In the morning service, Pastor Dale Thornton preached on "The Deportation of Jewish POWs" from Daniel 1. In the afternoon service, he interviewed Jack Bateman. Jack had an American father and Chinese mother. His father died of TB and when strong political and social tensions arose in China, his mother sent Jack and his sister with a missionary back to the United States. But, the three were captured on the way, and interned into a Japanese POW camp in the Philippines during WW2. Jack spent his teen years growing up in the POW camp. Despite the circumstances, Jack always found ways to be happy. Other POWs were physically fit, but died because they lost hope. When the Japanese saw that they were about to lose the war, they decided to execute all the POWs. As they were preparing for that task, American troops parachuted behind enemy lines and liberated the POW camp. Only a few POWs perished. In this video, Jack is 89 years old. He is still a bit of a comic as you will see. And he finds it easy to stray from topic once in a while. His face still lights up when he talks about his wife who has been with the Lord a few years now. What a treat it was to record this rare type of interview on film. |
