Bells, Baptisms and the Blessing of Rest

Dear Friends and Family,

From our home in Benouville, we have a view of the beautiful village church, whose doors are always closed and locked except for once every six weeks when the travelling mass comes to visit, and this church’s bells have been silent. Broken since before we moved here four years ago. Each day, I look out the window and see this forgotten building that represents the gathering place for the faithful who have come before and I pray for France, for the Church to be revitalized, for God to break into the darkness and shine His light, for His voice to be heard and His joy to fill each heart.

A few weeks ago, an amazing thing happened. The bells started to ring! To many, this is a small thing, maybe even a nuisance, but now each time I hear them ring the hour, my heart is filled with hope. Hope that our prayers for France do reach God’s ears and match God’s heart. Hope that change will happen if we remain faithful to what he has called us to. And Hope in the life and light of Christ reaching the many people around us living in darkness. Every village in France has a church like this one. Every village is full of people who don’t yet know God’s deep and abiding love for them. Please continue to pray for France and for us as we choose to remain faithful to His calling for us in this country.

Blesstival and Baptisms

At the end of May, we went down to the campsite at L’Orangerie de Beauregard and held our annual gathering of the Bless Network, lovingly named Blesstival. It was a lovely time to see friends from France, England and the Netherlands and to be together for Worship, teaching, prayer and fun! We helped plan and lead the weekend, and led the worship in all the sessions. Plus, Tom led a worship music seminar which was tremendous fun and we played (and won) the annual boules tournament!

The highlight of the weekend for us as a family was the baptism of our three sons! Reuben, Eli and Silas, on a chilly but sunny Sunday morning, were baptized by Tom and I in the pool in front of friends and family (Tom’s mom was there!). Elodie wanted to participate, so she found some sticks in the woods and fashioned them into a cross and led our family in a procession, holding the cross above us all! It was a special and significant moment for our family.

10:2 GEM Interns

Over the past few years, GEM has developed a summer short-term missions program for university students to come to Europe and serve in different ministry locations for two months over the summer. We had planned to have a group come to be with us in the summer of 2020, but, you guessed it, COVID prevented this from happening. But not this year! We are very blessed to have five amazing young women here with us in Caen, working alongside Bless with SOS Chai and church this summer. They are living at Bethanie right now, and will move into our house and use our car when we are away this summer. Please pray for Abby, Kensie, Eliza, Juliette, and Made, as they serve, learn and grow in the Lord.

Trip to USA and Sabbatical

Our kids (led by Eli) have started a “countdown to the US” on our whiteboard in the kitchen which serves as a constant reminder to Joanna and I about how much we have to do in the next 7 days to get ready to jump on a plane. That’s right, after more than five years in France we are heading to the States for the whole French summer, July and August. We are thrilled to be preparing to see many of you and intrigued to see what reverse culture shock feels like. Will we be awed by the size of a “small” coffee? Will we be overwhelmed at the friendly welcome from servers and retail staff? The kids are excited about everything and planning to use French to communicate clandestinely. Please pray for us as we prepare and travel.

This trip to the states marks the beginning of a sabbatical time for us. With the help of GEM counselors and conversations with trusted advisors, we feel called into a season of rest and healing. A sabbatical is standard practice for people reaching the five-year mark in serving in missions abroad. In our particular situation, with all that has happened in the past five years with illness and injury, we feel it is significant for us to take the time to properly heal and move back towards life and ministry on the mission field from a place of wholeness.

To make the time to take the space we need, we’ve made a couple of big changes. Firstly, I (Tom) have decided to step down from my leadership role with the GEM France team. This is a significant change as I have been frequently giving 20 hours a week or more of time towards this work. It has been a privilege to serve the GEM France team in this role for a year and a half and I’m grateful for the understanding and care I’ve received from my teammates. We are continuing as missionaries with Greater Europe Mission and grateful to be on the team.

Secondly, on the advice of our wonderful GEM member care team (counselors who work with missionaries), we are taking a longer time away from active ministry this autumn. This time will be like a sabbatical, in that we are focused on healing, processing all that the Lord has worked in our first five years and seeking His wisdom about our next steps in France. We are so thankful for the support we are receiving from GEM counselors and leaders. We also appreciate the understanding of our local partners with the Bless network about our need for a time away.

This time away from active ministry for us will still be life in France. We will return to our home in Benouville from the USA at the end of August. Our kids will continue at school here, and we will continue in relationships with French friends. We’re thankful that both Joanna and I feel a continued sense of call to France and love for French people. We’re excited about the opportunities we can see in our city and with our neighbors. Please pray with us for emotional healing and for wisdom as we make decisions about what care we need (retreats, counseling, prayer ministry, etc.) Please pray for clear discernment of God’s voice.

Please do be in touch if you would like to connect with us to pray or if you have any questions or want to know more about what’s going on with us.

We are so thankful to have such a supportive and caring community of partners.

Every Blessing,

The Appels

Trains, Planes, Boats and Automobiles - Appels are on the move again!

Our Dear Friends,

We sincerely hope that wherever you are, you are well and feel the love and light of the presence of Jesus. Here the sun has been shining, flowers blooming, and there is a whisper of hope in the air that spring is upon us. We have been moving about quite a bit since you last heard from us and that will continue as we head into the summer and our big trip to the USA. In this newsletter, we would like to share a recap of what has been going on but also look ahead to where God is moving us in the next season, and ask humbly for your prayers.

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RECAP

Ministry in Caen

We are feeling a lot of excitement about what God is doing here in Caen! In February, we launched a Sunday morning family service for Bless Church that runs once a month. Each gathering we have had a great turn out and have had a lot of fun worshipping the Lord together. We always start with something tasty and do something silly, and then we have a short time of bilingual worship and teaching. It is a joy to be in the church service together with the children participating.

Joanna is continuing to lead the young women’s bible study every other week, going through a She Reads Truth overview of the New Testament. Our times together are always fruitful and a refreshment for the women who come.

Tom continues to help with the refugee language learning courses with SOS Chai and really enjoys his connection with the lads. We had a visitor from Greater Europe Mission’s storytelling team to do a profile on SOS Chai and the work that Bless does with the refugee population here in Caen. Click here to read the story.

French Language and Visa

We have studied for, taken and passed, (with flying colors, I might add) a government required French Language test called the TCF in order to apply for a TEN year residency card so that we can stay, work and live in France. Our current visa needs to be renewed every year. This ten year card would be a blessing in many ways for us as we look to our future here in France. We are currently in the process of waiting for our application to go through and be approved. Please pray that this can happen soon before we begin our summer travels.

From Barcelona to London to Athens…

April was a month of travel, especially for Tom. At the beginning of the month, Tom took planes and trains to get to Genova in the pyrenees in Spain. There, he attended a week long leadership training with a cohort of other GEM-ers. He was really encouraged by this time.

As many of you know, we were in our old home town of Chorleywood in the UK for Holy Week. We had an absolute blast being with old friends at Christ Church in Chorleywood. We were able to participate in all the services on Palm Sunday and in several events throughout the week. One of which was the “Walk of Witness” where all the churches in the village walk from their church building to the crossroads in town and celebrate a Good Friday service together and afterwards, share fellowship with a hot cross bun and a cuppa. Elodie managed to get a ride across the common carried by some enthusiastic youth workers.

This trip was originally scheduled for April 2020 but unfortunately was derailed by the pandemic. After being away for four years, we were very happy to hop on the ferry, cross the channel and reintroduce our children to our special community in Chorleywood and to spend time with treasured friends. We also made it into London to visit some fellow GEM missionaries, see some museums and experience the musical ‘Hamilton’ on the stage! For Easter, we traveled to Canterbury and stayed with some friends and spent time as a family. Thank you to all who met with us, hosted us and lavished your generosity on us. We are so grateful for you!

After we returned from the UK, we had three days at home before Tom took off for Athens for GEM Leadership Meetings as part of his role as Frace Field Leader. It was the first time an in-person gathering like this has been able to happen since Covid hit. It was refreshing to be in the room face-to-face with other missionary leaders for connection and establishing vision together. Plus, Tom got to take a run around the Acropolis and stand in the place that Paul preached his sermon about the unknown God. Amazing!

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LOOKING AHEAD

Blesstival 2022

We are so excited to be helping to lead another Blesstival this year at the end of May down at the campsite, L’Orangerie de Beauregard near Tours in the Loire Valley. Blesstival is a multilingual gathering of people associated with the Bless Network from the UK, the Netherlands and France where we worship, receive teaching and prayer, and fellowship together in one. beautiful. spot. Tom and I will help to run the event, lead the worship times and participate in prayer and ministry throughout the 5 day weekend. Please pray for God to move powerfully in the lives of all who attend!

Trip To USA

It’s coming! July 2, we fly to the USA to visit for almost two months! This will be our longest visit since we left for France in 2017. We are so looking forward to seeing family and friends all over the USA! We will be spending significant time in the Denver area in Colorado and the Nashville area in Tennessee.

We have been making strides to plan our trip and we have ascertained that purchasing a vehicle is less expensive than the cost of airfare and renting a car for our sized family in the different cities we will be visiting. So we have enlisted the help of our talented nephew to find and fix up a van for us that can drive across the USA, and he has done it!(see the pretty photo of the van below) We hope to sell this van at the end of August when we return to France.

TEN2

This summer, even in our absence, there is a special group of 5 students from the USA coming to live and work in Caen with the Bless Network from Greater Europe Mission’s TEN2 program that sends university students from the US on summer-long missions assignments in Europe. They will arrive in early June and stay until the end of July to help with our ongoing ministries like SOS Chai, church planting and bible studies. They will be living out at Bethanie for one month and at our house for one month while we are away. They will be well looked after by members of our church but especially one young woman who will be house sitting for us all summer. Please pray for them and us as they prepare to come and that God would do a great work in their hearts during their time here.

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A Time of Debrief

It is standard that after about 5 years living on the field as a modern missionary for one to go through a time of reflection, realignment, and repose. We are in the process of planning several ways in which we will do this over the coming months. We confess to you that we are tired. Ministry life for us these past five years has been amazing, fruitful and exciting, as well as rigorous, exhausting and, at times, traumatic. We are eager for a rest and for space to hear the Lord speak. We sense that God is bringing us back to formative and foundational places from our past to establish our path for the future. Would you pray for us and with us in this important time.

We thank you, our partners, for being on our team these last five years and we praise God for his goodness and faithfulness to us while we have served here in France. We look forward to all that God will do in this next season. Please continue to join with us in praying for France, that God’s Kingdom would come and people would know his love, peace and healing.

We send each of you our love,

The Appels

Prayer, Pandemic, and Hopeful Plans

Hello Friends and Family,

We are thinking of you and praying for you as we write this. The progressing war in the Ukraine has cast a shadow over Europe. Memories of the second world war returning fresh to hearts and minds. Especially here in Normandy, a region that has lived under enemy occupation and whose landscape was decimated by the war. Many are shocked that the peace in Europe has been disturbed after almost 80 years when so many measures have been taken to maintain it. Our hearts are heavy as we watch the events unfolding. We gathered as a church this past Sunday and stretched out our hands towards the Ukraine and prayed for peace, for God to do miracles and for His name to be glorified in the midst of such chaos and crisis. Please continue to pray and intercede for Ukraine, for Russia and for Europe.

Appel Update

We had a nice Christmas at home, baking and staying in our pyjamas all day. We had two Americans over for our Christmas dinner and spent time the week following with various friends and neighbors. After school began, we all became quite ill with a bad case of the flu. The kids had a rigorous covid testing procedure to maintain school attendance so we were testing at home regularly, and each time we were negative. It took us all a few weeks to recover fully from that sickness. At the end of January, we were able to engage the Seven Stories School with the Bless Network, Tom led worship and did some teaching for a group of about 15 staying out at Bethanie for a week.

We also managed to go on a family vacation for a week at the beginning of February. We went to a Center Parcs Resort in the Loire Valley. It is a residential forest where there are some restaurants, activities for kids and families and a ginormous indoor water park. We really enjoyed the time away. One highlight for us was that we were just a half an hour away from the 1000 year old church Tom and I visited 15 years ago, the church that we point to in our story that was the beginning of our call to France. It was so powerful to be back there, 15 years later with our four children and worship together as a family. It is confirmation again that God is good, faithful and has plans for each of us.

The last day of our vacation was a bit different as I (Joanna) took a home test for Covid and it was positive! I had felt cold-y, but realized I was unable to smell things for a few days so I thought I would test. We left our vacation and all took PCR tests to figure out how we were supposed to manage the next week of work and having the kids home from school in the house with us. Everyone but me had negative results, but Tom tested positive two days later. We tried to isolate at home, wore masks, and didn’t touch or eat with the kids for a few days. It was bizarre, but none of them caught it! Thankfully, it was fairly mild for both Tom and me.

We have returned to school, to work, and to life again after this strange period of sickness and the pandemic. Things are starting to open up again as the covid numbers are falling and restrictions are being lifted. This past Sunday, we had a family service at our building in Caen for the first time in two years! We had american pancakes and bacon, Eli and Tom created and led a quiz, Reuben and Silas were in the worship band and I gave a talk about Genesis 14, when God delivered the Israelites from Pharaoh taking them through the sea. It was a really nice time to be together across the generations and have fellowship. We had around 35 people there and it was quite tight! We are still praying and searching for a location to rent so that we can continue to have family gatherings like this one.

Appels on the Move

So it seems that with the pandemic winding down, travel is opening up for us over the next 6 months. We are planning two big trips to our former home cities and we would love to connect with as many of you lovely people as possible!

England, April 9-16:

After two years of waiting, we will be visiting Chorleywood from April 9-16! We will be at Christ Church Chorleywood at each service on Palm Sunday, and we are available for the rest of Holy Week to connect with you if you are in the area. We would love to see you and we are so excited to return to a place that means so much to us. Please email me to let us know if you would like to get together!

USA, July 6-August 26

We will be doing a grand tour of the US this coming summer! We will be seeing family and friends in Denver and Nashville and we would love to see you!

We will be in the Denver area from July 9-16

We will be in the Nashville area from August 6-20

Again, email me if you would like to get together in the USA!

Thanks and a Video

We hold these plans lightly, and up to the Lord in hopes that they can happen after the delays of a few years. We thank you for your continued support of us in our ministry here in France. We feel privileged to be a part of what God is doing in our community. We made a five minute video that gives a summary of what we do and where we see God moving at the moment: https://youtu.be/qC_bWxkVB6Q

Thank you for your prayers and support. Sending our love,

The Appels

Light in the Darkness

Dear Friends and Family,

In this Advent season, we’ve had a practice of lighting candles at the breakfast table. It’s a great reminder of light shining in darkness – and the kids love blowing out the candles! We’ve also been doing Advent readings from the Bible out loud each day. Something about speaking out words of hope and truth feels like an antidote to the uncertain and disappointing news of our world.

We have had several Christmas celebrations with our Bless Church community this year, including a Carol service, a Christingle and a Nativity re-enactment. We led worship at these services and loved singing this version “Noël” in French by History Makers Music: Noël

Thanksgiving

Thank you so much for praying with us for our Thanksgiving celebrations. We had an amazing time. We hosted about 70 people over two days with three turkeys and lots of delicious food. For many of our guests, this was their first American Thanksgiving dinner, and it was wonderful to share our traditions around the table and giving thanks to God. Hosting a couple of big dinners is a lot of work – especially for Joanna! Yet after all the dishes are washed and put away, we are sure that this is worth the effort.

There is a sweet spot for us in this sort of event in which we are creating intentionally welcoming spaces for not-yet believers and Jesus followers to be in community and where we have the opportunity to speak about Jesus. We sang “The Blessing” over our guests in French and English before the meal and we really felt the Lord’s presence in our home and His blessing on our guests. Thank you for your prayers and support for this important event in our community.

Year End Giving

We want to say thank you so much for your prayer support, your care for us and express how grateful we are to the Lord for the financial provision that allows us to join in this work. One-time financial gifts help us to make up the slight shortfall we have in our monthly support and help us with larger expenses that come up from time to time. Would you please prayerfully consider partnering with us in this way at the end of 2021? Click here to visit our partnership page.

Prayer Points:

• Our family, as we are in France on our own for Christmas. Pray for much needed rest and restoration.

• The homeless refugees that we work with in SOS Chai. Pray for food to be provided and places of warmth and shelter as the weather is cold and spirits are low.

• Pray for our church community in Caen. We are at a point of growth(!) and we feel the need to find a location to rent and meet on Sunday mornings. Please pray for us as we follow the Lord’s leading in timing and location.

• The Chosen, a crowd-funded Netflix style series on the disciples and the life of Jesus is going to be on prime time television this week in France! This is an amazing opportunity for the real reason for Christmas to be made known in France. Please pray that people watch and their hearts are opened to the Gospel. We have told our friends and hope to speak with them about the series!

We are thankful for your love and support to us this year and always. May you know deep and abiding hope as we celebrate Emmanuel, God with us this Christmas.

Love,

The Appels

The Power of Gratitude and Connection

Dear Friends,

Happy Thanksgiving week! Yes, for us Thanksgiving is such a big deal that we tend to make a whole week out of it! Preparations began some time ago for Joanna as she hunted down difficult-to-find cranberries for chutney and special ordered four turkeys from one of the few butchers willing to source whole birds. This week we’ll move some of our furniture to the basement and set up long banquet style tables in our living room as we prepare to welcome 60+ guests over two Thanksgiving meals (one Thursday night and one on Sunday). Why such a big deal?

Thanksgiving 2019

We loved Thanksgiving in the States. It’s always so great to be with extended family and close friends – and we miss you! Yet, here in France we find this holiday to be even more meaningful. We are so grateful for the welcome and care we have received living as strangers in a foreign land. Moreover, Thanksgiving is an event for us that exemplifies an important part of our reason for being here: to create welcoming spaces in which believers and not-yet believers can connect. We’ve seen God at work in these sorts of events both as we intentionally speak about Gratitude to Jesus with the whole group, and even more in the conversations around the tables. This year, as in past years, we have about an even mix of our church friends and our not-yet believing friends. Will you pray with us for God to move in the conversations and relationships that begin or build in our home this week? We’ll be inviting those who come to further church services over the Christmas season, please pray for some to find community with us. Even more, please pray that those who do not walk with God would take this opportunity to respond in some way to His invitation into perfect love.

Life in Caen

It is an exciting time here in Caen. It feels like since the summer we’ve seen an increase in our ministry opportunities and an acceleration in the work here. This has looked like having more people in our home, more and deeper conversations with refugees about Jesus, growing enthusiasm and sense of direction in our church planting work, and new opportunities to lead and serve. Joanna has been elected to be on the leadership group for the parent teacher association at the kid’s school. Tom has been elected to serve as the Vice President of the Nashville Caen twinning association. Joanna has responded to a need for deeper discipleship in our church by starting a small group Bible study for young women. Joanna also finally is able to access our local church which is a block away (pictured above). A process that began with the local “résponsable d’église” just before Covid hit and has finally come to pass! We prayed in our local church together as a family for the first time last week. We are thankful for new relationships and chances to serve our community.

Gratitude

In all of this, we are so grateful for you. It is not an exaggeration to say that we could not be doing what we are doing, seeking to join in God’s work here in France, without you.

We’ve been here in Caen for more than 3 years now, and we’ll have been in France for 5 years this coming April. We’re more convinced now than ever of the incredible opportunity and need among these wonderful people. God continues to grow our love for French people and our heart to see them walking in relationship with Him. Thank you so much for your support for us. We need your prayer, and we appreciate it so much! We are also so very grateful those of you who are able to support us in financial giving, which is essential to sustaining our work here.

It's amazing the way the Lord has been providing so well for us through your giving these several years. Right now, we do have a financial need. Our monthly support is currently about 5% below our monthly needs. We are praying for an increase in monthly partnership and for some one time gifts to help make up this difference. Would you join us in praying for the Lord’s continued provision? If you have any questions about financial partnership, please connect with us by responding to this email. If you do feel lead to give – thank you! – here’s a place to do so:

GEM France Field Retreat

Speaking of being thankful, we asked you about a month ago to pray for our GEM France retreat. Thank you! We had a very good time gathering as a team who works across a large area in diverse ministries. We had two main goals for the retreat: 1. To rest and receive from the Lord together. 2. To establish a new framework for connecting in small “peer-groups” on a monthly basis for encouragement, support and sharpening in our work. Both of these goals were met and the feedback after the event was overwhelming encouraging. For Tom, the experience of planning and leading this event with two other field leaders was rewarding and exhausting!

Prayer Points

Here are few other points for prayer if you’ve made it this far (you can probably tell that this is one of those newsletters Tom is writing as it is not marked by brevity).

• Our kids are doing well in their new school. Please pray for friendships for them and for French language for Elodie in particular.

• In all this opportunity and with Tom’s still fairly new leadership role with GEM, we are tired and feeling stretched thin. Please pray for wisdom in our pace and rhythms.

• Please pray for our refugee friends as the weather turns much colder and many of them are camping.

• Please pray for our church plant as we are beginning to search for a place to rent on Sundays that will better accommodate families and enable us to grow.

So very thankful for each of you,

Love,

The Appels

Christmas Cards

PS - We are preparing the elves to send out christmas cards, if you have moved or have not received a card from us in the past and would like to, please send us your mailing address!

Real Prayer Requests, Not a 'real' Update

Dear Friends,

This isn’t a real Appel’s update. Joanna will send something with her wonderful photos hopefully next month. For now, here’s a quick shooting from the hip update and request for prayer.

GEM France Retreat

We are about to head down to Camp des Cimes, an amazing camp/retreat center run by GEM in the Alps. This is first time our GEM France team has been able to gather in person since the pandemic and it is also the first time while Tom has served as part of the leadership team. We would highly value your prayers for us and for the GEM France team as we spend time together, pray for one another, and seek to sharpen each other in our mission here in France.

Hosting, New School, New Opportunities

These past few months for us have been different than we expected. At the start of 2021 we were planning to be in the US for the summer. Instead, we decided to stay put and the Lord has opened up such opportunity for connection and growth in relationships with our neighbors and friends here in France. I (Tom), have had more conversations about Jesus, and more opportunity to clearly proclaim the Good News in the past few months than I’ve had since arriving in France. Just this last week I began reading the Bible with one of our refugee friends!

We’ve hosted several church BBQs over the summer where our not yet believing friends outnumbered our church friends. We’ve had friends come over for dinner and express desire to connect with our church community. I’ve also been asked to serve as the Vice President of the Nashville Caen Twinning Association with a focus on music. This meant that last week was invited to participate in a meeting with the vice mayor of Caen and a few others who are focused on international relations for the region.

Joanna, in the meantime, has not only led our four kids into a good start at a new school, but she is also serving on the French equivalent of PTA leadership. She is started leading a small group of young women at our church in a Bible study. At the beginning of October, she flew to America with Elodie to attend her Nephew’s wedding and spend some time with her family. She’s also just had two paintings featured in a local art gallery for the first time where she sold an amazing painting called “Lion of Judah”. I love that some Joanna’s paintings (both the one she sold and several gifts she has given) are hanging in houses in our area constantly proclaiming God’s love. She is started leading a small group of young women at our church in a Bible study.

Prayer

Praise the Lord that we find ourselves in a time of real opportunity! Please do pray with us for:

• Wisdom to discern what is ours to do and for keeping healthy pace.

• Reuben, Eli, Silas and Elodie, as they continue to connect with new people and adjust to their new school.

• Tom in the various leadership roles he has right now, with GEM, with Bless, and with Caen/Nashville.

• Joanna as she juggles family, ministry, and community involvement.

• GEM France Retreat, travel to and from the camp and for the week to be a blessing to our team and family.

• Please pray that our neighbors and our refugee friends will experience God’s love in Christ Jesus and turn to Him.

We are so thankful that at all times, whether we see lots of opportunity and fruit or not, God is at work here in France. It is a gift to join in this work and we are grateful to be in it with you. Thank you for your prayers and all the ways you encourage and support us as we seek to follow Jesus.

Every Blessing,

Tom

Summertime with the Appels

Hello Friends,

We’re writing this email from a table next to our tents. For three of the past four weeks we’ve been living outside - two weeks of camping for our family holiday and now we are serving as camp pastors on a site, l’Orangerie de Beauregard, run by friends who are part of the Bless Network. Please pray for us as we pray for and encourage the staff team and seek to be a peaceful and hopeful presence among the 100s of Europeans camping all around us. It is a great reminder of the opportunity here in France - so many amazing people who do not yet know the transforming love of God in Christ Jesus.

4th of July Concert

As part of the Nashville-Caen Twinning association, we had the privilege of playing a concert at a Fourth of July event on the Lawn of City Hall, Abbaye aux Hommes, in the center of Caen this year. It was our biggest show yet! We were played to a crowd of about 150-200 in the open air, we played a little country and jazz, plus Amazing Grace and the Goodness of God. It was a privilege to play out over the city in such a significant place. God continues to give us new connections with people in the city through this partnership.

Summer BBQ Series

Summertime in France is a difficult time to gather as church as many people go on holiday or visit family. So for Caen church, we are getting together at different houses for a BBQ, games and fellowship. We hosted one night in June and had a great time this last Sunday hosting around 20 people for BBQ chicken and a corn hole tournament. We plan on having another gathering at our house in August.

Not Finished Yet, a Podcast series!

During the pandemic, Tom worked on a podcast about identity with his friend Josh Summers. Josh and Tom were roommates in college and since then they’ve each lived mostly outside of the US (Josh in Asia). This podcast, called Not Finished Yet, is a series of conversations about who we are and what is shaping us, from a Christian perspective. It’s been a lot of fun to record and along the way we’ve realized just how much we’ve learned about ourselves by living in foreign cultures. I hope you’ll give it a listen. Click here to listen…

Camping and GEM AC

This week we are serving as camp pastors for the l’Orangerie de Beauregard in Villedômer and attending Greater Europe Mission’s Annual Conference online. We are excited to have a week being Family on Mission, where we will lead prayers every morning, lead worship and preach at the church plant on Sunday. We are also playing a concert for the campers during the week and looking for opportunities to speak about the hope we have in Jesus. There are also online sessions during the week we will be participating in with our missions agency. Tom will be leading one of the meetings in his role on the France Field council.

Answered Prayers & Family News

Health

Elodie had her tonsillectomy at the end of June and she did brilliantly. She was so brave, the doctor was so impressed that she didn’t cry and was very cooperative before the operation. She has been sleeping quietly through the night and she is hitting a growth spurt! We are so grateful. Tom’s dental situation was resolved after several visits to the new dentist. We had “corona monday” this week where he received his second vaccination and he got his permanent crown on his tooth. Everyone else seems to be in relatively good health and as of this week, both of us are fully vaccinated which is coming just at the right time when, as of August 1, France is requiring people to have a health pass (meaning fully vaccinated or a negative PCR test within the last two days) to go shopping and to restaurants, museums etc. As we all know, the situation is evolving daily!

Family Vacation

We had a good wind down to school for the kids at the beginning of July. There were some tears on the last day from some of their friends knowing that they were transfering to a new school but we are hoping to remain connected with them since we are staying in the same village. We had a nice camping holiday in Brittany and at the L’Orangerie. Brittany was cold and rainy, we had car trouble but God blessed us with some amazing coastal walks and we brought a space heater so it was a cozy camping time. The second week at l’Orangerie was very hot and we spent most days in the pool and exploring the area. We also took a long awaited trip to the Zoo, Parc de Beauval, which was the twins’ birthday present from May when we were still in lockdown.

Preparing for the Rentrée

The kids start their new school, Cours Notre Dame, on September 2nd (Elodie’s 5th birthday). This school is a 15 minute drive from our village and all of the kids will be making the change. We are hoping that they will find more academic engagement and support at this school, as well as more freedom to speak about their faith, as it is a catholic school. Here is a little video that introduces the school, it gives a good feel for those of you who are interested!

Thanks

We are grateful for you, our partners in friendship, prayer and in financial support. We are privileged to be partnered in the Gospel with you and we hope and pray that you feel the blessing of the Lord on you today.

With love,

The Appels

Signs of Life Returning

Hello Friends and Family,

First of all, THANK YOU for coming to our aid in prayer when we asked a month ago! We feel so honored and blessed by you, our partners, we are very privileged to have you on our team. The Lord answers prayers and your outpouring of prayer for us was answered by several miracles in our family. Reuben’s stomach pains are healed. Eli’s planters wart is healed. Both Reuben and Eli’s arm’s are back to normal, and Elodie has a surgery scheduled in June! All of these I believe are healings that happened because of your prayers for us. Thank you again from the bottom of our hearts!

I don’t know about in your neck of the woods, but here in France, we are having a very late spring. We have had many nights below freezing in the month of May, very little sunshine and a lot of wind. Things are just starting to warm up here, blossom and bloom, but it all feels a little late. Like the land has been waiting, along with the people of France, for life to open up again.

We are approaching the 77th anniversary of the D-Day landing here in Normandy this weekend. Normally we would be hearing bagpipes all day, every day down by Pegasus Bridge and battling old army jeep parades and tourist traffic to get the kids to school, but this slow immersion from the global pandemic has France on an auto-pilot of work, school, home until further notice. There are still many restrictions in place. France recently closed the border to the UK (for the next month at least) due to the rising numbers of the Indian COVID variant, this means a serious lack of tourism for our region in particular and a further rupture in relationship between the France and the UK post Brexit. Plus we are still under a 9pm curfew and a mandatory mask order. It still feels difficult to plan ahead or to gather in any kind of group, which makes life and ministry somewhat challenging. But things are starting to slowly show signs of life, the cafes and restaurants were able to open for outdoor seatings in late May for the first time since October! Needless to say, we had lunch at Keys & Co, despite cold and wind. It was glorious! Museums and theaters have been allowed to open, with restrictions, and there is a well laid out plan with DATES which will bring life closer to normal. We are hopeful that these signs of life will continue!

Bless en Famille

We are so thankful that the restrictions lifted enough for us to have our church weekend away in mid-May called Bless En Famille. We made our way down to the campsite L’Orangerie de Beauregard, in Villedômer near the city of Tours. This is the campsite that is owned and run by the Rockes, a family in the Bless Network who are also leading a Bless church plant in their village. We hosted and lead three days of worship, teaching, prayer and fellowship for about 35 church members with a guest speaker, Jonathan Manou, a pastor in Paris and a friend of Tom’s through Messenger Fellowship.

It was a really special time to be together after so many months of isolation. We had powerful times of worship and prayer, healing and deliverance. We left the weekend feeling much more connected and encouraged by the deep works the Lord is doing in our church body. Also It was such a joy to have the kids so actively involved in ministry with us, Silas drummed in the worship band, Reuben ran the words for worship on the computer, Elodie danced and cuddled and Eli was our sign maker and go-getter, he would just hop on his bike and run and get what or whoever we needed at the time. We really enjoyed camping as a family and we will be doing much more of this in the coming months.

France Field Leadership Council with GEM

Tom has now begun to settle into his new role as the Community Director for all Greater Europe Missions missionaries in France. As a reminder, in February Tom began this new role of field leadership on a council of three: a partnership director, ministry director, and community director. The easiest way to describe what he is doing is that he is a pastor/community organizer for missionaries on the field in France. Plus he is the director for all new appointed missionaries coming to France. The Leadership Council meets weekly and also tends to have a number of zoom meetings with individuals and couples throughout the week. It is quite a big task to add to what he is already doing with Bless, we are seeking the Lord for balance and wisdom for how to work with our two organizations well and without burning out.

Caen

We are beginning to settle into a rhythm of gathering as church in Caen on Sunday evenings at our building, #3. Above are some pictures from our Pentecost Celebration Service. We have been broadcasting live on Facebook in order to connect with those church members who do not yet feel comfortable gathering in person. This week we are hosting a BBQ at our home for the church to celebrate the warmer weather, D-day anniversary, and being together safely outdoors!

Every week, Tom is leading a French / English language group for refugees who come to #3 before SOS Chai. He has really enjoyed developing relationship with the boys and hearing their stories. There is a growing number of lads showing up every week! We are excited to see how God is growing this ministry.

La vie associative has re-started this week! That means that we are able to attend our local clubs and see some of our friends for the first time in months! We have concert planned with the Nashville Caen Twinning association to celebrate the Fourth of July much like last year. We are excited to play music out in the city again!

Summer

School lets out on the 7th of July here and we are going to take a few weeks off to go camping in Brittany and then back down at l’Orangerie de Beauregard. The first week in August, we will be serving at the campsite in Villedomer as camp pastors, leading morning prayers and doing the worship and teaching at the church plant on Sundays. Also during this week we will be attending GEM’s Annual Conference online. Normally we would be traveling to Slovenia, but due to the pandemic, we have had to postpone our in person gathering for another year.

Prayer Requests:

Family Health - Tom has a complicated dental situation which will hopefully be resolved this afternoon by a local dental surgeon. If she is unable to do it, it could be months and travel to Paris before it gets fixed.

Elodie has a tonsillectomy and an adenoidectomy scheduled for June 23rd. Pray for everything to go smoothly, with no complications and a quick recovery.

Church in Caen, that it we would see breakthrough and more people coming to know the Love of God in our city.

Pray for comfort for our family - many of our missionary friends are returning to the USA for the summer or longer. We are feeling the disappointment of not returning ourselves this summer as we had planned. We feel it is the right decision for us, but we are missing friends and family.

We pray God’s peace and blessing on you all.

Sending you our love,

The Appels

Embracing the New

Dear Friends and Family,

I’m writing to you from my desk at home where I have spent much more of my time in the past year than I had imagined I would. Anyone else feeling a little tired for some reason? Here in France we are still under a curfew which means we need to be home before 6pm and places like restaurants and museums are still closed. We tend to vacillate between moments of hope and even enthusiasm about what we see God working in limitation, and times when we are just about fed up with the challenges. We wonder how you are doing. We think about you and pray for you often.

These first couple of months of 2021 have brought some big changes for us in ministry and family life…

A New Leadership Position

In early February, I accepted a new leadership position within our missions agency (Greater Europe Mission) which is a big change for us. The job is ‘Community Director’ and it means I will be leading GEM France on a team with two other directors. This represents a shift in my focus for a significant part of my working hours towards serving the GEM team of missionaries and families who live and work here in France. There is a lot that excites me about this role. Some of the key goals for me are around fostering healthy community/team, moving towards a culture of deeper trust, and supporting missionaries in their efforts to connect with their local community. I’ll be overseeing our France team communications and helping appointees (those who are on their way to serve with our team in France) throughout their journey of preparation, transition and settling.

I’m also excited about this leadership model. This is the first GEM France Leadership Council, in which a team shares the responsibilities of field leadership. I love teams and I’m thrilled to be serving in this important work with Doug Irwin, who is the Ministry Director, and Jenn Williamson, the Partnership Director. Since the responsibilities of the field leader are shared, it allows each of us to remain rooted in local missionary work. I am so thankful to be able to step into a leadership role that feels like the direction the Lord is leading me, while being able to maintain the relationships and amazing work I am privileged to do with our local partner, the Bless Network. Additionally, this leadership position is for a four year term. I love the idea of working to establish a new leadership model and then working to successfully pass the baton of leadership after this season.

This is a big change. If you have any questions about this new role, please contact me! I would value your prayers as I get started with it. Please pray for the adjustment in schedule, for wisdom in knowing what is mine to do and what is not, and for family/work life balance.

New School for the Kids

All four of our amazing children have been attending our local French school since we moved to Benouville. Going to school less than a mile from our front door has been wonderfully convenient and has been a place for us to connect with friends and neighbors. So why a change? We have decided to make a shift to a catholic run school about 10 minutes away because it has greater flexibility in meeting the unique educational needs of our kids. We also have some friends from church who also go to this school who have recommended it to us. After visiting the school and getting to know the principal, the kids are looking forward to the change. We will be making this transition at the beginning of the next school year. Please pray with us as we seek to leave our current school well. Please pray for the kids as they prepare to make a new start next school year.

Delayed Visit to the USA

Some of you know that we were planning to spend a few months in the US this coming summer, traveling around, connecting with friends and family, and sharing in person all that the Lord has been working in and through us here in France. With the continued uncertainty around travel and around our ability to share at public gatherings, we’ve decided to push this time back one year. We’re hoping to be in the US in the summer of 2022.

We are finding ways to celebrate in the midst of this disappointment - we had snow for the first time since moving to Normandy, the kids dressed up for Carnivale, we had a Valentine’s Day party, and the boys’ first sleepover with friends to kick off the February school break.

Financial Update

Some of you have asked about how our financial support is holding up with the economic impact of COVID. We are so thankful to report that while we have had some regular partners need to pause or stop giving as a result of economic challenges, the Lord has provided each month to meet our needs. Also, some have asked if Tom’s new job means a decrease in our need for financial support. No, this role is an increase in responsibility and a great opportunity to serve in a way that fits Tom’s gifts, but it is still a missionary, support-funded role. I suppose you might say it is a promotion without a pay raise!

Additional Prayer Needs

Thank you for praying with us in these strange times. Please let us know how we can pray with you too! A few more requests to add to the above:

Passport Renewal - Our upcoming trip to Paris to renew all four kids’ passports at the embassy. That all would go safely and smoothly.

Mental Health - It is felt strongly here that there is a spirit of depression taking root in France even more in the midst of the pandemic. Please pray for us to cling to the light of Christ and to continue to be light bearers to our friends and neighbors.

Physical Health - Since the beginning of January, 5 out of 6 of us have been battling with a virus (not covid btw!) that has hung on. Silas has continued problems with ear pain and has missed several days of school. Please pray that we can find health in this next season.

Church Planting in Caen - We have started meeting regularly in Caen and broadcasting our services on facebook. We have been working to renovate our meeting space, busting down walls and putting in a new kitchen. Please pray that our church can reach those who need connection during this very isolating time, and that we can bring new people into our church community to know Jesus!

Preparing for Bless Church in Caen

Personal Connection

We would love to connect with you, please let us know if you are interested in a video chat! We know that many of you are experiencing some kind of disruption to normal community and we would love to catch up ‘face to face’. Please let us know if you are interested!

We are so thankful for you! Be blessed in the name of Jesus!

Love, The Appels

Pursuing the Presence

“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.

With all our love,

The Appels