May 2003

Dear Friends,

Many of you have written to Laurie and me over the last couple of weeks to send notes of encouragement in the period during and after my surgery. I am writing to give you a brief progress report. On April 25 (Good Friday on the Russian church calendar) I underwent seven hours of surgery to reconnect the large intestine. I felt very weak after surgery. My strength began to return to me slowly through the night. Surgery was followed by an eight-day period of convalescence in the hospital.

A month earlier I had undergone emergency surgery for a burst intestine. The doctor created a temporary colostomy, which he has now reversed. The results of the biopsy after the first surgery indicated no traces of a malignant tumor.

On Saturday, May 3, I returned home from the hospital. For the better part of the first week I kept close to home, because I continued to need rest. Last Thursday, May 8, I went back to the hospital to have my surgeon take the stitches out. This was an important symbolic turning point for me in the recovery process. This surgery was anticipated, and therefore less of an emotional trauma for us. There were no surprises following the surgery.

But there were still many blessings:

• The second night following surgery was the night of the Easter vigil in Russia. My Russian Orthodox friends Ilya and Marina Grits came to visit me and bring me a rose before going to attend the all-night vigil. I felt the spirit of the risen Christ present that night in my room as my friends prayed for me through that vigil. I greeted the nurse who came to change the intravenous solution at 2:00 a.m.with the words “Khristos Voskres” (Christ is risen) and she answered me “Voistinu Voskres!” (Risen indeed!).
• I was able to rest well, to do some reading and writing in the hospital as my strength began to return. Resting and waiting in a hospital room can be very good for doing an inventory of one’s life. It is good to come to the realization that the world can carry on without us for a week or two. God is sovereign. In such a time, we experience the truth of the words of Psalm 118, “The Lord is my strength and my song. He has become my salvation.”
• Finally I am grateful for the kindness and care of the wonderful hospital staff and my family during this time. Laurie and our kids visited me each day. I was cared for by extremely competent and caring nurses and doctors.

I attach a picture of my surgeon, Fyodor Fyodorovich Lisenko, and me taken the night I had my stitches removed. Whereas the picture shows my happiness, it doesn’t do justice to the tremendous warmth and love of this Russian Orthodox Christian doctor whose father died on the front in the war against the Germans in 1943 when he was one year old. I could not have asked for a kinder, more constantly caring, more conscientious or more meticulous surgeon than this man.

Today I went back into work at our office, and have felt fairly strong all day. Slowly but surely, I return to life’s familiar routines.

All in all I have had surgery three times within the last year, since I had a hernia repaired last summer in the United States. We know that God tends to work in threes, so I am hopeful that I am finished with surgery for the time being.

Thank you for your expressions of concern and your prayers. May the grace of God be with you.

Donald Marsden

The 2003 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 94