November 2014

Dear friend,

Each November for the past 17 years, we have chosen to lift up our eyes from the ravages of sin and pain in the lives of the dear women we serve, and in an act of sheer trust and obedience, we fill our mouths with thanksgiving to our Lord, even though we know that power is apparently on the side of their oppressors.

The apostle Paul faced this tension of living dangerously but choosing thankfulness. He wrote to the Corinthians: “Now, thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ.” He learned that gratitude always precedes the miracle of living triumphantly.

As we join with 40,000 intercessors from every corner of the globe in this month’s concert of praise and thanksgiving, we will follow Paul’s example. We will give thanks for the lives of countless women who have been touched by Project Hannah’s ministry and are rising from the ashes of despair and living triumphantly in Christ. By the way, this characteristic is what God wants to develop by His transforming grace in each one of us. We can walk in victory through Christ, who always (in any situation) leads us in triumph, even when we face pain and destruction.

For some of us, praying in joyful thanksgiving during November is easy. We have been abundantly blessed. But for women I’ve met deep in the heart of Africa, the jungles of Vietnam, down in the Paraguayan Chaco, and elsewhere, gratitude is a hard and courageous daily choice. They simply obey the command to “be thankful in everything.” And the result is that these dear sisters live from a perspective infinitely greater than their dire circumstances. Looking around, all they see is defeat; but because they learned about Jesus through our programs, they now live from a more profound eternal perspective – that “greater is He who is in us than the one in the world.” IN Christ they, too, can join Paul’s victory cry: “Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ."

This reality fuels my joy and my prayers. May we bow down corporately before our Lord in this season of thanksgiving and surrender our lives anew to Him. Trusting. Choosing gratitude while facing troubles. Releasing control of our lives to Him because triumph is all His doing – not ours.

Thank you for partnering with us and choosing gratitude this month, my friend.

Thanking God who "always leads us in triumph in Christ,"

Marli Spieker
Global Ministry Director/Founder
Project Hannah
TWR