Peter Witkowski Discipleship

Memo: April’s Breast Cancer Update October 2019 Rays of Hope!

hope-pictureGolden rays of hope have torn through the grey skies of April’s cancer. We can happily report that April’s hormone therapy is working.

According to April’s medical team at the Mayo Clinic, the majority of April’s tumors have stabilized or shrunk. The tumors in April’s back and chest have stopped growing. The tumors in her breast and her liver have slightly decreased in size. In short, April’s treatment has taken off and is safely airborne. God is good!

Admittedly, the length of our flight remains a mystery. Doctors can speak of averages and stats. Because this first treatment has succeeded and promises to keep succeeding for a time, April’s outlook has become far brighter. But April’s journey will ultimately not be unbound by averages and projections. Only the limits of divine providence can accurately predicted what will come next. We happily entrust our souls into the wise hands of our all powerful Heavenly Father.

For the past several months, we have joined David and pleaded with God to hear our cries and to listen to our prayers for deliverance. Indeed, our hearts were faint many a day and night as we wrestled through the turbulence of bad reports and the realities of April’s failing health.

But today, our hearts can echo the sentiment of David that that the Lord has led April, “to the rock, that is higher than I, for you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the enemy (Ps 61:2-3).” God has rescued us from being swept away by the waters of cancer. He has been the rock of certainty that has upheld us as we wrestled with our worst fears. And now, He has been the strong tower that has rescued us from the deadly clutches of cancer. The light of hope has filled our hearts.

As our church family knows, the Mayo reports confirm April’s recent experiences. For the better part of three weeks, April has attended church, visited the girls’ music class, and gone on errands without being sidelined by back or leg pain. For brief moments, April has had to sit down and embrace her heating pad.  But overall, she has regained a quality of life that has escaped her and our family since her diagnosis in May. April’s plane has turned towards the glorious destination of health.

What Comes Next 

Going forward, April’s physical experiences will continue to give her and our family insights into her future. If her engines lose power, she will under go additional medical tests and treatment to see if her cancer has grown. But if she flies smoothly through life, we can be confident that her treatment’s continues to succeed.

Though April’s quality of life has risen from the 1-3 level to the 4-6 level, her medical team hopes to return her to the 8-10 level. To achieve the highest quality of life possible, April will pursue radiation treatment for her lower back. Though the treatment will sideline her for two weeks or so at end of this year, it promises to give her an even brighter quality of life going forward.

We praise God for today’s good report!

This encouraging development allows us to start strategizing for the future. We anticipate traveling to the Mayo clinic every three months. We can also can begin to plot our medical costs with some accuracy.

Dear family, church members, friends, prayer partners, thank you for boarding this flight with us and for upholding our faith with your prayers and encouragements. When we have doubted our destination and questioned our God, you have reminded us of God’s goodness, power, and love. Thank you! And thank you for rejoicing with us today!

We ask you to keep praying for us as we fly into the horizon of hope. Pray that God will allow April to see her children walking with the Lord. Pray that God we will grow our faith. Pray that God will be glorified by this illness. And pray that God will heal April!

Let me dwell in your tent forever! Let me take refuge under the shelter of your wings (Ps 61:4)!

Contact Info:

Email us at: biblefighter@gmail.com 

You can reach us via snail-mail at : P.O. Box 637/ Amissville, VA 20106

You are also welcome two reach out to the elders of Amissville Baptist Church, Mark Hockensmith and Bill Brown, at: 540-937-6159.

GOFundMe Page

April and I welcome inquirers and emails, calls, and texts of support; they can be overwhelming at times. We appreciate your patience with our responses.

We plan to also keep posting updates here at witkowskiblog.com

Thank you for your love, prayers, and never-ending support.

Sustained By Grace Through Faith,

Peter and April

Peter Witkowski Discipleship

Trains, Root Canals, Jer. 17:9: Why ‘Meet and Greets’ Aren’t So Bad

A church guru has taken on and seemingly defeated the church ‘Meet and Greet.’ Since 2014, more and more evangelical churches have stopped asking their attendees to get up and greet one another during their morning worship service. Church leaders fear that the sometimes-awkward moment of social interaction will cause guests to run out the front door.

The rise smartphones’ use and in automation have systematically reduced the average American’s number of social interactions. Increasingly more and more Americans have begun to operate as introverts. They do not want their church to force them to talk to strangers. As one church-goer commented, “I would rather have a root canal than be subjected to a stand and greet time.”

But would he?

Psychologists who have studied the behaviors of men and women discovered that this twitter user and most everyone would secretly prefer random social interactions as oppose to solitude. The average person just doesn’t know this reality…yet.

Nicholas Epley and Julianna Schroeder studied commuter train riders a few years back. They divided riders into three groups: The control group who interacted with people as they always did, the connection group which was instructed to attempt to start a conversation with the strangers that sat next to them, and the solitude group which was instructed to keep to themselves. The commuters assumed those in the solitude group would have the most pleasant ride. The researchers reported that their commuters  thought “connecting with a stranger” would be “an unpleasant and unproductive use of time (1983).” Despite their expectations, the commuters found the opposite reality to be true.

Those who struck up a conversation with a stranger enjoyed their commute more than twice as much as those who sat in silence. Those who connected with other people felt better about their commute and did not feel less productive (1983). The researches repeated the experiment with bus and taxicab riders. The new studies produced the same results. Although people think they want to be left alone, they thrive in social settings, regardless of their introvert or extrovert leanings. The researchers concluded, “people fail to maximize their own well-being because they mistakenly prefer isolation over connection (1990).” In short, people don’t know what they really want.

When the researches shared their findings with the railroad, they were stunned. They had recently completed a survey of their commuters. Their survey indicated that people wanted solitude. To meet their consumers’ wants, the train company launched a quiet car which mandated no talking, cell-phone use, or social interaction. When Nicholas suggested the company try a chatty car, the railroad said they had. They had bar cars which facilitated community. But the railroad discontinued the community-based train cars because they were too popular and suffered from overcrowding. People do not know what they want.

As Christians, we know why people struggle to know what they want and to know what is best. We are sinners.  Our intellects and our senses which inform our views of the world have been corrupted by our brokenness. Jeremiah 17:9 reminds us, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” We misdiagnosis what we really need because we are broken people in need of redemption.

The church-goer probably believed he would prefer the dentist chair to the talkative friend on the pew. But the church-goer like the commuters before him probably misunderstood his real needs.

Proverbs states, “The purpose in a man’s heart is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out.” Instead of listening to the surface complaints of church, to polls, and to twitter rants, pastors need to run their own proverbial experiments and draw out the hearts of those who dislike the ‘meet and greet’ time. If they get past the expectations and reach the hearts of those walking into their churches, they may discover that people like connecting with each other. They may realize that the elimination fellowship times has hurt those in church, condemning men and women to more of the solitude that has already robbed them of large amounts joy.

Moreover, we Christians know our God is a God of relationship who invites community. Do we not recall that in this is love not the we loved God but that he loved us? The God of the universe reaches out to spiritual commuters every hour. Should we not do the same?

According to the train study, those antiquated meet and greet times may not be so obsolete after all. they could be a wonderful expression of the love of God and of the love of the people of God. Perhaps we can learn from the commuter train. Perhaps, we should keep the meet and greets. What say you?

Peter Witkowski Discipleship, Pain & Suffering

Trials Don’t Excuse You From Ministry; They Demand It

lonlinessChristians tend to withdraw from church, ministry, and relationships when trials flood over the dykes of happiness that guard their hearts. They fly to their basements of isolation, believing distance from God and from others will help them float atop the waves of adversity. But instead of safety, they find ruin.

In 1 Samuel 23:1-5, David’s troops advocate for such a withdrawal. They are being hunted by the vengeful King Saul who commands an army intent upon their murder. While they hide in the mountains, news reaches David that the men of Keilah face an existential threat.

The Philistines have begun to move against the city of Keilah at the conclusion of the harvest season. The Philistines intend to steal the newly processed crops, leaving the people of Keilah with no food, no income, and no means of remedying their situation. The raid threatens financial ruin and even death. When David heard of the imminent attack, he asks God if he should rush to the aid of Keilah? God tells David to “Go and attack the Philistines and save Keilah (1 Sam 23:2).” Though God says yes, David’s men say no for they are “afraid.” They feared that saving others from the sword would expose them to the sword.

David’s men like so many Christians today believe that trials excuse them from coming to the aid of their brothers and sisters in Christ. Many believers think hardships such as new medical problem, a death in the family, or a financial crisis absolve them from their Christian responsibilities. They fear that singing in the choir will exhaust them because their new illness threatens to lower their energy level. They worry that volunteering to work in the kid’s ministry will be too much because they are still grieving the death of a loved one. They stop tithing because they fear living on one income will be hard. In short, they assume that their trials excuse their fear and sanction their withdrawal from ministry.

Yet when David goes back to the Lord to make sure he heard God correctly, God reaffirms his message, “Arise, go down to Keilah, for I will give the Philistines into your hand.” Why does God still send David? Why does tell the hunted and the abused to go help other people with their problems? God sends David and his men on a mission because God knows that evil circumstances have a divine purpose. Cancer, the death of a loved one, and the shrinking checking account down are not signs of God’s neglect. They are not mistakes. B.P. Power reminds us that,

The good God, who has sent you your sickness, is the one who has ordained that nothing shall be useless. God has made you and put you in your present position; and he meant you to be useful in it, of importance in it too.

God’s reigns over both the good times and the bad; and, the bad times have a purpose. God tells to rejoice in our trials, our sickness, and our hardships “knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

41HH4orqGPL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_Suffering crashes over the walls of our happiness because God wants us to be fully satisfied in him. Illness, grief, and hardships exist to strengthen and enrich the faith of the Christian. When their hearts are covered with the murky flood waters of suffering, Christians should seek to live out their faith with earnest and zeal. Instead of withdrawing in fear, they should go liberate the men of Keilah. They should serve in the choir, help with the kids, and visit the depressed.

Some will counter the above plea, talking of how their presence in choir will discourage the body of Christ. They fear that other believers will look at their sickness, their tears, and their poverty and conclude that God is weak, uncaring, and unloving. Paul says suffering servants have the opposite effect upon the church. The hurting who suffer inspire the spread of the gospel. Paul writes in Philippians 1:12-13:

I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, 13 so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ.

The command to love God and to love others can be accomplished by both the blessed and the hurting. Christians should go liberate their Keilah.

Despite the evidence, hurting Christians may doubt God’s promise of victory. They fear that obedience to God will end poorly. Such fear flows naturally into the heart of the believer, because Adam fathered them all. P.B. Power warns,

As soon as Adam fell, he become suspicious of God; and all his posterity have inherited this suspicion from him…Now here is an evil, plain and well defined, against which we must fight. We must not be always be suspecting God. If he says one thing to us, we must not think he means another. We must not suppose that he is doubleminded in any of his ways.

Christians should not be doubleminded about their God. Their loving God who calls them to serve and to do hard things will give them the power to achieve victory. The Philistines will be destroyed and the men of Keilah will be saved. Obedience to God always results in victory.

My bride, April and I, have witnesses this reality over and over again in our lives. We have come to end of day exhausted by parenting, marriage, and church issues. If we had our way, we would go pull the covers over our head and be done with life for the next few hours, but we have had to press on because someone is scheduled for dinner or a ministry at church is about to begin. Every time we have pressed on, we have experienced amazing blessing and victory. The people and ministries that threatened to drain our souls enflamed our souls. The people of God reminded us of God’s faithfulness, goodness, and power. And the issues that seemed to define the day as a waste only moments before become small and insignificant by the power of God’s grace. Those who fight on in faith never lose.

When the next wave of suffering hits your hurt, will you go to Keilah?