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
