All aboard.

The view from Angie's hospital room.

CAUTION: Cutest when sleeping.

My favorite picture so far.

Angie and Arianna have made it home. They was a tense moment Thursday when Arianna started chocking and coughed up an un-identifiable substance. They watched her for a couple of hours in Neonatal ICU and sucked out her stomach but everyone thing looked ok. My Dad did a fine job at the bible study Thursday evening. I started out translating, but after a while passed it on to the former pastor in Carcassonne. It wasn't really a problem of translation as it was a problem of remebering what he had said that needed to be translated. The kids started school Thursday as well. Things all went good. Andrew hesitated a little. It was harder for him because he has no brother at school with him this year, and he complains that he has no friends. I think it also bothered him that Angie wasn't there. After a little encouragement he went in no problems. Friday we sorted out the billing process with the hospital. They ended up telling us the wrong amount a few weeks ago and it ended up being a lot more. Samartian Ministries will cover the costs but we still had to arrange something with the hospital until the refund came to us. I asked if we could go ahead and have the bill. Then began a search for how much it cost. The French and even the British are covered differently and are not considered as paying out of pocket. It was interesting seeing a French person getting upset with the French system and not being able to find anyone that could tell her how much it would cost us. I will give them a few days to sort through it and them if I do not have a response, I will stop by. It is good to have Angie and Arianna home. The boys have all had interesting responses. When she first cried they all came stampeding in to see what was going on. When Angie nursed the first time there was a similar response and I will not give all the remarks, but one Micah said was, "She is eating you?" After getting Angie home and settled, several of us made a trip to Toulouse and particularly IKEA, where we picked us a few things, one of which being a rocking chair.  Services were good today. We attended the church in Carcassonne. Their services went well. Dad was given the opportunity to say thanks for all the help that the church has been to us.  Angie, Lilia, and Arianna stayed home. I helped translate the services for my parents and we stayed for the meal afterwards. We all had a good time of food, fellowship, and worship. We are planning to listen to our home church services in a few minutes. God bless, JASON

Arianna Lauren Clark

Arianna arrived this morning. The whole process was new and interesting to say the least. Both mommy and Baby are doing well. It was nice to have my parents around to help out. I will hopefully be able to share more pics soon. Angie will probably be in the hospital through Saturday. The kids will start school on Thursday, so I have got my hands full. You can click on the picture to enlarge it. God bless, JASON

The Parents have arrived.

Bible Study was good Thursday evening. Friday the Mission Vacances team came to Limoux and we did some evangelism in Limoux. I stayed at the market and helped man a Bible Stand. In the afternoon we knocked doors in Magrie. It was a success in that we let people know that we are here. I do not expect there to be a line of people at our house next thursday, but maybe God will lead on or two our way. I met my parents at the airport Saturday afternoon. That had a long day of travel. We made the three hour drive back home from the Airport and a quick supper everyone went off to bed. They enjoyed the services at Carcassonne, one of the members of Mission Vacances team spoke and did a great job. We just got back from taking a quick walk with my parents. Attached picture is my parents sitting next to a large stack of Baby clothes that they brought, clothes that were donated by family in the States. Lilia is enjoying looking through them. God bless, JASON

Mission Vacances

Things are passing by quickly. Saturday ended up being the hotest day so far this year, with temperatures over 100 F. Thankfully things have cooled off some. Angie seemed to do well with a fan and some ice packs when it warmed up inside. Sundays services were good, all the family was present. We enjoyed a restful afternoon as I think most of the family enjoyed a nap. Monday ran errands around town, grocery shopping and picking up things that we needed for the hospital. Angie had a list of things that she had to provide for herself and the baby. Some things were hard to translate, others hard to find. Tuesday, I helped at the Bible Exposition that morning and came home to work on my lesson. I attended the Bible STudy in Carcassonne that evening and was able to meet the group from United Beach Mission (Mission Vacances in French) who has come to help with outreach and evangelisation in Carcassonne and in Limoux. Today I finished my lesson for next week, had the language session with Cédric, and went to the open air preaching at the walled city of Carcassonne. I handed out some tracks and was able to meet some interesting people during the meeting. Tommorrow I will go pick up a fold out bed from some friends of ours and then pick up some maps for the group coming to Limoux on Friday. We will have the bible study at our house as planned. After the outreach Friday, we will finish preparations for my parents arrival on Saturday afternoon. I am looking forward to seeing them again as is the rest of the family. Attached picture is of Lilia and Caleb washing dishes. God bless, JASON

God will know his own.

I had a good language session with Cédric this morning. I asked him about his trip to Israel in 2007. It sounded like a lot of fun. We laughed quite a bit when he mentioned bringing a sword home for a sovenir for a friend. He brought it in his carry-on. For supper Thursday I had the desire to make some Gumbo (pictured). For those who might not know, gumbo is a Cajun dish, essentially all the leftover meats and vegetables thrown in with some rice. It turned out good. We had 6 join us for the bible study which was great. Vacation season seems to be winding down. Thursday Caleb and I went to rinse off the car and then to pick up an armoire from our friends house here in Magrie. It would not fit in the car so it went on the luggage rack. Some rope and a waterhose later, we brought it home. Soon after getting that unloaded here at the house we headed off for the town of Béziers (Bay zee ay). We met a lady there who had sold us the outfits. It was a good deal and we enjoyed the hour and a half drive in the car to get there. It was warmer yesterday and so the drive in the a/c was nice. Béziers was a pretty town. Many years ago the Catholics laid seige to the town because of the Cathars that were living there. It is from here that a famous saying was made by an Catholic Abbott when asked how to tell the Catholics in the town from the Cathars. He said, "Kill them all, God will know his own". An estimated 20,000 were killed, several thousand inside a church that was burned. (Pictured is the renovated and repaired church). I will be working at the Bible Exposition this evening. Church in Carcassonne tomorrow. Tuesday a group called "Mission Vacances" will be arriving to do some evangelisation in the area working mainly with the church in Carcassonne, they will be coming to Limoux for a day to do outreach as well. I am looking forward to working with them as time permits. I enjoyed the time last year as well. I will also be making final preparations for my parents and for our new addition to arrive. The final picture is a waterway crossing in Béziers, near where the Canal du Midi crosses the Orb River. 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

Invitations

Hello again. We have had a great week so far. I have been helping with the Bible Exposition in Carcassonne. It is a exposition of antique Bibles and other items of interest concerning the Bible. I will post pictures of the exposition in the next post. Monday evening we enjoyed the aperatif with our neighbors, they are a really sweet couple and I hope that they will start coming to the Bible Study. I sent off some invitations to give out to others with information concerning the Bible Study. I will attach the front page. Caleb was sick with fever Tuesday, Micah joined him Wednesday, and Andrew, Thursday. Nothing serious, just kind of like what happened a few weeks ago, a slight fever for a few days and then nothing. We did make it to the beach with our friends from language school Tuesday. It was a pretty day for it. There was very little wind and so the sand wasn't a problem. Probably for that same reason the beach was crowded. Tuesday and Wednesday morning I was at the Bible Exposition. Wednesday evening we had supper with the new pastor in Carcassonne and his family. Thursday, since the kids were feeling all poorly and several others were out on vacation, we called off the Bible Study. I started moving Lilia and Caleb into their new room, which was finished on Monday. They seem excited to be sharing a room together, and I hope that it will draw them closer together. Today I started painting our bedroom, just one wall to see how many coats of paint it will take. Angie is in Carcassonne, first babysitting so a friend can go to the doctor, and then going to the doctor herself for what could be her last checkup before the baby arrives. She may also do some shopping. We realized recently that we have no baby stuff. This hasn't happened since Lilia was born almost eleven years ago. Andrew was 18 months when we came to France so most of the baby stuff was sold or given away. We have had a lot given to us, but still need to pick up some things. So here I am watching the kids and working on getting several things done as well. Speaking of watching the kids I had better check to see if anyone is playing in a room with a freshly painted wall. Very tempting for young boys. God bless, JASON