A Ministry Year in Review
Appels to France 2019
Hello Friends and Family,
We are quickly approaching the end of a decade and looking towards a vision filled 2020! We hope you’ve all had a lovely Christmas. After a lot of activity for us from Thanksgiving through Advent and Christmas services, we are thankful for some quiet family time here in Normandy. 2019 has not been without its moments of challenge, yet, we are feeling more settled and fruitful here. In this newsletter, we want to share some ministry highlights from the past year, what we are looking forward to in the year to come, as well as some of our needs as a family on mission in France. It is an incredible privilege to be a part of this work together with you!
Highlights
People Turning to Jesus
It has been such a joy to witness God’s transforming work in 5 people who decided to receive the gift of salvation in Jesus and have been growing in the knowledge of His love in our community.
Music Opens the Door
Tom has been invited to serve on the board of the Twinning/sister cities association in Caen with a particular view toward developing cultural exchange through music. This has offered the opportunity and platform to sing songs of freedom and worship songs in the heart of our city with the blessing of the local authorities - a very rare thing in France.
In addition to playing some shows with the Nashville/Caen Twinning, Joanna and Tom have been able to play some other shows locally. This has been a great chance to build relationships and a way to be a blessing in our community.
Thanksgiving
Last Thanksgiving, Joanna hosted an amazing meal for 35 people despite the fact that Eli had just entered the hospital 2 days before. This year, the tradition continued with about 50 people and 4 turkeys. It was an amazing time of fellowship in a group comprised of equal parts our church friends and our not yet believing neighbors. Eli wrote a Thanksgiving story that he shared and we had a lot of fun together.
Something about gathering to give thanks is remarkable profound here in France. We were so thankful for the conversations that happened about the tables. I was part of a conversation in which a new believer was sharing why the day was so meaningful to him with one of our agnostic neighbors. He said: “I look around and I feel the joy everywhere in this group. It’s God!” He went on to say, “He saved me!” and describe his recent experience of God’s love and some healing he had experienced in relationship.
People Coming to Help
We had much needed help from abroad in the early part of the year when Eli was still immobile. Tom’s parents, our friends from GEM France, the Irwins and Micah Heath, and friends from the UK Dave and Sally, amazing to have help arrive in our moment of need!
A team from our sending church in Nashville, the Gate Community Church, came to visit and they introduced our community to the Freedom Immersion Prayer model. Their prayer and care for us was personally revitalizing, but also had resounding impact in our community. Bless church plants in Livarot and Caen will be working through this material in more depth this year.
We hosted our first GEM Intern, Troy, this autumn. He was a huge blessing to us and did fantastic work. He lived with us most of the time and really became one of the family!
SOS Chai Refugee ministry
We’ve loved being part of the incredible ministry to refugees in our city lead by the Bless Network. Twice a week a team pulls up to the roughest neighborhood in our city in an old ambulance that has been retro-fitted as a food truck. We pull out Ikea garden tables and stools and set up a pop-up café for the refugees who live homeless in Caen. These refugees are young men aged 16-30 many of whom have traveled for years before arriving in northern France. They are served tea and coffee and a hot meal. We play soccer, Uno, and Jenga and offer a safe and welcoming space for them.
We have amazing teams of volunteers who help to make this happen. An unexpected byproduct of SOS Chai is that it has been our strongest instrument of church growth. A majority of people new to our church gatherings connected with us by first volunteering at SOS Chai.
Church Planting in Caen
This past year we were able to host house church gatherings, group bible studies, worship nights, BBQ’s, and visiting teams in our home, all as a way of bringing people into what God is doing here in Normandy and in growing Bless Church in Caen.
After lots of prayer, in october we were able to lease a building in Caen where we can gather as Bless Church. We love working with Gerard and Chrissie Kelly and the rest of the Bless team. It has been a joy this year to see new people coming and feeling a deep sense of belonging in our community.
Looking Forward to 2020
The continued open doors in Benouville and Caen for us to build relationship and minister through music and opening our home for gatherings. We have been asked to play at a ceremony for the mayor in January as well as the D-Day events in Benouville in 2020!
Welcoming Lauren, (through missionnannys.org) who is coming specifically to help with our kids (what a blessing!). This will open up more opportunities for Tom and Joanna to minister together and travel individually for events and visits.
Welcoming and leading a team of interns for the summer from GEM’s ten2 project. Four college age students will be based in Caen with us for 8 weeks! Find out more here.
Tom has been selected to make an official visit to Nashville this May as part of a delegation from Caen with the twinning association.
We will be visiting the UK in April to connect with our partners and Christ Church Chorleywood, our partner church.
Needs in the New Year
We continue to need intercessory prayer.
We keenly feel the spiritual battle here in France and it makes a huge difference when we have consistent prayer cover. Thank you for praying with us! We invite you to continue to partner and stand with us in prayer and intercession to share the love of Jesus in France. We LOVE it when people get in touch with us, give us verses, words or pictures. It is so encouraging to hear from you and we want to pray for you too!
We need more team here with us.
While we have incredible French and international volunteers, another couple who are able to work full time with us, and fairly regular short term interns; yet, there are so many opportunities here and we simply do not have enough hands for the work! We are currently praying for a couple or family who could serve as missional hosts at the spiritual retreat centre, Bethanie. We are also praying for one or more, to come and help lead and grow our ministry with refugees. God is just beginning to open some doors for us to serve the trafficked women who work right next to where we park SOS Chai, and we would love to have team who could specifically work with and serve the girls.
We need increased financial partnership.
It is humbling and incredibly moving to watch the way God provides in His kingdom family. We are so thankful for the generosity of our sending church and for individuals who support us financially. Having been on the field for nearly three years we are seeing some short fall in our monthly support due to changing life circumstances with our supporters. We are praying that God would call some new people to ongoing financial partnership, and trusting that He will provide all that we need. If you are interested in joining our financial partnership team, please contact Tom! (tom.appel@gemission.org) or you can sign up directly here.
Grateful Hearts
It is an incredible blessing being here on mission with you and we are constantly aware of the abundant blessing of our community across the globe. We want to report that Reuben’s surgery went really well and he is practically back to his normal self, no more infections in his throat (or enormous tonsils), praise Jesus! We have even managed to get away with a sickness free Christmas, which is pretty phenomenal!
We want to send each of you our very best wishes and we are praying for many blessing for you and yours in the year to come.
