We celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday. I pray everyone enjoyed good food and fellowship with friends and family.
I have been struggling with depression and oppression for the last several months and I am finally overcoming it. Please forgive me for my lack or apathy of writing and keeping everyone informed of ministry work. Today, I will write of my Thanksgiving experience, then in a couple of days I will write a ministry update.
Yesterday, I awoke with only 4 hours of sleep with lots of cooking to do. My friend and her family were coming for dinner. Her husband, Michael is an American and I wanted to treat Alyona to a traditional Thanksgiving dinner.
My new apartment in still being remodeled and the kitchen is the last room to be completed! What a challenge for cooking a large meal. I do not have kitchen cupboards and my dishes and spices are still packed. For those of you who do not know, I have been living in this apartment for eight weeks now! It has been a time of testing for me.
Sweet potatoes, potatoes, and cranberry sauce were prepared the night before. Cornbread for the dressing and pumpkin pie had to be baked before my 9 AM exercising appointment. Using a new stove both the cornbread and pie burned! This has never happened to me before. What a way to start the day.
When I returned home, Vika was already working in the kitchen. She is hanging wall paper so we pulled out the refrigerator and cupboard from the wall, leaving about 24 inches to cook. All my spices, utensils, and dishes are still packed in another room; it was time consuming finding the cooking utensils.
I wanted to serve a nice dinner, celebrating American holidays keeps me in touch with who I am and my heritage. With this in mind, I asked the Lord to give me peace and allow me to be a blessing to my friends.
Preparing the food, I realized that the oven was not working. I made a second pie and the oven would stay lit for ten minutes and then turn off, what usually takes an hour to cook, actually took three. I am glad I did not have a whole turkey to cook, only pieces, which took about 90 minutes to cook otherwise we would not have eaten until midnight!
In this process, I decided to wash some clothes. My washer doubles as my counter space! I thought it would be practical to multitask. My potatoes were on the stove cooking and the dressing was sitting on top of the stove needing to be put in the oven. I left the room to set the table and I heard a bang! I figured it was Vika but she was okay. I was dreading to find out what happened! Sure enough – my dressing was turned upside down on the floor! What a site! My heart dropped. I was so discouraged, but I was able to salvage the majority of the dressing. Needless to say, I turned the washer off. I did not need the vibration to send anything else flying into the air!
Between running into the big room to prepare the table and atmosphere, I totally forgot to make the cranberry salad. The stove continued to turn off, and then Michael called. He was checking to see if the ‘rumor’ was true about coming for a traditional dinner. I told him of the problem and they prayed, and miraculously the oven worked. Needless to say, our turkey was cooked to perfection with the Lord’s help.
My guests arrived and Michael sensed my lack of peace and prayed for me. From that moment on we had peace and awesome fellowship. God has truly blessed me with good friends and much to be thankful for.
God bless each of you. Please pray for me, God is changing my personal ministry and I need His perfect timing in my life.
God bless each of you.
Your humble servant,
Kathy
