Abbaye aux Dames in Caen
Dear Family and Friends,
It has been an eventful start to 2020 for us. We are especially thankful for your prayer support as Joanna dislocated her shoulder. She is recovering well and we have found a specialist here who is working with us on next steps. It does look like Jo will need surgery, but we are so thankful that this didn’t need to be emergency surgery! We are very thankful for Lauren, (our new nanny!) who was there to drive Joanna to the hospital (on her very first day in France!) and help Tom with the kids while Joanna recovered.
We also want to ask for your prayers for Gerard and Chrissie Kelly. On Saturday night, we were leading worship for a prayer weekend for the Bless Network at Bethanie, and during the prayer meeting Gerard had a seizure and hit his head. He was taken to hospital and is still undergoing tests to find out what exactly happened. We work very closely with Gerard and Chrissie, they are our family here in Caen. Please pray for a full recovery and peace and healing for them both.
Upcoming Trip to the UK!!!
We are excited to report that we will be making a trip to the UK this April over half term to connect with friends and churches.! We’ll be in the UK and moving around a bit April 11 - 25. If you live in the UK and would like to connect while we are on that side of the channel, let us know!
Also, in an effort to keep costs low for this trip we are staying with friends when we can. We are hoping to be based near the Chorleywood area from around April 15 – 22. If anyone has or knows of a spare room or two where we could stay, please do reach out. We will be at the services at Christ Church Chorleywood, Sunday April 19.
Keys!
Joanna has been praying for a while that we might find a way to pray in our nearest local Catholic church (which we can see from our kitchen window, pictured above). This church is only open for a Mass once every 5 weeks, as the Priest covers several different parishes. Around Epiphany, many churches in our area put up a creche (nativity scene) and open their doors for a couple of hours for people to come and visit. Joanna felt a strong burden to go and pray in the church building while it was open for this creche. When she arrived, she met the women who is in charge of cleaning up the church building after mass and who is the local key holder of the building. They struck up a conversation and Joanna shared with her about her desire to find a way to pray regularly in the building. She suggested that Joanna could come and pray every 5th Monday, while she is cleaning up the church building. Joanna was excited about this opportunity. They continued talking together and then something seemed to shift. While in the middle of speaking about something else, this woman broke her train of thought and said: “Listen, I trust you, here’s what I’m going to do. I will leave a copy of the church key at the boulangerie just across the street. Whenever you want to pray in the church, you can just come to the boulangerie and say a special password.” Joanna was cried tears of gratitude and has made a new friend! What an amazing answer to prayer!
Developing Leaders
Tom made a trip to Frankfurt in January to connect with other GEM missionaries who are receiving ten2 interns this coming summer. This is an exciting program that gives college age students a chance to experience missions work in Europe and helps us with extra hands during a busy season. In connecting with the mobilization team and other site leaders, Tom was reminded about how much he loves developing leaders. We are grateful for the opportunity to lead and invest in this team of 4 college students this summer.
Speaking of leadership development, we will be helping Gerard and Chrissie and others from the Bless Network to lead the Seven Stories School coming up in March. This seems to be especially helpful to leaders in transition from across Europe. If you would like to know more about the seven stories school, visit www.sevenstories.org.
Church in Caen
In Caen, we have begun to gather weekly as church for nights of worship and prayer, a meeting that is called ‘Presence’. We feel that God is on the move in the city and getting to pray together and share stories about how we are seeing God work in each other’s lives has been a powerful step for our growing community.
We are continuing to host a family church gathering at our house on the fourth sunday of each month. Last month, we prayed for one another and learned about being a part of the body of Christ. We are looking forward to our February gathering this coming sunday!
Tom has also been getting closer with several of the refugees who are regulars at SOS Chai on Sunday evenings. He’s started teaching English to a group of boys from Eritrea, Somalia, and Ethiopia who want to learn this language. It has been rewarding and four of these lads came to Presence on sunday evening! Please do pray with us that this connection will grow.
Prayer Requests:
Safe and Healthy Travels
We are going to take a few days away at the end of this week to celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary. Please pray for health and safety for us, our kids, and caretakers (Lauren and Gigi-Tom’s mom).
Joanna is going to the USA to visit family in Arkansas and Chicago from Feb 29-March 11.
Church in Caen
Pray for Gerard and Chrissie as they recover from saturday’s events.
Pray for the church to grow in Caen, for strength and wisdom for each member of the congregation. Pray that more of the refugee lads would come and have fellowship at Presence.
Pray for our family house church gathering this Sunday.
Thanks for all you love and support during these early weeks of 2020! We are so excited about what God is doing here in Caen and we know we could not be here without your prayers and support. We love you all and are grateful for each one of you!
May God Bless you abundantly,
Love the Appels
