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.
