This Thanksgiving I’m grateful that three hectic months for Kit and myself are winding down. Opportunities to do good things for others–mostly speaking and distributing books–kept popping up despite our already full schedule. Frequently doing a good job required intense preparations. We found ourselves working sixteen-hour days. Mothers of young children might retort, “Only sixteen hours?” But we’re in our seventies now. Then Kit’s elderly mother had an accident. She’s slowly recovering. But Kit needed to make two week-long trips to California. I felt like we were treading water to stay afloat then circumstances tossed us an anvil.
Kit correctly attributed our struggle to spiritual warfare. “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Ephesians 6:12)
I remembered the “Be proud of the way you handled this,” advice Kit gives to people facing difficult situations. She had applied this to her cancer treatments decades ago. In this context, “Be proud” doesn’t imply exalting ourselves. Rather it connotes joy in trusting God and doing the right things despite a difficult situation.
So, I’m “proud of the way” we faced this fall’s challenges. And I’m thankful that we were “afflicted in every way, but not crushed.” (2 Corinthians 4:8) .
Drew
More Than Ordinary Lives 
Dear Drew and Kit, I’m humble to see how you “Are Proud of the Way You Handled This”. Thank you for sharing. Thank you very much for praying about next opportunity to teach and share your message with Lord’s people in Sacramento. 1. We had good time during the our “Family Harmony” retreat in South Tahoe past weekend and think about to invite to you share your message for young couple in Sacramento on April 2024. Could you please check you calendar and give us your possible dates? 2. Reading your More Than ordinary Lives messages I think that it would be great idea to share some messages with Russian speaking community. We can help you to translate your message into Russian and even in Ukrainian. First of all we have couple websites which serve Russian/Ukrainian community around the world. If I didn’t share with you this links your can get some idea by visiting <vymogychasu.org> (Ukrainian) and <vremena.online> (Russian). In addition we have Russian christian magazine and newspapers were you welcome to share your messages. You can share your stories which your life is abandoned when you served in Eastern Europe which could be very beneficial to know Russian/Belorussian/Ukrainian people to know (especially young generation) Please pray about it and share with Lord’s people His blessings in your life. Thanks again for all blessings which you being for Nina and I for many years starting from 2008. May our Lord bless and use you more and more as instrument of spreading His grace Peter and Nina Panasenko
LikeLike