An older saint from our church, Nancy Zurfluh, died this weekend after a long battle with cancer. I had the chance to spend an hour with Nancy and her husband, Walt, about a year ago. They had served as missionaries their whole adult lives.

In the early 1950’s they were sent to Berlin to work with refugees. The city had been divided with the Russians controlling the east and Germans supported by the Western Allies in the west. As Americans, the Zurfluhs initially had permission to travel back and forth between the two halves of the city. They could often carry supplies and messages between families trapped on either side of the check point. Once the Berlin wall went up, however, all transit stopped. Families were cut off.

With tears in her eyes, Nancy described the plight of two sisters living on opposite sides of the wall. Without phone or mail service, they worked out a plan. Each evening at sundown, they would stand in the window of their respective apartments and wave a white flag to signal, “I’m OK.”

This week I sense Nancy Zurfluh is waving a flag for her husband, family, and friends to say, “I’m OK. I am safely with the one who loves me.”