SPECIAL DELIVERY
"... For God will deign
To visit oft the dwellings of just men Delighted, and with
frequent intercourse Thither will send his winged messengers
On errands of supernal grace."
Milton, Paradise Lost
I first heard of Kenneth Ware through Betty Malz, who
profiled him in "Angels Watching Over Me." The Assemblies of God
headquarters in Springfield, Missouri, provided more information:
Kenneth Ware was born in Tennessee. A short time later, his
father was killed in World War I, and his mother took Kenneth
back to Switzerland, where she had grown up.
At seventeen, Kenneth became an Assemblies of God minister,
going first to Jerusalem, and later to the south of France, where
he met and married the sixteen-year-old daughter of Max Vinitski,
an Orthodox Jew turned Christian and an artist whose portraits
hang in the Louvre. Kenneth became known in Paris as a great
evangelist, and when World War II broke out, both the Vinitski
and Ware homes became havens for Jewish fugitives fleeing to
Spain or Switzerland.
As a son of an American soldier, husband of a Jew, and
supporter of the French resistance, Kenneth was in constant
danger of being imprisoned. Eventually Kenneth, Suzie, and their
infant son tried to flee France. Instead, Kenneth was arrested,
interrogated, and beaten, but when a German guard discovered he
was a pastor, he was secretly released.
Finally reunited with his wife and son in Lausanne,
Switzerland, Kenneth tried to provide for them. One Saturday
morning in September 1944, however, he found himself without a
penny. Suzie decided to pray - specifically. "God, I need five
pounds of potatoes, two pounds of pastry flour, apples, pears, a
cauliflower, carrots, veal cutlets for Saturday, and beef for
Sunday," she said.
A few hours later, someone knocked on the door. Suzie opened
it to a man carrying a basket of groceries. The man, between
thirty and forty years old, was over six feet tall and strong
looking, with blue eyes, white-blond hair, and a long blue apron
over his work clothes. He seemed radiant, glowing. "Mrs. Ware,"
he said, "I'm bringing you what you asked for." He spoke in
perfect French, without the usual Swiss accent.
"There must be some mistake;" Suzie protested, bewildered. "I
have not ordered anything." She called Kenneth.
Kenneth did not think the man looked like an ordinary
deliveryman. Perhaps he was the owner of a firm and had gotten
the apartment numbers mixed up. "There are twenty-five apartments
here, sir. Have you come to the wrong one?" he asked.
The man ignored the question. "Mrs. Ware," he repeated, "I am
bringing what you asked for." Then he went into the kitchen and
emptied the basket. On the table were the exact items Suzie had
requested from God that morning - even the two pounds of pastry
flour was the correct brand. The Wares were shocked. "I turned to
apologize, to explain that I hadn't a coin to give him, but his
look of reproach sealed my lips," Kenneth reported.
Suzie accompanied the man to the door and thanked him, then
the couple stood by the window to watch him leave the building -
via the only route available. But though Kenneth watched, and
Suzie opened the door again to check the hallway, the man never
went by.
After the war, the Wares returned to a Paris crowded with
refugees. They set up missions and schools, and were able to
feed, clothe, comfort, and educate the destitute. Eventually,
they retired to the south of France.
Kenneth Ware always maintained he would recognize the
deliveryman anywhere if he saw him again. He never did. But
Kenneth and Suzie were filled with gratitude to the God, who
would send a personal shopper to fill their needs.
..................
Entered on this Website October 2007
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