"Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."
- Philippians 4:6-7
Dear Friends and Family,
Thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers, particularly in response to our request for prayer about Joanna’s shoulder surgery last month. As it turns out, recovery from shoulder surgery is fairly challenging :). Joanna has been an absolute star through what has been a really difficult time for her physically. I (Tom) have become even more aware of just how much Joanna does to keep our family going. This is perhaps best illustrated by the moment just a few nights ago around the dinner table when Eli noted with surprise - “Dad, I think you have learned to cook a little bit.”
To add to the challenge of surgery recovery, France has entered confinement #2. This time around, we are not as confined, since the kids are still going to school, albeit with masks. But, it does mean we need to fill out a form every time we leave the house and there are very limited, permitted reasons for going out. Though she has been unable to do all that she normally does, Joanna has been leading us through confinement 2 with incredible positivity and trust in the Lord. While we are disappointed to be unable to host Thanksgiving this year, Joanna has declared November a month of gratitude for our family. This has been fun to walk out with simple practices like sharing thankfulness around the dinner table and learning a verse together from Philippians (4:6-7). This posture of gratitude is spreading and has become the theme for our network of churches here in France which has gone back to meeting weekly on zoom for this season.
Over the past few weeks, Eli has been collecting fall leaves from the school yard every day and bringing them home. He started to make some Thanksgiving cards for all the people we would have invited to our thanksgiving meal, decorating them with the leaves. Taking on his inspiration, we are making little Thanksgiving packets with some (decorative leaves, a recipe, a scavenger hunt, and a card) that we are going to send to our scattered church through the post to bring our community a little closer even though we can’t celebrate together in person.
In the wake of the US election media craze, you may or may not have heard that there were two targeted terrorist attacks in France where three people were murdered. We continue to feel the need and urgency to share the love of Jesus with the people of France, and in light of what has been happening, we are going to be a little less public with our communications about the work we do here. We will re-engage the private Facebook prayer group and we ask that you do not share or forward the emails we send out without permission. This is for our safety and for the safety of the people with whom we work.
Please pray with us about…
Joanna’s recovery - She is going to physical therapy 5 times a week right now and it is a demanding recovery.
Church leadership - Tom is enjoying the leadership role he is playing with the Bless network; but, especially during lock-down, it is quite a lot to juggle. Please pray for wisdom in priorities and for rest.
Relationships with neighbors - Please continue to pray for connections with our French neighbors, especially when we don’t have as many chance meetings these days.
France - We sense a strong spirit of depression taking hold of the country during this second lockdown. Pray that the light of Christ would shine in the darkness and that people would be brought closer to Jesus in this uncertain time.
Celebration - We are approaching two years since eli broke his leg. We truly celebrate his healing, everytime we see him jump, run, and dance!
We are thankful for so much right now. We are thankful that Joanna was able to have this surgery, squeezed in-between two lock-downs during which it would not have been possible. We are thankful that the surgery seems to have been a success, even though the recovery is still a long road ahead. We are thankful that our kids are able to continue going to school and for the opportunity this gives us to continue engaging with our neighbors. We are thankful that SOS Chai has been given permission from the Prefecture to continue serving our refugee friends in Caen. We are thankful for the emails, the prayers, the financial support, and all the wonderful ways you help us to know we are not on our own in this work.
We are grateful for you!
Love,
Tom, Joanna, Reuben, Eli, Silas, Elodie
P.S. Last newsletter, we shared our annual update video. In case you missed it, click here!
