Perhaps you remember the story I wrote about Mama Nestor (also called Katherine) in the January 2005 issue of Adventist Frontiers. I want to thank all of you who have been praying so faithfully for Katherine and for her son, Nestor. I want to bring you up to date on their story.

Soon after Katherine’s hysterectomy, we sensed the doctor wasn’t telling us something, so we cornered him in the hospital and asked him what was really happening. He was honest with us and explained that the surgery had revealed that the cancer had spread. Nestor felt he could not tell his mother in his own words without breaking down, so he translated for me as I tried to explain her illness to her and tell her there was no medicine for this “sore.”
For the next several months, Katherine’s pain continued to get worse, and I continued to hunt for better painkillers. We went through all the normal kinds like aspirin, etc., and then we had to move to the more expensive variety.
During this difficult time, Katherine and Nestor both eagerly took part in Bible studies. Both grew by leaps and bounds in their faith. They had to face things that a new Christian shouldn’t have to face. But God knew their abilities and capacities and was faithful to them as He always is.

Satan was not been happy about losing a couple of his captives and tried in many different ways to discourage them. But they were set in their walk, and they refused to be turned back to their old way of life.

Here, when someone is sick, they are supposed to go to the village to make sacrifices to the ancestors. Sometimes a family has made a pact with the devil, and the devil wants to reclaim what is due him, or one ancestor or another is reclaiming the sacrifice that is due them. There are times when the spirit that a person was presented to in the past for one thing or another is reclaiming a sacrifice. Since Katherine and Nestor are the only Christians in their family, the rest of the family pressured Katherine to go out to the village and do the sacrifices. But she made a firm stand for her God and refused to be moved even when they came to beg, cajole, force, and insult her to come back to the village.

People here also use magic spells to draw individuals back to their villages. But Katherine continually asked for prayer for protection against all the different methods her brothers and family would use to draw her back, and God always protected her. We studied in the Bible about how God is strongest and how you can’t be on two sides at one time. We spent many studies looking at God and His power and how Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil. Through it all, Katherine remained strong and refused to go to the village.

I was able to get a small tape recorder for Katherine that used batteries since there was no electricity where she lived. She listened to the gospels in Ditammari on tape. She listened almost every day.

Katherine continued to decline as the cancer spread throughout her body. It was a hard time for all of us involved, but it was a growing and bonding experience, too. We praised God for little miracles. One week, He led me to discover that most of Katherine’s pain was due to constipation caused by her pain medicine, not her cancer. When there is a language barrier, sometimes details slip by. We found a natural way to deal with her constipation, and she felt much better for a while.

On March 31, four weeks after her baptism into the Seventh-day Adventist church, Katherine passed to her rest. Please continue to pray for Nestor and Katherine’s other children. At the moment, all but one are coming to church. Also pray for Katherine’s husband that he might one day turn to God and be saved.

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