“The Cloud of His Presence”, acrylic on canvas by Joanna Appel
Dear Friends and Family,
Happy New Year! or Bonne Année! as we like to say here. We hope that you have had a peaceful and healthy holiday season and that the entry into the New Year has given you hope and encouragement.
Painting in the New Year
Last year, I did a prophetic painting at the beginning of the year. One session of prayer and a canvas. I paint words onto the canvas which get covered up, but they are prayers, hopes, and even burdens that I bring into the year. I ended up with a painting which I call, “Staring at the Miracle”, an interpretation of the parting of the Red Sea. I thought about what the Israelites must have felt, staring at the parted waters, what was happening in the Spirit as the waters parted. It must have been puzzling, terrifying, and mystifying all at once. But they could not stay on the shore, they had to trust in God and walk through the walls of water or face death at the hand of the Egyptians. In light of all that has occured in 2020, I find this painting to be quite a good reminder about putting my full trust in the Lord, even in the midst of chaos, fear, suffering, confusion, or whatever word comes quickest to mind when you think of 2020.
Staring at the Miracle, acrylic on canvas by Joanna Appel
This year, I wanted to spend a similar painting and prayer time at the beginning of 2021. I felt the weight of world’s desire for this year to be fresh, new, and all around better than last year. Staring at my blank canvas, I was struck by the reality that a new year is not a blank canvas, in which we can erase all that we have been through and become new people or have a completely new life simply because the clock ticks from one second to the next.
No, the reality is we bring our hurts, anxieties, our successes and joys with us. So at this point, I began to put some colors on the canvas, thick in some places and thin in others, bright colors and dark, covering almost all of it, leaving a few white spaces. We do have some space to make a change, to do something bright and different, but this canvas felt like a much better starting place for 2021. While all of it was still wet, I began to paint in my prayer words adding white and water along the way. I felt the Lord saying, “It’s my presence. It’s my presence that can heal all wounds, it’s my presence that can give you perspective, it’s my presence that can rise above the storm. Pursue my presence.” I ended up with this vibrant painting of the cloud of His presence (image at the beginning of the post).
Moses often spoke to God, face to face as a friend. And when he did a pillar of cloud would come upon the tent of meeting and the people would worship.
Exodus 33:12-18
12 Moses said to the Lord, “You have been telling me, ‘Lead these people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. You have said, ‘I know you by name and you have found favor with me.’ 13 If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people.”
14 The Lord replied, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
15 Then Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. 16 How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?”
17 And the Lord said to Moses, “I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.”
18 Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.”
Let us be people of His presence. That we can find rest in Him, that we can boldly go before Him and say “Show me your glory.” For how else will the world know, we are His?
Ministry in Caen
Our ministry work has had to adjust several times in keeping with the changing social distancing regulations and lock-downs/curfews here in France. Thankfully, we are pretty used to this sort of dynamic as cross-cultural church planting requires a high level of comfort with change. Some of these shifts have been challenging, most significantly affecting our ability to meet with people. We can’t go grab a cup of coffee with those we are discipling. We can’t have people over for house church or group gatherings. Tom can’t go meet new people by spending time at Keys & Co. and our associations (clubs) are all on hold. I’m guessing some of these frustrations are ones that you can relate with in your context too.
Despite the challenges, we are grateful for new and different ways of connecting and for the silver linings we’ve found in this season. Our refugee work has been allowed to continue by special permission from the Prefecture. However, we’ve had to make adjustments to the way we connect with our refugee friends, particularly in aiming for smaller numbers at our gatherings. The blessing of these smaller gatherings has meant a chance to go deeper in relationship, to be able to offer more durable skills training like language and cooking, and to have more opportunity to speak about Jesus. In December, we had a carol service in Caen and four refugee lads decided to join us. It meant our service had even more languages than usual!
It was great to gather in Caen for Christmas and the next weekend, we were able to have a chilly carol service to celebrate Christmas with our Bless family out at Bethanie. We were mostly outdoors for some bonfire fun with mulled wine and hot turkey sandwiches. We came inside for some masked carol singing and the kids did a lovely bilingual re-enactment of the Christmas story. It was strange but wonderful to be together to celebrate the birth of Jesus, and offer encouragement to a few in our scattered community. We are thankful that in France we are allowed to gather as church so long as we follow certain guidelines.
Another silver lining from lockdown has been the development of regular virtual gatherings. While we are thankful at the moment to be able to gather in person, we have begun a monthly prayer gathering via zoom. This has given the ability to be connected regularly with people who are praying for our work here in Caen but who live in other countries.
Discipleship Multiplication Engage Training
In early January, Tom had the chance to help host a group of five GEM missionaries for an evangelism training. It was wonderful to connect with others who are facing similar challenges across France and the trainers (who zoomed in from Romania and the Czech Republic) were fantastic. This was a great time getting to know each other better and Tom especially liked the chance to prayer walk in the city with this team.
Elan Graduation
On December 16, we attended a virtual graduation ceremony to celebrate Joanna’s completion of a three-year program called Elan. A fellow GEM missionary created Elan as a way to help new missionaries to France transition well into their new ministries with the help of French nationals involved in various ministries across the country. Year one was focused on spiritual formation which was accompanied by a lot of reading, an online forum with weekly discussions with a cohort, and monthly spiritual direction. Year two was focused on cultural acquisition with a French mentor along with reading and discussion, and year three was focused on ministry with monthly meetings with a coach. We also had a four day spiritual retreat together each year during the program. With the help of these mentors and coaches, we were able to develop a personal rule of life, a personal mission statement and set suitable and attainable ministry goals. The graduation was such a time of blessing where each of the people who walked alongside Joanna for the past 3 years spoke about how they have seen her grow and develop where God has placed her in France.
Family Update
We had a lovely Christmas in the USA! We surprised the kids with a secret three week trip to America to see both sets of grandparents for Christmas. It was a tentative trip right up to the end, but we decided to go for it. We told the kids we were going to get a special Christmas tree, we left at four in the morning from our house and only revealed when we were parked outside of Charles de Gaulle Airport that the Christmas tree was in America and we were about to get on a plane!
Because we wanted to be careful with our Covid exposure, we spent our whole trip relatively confined with immediate family in Tennessee and Arkansas. It was a real morale boost for us all and we were grateful to be able to spend some time with both sets of parents. Tom and I were tested frequently for Covid (FUN!) and always had negative results. We celebrated New Years Eve at 30,000 feet over the Atlantic traveling back to France. We are all back into the swing of things here with school for the children and jumping into 2021 with hope.
A little long-awaited kitten arrived at our home a week before we went to the USA. Pax came all the way from the south of france from a friend of a friend and has already become a delight in our family. She is very playful, a little clumsy, and purrs loudly and often.
Prayer
Please pray for the church plant in Caen, as we plan to start meeting regularly on Sunday afternoons as a church and having prayer room sessions on thursdays.
Please pray for our scattered community in France who are feeling isolated, scared, and tired of the condition of the world.
Please pray for healing for the sick, we ask especially for ‘C’, a member of our church who has been in and out of hospital since May. And we ask for prayer for our kids have had a virus that has been keeping them down for a few weeks now. And for Joanna who is still recovering from her shoulder surgery in October.
We pray that each of you would feel the love and peace of Jesus in your lives today and that you will rest in the knowledge that His presence is with you as you go out into the world, or stay within your home. We thank you that you are with us and we hope you know that we are with you in this time as well.
