch we had a good little nap. We will prepare things today for our vacation. This "vacation" is actually a good step in our language acquisition. It is good to get out of your friendly and known environment to a new one that also brings about needs to communicate in french. Friday I will pick up our rental car, I need to start brushing up on my car vocabulary. God bless, JASON

The recital, the fair, the train.

It is hard to believe that it is Saturday again. We were blessed to receive a gift box from a church in Henderson, Texas. As is our custom when we receive a package from the US, we unpack it all together and give a prayer of thanksgiving. We had Lilia's piano recital Thursday night. I was unable to attend because Caleb had a small fever that day. This morning we went to the fair at the boys school. It was a lot of fun. Angie voluntered to help run a booth where the kids would make omelettes. She burned herself pretty bad on the arm by accidentally touching the cooker thing on the top of it. We got her some medicine from the Pharmacy. It worked really well. This afternoon I was going to go help our friends move some stuff to their new apartment. Caleb and I walked to the local RER station and it was closed. I thought that was unusual, but they have been having contsruction to install an elevator. We took a bus to a larger station a mile or two south. The electronic machine for buying tickets there was not working. So we waited in line to buy tickets, there was a sign on the door that said the windows would open at 1:30, but they did not. Someone asked and apparently they were not going to open at all. So we did what any good Parisiane would, we decided to take the train without a ticket. Of course we would purchase our tickets when we got off and explain everything. We walked to the train platform (quai in French) and the train was sitting there empty. I checked the monitor which said no trains were running today. Grève! (strike!) So much for those plans, I feel bad for people who had bigger plans like going to the airport. It wasn't official until this morning so there was no warning. C'est la vie. Que sera, sera. I am looking forward to services tommorrow. Monday we go for our Doctors appointment for our Carte de Sejour (visa). Thanks for the prayers and offerings and gifts. 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