It’s official! Family of 7!

He’s here!!

Aaron Thomas Appel, our fifth child, made an earlier than expected appearance on August 2.  Joanna’s water broke early in the morning and we woke the kids up to tell them we were going to the hospital. Joanna was amazing in delivery, and she and Aaron are doing well, though rather tired.  Thank you all for praying with us, we’re so excited to be a family of seven!

We’re thankful that Tom’s Mom has been able to adjust her flights and will be coming to help us out from this week.

Now for the really great part of this sort of email – the pictures!

The Family Update Email You May have Missed!

We also sent out a family update last week that ended up with a glitch and did not make it to most of your inboxes. If you are interested in our family update which includes a health update on Reuben, please click here!

Thanks for being with us as we grow and seek God’s kingdom here in France.

Every Blessing,

The Appels

Appel Family Update

Hello!

We are bringing you mid-summer greetings once again from Normandy. We sent out a ministry newsletter last week (if you missed it and would like to catch up you can click here). This edition is to give you a family update, prayer points and sign off before we take some time off to welcome our baby boy!

Baby Watch

Our whole family is eagerly anticipating the arrival of our fifth child! Joanna is 38 weeks along so the birth could be any day now or still a few weeks away. We are really happy to say that our baby boy is doing well and both he and Joanna are healthy. We have been pleased with the medical care we’ve received here(!) and now we are simply waiting for the appointed time for his arrival. 

Please pray for continued good health and we appreciate lots of covering prayers for a safe birth and recovery. Please pray as well for our kids and our family dynamic as we’ve been a tight group of six for nearly 9 years and a new baby will be a big change for us.

 


Reuben’s Health

We’re thrilled to report that Reuben’s health has continued to improve, and he is doing rather well! The final few months of the school year were much better for Reuben, and he has been approved to advance to his next year at school despite missing more than half of the year. Having Reuben feeling more able to be his usual bright and sunny self is a huge blessing to all of our family and now that this run of good health has lasted a couple of months, we are feeling such relief and joy. It’s been an incredibly hard 18 months for Reuben and our whole family. Thank you all so very much for your prayers and your care for us as we’ve walked through this challenge. 

Praise God for His care and healing. Please pray for Reuben’s continued health journey as it is likely that Reuben will continue to have difficulties with migraines, but it seems that the medicine he is taking is working and Reuben is doing so much better!

 

Teenagers and GEM K

At the end of May, we traveled to Amsterdam to participate in the Renew Gathering with Greater Europe Mission. Above are some pictures of our visit to the street art museum in Amsterdam. During our time in the Netherlands, Reuben and Eli were at a youth gathering at a hostel near our conference hotel. This is the first year that they have been old enough to participate in GEM’s youth group program called “GEM K”. They spent a couple days and nights away with other missionary kids from around Europe. It was a special time for them to grow in their relationship with the Lord, to be in community with other young people who can relate to their situation and to have input from youth leaders. We were so grateful, that despite Reuben’s health challenges, they both had a great time and have started to make some friends in the group.

Having been youth leaders ourselves for a long time, we know and appreciate the value of having others sow into the lives and faith journeys of our teenagers. This is something that we have to be intentional about on the mission field as there are not youth pastors or many resources for them here. We plan on taking them to the Onelife Young Leaders Conference in London this fall and hopefully sending them to another GEM K event after Christmas in order to give them more valuable opportunities like this.

Please pray for Reuben, Eli and Silas, as they enter into their teen years, that the Lord would provide opportunities for them to grow in relationship with him and other believers who are peers. Pray for protection over their hearts as they enter this crucial time of making their faith their own.

Sortie and Summer at Home

The month of June is always heaving with end of school events, concerts, and trips for the kids. We are pleased to have successfully completed this school year with all the kids moving up in school, in relatively good health, and growing positive friendships. Praise God!

We decided to take a week's vacation right after school finished to a campsite in Brittany, only 2 hours away near St. Malo on the northern coast of France. We went to a campsite that we visited 8 years ago when we were living in Paris and where we celebrated Elodie’s 1st birthday! The great thing about many French campsites is that it is more like glamping than roughing it in the woods. We stayed in a mobile home with plumbing, electricity, and beds we didn’t have to inflate. Plus, the campsite had pools, waterslides and a small indoor water park. Our time was spent playing, reading, swimming, and napping (for Joanna). 

The rest of the summer we are hunkered down here in our home, waiting and preparing for the baby to arrive. This will be our first full summer here in France without major travel, lots of visitors and big ministry events. We are so grateful for home and the place of peace it is for us and our kids as we look ahead to make this big transition to a family of 7. 

Please pray that this summer will continue to be restful for our family as the months of August and September will be major months of transition. Please pray for wisdom and for those who are filling in for us as we take some time away from ministry responsibilities for parental leave. The kids start school on the first of September with Reuben and Eli in 8th grade, Silas in 7th, and Elodie in 4th. Pray for safe and smooth travels for Tom’s mom, Alicia, who is coming at the end of august to help after baby boy arrives.

Gratitude 

As always, we are so grateful for each and every one of you. Your prayers are sustaining to us, and every word of encouragement is like a drink of cool water in the desert. Thank you for walking with us, for your support and care for our family. Our communication might be a little less frequent in the coming season, but we will send out a quick email to share the news of our sons arrival!

Sending you love and blessings,

The Appels

Summer of Art and Music

Dear Friends and Family,

It’s hard to believe we are already in mid-July! The first half of this year has been full and fruitful and seems to have flown by. Since our last update we have been to Amsterdam for a gathering of GEM missionaries and their families, and we’re recently returned from a week “camping” (more glamping) in Brittany - our last trip as a family of 6! We hope you are well and enjoying the summertime. We have much to update you on before we take some time out to have our baby! This update we will focus on what God has been doing through different aspects of our arts and music ministry here in Europe.

Music

We’ve had the opportunity to play music at four very different venues: An old catholic church mostly filled with unchurched people, the middle of the city during a heatwave, the back yard of our church by a jacuzzi, and a tobacco themed bar near Amsterdam full of missionaries.

Old Catholic Church – Wedding Service

We were invited to sing some songs at a wedding service for a couple connected with our church. Though the service was held in a traditional catholic church, the wedding guests were surprised and delighted by a different sort of ceremony. Singing the blessing over the newly married couple was poignant and the service itself was a gospel declaration.

 

Middle of the City Heatwave - Fête de la Musique

For the second year in a row, we played a show for the Fête de la Musique in Caen supported by our church plant, Bon Berger. It was hot! It was great to have folks from Bon Berger running activities for kids, sharing the gospel and offering prayer for people who came to listen. The Fête de la Musique is a nation-wide event which simply celebrates live music. It has been growing in popularity in the past 5 years and there are now huge crowds that fill up city centers; it feels like a musical festival. Sadly, there have also been increasing instances of assault during the Fête and there is a dark element that seems to be taking hold. This year felt more like a spiritual battle for us. We loved singing songs that speak about freedom and songs that proclaim the gospel of Jesus – His light shines in the darkness. As seems to be the case every time we play a show, there were many people who came to listen but there were several with whom we felt a deeper connection. People who settled in and wanted to talk with us, people who danced and caught the joy of the moment. We’re thankful to be able to proclaim the gospel and connect with not-yet believing neighbors. Doing this through music is culturally relevant during the fête de la musique but also stands against what we see as strongholds of the enemy in France.  

Backyard of Our Church by a Jacuzzi - Baptism Service

What a joy to witness two people from our church plant proclaim their faith in Jesus and give testimony to His work in their lives. We love baptisms and enjoyed playing and singing songs of praise as our friends came out of the water.

Tobacco Themed Bar - Renew Conference

Our mission’s agency gathering was at a hotel near Amsterdam. We were invited as Hometwon Tennessee to play a show at the hotel bar to share our way of proclaiming the gospel in story and song with fellow missionaries and to have some fun together. I went in early to set up our sound gear and noticed a couple who had already claimed a table up front facing the stage. In talking with them I learned that they were Johnny Cash fans, motorcyclists and planning to go to Las Vegas this year to get married! I’ve learned that something about a live music event opens up easy conversation. I was able to speak about Jesus with these folks, and we dedicate a Johnny Cash cover to them during the show.  They later connected with a German speaking missionary friend who could go deeper with them. What a bar to wander into! The whole night was great fun and we took the opportunity to celebrate and honor our friends the Irwin’s who have moved back the US and with whom we’ve run on rather parallel tracks (We met at a GEM interview weekend ten years ago, arrived in France about a week apart, lived a block from each other during our language school year). 

 

Art Encounters

When we arrived in the Netherlands, we were welcomed by some old friends for dinner after a 10 hour road trip. We walked into their home and we were able to see two of Joanna’s paintings from last year, framed and hung as the main feature in their living room. It was overwhelming to see the impact that Jo’s art work is having through this family who hosts often in their home and has made these paintings a central focus to inspire spiritual conversations with their friends and neighbors.

Visio Divina

During the summer, GEM runs a summer long ministry opportunity for university students to do ministry in Europe in a program that is called Ten2, from Luke 10:2 where there is a calling for more workers for the harvest. (We housed a group of five young women from Ten2 three years ago!) At the beginning of this time, the team holds a gathering with all the students before they spread out to various ministry locations in Europe with GEM missionaries. The team reached out to Joanna and asked to use a couple of paintings for a Visio Divina for the students at this gathering. They used “the Incarnation” and “the Bride” (shown below) and reported back that the students were impacted by what God was speaking through the artwork.

Local Art Expo

At the end of June, Joanna had the opportunity to participate in her local artist groups’ expo in Bénouville. It was as always a great opportunity for Joanna to speak with people in the community about the artwork, but also deepen relationships with the artists she works with all year. Joanna had a good conversation with one woman about faith and God’s love and acceptance verses her experience of rejection by her local Catholic Church. God is moving in these encounters! 

Upcoming Expo in February

Joanna received a grant from GEM to lead an outreach art exposition in Caen. The theme of the exposition is “transformation” and she has invited three local artists to participate in this event which will take place at a beautiful gallery space in central Caen at the beginning of February. We are still in the early planning and creation stages and would love your prayers as this comes together. 

Hosting

We love to host in our home, but with Joanna being quite far along in her pregnancy we have focused on smaller gatherings, usually one family at a time instead of our MO of 20+ folks. We have small gatherings peppered in our schedule throughout the summer which are enabling us to go deeper in relationship with our friends and neighbors. Please pray for these times.

 As you can see, we’ve had a few things going on! We’re so grateful for the opportunities God gives us and for your prayer and partnership in this work.  We’ll be sending out another email update soon with more about how we are doing in our family life (it was too much for one email).  Thank you for reading and for praying with us.

Every Blessing,

The Appels

In Full Bloom: Appel Family adventures

Dear Family and Friends, 

Spring is in full bloom with summer peeking around the corner and we have been busy as bees traveling and getting life in order before our little one arrives in August. In this newsletter you will find an update on baby and how you can participate in blessing him (and us!), update on Tom and Eli’s trip to the USA, upcoming events and topics for prayer plus two ways you can interact with our story and what God has been up to in France and in our family.


Baby Update

All is going well with about 3 months until baby boy’s due date (ahhh!). Thank you for continuing to pray with us for health and for energy to prepare well for this big change. Joanna is feeling good but tired and this growing baby likes to move! We celebrated Reuben and Eli’s 13th birthday on May 1st so this year we are looking forward to welcoming our new son and we’ve become a home with teenagers (pictured below with their books which they got as birthday presents)!  

Opportunities to Bless BABY:

Since we are so far from many of our dear friends and our families, we wanted to give an opportunity for you to bless us and baby boy. Some of Joanna’s friends in France are throwing her a baby shower (as we don’t have much baby stuff in storage from 9 years ago!) If you’d like to help out with money for baby gifts or if you’d like to buy us something, first of all – thank you! Secondly, here are the best ways to do that: 

  • Zelle : we can’t receive money for personal gifts into our missionary account with GEM so if you’d like to send any funds towards baby help, please send to tomappel@gmail.com via Zelle. 

  • Over the years we’ve had some significant difficulty receiving packages which are often delayed and now have an extra tax that we must pay the postman to receive them (sometimes up to 50+ euros). So, please use Amazon.fr or a France based company if you’d like to order a specific gift and you can send it to us at:

    • 7ter rue du bac du port, 14970 Bénouville FRANCE

    • Here is a link to a small registry on Amazon.fr: APPEL BABY REGISTRY  

  • Also, if you have any prayers, blessings or scriptures that come to mind for the baby or for us at this time, please send them our way! It is always an enormous encouragement to us to hear from you.

Thank you for your kind support as we get ready to welcome another Appel baby into the world! 

USA Trip

It was great to see many of you last month as Tom and Eli enjoyed their visit in Dover and the Nashville area! It was wonderful to be physically with people who we know are with us at a distance each day in prayer. As usual, I (Tom) found the practice of sharing how God is at work in our lives and ministry a huge encouragement. It was also such a boost to pray together and be reinvigorated by people like you. Below you’ll find some pictures from our trip.

Video Update and ‘Why Europe’ GEM Podcast

It has been mission’s month at our sending church, the Gate Community Church this past month and we got to send over a video update. Although we made it specifically for the Gate, we thought you might enjoy watching it too.  (FOR EMAIL VIEWING: Click here to view video on our website and finish the newsletter…)

Also, Tom was interviewed recently for GEM’s ‘Why Europe’ podcast. It’s a fun remembering of the ways that God has guided us as a family – here’s a link if you’d like to listen. Podcasts: Apple or Spotify

Upcoming in June

Renew

Next week we head to Amsterdam for ‘Renew’, a gathering of GEM missionaries from across Europe. We also get to visit friends who live in the Netherlands for the first time! Reuben and Eli will be participating in their first ‘GEM K’ event – a weekend for 13-18 year olds led by GEM staff and volunteers at a different hotel from the one where we will be staying. Silas and Elodie will be participating in a children’s program run alongside the conference. Please pray for them to enjoy this experience and for all of our family to be refreshed by this time with GEM colleagues and friends. 

Music

We have several opportunities in June to play music, either as Hometown Tennessee or for our church family. Please pray for us as we proclaim the gospel in song and story at Renew next week in Amsterdam and at the Fête de la Musique on June 21. We’re also continuing to serve at Bon Berger with leading worship, playing at a wedding and for a baptism service coming up this month!

School Year Ending, D-Day Celebrations, and Art Expo

This has been a long and tumultuous school year for us, particularly in regards to Reuben’s health. He is doing better and has had less migraines lately Praise JESUS!! We are encouraged that he is improving and has had more success going to school. It is still an ongoing struggle. Please continue to pray for complete healing for Reuben.

School gets out at the beginning of July so June is quite a full time of end of the year gatherings and celebrations in our community. We are hosting some friends and neighbors in our home this month especially around the anniversary of D-Day. Please pray for these gatherings.

Joanna will be preparing for and participating in a small art exhibit with her art club at the end of the month in Benouville. It is always a great time to have conversations about faith. Please pray for her as she gets the art prepared for exposition.

Thanks as ever for your prayer and care for our family. We are grateful for you!

Every Blessing,

The Appels






BIG News!

Dear Friends and Family,

Spring is in the air – blossoming trees, and the promise of new life. In our case, this looks like a rather wonderful surprise…

We’re expecting our fifth child this August!

We will have five little Appels now! Joanna is doing well as is the baby, who we got to see moving around on an ultrasound this week. He will be our fourth boy!!! An unexpected blessing scheduled to arrive nearly on Silas’ 12th birthday and just before Elodie turns 9. People may make plans in their minds, but the Lord decides what they will do. (Prov 16:9)

God has filled our life with so many good gifts of which our children are by far the best and most beloved. Our overwhelming emotions as we look forward to meeting this little guy are joy and gratitude. Thank you for praying with us for continued good health for Joanna and the baby. In other news…

Tom’s Upcoming Visit to the States (DE and TN)

I (Tom) will be in Dover, DE on Sunday April 6th. I’d love to see you if you are in the area. I’ll be sharing briefly at Grace church for both morning services, then Luke and Shannon Siler are kindly hosting a small gathering at their home at 2pm. At this gathering I’ll be able to share in more detail about our lives and ministry here in France.  

After the weekend in Dover, I’ll be traveling to the Nashville area for the Messenger Leadership Summit at the Gate Church. On Sunday April 13th I’ll be sharing at Fairview Church in Lebanon, TN.

I’ll have some space on April 8 and 9 down near Franklin, TN to connect over a meal or coffee, so please respond to this email and let me know if you’d like to get together!

Eli will be traveling with me on this trip to spend some quality time with family. Please pray for safe and smooth travel and encouraging connections with family and friends.

Alpha Weekend Away

I had an amazing time early in March participating in my second Alpha Weekend Away led by our local Catholic parish. One of my greatest joys in ministry is getting to witness and participate in the process of God transforming people. This was happening in big ways on this weekend away. I had the privilege of walking with people as they turned to Jesus for the first time and as others took significant steps towards God. One especially poignant moment was when I got to pray with a new believer for his not-yet believing wife and children. Having experienced the grace and love of God, he is desperate for his loved ones to know it too.

It was also a lot of fun. The organizers asked me to bring my guitar again this time and then announced at dinner, to my amusement and surprise, that I would be playing a concert directly following our meal (they had even provided a sound system for the occasion!). As I’m growing to expect, music served as a wonderful icebreaker and more significantly as a shift towards deeper things and connection in the group. I’m also thankful that I was able to get to know some leaders from the regional Alpha team and our new parish priest. He and I got along well, and we have hopes of building deeper relationship and partnership in the future. I’ve even been invited to preach during a Mass at a church nearby.

Releasing Worship Leaders

I’m so enjoying my new role being responsible for the sung worship at Bon Berger. There are 7 musicians/potential worship leaders who have joined the team and I love getting to coach them and encourage them as they step out in this new way. Right now, I’m having new musicians or leaders shadow me each week with a view to building a sustainable team of worship leaders as the church grows. One lady helped me lead a few weeks ago and it was great to see some of her friends and family come along to the service to encourage her. Last Sunday I was impressed with a 13-year-old pianist who played with me. It was his first time playing in public and he had prepared very well. Silas and Reuben continue to help me in this ministry by playing drums and singing.

Reuben’s Health Update

Things continue about the same for Reuben. He is experiencing severe migraines consistently, but is having a few days between episodes where he is quite himself and able to be a normal 12-year-old boy, running around and playing with his brothers. We’re proud of the way he is motivated to get to school on his good days and this has been a blessing for his brothers who miss having him there as well. Thank you for continuing to pray with us for Reuben’s healing and that God would sustain us in the struggles.

In February, we were able to get away to Brittany for a week and enjoy some time as a family. We climbed on other-worldly rock formations and walked along the beaches, rain or shine. Reuben had a relatively good week and we were grateful to have time together where everyone was able to be up and about!

Thank You

Being a family on mission has given us the great privilege of having people like you around us, supporting us, and praying with us, in all the ups and downs of life. Thank you for your care and partnership with us as we head into this next adventure!

Every Blessing,

The Appel Family  











Impact through the Arts

Dear Friends and Family,

My sons and I have just finished reading the gospel of Mark together. We’ve been struck by the way Jesus’ ministry features intense sequences of action punctuated by deliberate times of retreat and prayer. This working/resting, pouring out/refilling model seems so fundamental to our design and God’s purposes for us. Over the past couple of years here in France, the Lord has been leading us into good rhythms of work and rest and we are experiencing the fruit of this in our family life together and our ministry. We enjoyed a quiet family Christmas here in Normandie (complete with a family re-enactment of the Nativity) which was a welcome rest between quite active months in December and January.  

Impact through the Art of Hosting

Our Thanksgiving gathering this year was such an encouragement. It was a smaller group of about 20 of us and this meant we were able to go deeper in conversation and relationship. Since our gathering we’ve been able to connect with each of our guests and have significant conversations about life and God.

Hosting is a central part of our way of life as a family on mission which had to be drastically curtailed due to challenges around health. We’re so thankful that since Thanksgiving, we’ve been able to move back into a regular hosting rhythm including a cookie decorating party for some friends of the kids, dinner parties and smaller gatherings. The pace of this has felt good and we’ve been able to make adjustments for when health troubles arise. Thank you for praying that our home would be a peaceful refuge, a place of welcome, and a place where people might encounter Jesus.

Impact Through the Art of Music

Another way we’ve been able to speak about Jesus is in and around music. We loved playing a Christmas show at Elodie’s school’s “Marché de Noël”. This was the first show we’ve played at which we were able to hand out Hometown Tennessee cards which direct people to a website where they can listen to our music. After releasing the album “Les Racines” in late November, we’ve been thrilled by how many people are listening to it! In our first month we had more than 5000 plays on Spotify alone. What we are finding even more exciting are the moments when we get to listen to the songs on this album with not-yet believers and see God shift the topic and timbre of the conversations from collegial banter towards significant, meaningful talk about life and God.

For example, at an end of year party for my badminton club, one of my friends asked if we could play the record. It was a group of about 60 people the vast majority of whom do not have a relationship with Jesus. You can imagine the scene – quite a lot of alcohol, boisterous conversation, and Beyonce pumping out of a large Bluetooth speaker. Then my French friend stands up and tries to get everyone to be quiet and listen to our album. Incredibly, people listened! They loved songs like “La Bénédiction” which is a sung blessing from scripture. I could see that God was moving and the songs gave opportunity for me to share the gospel by simply talking about what we were all listening to. 

There is something powerful about having a work of art or song as a focal point for conversation. After listening to the album with not-yet believers it has felt as though we were standing shoulder to shoulder, looking at a work of art and discussing the gospel we see in it. Something about this invites curiosity about God as we together exploring the artwork to find meaning. This makes it feel as if we are on the same team from the beginning. Here's a link to the album: https://www.appelstofrance.com/httn

Training New Musicians in Worship at Bon Berger

We’ve now been worshipping at Bon Berger for about a year. It’s felt like the right moment for me (Tom) to step into a new role with this church plant. I’ll be serving as “résponsable de louange”-(worship director). The hope is to develop new worship leaders and teams to serve the church at Sunday services. There are a few young worshippers who I’m quite keen to release into leadership – our kids! Silas played drums with me and Reuben led vocally a few weeks ago, what a joy.

Reuben’s Health

Thank you for praying with us about our health. Reuben is continuing to struggle with debilitating pain on a regular basis. Some days he is fully himself and feeling fine and other days he is miserable. We are thankful for a number of things in the midst of this. First, that all the medical tests seem to indicate this isn’t anything sinister. Second, that Reuben has been able to get to school on good days in January. This has looked like going a couple of days a week on average. We see reason for hope in that he is able to bounce back from the painful episodes more quickly and seems to be having them less frequently than in the Autumn. Also, we’re so impressed with Reuben’s fortitude in facing this trail. Despite some awful moments, he is trusting God, and his attitude is amazing. Thank you for your continued prayers with us for Reuben.

 

We are so aware of your care for us and feel acutely your partnership in our lives and work here. Thank you. In all your resting and working, may you know the unforced rhythms of His grace.

Every Blessing,

The Appels

Happy Thanksgiving!

Dear Friends and Family,

It is a heartwarming feeling to think of each of you now – many of you preparing for Thanksgiving gatherings this week. Whatever the different tasks or calling God has given each of us, surely the invitation into loving relationship with Him and with one another is preeminent. Although we live a fair distance from most of you, we are so thankful for the sense of community we feel with you. Thank you for praying with us as we navigate trials. Thank you for partnering with us in prayer and giving to do this work in France. Thank you for celebrating God’s victory in our lives and ministry with us.

Thanksgiving Update

We have much to celebrate! This past Sunday we hosted our Thanksgiving dinner. This gathering embodies so many of our values for mission here in Normandie. Everytime we host in our home, we seek to welcome and honor our guests. This year, like every year, we unpacked Joanna’s mother’s china and prepared our home to be festive and welcoming. The kids helped with cleaning and prepared special name tags which we prayerfully position at our tables. The kitchen work starts several days before our event as Joanna makes pumpkin purée for the pies and cranberry chutney from scratch along with several turkeys and all the trimmings. We invite our guests to participate in the cooking as well by sending them traditional recipes (someone always wants to try making sweet potatoes with marshmallows – an entirely bizarre combination for the French). During our gathering, we are intentional in giving testimony to God’s work in our lives – which is a natural expression of thanksgiving! After a wonderfully French extended time of apéro (nibbles and drinks), we welcome our guests to the table and begin with a song of blessing.

Then the generous portions of good food are brought out and it is a veritable feast! Tom leads a thanksgiving quiz before dessert and Joanna will often speak about our experience of being welcomed into a new culture as part of sharing some of the first thanksgiving story. Over pie, we take time for each person to share something for which they are grateful. Typically, we do this at table groups as we’ve often had too big a group to listen to each person’s expression of gratitude. However, this year we were a smaller crowd of 20, so we listened as one by one, we voiced our thanksgiving. While this might sound a bit “American” or cheesy, it was a profoundly holy moment as this group of people with considerably different ideas about life and God united in expressing gratitude. It was touching to notice how meaningful it was for folks to be given time to think about and then speak out thanksgiving. People were thankful for different things, but all of them spoke about relationships. Our French guests often mention the unusual warmth and welcome they experience around our table. This is where we see relationships begin and grow. We see our friends and neighbors drawing closer to God. 

Thanks-

Throughout the year we have the privilege of hosting many gatherings at our home. It is one of the best ways we can be family on mission and culturally, it tends to mean we get a lot of invites to go and visit at our neighbor’s homes. Last year, we asked for your help to “set the table” by partnering financially and/or in prayer with us to support this ministry of hospitality. One year on from this invitation, we want to say thank you for your partnership. Although we have faced some unexpected challenges this autumn that has meant our capacity to host has been limited to smaller groups, it has been amazing to see God at work in gatherings of all sizes. Thank you for being united with us in mission and thank you for your care for us as a family. 

 -Giving

This year, we would like to ask you to consider giving a year end gift to help us continue this ministry of hospitality, but also to help defray some unexpected costs related to our children’s health and education. Please know that God is providing for our needs, and we are not in a desperate state. However, we do want to communicate this unexpected cost and invite your help to meet it. Details for how to partner with us financially can be found here. Please feel free to reach out to me by replying to this email if you have any questions or would like more details about this.

 Reuben Health Update

We are so grateful for your prayers with us as we navigated, and continue to navigate, health challenges with our kids. Reuben’s health is improving slowly. This looks like him having some stretches of “good days” where he experiences less pain. He is still experiencing regular “bad days” when his pain level is significant. Thank you for continuing to pray with us for his complete healing and that he will be able to get back into school this year. He has begun online school this past week. This has been a blessing for his daily rhythm and has helped ease the pressure of feeling as though he was falling behind in the school year.

Hometown Tennessee Album out now!

Finally, we are thrilled to share with you “Les Racines” (Roots) the short album we recorded with Tom’s sister and brother-in-law in Nashville earlier this year. This project comes out of many years of seeing God use music and art to move conversations from the realm of intellect into the heart. We’ve been playing shows as “Hometown Tennessee” and more and more folks were asking us for a recording. We’re thankful for a financial grant from the European Bible Institute fund which made it possible for us to record and distribute this music. The album is available on almost all the streaming services - here is a direct link to iTunes, and Spotify, and YouTube music. Our prayer is that these recordings will help our French neighbors draw closer to God and we hope you enjoy them too.

Truly thankful for you.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Appels

PS - Another call for addresses for Christmas cards, please let us know if your details have changed! Thanks.

November Update

Dear Family and Friends,

We hope you are well. We are just back home after a week and a half away. First, we joined other GEM France missionaries at an annual gathering near Paris. It was encouraging and a blessing to connect in person and get to know each other better. We then went to visit a good friend in Lyon and had a week of holiday in Banyuls-Sur-Mer which is a beautiful town down on the Mediterranean near the Spanish border. Due to the health problems we’ve been facing these past couple of months, we almost didn’t go on this trip. Although there were some difficult days as we traveled and were away from home, we’re thankful for the rest and the change of pace.  

November has become a month of gratitude in our family. Joanna is really good about establishing simple practices to help in our family discipleship, and one tradition that has caught on for us is taking a few moments at the end of each day in November to light a candle, pray, and each share something we are thankful for. We are finding that giving thanks is something of an antidote to the stress we’ve felt around health challenges. 

Health Update

We’re thankful to report that Reuben’s health is improving slowly, and that Silas has his cast off and his arm is healing well! Thank you so much for praying with us. We are working with a chronic pain specialist here in Caen and Reuben has started a course of medicine for migraines. He is having a few more good days, but these are inconsistent (he still hasn’t had more than two days in a row without significant pain), and we’ve decided to have him start an online school option for the time being with the hope that he can return to school later this year. Thank all of you who have responded to our emails with prayer and advice, and to those who have joined the whatsapp thread for prayer for Reuben. I’m sorry if we haven’t responded to all the personal messages yet as we have been limited in our capacity. We really appreciate your support while we continue to navigate this health situation. Please keep praying with us for his complete healing and for rest and recovery for our family as the past couple of months have not been easy ones.

Album Release for “Les Racines”

Earlier this year, Joanna and I had the opportunity to record an album. In our seven plus years here in France we’ve been struck time and again by the power of music and art to move conversations about the Lord from the realm of intellect into the heart. We’ve been playing more and more shows these past years as “Hometown Tennessee” and wanted to record some of the songs that have most powerfully resonated with people here to use as a way of connecting and continuing the conversation. GEM got behind this vision with grant from European Bible Institute (EBI) fund to help us record and distribute the music.

We recorded at the studio of Tyler Somers, my brother-in-law who, in addition to being an accomplished artist, is a fantastic engineer/producer. Jenny and Tyler sang with us on a few of the songs and we love the way the project has turned out. We’re releasing the album called “Les Racines” (which means “The Roots” in English) on November 23rd in time for our Thanksgiving gathering. We’ll send another email nearer the release date, but you’ll be able to find the music by searching for it on pretty much any streaming service like Spotify or Apple music. You can also follow us on Facebook or Instagram - Here is a page on our website with all the links you need:

CLICK HERE: LES RACINES

So, mark your calendars November 23rd for Hometown Tennessee “Les Racines”!

Alpha

One exciting way that I (Tom) have been able to share my faith this year is through the Alpha course which is a series of dinners at which people who aren’t part of church or who do not have a relationship with God can come and discuss big questions about life and faith. There is a meal, time to get to know each other, and then a short presentation of a topic like “Why and how do I pray” followed by open discussion. I love these groups mostly because they offer the chance to see God working transformation. It happens right in front of you, around the table as people share their frustrations, guilt, questions, hopes, and experiences. God is present with us, meeting us in our brokenness and healing our wounds. This month I’m helping with an Alpha day away for a group started by Bon Berger, and I’ll be serving with the local Catholic church to help start their second Alpha group. Please pray that I’ll be attentive to how God is moving in these groups and that I’ll be bold in giving testimony to the work of God in my life.

Thanksgiving

One of our favorite ways of proclaiming God’s love for our neighbors is by hosting them around our table. Events like Thanksgiving have been a big part of growing relationships for us, not only because of the events themselves, but also because of the chance to follow up and walk with people throughout the year. The health difficulties of these past two months have limited our ability to host. After praying about what to do this year for Thanksgiving as a family, we’ve decided to host a smaller gathering than we normally do. Even a smaller gathering feels like a stretch right now, so we’d value your prayers with us about it. We’re aiming for November 24th as our Thanksgiving gathering.

In this month of thanksgiving, we are thinking often of you. We had a “family church” service at home last Sunday. Elodie is a budding preacher and loves to pick a passage and share some thoughts about it. On Sunday she read from Matthew chapter 5 in which Jesus declares that His followers are the “light of the world”. Elodie invited us to pray and think about someone through whom God has shone His light in our lives. For each of us, people easily came to mind. People like you – people on this email list! Friends, it is a worthwhile moment to pause and consider how God Almighty works His wonders through broken people like us.

Thankful for you,

The Appel Family

PS: It is Christmas Card Season! Please send me your address by replying to this email if you think I don’t have your current details or if you have had a change in the last year. THANKS!

Prayer Request for Wisdom and Healing

Dear Friends,

We are writing you again in the midst of a very challenging health situation, and while we don’t love having to keep reaching out in these circumstances, we know God has called us together for good and bad times. Our oldest son, Reuben (12) is not well. He has been struggling with poor health episodes for the past year but now he has been sick and unable to go to school for two and a half weeks. He has ups and downs, but he is experiencing pain every day to the extent that he can’t live his normal life.

This situation is frustrating in that, after quite a few medical tests, we have been unable to get to the root of the problem or even have clarity about what’s wrong. In the coming few weeks, we have appointments with a few specialists and likely some more tests to do.  

Please pray with us:

  • For healing in Jesus’ name

  • For clarity about a path forward for Reuben with medical care

  • For open doors or connections that God might show us to help shed light on the situation and help us figure out what’s happening and how to treat it

  • For our Eli, Silas and Elodie as they navigate this at school and at home

  • For Joanna and Tom to operate out of faith and not fear as we seek help

How you can help:

  • Please do be in touch if you you’d like to share something from your times of prayer or any other ideas.

  • We will be starting a WhatsApp broadcast group for people interested in hearing more frequent health updates on Reuben. Please respond to this email with your phone number.

Thank you for praying with us.

Every Blessing,

The Appels

Thank You for Praying for The Appels

Dear Friends,

We are so grateful for your prayers and messages to us over the past week following our email asking for prayer for our son Silas, who broke his arm, and for our family as we enter the school year. What a difference prayer makes! Silas is doing well, he has little to no pain and is managing his cast and entering middle school with a great deal of ease! Praise the Lord! God is at work, hearing your prayers and this is making a difference for Silas and for our family. I was able to do a little art project and brighten up his cast before the rentrée and we got all the kids through their first day which we celebrate! Reuben and Eli started 7th grade, Silas, 6th grade and Elodie started 3rd grade.

Paris Art Exhibit

At the end of July, I (Joanna) traveled to Paris to participate in an art exhibit during the Olympic Games where I shared five original pieces, alongside seven other international artists. Again, thank you for your prayers! The time in Paris was a success! The exhibition was designed to spark conversations about faith and during my time there I met several people and artists. I had some great conversations and was able to share and discuss the deeper meaning behind my paintings. I was pleased that my work seemed to resonate deeply with many who came to the gallery.  

One woman who came into the gallery on her lunch break, was enamored with my painting « the Word Became Flesh » particularly by its composition of pages of scripture. She began to ask questions about the artist and whether I was a Christian. It turns out she also is a believer and works in a director role at one of the big fashion houses in Paris. She was encouraged that there are young artists creating and sharing art that has the positive message of the Gospel. Moved by the whole exhibit, she asked me if I would come and speak to young artists at her church. We connected her in with the Christian artists network in Paris that put on the exhibition, Agapé Hub, and we will see what God does with this relationship! Thank you for your prayers which I’m convinced helped to bring the right people at the right time to the gallery. I’m feeling encouraged and looking forward to getting into my studio this autumn with an aim to work towards another exhibition soon.

Summer Music

As ‘Hometown Tennessee’, we played two shows in August at L’Orangerie de Beauregard, a campsite run by some believing friends in the Loire Valley. These shows were well attended – some campers even came to camp to see us play this year! (We had also performed last year). Both of these shows went very well. We feel that our comfort in sharing our faith authentically, through story and song, has grown this year and it was encouraging to speak with several folks who were moved by the concerts. A young girl at the site liked our show so much she drew a picture of us- our first ‘fan’ art! We were also able to lead worship for the Sunday church gathering at the site which had a record number of people that day! So amazing to see how God is growing His church in France.

The shows we have done in the past few months has emphasized the need for music that we can share easily with people who come and hear is play. To that end, we are working on the release of an album this fall called « Les Racines » which means « The Roots ». More on this to come in our next update!

Points for Continued Prayer:

  • Pray for continued healing for Silas, for his bones and his skin irritation.

  • Please pray for our family as we continue the rentrée. It has been a challenging week for all of us, with tears, sickness and paperwork.

  • Please pray for our working and family rhythms as we enter into the school year. There are several new people the Lord seems to be putting in our path right now, please pray with us for opportunities to proclaim the gospel in word and deed and to love our neighbors well.

  • Please pray for us as we work on the album release, that God would give us kingdom strategy in how we share the music with people here.

Thanks for being with us! Sending our love,

The Appels