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

Gratitude is our Anthem

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Open Hands, acrylic on canvas by Joanna Appel

"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!

La Rentrée, Surgery, and a Video for YOU!

Dear Friends and Family,

You are often in our thoughts and prayers and we hope you are well and experiencing the peace of God that passes understanding, even in these uncertain times. God has given us some incredible moments of joy in these past couple of months and at the same time we are feeling the fatigue of slogging through an ever changing “normal”.

La Rentrée - Back to School and Life as “normal”

All four of our resilient children are back at our local school and doing amazingly well. There have been a lot of things we didn’t expect serving as missionaries in France, but we still feel our central call is to be family on mission. Over the summer we were meeting for Picnic Church at Bethanie, but as the weather has changed, we recently re-started small church gatherings in our home with other families and friends. Last Sunday Eli read our Psalm for the day in French with an absolutely spot on accent. Silas has recently become a bit of an evangelist - asking his badminton coach whether he has decided to become a Christian yet each week.

Bless Family Camping Week

Just before school started, we helped to lead a camping week for the Bless Network. As part of this week we had the joy of seeing four young adults profess their faith and be baptized. This was a special moment for Joanna and I as we’ve been privileged to watch two of these young adults start following Jesus since we arrived in Normandie. It was inspiring to see these young people, at the edge of their professional lives and facing a world filled with more uncertainty than any of us anticipated, putting their trust in Jesus and declaring that faith publicly.

Prayer Points

• Joanna dislocated her shoulder a few weeks ago. Many of you know that this isn’t the first time this has happened and each time has been progressively worse. She is scheduled for shoulder surgery on the 13th of October. Please pray for healing and for smooth recovery following surgery. Please pray for our family as Joanna pretty much keeps us together, and this task will be made more challenging with only one arm for a while.

• Please pray for several neighbors with whom we are growing in relationship. It is a trying time for many of our friends here and we are praying this is a moment when many would turn and find true peace and freedom in Jesus. One neighbor is very sick and they don’t know what is wrong with her. Please pray for an opening to speak about the hope of Jesus and for healing.

• Please pray for the refugees in Caen with whom we work. Many of them have recently been evicted from a squat where they were living and are sleeping on the streets. It is already getting cold here and this isn’t a good situation for them. There is a small group who have begun meeting for French and English language study with Tom at our church building in Caen. This has been an amazing way to grow in relationship and express the love of Christ.

• Finally, several of you have asked about how our financial support is going at this time. Thank you for praying with us about this. We have seen a dip in our monthly support due to people having lost income in the US. So far, that deficit has been covered by one-time gifts. Please pray with us that God would continue to provide for our financial needs here.

Video Update

We recently put together an update video for our sending church, the Gate Community Church. We wanted to share this with you too! Please note, we have been on zoom a lot during the past 6 months… ;)

A short video filling you in on what God has been doing in our family and in our ministry over the past year or so. Thank you for watching!

Thank you so much for your care for us, for praying with us and being part of all that God is working here in France. May you know the blessing of seeing His kingdom come and His will be done in your life.

Love,

The Appels

Way Maker...

…Miracle Worker, Promise Keeper, Light in the darkness, that is who You are…

Dear Friends and Family,

It still seems that we are living in the midst of very uncertain times. The world we are living in seems to be shifting daily. Perhaps this is revealing the truth of our lives that nothing is certain but the goodness of our God and our futures are secured when we put our trust in Him. We are praying for His peace and security to be with each of you and your families.

Reflecting on these past months of rather restricted living from which we are emerging here in France, it is clear to us that God has worked this situation for good for our family. For many of our friends and family it has been difficult, both in terms of health, change in job situations, and dealing with stress related to government restrictions and social distancing measures. Please know our prayers for you and please do reach out if we can be praying together about something specific. Click here to email us directly.

Even when I don’t see it, You’re working, even when I don’t feel it, you’re working, You never stop, you never stop working…

God Working in France

In our ministry here, this has been a fruitful season. France put in place pretty firm restrictions on meetings and leaving the house in early March. From that first week we started gathering online as church via Zoom. All three of the Bless churches that we work with in France gathered together for weekly bilingual services and a midweek prayer and bible study. We were joined by others in our network from several neighboring countries and we were also amazed that we had first time visitors connecting with our meetings. We met online twice a week for 10 weeks straight and have continued meeting every other week as restrictions have eased. God was working in many ways in these virtual gatherings. We saw new leaders step up and teach. Our times of reading the Bible together, prayer and celebrating communion were incredibly rich. One of our friends and a mentor in the Bless community said on Easter Sunday that she felt the Lord had treasure for our community to find specifically in this season and we truly experienced this as we gathered.

Emerging from restrictions, we have been able to gather twice now at Bethanie for what we are calling “Picnic Church”. This enables us to keep good distancing practices but also to sing our worship together and enjoy fellowship. SOS Chai (the Bless ministry with refugees) was able to continue in a limited way during the confinement due to the leadership of one young man, who was a refugee and is now a leader on the SOS Chai team. He lives near where many of the refugees have their squats and was able to identify needs and buy essentials for those who were in crisis. SOS has re-launched this past week, and it is exciting that we are beginning to have small groups of refugees coming to our church building in Caen for language classes and other training.

Jesus Calms the Storm

God Working in us

During this time, we have been growing in knowledge of our identities individually and as a family. It seems that God has used this time to mold our family and take us a few steps closer to his specific callings on our lives.

Tom: Leadership

For the past few months, Tom has stepped in to lead the Bless church and also helped to lead other elements of the Bless Network through the Covid crisis as our friends Gerard and Chrissie Kelly, who direct the Bless network, were in the UK with Gerard recovering from a major health issue. Thank you for praying with us for them, we are happy to report that they are back in France now and Gerard is doing much better.

For Tom, being thrust into a much bigger leadership role helped to remind him of God’s call in his life to lead. As we move into life together after COVID as church in France, Tom has been asked to continue in a leadership role with Bless alongside Gerard and Chrissie. We were surprised and honored when the church gave us a gift of a lemon tree and thanked us for our leadership through the crisis at our first in person gathering on Pentecost Sunday.

Joanna: Painting

Joanna has been spending more time painting to try to improve her skills and find her style. She has painted a few pieces for members of the church as gifts. She also took a course online that taught her how to paint colorful portraits. We are finding that her paintings are having an impact on people and feel that this is an important part of Joanna’s calling here in France.

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Family: Sabbath

In this season of being home with the kids all the time and working from home as well, we have found it easy to let our work time bleed into every day of the week and most hours of the day. We recently read a book called “the Ruthless Elimination of Hurry” by John Mark Comer and it has really impacted our lives and the way we desire to walk with Jesus in our family. We are starting to keep a pretty guarded sabbath day on wednesdays each week, where we stop. We celebrate who God is, who we are in our family, and we rest together. We turn our phones off, we take naps, and we worship together. It has been sweet and it is molding us as people who work out of rest. Praise Jesus!

God Making a Way-Opportunities

Music

Tom and Joanna are playing a show with Nashville twinning committee July 3rd as part of an independence day celebration. Our friends Doug and Emilee Irwin are coming out to join us for this show which is going to be such fun. We love the opportunities we have here in Caen to be a blessing to the city and to sing songs of freedom in the city. This concert venue is particularly meaningful as it is taking place at the cafe inside the old city walls which William the Conqueror built about 1000 years ago. We often pray on these walls that overlook the city and it is a privilege to get to sing and play there.

Camping

One of our opportunities to camp will be for the Bless Family Camping Week at the end of August which Tom has been working hard to organize. This will be the big gathering for everyone connected with the Bless Network and it is hosted at a campsite run by our friends Tim and Jane Rocke, who lead a Bless church on site. It should be a great time to refresh and be equipped, and to celebrate all the God is working in this part of the world. We are going to be baptizing some of those who became Christians this past year!

Specific Prayer:

Praise for Lauren

Lauren, our nanny, is returning to the USA this week after being with us for a wonderful and strange 5 months! We are so grateful for all she has done to serve us and become a part of our family. Please pray for smooth travel and re-entry into the US, and blessings abundant!

Prayer for Healing for C

C is a member of our church who became a Christian two years ago. She has really come alive since walking with Jesus and is such a beautiful soul. She recently had a stroke and has been in a medically induced coma for a few weeks and is in an intensive care unit. As a church, we are praying for a miracle. Please join us in praying for her total and complete healing, that would impact her family and neighbors.

As always, thank you for your prayers and support. We would not be able to be here without you.

Love, The Appels

La Bénédiction de Confinement

Dear Friends and Family,

We hope you are well in mind, body and spirit. We are praying for you and continually grateful for you in our lives! We believe in the power of speaking a blessing over an individual, a neighborhood, a city or a country, and singing a blessing can be just as powerful, if not more so. A song called “The Blessing” was released just about the same time that Covid-19 was starting to take hold in the west. It is a powerful declaration of God’s favor and peace straight from scripture. Tom and I led this song bilingually in our church service a few weeks ago and we would love to play it over you! We have made a little video with the words so you can sing with us (in english and in french ;) We hope that you feel our hearts as we worship and declare his goodness over your lives.

A bilingual cover of The Blessing by Kari Jobe, Cody Carnes, Stephen Furtick, Chris Brown Version bilingue français et anglais Bilingual version in French an...

Family Update

Here’s what’s new with us: We are on day 39 of our strict quarantine in France. We have only left the house to go to the grocery store, boulangerie, or do our allotted one-hour of exercise within one kilometer of our front door, all the while carrying our time-stamped papers to avoid a hefty fine. We are all well and feel tremendously fortunate to be in our home with a beautiful yard in early spring. We will be here like this until May 11th, and then the world will slowly start to open up again, but not as it was before. We are taking it one day at a time.

Though we are home ALL THE TIME, the days are very full of activity. We have been working through the assignments sent daily by the kids’ teachers, watching music classes online (thank you Mark Woodward), doing crafts, playing a lot and cooking a lot. We have a daily assembly where Tom teaches the kids about important qualities like strength, respect, grace etc. We had a fancy “High Tea” where we dressed up and had scones and cucumber sandwiches and we celebrated Carnival with face paint and costumes, and parading around the yard in the traditional French style. We also have begun a vegetable garden in two raised beds, but we had more seeds and more time, so we decided to dig up a few more plots of earth to plant more vegetables. We celebrated Easter and Tom’s birthday with as much tradition as we could with frosted cakes and dyed easter eggs.

And of course, we are doing chores, cleaning, learning to do laundry without a washing machine and then rejoicing in its miraculous healing! The kids seem to be doing remarkable well, the adults have our wobbly moments but we are finding grace in the midst of it. We are very grateful to have Lauren, our nanny, with us, though the circumstances have not been what was expected. She has been very helpful and more and more a member of the family. We expect that she will be able to return home in June as planned. God is very good and His timing is perfect.

Ministry Update:

You may remember that back in February our friend Gerard who runs the Bless network with his wife Chrissie had a health emergency. Gerard is on the mend and he and Chrissie are in the UK recuperating. Thank you for continuing to pray with us for them. While they rest and recover, Tom has taken on a much bigger role in covering leadership for the Bless Network. Thankfully, Bless is an amazing team of people and while leading a missional network through a crisis was not part of the plan for 2020, we are seeing blessing in it.

Tom is leading online gatherings using Zoom twice a week for the three churches in our network here in France. As we are hearing from friends in other parts of the world - God is on the move during this time of limitation. It feels like our church community is going deeper with the Lord. Our times of prayer and reading the Bible together are so powerful and we are noticing a marked increase in the way we, as a body, care for and reach out to each other. We’ve also seen growth in numbers in this time. We’ve had rather large Sunday gatherings in part because friends of the church from the UK or other places in Europe are “visiting”, but we’ve also seen neighbors and friends coming for the first time to our church. There is something kind of wonderful about having first time visitors at a virtual service.

Many of you have asked about what is happening with SOS Chai and the refugee community we are connected with here in Caen. Thank you for continuing to pray for these young men, who are among the most vulnerable in our area. While we have had to stop our bi-weekly dinner and hang out with the lads, we are able to continue in relationship with several of them through messaging and phone calls. Thankfully, one of the lads who has been granted asylum and has been helping us as a leader at SOS for about a year lives very near one of the squats where many of the boys live and is able to communicate about need. We have worked out a way to send him funds and he is able to take other boys shopping for essentials.

The summer is a busy season for Bless, especially with groups coming and going. Tom has been busy with leadership teams working to make decisions, adjustments and communicate well about the changes that we’ve needed to make. Like almost every organization, there are financial impacts for Bless from this pandemic, so there has been some stewarding work to do as well.

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In all the ways God has made for us to join in what He is working, we are so thankful to feel well supported by you, our friends and family. Several of you have reached out to check in on us and see how we are doing. Thank you. We also love to hear how things are going with you. We so appreciate the way we feel deeply connected and on mission with you.

We also have the joy of working in wonderful teams here in France. Bless network has been family to us and it is inspiring to work alongside the amazing people we’ve met here. Our mission agency, GEM, has also been very supportive in this time. We have a weekly connect with our GEM France team and there are daily opportunities to pray with other GEM missionaries around the world. Here’s a video from GEM president Jon Burns, which he asked us to share with you. We so appreciate his heart for all of us, missionaries and those who send/support us, to be cared for well in this time.

As a global Church, we are all going through a challenging time - GEM is here to help and wants you to know what measures we are doing to keep our people safe and live out one of our core values of Stewardship.

We would love to meet and pray with you, talk to you “face-to-face”, as we all are learning to do more these days. We are very grateful for the opportunity to do so at this time. We hope to see each of you soon and we pray this blessing once again over each of you:

May the Lord bless you and keep you, make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you, may the Lord look upon you with favor and give peace. Amen.
Love,

The Appels

Hello from Quarantine!

Dear Friends and Family,

Well this has been unexpected. About a week ago, Joanna was traveling home (to France) following a visit with her parents and her sisters. At that time, we had some sense that there were a few areas in France where there were small clusters of this virus, usually 8 or 9 cases. In the week that has followed our day to day life has changed significantly. Thankfully, Joanna did make it home! On Thursday evening, March 12th, the president of France announced the closing of schools across the country.

Over the following weekend, we heard about restaurants, bars and all “non-essential” places of business needing to close. Finally on Monday evening, we watched President Macron address the nation with the boys and heard him say over and over “Nous sommes en guerre.” - we are at war. He then laid out the plan for the next 15 days (from March 17th) which is essentially a nationwide policy of staying at home except to go and buy food necessities, or receive medical care. We have a form that we must fill in and sign to leave the house for food shopping, etc, and the civil service and army are assisting the police in checking people’s papers and issuing fines. Although no one knows the timetable for all this, it seems likely that this 15 day period of restrictions will be extended. The healthcare system in France is stretched thin and these drastic measures are intended to give the best chance to ensure that care is available for all who need it.

Watching President Macron Address the country

Joanna with Her Parents

How are we doing?

Good question. On a health level we are doing ok. We’ve had a cold and both Joanna and I experienced some symptoms that are associated with the COVID-19 virus including some breathing difficulty, but we are feeling better at the moment. We’ve had friends here who have had to seek medical care or are feeling unwell and this is scary. Emotionally we are feeling a little shaky, but we are resting in the knowledge that God is on his throne and as it says in a song we’ve been singing lately “the waves and wind still know his name”. Joanna is working on a painting called “Dancing in the Storm” which is a reflection of what we are leaning into in this uncertain time, trusting in Jesus and worshipping him!

We had the blessing of some sunshine this week, which is a rare treat in Normandie. As a family we are finding our way into new rhythms. We have a morning devotional time followed by French school, some tactile activities or outside play, lunch, English school, and lots of play. Joanna is keeping us organized, fed and sane. We are grateful that Lauren, our nanny, is with us during this intense time of home living. She has been really helpful and a great addition to our family. There are wonderful moments as a family but it is also exhausting and feels confining to not be able to go for a walk together or for an outing. For Tom, this week has been full of decisions and pastoring as the church here adjusts to our physical isolation. We’ve begun to gather together online using Zoom and this has been a great encouragement. We are also trying to work out how best to serve our refugee friends when we cannot gather or work as a team in our normal fashion.

How are you doing?

There is so much unknown right now, and, from over here, it looks like the difficulties are growing quickly in the US and UK as well. We would love to pray for you and with you in this time, so please do reach out. We are isolated but not alone.

Changing Plans

One aspect of this worldwide phenomenon is the severe disruption of plans and the challenge of working out how, when and whether to reschedule. For us, we are canceling a number of things including our trip to the UK in April and Tom’s trip back to the US with the Nashville Caen twinning delegation in May. For many, the disruption is far more severe and the unknown much, much more daunting.

Trust

Yet, in all of this, we are feeling so thankful for the peace that passes understanding which we have in Christ Jesus. We mourn with those who mourn the loss of loved ones. We pray for those who are wrestling with fear in these uncertain times. We trust in Jesus, the Author and Perfecter, the Beginning and the End, the One who will complete the good work He has begun in each of us.

May this peace rule in your hearts and the word of Christ dwell in you richly,

The Appels

Keys, Crossing the Channel, and Church in Caen

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.

Gerard and Chrissie Kelly

Lauren - Our Nanny

Post Shoulder Dislocation at the Hospital

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

A Ministry Year in Review

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!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

With Love,

The Appels
Tom, Joanna, Reuben, Eli, Silas, and Elodie