From These
Beginnings
From a series of articles relating miracles
experienced by early day Assemblies of God missionaries
A Visitor
From Heaven
By Adele Flower Dalton/Senior Editorial
Assistant, Division of Foreign Missions
“Jesus, I need 5 pounds of potatoes...”. From the next room of their apartment in Lausanne, Switzerland, Kenneth Ware could hear the gentle voice of his diminutive Jewish wife, Suzie, as she added: “...two pounds of pastry flour (naming the brand she wanted), apples, pears, a cauliflower, carrots, veal cutlets for today, and beef for tomorrow.”
It was a Saturday morning in 1944. A few minutes before, Suzie had asked Kenneth for money to do the
weekend shopping. But he had nothing to give her. Now she was asking Jesus to meet their needs.
World War II was at its height. The Wares had just escaped from the Nazis in southern France. Kenneth, who is of Swiss and American parentage, had met Suzie while helping Jews escape from their tormentors. For his part in this activity, he himself had been arrested, cruelly beaten, and sentenced to death. By a miracle he had escaped, and they had fled to Switzerland.
When Suzie finished placing her order, she added: “Thank You, Jesus”, and went about her morning tasks. At 11:30, they heard a rap on their apartment door. When Suzie opened it, there stood a man with a box of groceries.
This is how Mr. Ware tells of what happened that Saturday morning: “I would know that man anywhere. He was very tall, and he had a radiant countenance. His eyes were blue, his hair very light. He was dressed like a man who delivers groceries, with a long blue apron. His voice was sweet and low.”
“‘Mrs. Ware,’ he said, ‘I am bringing you what you asked for’.
“‘There must be a mistake,’ Suzie answered. ‘I have not asked for anything’. Then she called for me.
“‘Sir’, I said, ‘there are 25 apartments in this building. You are surely making a mistake.’ “‘Mrs. Ware,’ he repeated, ‘I am bringing what you asked for,’ and he placed on the table everything Suzie had asked for. The pastry flour was the very brand she had requested!
“I started to apologize, because I had no tip for him, but his look of reproach silenced me. My wife accompanied him to the door, and I stood by the window, by which he must walk to leave the building. Although I watched and Suzie reopened the door to look into the hallway, there was no trace of the man anywhere. We knew then that we had had a visitor from heaven.”
After the war, Kenneth and Suzie Ware returned to France as missionaries. They settled in a slum section of Paris where there were thousands of Muslims and Jews. Prostitutes walked the streets, murder was prevalent, and police patrolled the area in threes and fours with pistols.
But the Gospel the Wares preached and lived reached out into that wretched neighborhood. Ten years later, not a single prostitute could be seen on the streets, and the cafés which had been dens of wickedness now sold only food. Citizens moved freely and without fear along the streets.
In more recent years, thousands of French Gypsies have accepted Christ through Kenneth Ware’s ministry. Also, he has assisted in completing a much more accurate translation of the French Bible from the original languages. He and Suzie continue to live in France.
© 1980 Gospel Publishing House • Springfield, Missouri
Taken from a JULY 1980 AG magazine, Mountain Movers, (page 13)
(Of course...this being written 24 years ago,
we do not know of the Ware’s situation today. If, as
you read this, you know of some updates on these two
dear Christians, please email us and let us know...)
1/31/2001