Mission Week Report

The team from Fairview Church in Lebanon TN with our family and our pastors Séna and Jane

Hello Family and Friends,

     We’ve been particularly touched in the past couple of emails by your kind and prayerful responses – thank you!

We’re thankful for the missions team that has just been with us from Fairview Church in Lebanon, TN. It was a successful and encouraging week of outreach in our city and exchange between this team and our church plant.

We asked if you would pray specifically for the outreach we had planned in the Grâce de Dieu neighborhood. We are keenly aware of some tension here in France due to the current conflict in the Middle East. In this climate, we were questioning our plan to have an outreach at an open-air market in this neighborhood where many immigrants from the middle east live – especially with a visiting team of Americans! After asking for prayer, we decided to go ahead with the outreach. A small team from our church went to pray and worship at the site of the market on the Saturday night before. We were joined by some of the ladies who live in this neighborhood and who have recently joined our church. One woman named Marie was out walking her dog, heard us singing and came to talk with us. She was interested in what we were doing and said she might come visit a church service. It was an encouraging reminder that God is always before us and helped me personally feel less anxious about the outreach on Tuesday.

The team from Fairview helped us put together blessing bags with homemade cookies, an invitation to our church, and some handwritten words of blessing from the scripture. We arrived at the market and there was an immediate indication of welcome as one of the local candidates for the municipal counsel was also there canvasing. It turned out that he knew of our music with the Nashville/Caen Twinning association and was thrilled to have us playing at the market. This was an answer to prayer as we were told by the mayor’s office that we had the right to go play music, but that we might be shut down by the police if the local authorities didn’t want us there.

We set up, began playing music and the team plus some of our church members began passing out blessing bags and talking with people at the market. It went so well! We had an amazing reception as many were interested in our church and nearly everyone was very happy with the cookies. The team had made blessing bags with the intention of handing out some at this outreach and then some more at another outreach at the university the next day. We ran out of bags and had to make more before the next outreach! We were so encouraged.

I was particularly touched by one way that God showed us how He is able to do more than we imagine. We’d been praying for and hoping for a good reception from people at the market – that was the strategy and it worked. The market is in a square surrounded by apartment buildings. What we didn’t expect was the way that many people in their apartments heard the music and came down to interact with us. Let me share one incredible story of the interaction we had with a man we’ll call Joseph:

Joseph is not from the Grâce de Dieu, but he happened to be 30 minutes early for an appointment and while sitting in the waiting room, he heard us playing music and came out to listen. Joseph is an English teacher, and he made the point of coming up to talk with us between songs to say how much he enjoyed the music – it turned out he had heard us play a couple of years ago at the fête de la musique in another part of town. He stood beside our pastor Séna and talked about God.

Joseph shared that once back in 2017 he had a class of adult students to whom he had posed the question “what makes people happy?” Everyone in the class said family or friends or travel except one student who said – “that’s not right because many people who have family and friends are deeply unhappy”. This student went on to share that he found true happiness in relationship with Jesus. At first Joseph thought this was a joke – a funny way to mock Christians – but as the student explained more about his faith Joseph was struck by his sincerity. He told Séna that this experience stayed with him and he agreed to come and visit our church and connect with Séna to learn more.

On Thursday night at Bon Berger, we had a time of prayer and worship and sharing together how we’d seen God at work through the week. Séna shared Joseph’s story and when he had finished one of our church members put his hand up and said – “I need to add something to this story, I was that student who shared my faith that day!” We were all blown away by how God works and the privilege it is to get to see Him knitting things together to draw people into His love. This Sunday, Joseph did not make an appearance at our church service, but we trust God is a work in his life. Will you join us in praying for Joseph and all the other people who connected with us last week? We’re grateful for the way God is moving them towards Himself and we long for them to experience true freedom in Jesus.

The congregation at Bon Berger were so encouraged by the Fairview team and I know the team was also formed by their experience here. I’m grateful for the huge help we received from GEM teams, who are a part of our mission agency. Matt and Père worked hard to help organize and lead the week and really made it possible for us to do such a big push with our big family and full lives.

Speaking of our family …

Since Aaron’s arrival in August, we’ve been busy. Not only with the inherent change in family life but also in ministry work. Along with our regular work serving the local church, hosting small groups, outreach in the community, and the often one-on-one relational work we do; we’ve had some extra outreach events like this mission week, the art expo last month, Christmas shows and gatherings, and Thanksgiving! It’s been a full season, and we’ve loved joining in the opportunities God is providing especially, it seems, for outreach these past 6 months. That said, we are feeling tired and would appreciate prayers for rest, and renewal of energy. A particular point of prayer is that Aaron would sleep better in the night as this continues to be a big challenge.

Prayer for upcoming Trips/Provision

We are planning to travel to the UK in April and to the US for several weeks this summer. On the UK trip we are spending some time at Christ Church Chorleywood and then having a break and vacation with my (Tom’s) parents who are flying over to see us. Our last big US trip as a family was three summers ago and we’re so excited to see family and friends and introduce you all to Aaron! We will be visiting several churches, along with spending time with our sending church, The Gate Community Church. We’re so looking forward to seeing many of you in the coming months. Please can you pray for all the planning that goes into these trips and that they will be a time of refreshment for us. One specific prayer request – can you pray with us about finding a vehicle to drive for the time we are in the States. Our plan at the moment is simply to rent a minivan, but if there is a vehicle we could borrow, that would help with our trip costs. We appreciate your prayers with us for provision like this and for the finances we need to get all 7 of us back to the States for a visit.

Thank you all so much for your prayers with us and your partnership in the gospel. We’re so grateful to be able to see and join in with how God is working here in France, and I hope these emails communicate some sense of this gratitude. We could not do this work without you, and we’re so thankful for the way God knits people together across distance and across years both for our personal formation in Christ, and to join in His kingdom work.

Thankful for you,

The Appels






Pray for a Week of Mission

Dear Friends and Family,

Thank you so much for your encouraging responses to our update about the art expo in February.  We so appreciate you being with us in this work.  In case you missed that newsletter : Art Expo Newsletter

This month we have another big outreach planned and would greatly value your prayers with us.  We have a team of 10 people coming to Caen, mostly from Fairview Church in Lebanon, TN to serve with us from this Saturday for one week!  Our church plant, Bon Berger is excited about the opportunity to have some extra help with evangelism and being a blessing in our community.  We have planned several days of prayer and outreach including events that feature live music, face painting, balloon animals, and blessing bags filled with fresh baked cookies and invites to church(shown below)!

The neighborhood we have planned to focus in is called “Grâce de Dieu” (Grace of God) and is a place where we are already seeing God at work.  There are several women who have joined our church from this neighborhood in the past year, one of whom was baptized over the summer and another who is hoping to be baptized soon.  Teams from our church have been praying there regularly.

Grâce de Dieu neighborhood has a lot of recently settled refuges and immigrants.  On Saturday we are planning to go and pray and worship in the square that is the heart of this neighborhood.  On Tuesday, we are planning to go and put on a big outreach event to run in tandem with the local market.  We need prayer cover over all of it, but we especially want to ask for prayer for wisdom about potential tension in the neighborhood given the current conflict in the Middle East.  Our method of evangelism is not at all confrontational, but simply having a group of Americans gently confessing our faith in this neighborhood could stir up difficulty.  There are other places and groups of people we have been praying for in the city (such as university students), and we can pivot our outreaches as needed.  Yet this neighborhood has felt increasingly important in our prayer times as a church.

Please pray with us for clarity and safety as we go into this week. We know and believe that God is already at work, please pray for the people we will encounter and our conversations and prayers with them.

Please pray for the team coming that they would have safe and smooth travels (they are traveling as we send this!), and that the Lord would impact their hearts during their time here.

Pray for our family, for protection and health during a busy week of hosting.

Thank you for praying with us!

Every Blessing,

The Appels

Praise and Thanks: Transformation Through Art

Dear Friends,

We are really excited to share with you about the Transformation Art Expo and all that God did this past week! We’ve dreamed of having a community art space in a city center for a long time; in fact a big part of what we have hoped for and worked towards as missionaries in France is to create spaces where not-yet believers can encounter God’s love and presence through the arts, music and neighboring. This art expo was truly a taste of this vision and God showed up! After a year and a half of planning, painting, and preparing, we got to transform a beautiful art gallery in central Caen into one of these welcoming spaces where people walking in darkness can encounter His great light.

 A Summary

The whole week went so very well! Thank you so much for joining us in prayer for this outreach. First, we had a day of hanging up all the paintings. We were thrilled with how wonderfully all the works of art fit together. The gallery became a beautiful, colorful and inviting space. After a careful day of set-up, we invited about 20 people to come pray and worship with us in the gallery. What a joy to raise our voices in praise in this beautiful space right in the heart of our city. This set the tone for the week, and a remarkable number of visitors commented in our visitor’s book that the gallery felt peaceful, warm, set-apart, like another world.

The next night was our “vernissage” or opening. We had about 70 people turn up, and the night was a success. Joanna and her team made sure everyone felt welcome. We were so happy that many of our believing friends invited not-yet-believing neighbors as their guests and allowed the exposition to spark conversation about God. This was a big part of our vision for this event, and it happened! Tom and I sang a couple of songs and had gospel conversations with guests as a result. Throughout the rest of the week, we had a further 179 people come to visit the expo. We had coffee and conversation with many of the guests. We were able to pray with people who came in hurting. We invited not-yet believing people to come to church. Again and again, we could see God drawing people closer to Himself.

A Story

Tom and I were sitting with Aaron, chatting with a friendly older lady about painting when a young man in his twenties came in and started looking around the gallery. He seemed a little nervous at first but took his time with each of the paintings and to read the words and stories about Transformation hung around the gallery. He seemed about to exit when he stopped, looked at us and said :

“I’ve lived in this neighborhood for three years. I’ve walked by this gallery countless times but today is the first time I’ve come in. I found the paintings and the text about transformation, particularly the “Divine Exchange” deeply moving. I’m in a process of getting to know God and this expo has touched me and stirred up my thoughts about God. Thank you.”

He didn’t want to stay and talk further, but it was such an encouraging reminder that God is at work here in Caen – how amazing that this young man was drawn in at this point in his faith journey during our transformation expo! The work we are privileged to do, like putting on an art expo which proclaims the gospel, is part of His far greater work of transforming hearts and drawing people into relationship with Him.

Our Thanks

It was a very busy week and the lead up to this event has been full as well. We could not do this sort of work alone! We ‘re so thankful for the support of our church community here at Bon Berger and we were particularly grateful for the help of one of our fellow GEM missionaries, Bennett, who traveled up from Lyon for most of the week to serve with us.

This whole event was funded through Greater Europe Mission’s EBI Grant program. The funding took the financial stress off of the artists and us as missionaries to cover the costs associated with running the expo.

I’m grateful for the three other artists, Caroline Le Gal, Tiphaine Anne, and Heather Wright (Bruyère) who participated in working and producing art for the expo, for help with the set up and manning the gallery over the course of the week.

We are also so thankful to our family. Putting on a big outreach with a 6-month-old is daunting, and Aaron did so well. He was in the gallery almost as much as I was! His presence brought a joy and lightness to the feeling of the expo. He became an integral part of the whole thing! Our older kids have been helpful and supportive as we have been very busy this past month preparing. So many logistical things went smoothly along with the overwhelming sense of God’s peace and presence in the space.

Thank YOU so much for your prayers and partnership in the gospel.

Prayers Needed: Upcoming Art Expo!

Dear Friends,

After months of work and preparation we are so excited that the Transformation art exposition begins in 9 days! Joanna has gathered and led a team of three other artists to create works for this week-long show that will take place in the center of Caen at the Galerie des Croisiers.

The week will kick off with a pre-show night of prayer and worship at the gallery after all the paintings have been installed. There will be folks coming from multiple churches to join us as we pray for our city.

The opening or “vernissage” is Friday night, February 6th and we’re praying that many people will come and engage with the artwork which points towards the transformative love of God in Christ. There will be some food and drink and live music from us as Hometown TN and from our friend Heather on her harp. Invites have gone out and there are flyers up for the show around town, there is a bit of a buzz building!

Below are some photos of the gallery and a few samples of the artwork that will be on display. It is going to be full of color! Joanna also built a webpage for the expo with information about each of the artists which you can visit here: Transformation Art Expo (it is in French, so have your translate settings on!) Also you can follow along on Instagram during the expo, Joanna will be posting to her art profile: @joannaappelart

Putting on an art expo with live music and a worship night in the middle of city is something we’re thrilled to be doing. We love art and music and gathering people together, but it’s more than that. We’ll be gathering as a united group of believers to pray and worship right in the heart of Caen. The whole show, from start to finish is designed to bear witness to God’s love for us. For a while now, we’ve been envisioning a space in the city where we can proclaim the gospel in art and music and where it is easy for Jesus-followers and not-yet believers to gather and speak about life and faith. This exposition is a big step towards that dream.

So, we need your prayers! Please join us in praying for this exciting event:

  • For unity and breakthrough in the sung worship and prayer night.

  • For neighbors and friends to respond to our invites and to the invites extended by other believing friends and come to the exposition.

  • That there would be transformation. That God would change hearts and draw people closer to Him as they engage with the artwork.

  • For health and covering prayer for our family and the others involved in helping us put on this event.

  • For all the logistics and set up involved.

  • For the relationships with other artists in our city.

Thank you so much for praying with us!

Every Blessing,

The Appels

A Thanksgiving Update

Dear Friends and Family,

Happy Thanksgiving week! Each year since arriving in France in 2017, we have loved sharing this holiday with our French neighbors. We extend our invitations prayerfully receiving a mix of Christian and not-yet believing friends and have several first-timers each year. All told we’ve welcomed at least 275 people to our Thanksgiving table in these 8 years! Everyone who comes seems to enjoy the chance to slow down, share good food and company, and be grateful. We share our gratitude for the welcome we’ve received here in France and our belief that every good and perfect gift comes from above. In story and song, we share the love we have received from God and the living relationship we have with Him through Jesus.

This week we will welcome about 30 friends for a Thanksgiving celebration, and we are excited about how God is already working in each of these relationships. Please pray with us as this tends to be a moment of significance in friendship and in people’s journey towards God. We also tend to experience spiritual attack. Several times, we’ve had serious injuries in the week before Thanksgiving and would greatly value your prayers!

As we prepare for Thanksgiving, we find ourselves thinking about you, our friends and family across the world. Not only in this moment, but in all the work we are privileged to do here in Normandie, we are so thankful to feel united with you. Thank you for caring for us and staying connected with us despite the distance. Thank you for praying with us in the ups and downs of cross-cultural ministry. Thank you for supporting us and this ministry generously and for your partnership in the gospel here in France. We are so very grateful for you.

Love,

The Appels

PS - Read on for Prayer Points and Updates from the last month!

Updates and Other Prayer Points:

 

UK Trip

We had an amazing time in the UK both at Christ Church in Chorleywood and at St. Paul’s Hammersmith in London for the Onelife young leader’s conference. The team at Christ Church welcomed us so well and it was a particular joy for Tom to preach at the 6pm service, something he did regularly as the youth minister at Christ Church 15-20 years ago! Despite some battles with health, we all enjoyed the Onelife conference. There is an amazing culture of prayer, faith and deep times of sung worship in this group and we love joining in. Each of the boys met with the Lord in meaningful ways and were encouraged in their faith and leadership. At Onelife, I get a wonderful sense of the way God works over time. Joanna and I had the privilege of leading worship and being part of the first couple of young leader’s conferences. Now our teenage children are blessed by the fruit of what God began those many years ago. It would almost make a person feel old, but thankfully there is an adorable little fella here to help keep us young!  

 

A Celebration of Life

Last week, we had the honor of playing music for the funeral of the mom of one of Joanna’s close friends. Joanna played an important pastoral role for her friend in this difficult time of grief. It hammered home for us how deeply the Lord has knit us into the fabric of our community here. After the service, we were overwhelmed by the response of the family and other mourners. Our style of music is very different from the traditional music for a catholic funeral, and they all deeply appreciated it. One lady told us that it was exactly as the deceased would have wanted, full of joy and hope.

 

Music in December

We have several opportunities for outreach through music this coming month. There will be an Advent worship and prayer evening and a Christmas service at Bon Berger at which we hope to welcome visitors. We have also been invited to play music for the Christmas market at Elodie’s school. This will be our third year of playing this “Marche de Noël” and it tends to open doors for conversation and friendship with other parents at the school. Please pray for good connections as we go out and play music and that people who listen would be drawn closer to God.

Transformation Art Expo in February

Joanna continues her work creating and collaborating with three other artists in Caen as they prepare for the exposition she is leading in February.  This will take place at a gallery in central Caen and will be designed as an outreach around the theme of transformation.  Please continue to pray for Joanna as both the organization and creative process take time, a resource which is slightly more scarce these days! 

Prayer for Passports

Two weeks ago, we travelled into the American Embassy in Paris early to get renewed passports for the big kids and a brand new passport and birth certificate for Aaron (see attempted passport photo above). Thankfully everything went smoothly at our appointments, but now we are in a waiting period. The twins have a school trip at the beginning of January and we are running into some paperwork issues due to not having their new passport! Please pray for the speedy delivery of their passports and no snags or hold-ups with the post.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

Appel Autumn Update 2025

Hello Friends,

September is a month of new beginnings in France. It’s the rentrée de l’école and everyone get’s back to work and la vie associative after having changer l’aire for a couple of weeks or so in August. It is, practically speaking, the “new year” of our ministry and family life. Because of this, September is one of our busiest months. With our recent new beginning only a month old we were feeling a little daunted about the big restart. Augmenting that feeling of trepidation were our memories of last September in which Silas broke his arm just before starting at a new school and Reuben began his long and difficult experience of migraines.

Much to our joy, this year’s rentrée has gone so much better! Life has been full, and not without challenges, but we are so grateful for good health at the beginning of this school year and for strong starts for each of our kids. It has also been a month in which I (Tom) have been able to share the gospel in conversation with neighbors and friends more than usual. One reason for this is our wonderful blessing, Aaron. In the many re-connecting moments of September/October, I’ve been asked over and again about how I’m doing having a baby in my 40s. I can’t help but respond that my heart is so full of love for this little guy, even though he hasn’t done anything yet but arrive. I’ve felt a strong nudge from the Holy Spirit in nearly all of these moments to go on and speak about how being a new Dad again is reminding me of my Heavenly Father’s impossibly big love for me. God is working in these conversations and I’m so grateful to be part of it. Thank you so very much for praying with us and for your partnership with our family as we seek to love our French neighbors with a fraction of the love God has for us.

Not only has Aaron been a catalyst for evangelism, he’s also a fun baby and we are enjoying watching him grow. Joanna and Aaron are both doing well, though still not getting very long stretches of sleep. Here are a few pictures:

Along with baby pictures, in this newsletter we want to share with you several elements of our ministry work here in Caen which we are excited about for this coming “new year”. Thank you for praying with us about these dreams and opportunities.

Art Expo in Caen

Joanna won a grant last year from the GEM’s EBI fund to put on an art exposition in Caen. Her vision for this project is to provide an interactive art space as an outreach for not-yet believers in our city. She has invited three local artist friends to collaborate with her on this expo and the painting work has begun! The theme for the expo is ‘transformation’ and they will be creating works of art which evoke and proclaim the sort of transformations or divine exchanges the Bible speaks about as the work of God in our lives (beauty for ashes, heart of flesh for a heart of stone). Please hold this exciting outreach in prayer as the artists work together and on their preparations. This exposition will take place in February 2026 .

Hosting + Community

Last year, our health challenges and the arrival of our 5th child limited our ability to host larger events in our home as has been our custom. Instead, we’ve been having smaller gatherings or simply hosting one person or family at a time and it has been great! We are beginning to sense a pull to host some sort of Bible study group in our home this year. Please pray with us about what this might look like, who we might invite, and about timing. We have lots of ideas, but want to move a good pace and hear the Lord with this. Also, we are looking ahead to thanksgiving next month and are hoping to host a reasonable size gathering in our home as is our custom. Please pray as we prepare for this event.

Sports Outreach

Friendship in France grows slowly. This is a cross-cultural reality that we found frustrating in our early years here. However, friendship in France also grows deep; and this cultural value is now bearing fruit, especailly for Tom, in his relationships with other men through sport. Over the past year, Tom’s role in his badminton club has become something like a chaplaincy. He is invited to mediate conflict, has been asked to participate in baptisms and weddings, friends confide in him and he offers prayer, and he is able to proclaim the gospel regularly. This year there are new opportunities opening up for Tom to play sports with groups of not-yet-believing men. Please pray for wisdom in what to pick up and what to lay down, and for how and when to proclaim the gospel with these friends.  

Church Planting

It’s been encouraging to see our three oldest sons helping lead worship on consistent basis with me at our church plant, Bon Berger. I’m excited about a weekly outreach that has begun out of Bon Berger: prayer walking with a view to speak with people we meet about Jesus in a neighborhood in Caen called Grâce de Dieu. Hoping to help boost this effort, we’re thrilled to have a missions team from Fairview Church in Lebanon, TN coming to join us for an outreach event in this neighborhood in March 2026. Please pray that we would keep in step with how God is leading, for growth in church, and for our community outreaches.

Catholic Connections

Perhaps the ministry work that I’ve been most encouraged by in the past couple of years has been my involvement with the Alpha course run by our local Catholic church. I’ve gotten to know the team that leads Alpha regionally and it’s been a joy to work together with them and see several people come to faith. There is more to write about this than will fit in this short update, but I love the way God seems to be building unity in this and the moments of healing that have come for many of my french Catholic friends who have been hurt by the evangelical church in the past. We are praying now about whether we might be able to run a combined catholic and evangelical Alpha course! Please cover these relationships in prayer, particularly my friendships with the Alpha leadership and with the parish priests.

Onelife Conference and Travel

Tom will be traveling with his three oldest sons to the UK later this month for the Onelife conference. Reuben and Eli had their first experience at Onelife about 18 months ago and it was a huge encouragement in their faith. This year Silas will be joining us.

  • Please pray for encouragement and growth as the boys get to gather with around 100 other young leaders (11-18) from across the UK who are full of faith and passionate about seeing God’s kingdom come in their lives.

  • Please pray for a good Sunday of connection at Christ Church on October 26.

  • Please pray for a smooth ferry crossing as Tom had a tough time with seasickness on his last crossing.

Thank you as always for your partnership in gospel, for you care and support of our family, and for your prayers with us. May you know deeply the peace of Jesus and His sustaining presence as you walk with Him.

Every Blessing,

The Appels

 

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