DEAR FRIENDS AND FAMILY
Happy Resurrection Day to you all! Thank you for your continued prayers and support!
Ariel Update
Ariel’s right-hand surgery in January was a success, and she was cleared for full activity on her left foot/ankle in early March. Praise the Lord! That was the injury that kept her hospitalized for so long last spring. However, the left arm surgery that was planned for June had to be moved up to April 7, due to one of the plates breaking. This surgery, using a bone graft from her shin, basically reconstructed both bones in her left arm. The surgeon considers the surgery a success, but please continue to pray for her healing as she continues with fairly intense therapy!
Ariel's birthday before her latest surgery.
Delayed Departure
Due to the abrupt change in Ariel’s surgery dates, we have had to postpone our departure to Malaysia from what had been planned for this week (the week before Easter) to sometime in early June. It is now obvious that it was better for this surgery to happen now, while we are here to help her, rather than later in the summer. We are anxious to get going, but thankful for more time with Gabriel (currently working/living in Idaho), Ariel (who graduates soon and will be staying back for school), and our family in Oklahoma. Pray for final travel plans to fall into place!
Deysi at VBS in Peru.
VBS, Visa, and Prayers in Peru
Deysi was blessed to be able to spend most of February in Peru. She stayed very busy during that time, but there are three things we want to mention here.
First, she arrived just in time to help with VBS outreaches in a couple local communities. And that is one of her favorite things in the world to be a part of: ministering to children.
Second, she successfully renewed (for the 2nd time) her 10-year visa to the USA, so she can continue visiting America while we are on furlough, both now and in the future.
Third, as part of saying goodbye to family and friends, the local church sent her off with prayer and encouraging words. We’re thankful for the Peruvian church becoming a sending church!
Deysi and Karen Marquez.
The Marquezes to Malaysia
As we finalize our plans to move to Malaysia, the Marquez family (originally from Venezuela but serving in Peru since 2018) continues working on getting their visas so they can hopefully join us this summer. They are in the process of applying for Malaysia’s “Digital Nomad” visa, which is for those who make their living online (Deivy is a web/graphic designer).
They are also in a complicated political situation, being from Venezuela, and carrying three different nationalities/passports among the four family members. However, things seem to be lining up for them to be able to leave for Malaysia soon. Pray for visas and open doors!
Easter in a Romanian Prison: Two Lumps of Sugar
What follows is from pages 74-80 of Richard Wurmbrand’s book, In God’s Underground. Read my full Substack post here: https://chinacall.substack.com/p/gafencus-two-lumps-of-sugar.
At Easter, a friend from his hometown brought a gift wrapped in a twist of paper for Gafencu, the former Iron Guard trooper. "It's been smuggled in," he said. "Open it."
Gafencu undid the paper to reveal two lumps of a glittering white substance—sugar.
None of us had seen sugar for years. Our wasted bodies craved it. All eyes were on Gafencu, and the prize in his hand. Slowly he wrapped it up again. "I won't eat it just yet," he said. "Someone might be worse off than I during the day. But thank you." He put the sugar carefully beside his bed, and there it stayed.
A few days later, my fever increased and I became very weak. The sugar was passed from bed to bed until it came to rest on mine. "It's a gift," said Gafencu. I thanked him, but left the sugar untouched in case the next day someone should need it more. When my crisis passed, I gave it to Soteris, the elder of the two Greek Communists, whose condition was grave. For two years the sugar went from man to man in Room Four (the room where prisoners were left to die), and twice it returned to me. Each time the sufferer had the strength to resist it.
Gafencu had been in Room Four for a year, and in all that time he had not been able to lie on his back. The pain was too intense. He had to be propped up continually. Often he fulfilled his necessities where he lay, then had to wait, sometimes at night for hours, until someone came to clean him. Stronger patients from outside had to take over the washing for those of us who could not help ourselves, scrubbing shirts, underwear, pillow cases, sometimes twenty sheets a day, although they had to break ice in the yard to reach the freezing water. Gafencu never complained. He sat very still in bed, sometimes moving his head a little to nod agreement or convey a word of thanks. When it was known that he hadn't long to live, his old and new friends gathered around his bed with tears in their eyes. His last words were "The spirit of God wishes us jealously for Himself."
When he had gone, the others knelt and prayed. I said, "Jesus tells us that if a seed does not fall into the earth and die, it cannot bring forth fruit, and that as a seed is reborn as a beautiful flower, so man dies and his mortal body is renewed in a spiritual body.” After a priest had said a prayer, Gafencu was wrapped in his sheet and carried to the mortuary. During the night he was buried in a common grave by criminal convicts, who always performed this task.
Gafencu’s legacy was two pieces of sugar.
Blessings in Christ,
THE WESTS
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