Testimony of Darlene Rose - Missionary to PNG

Today I had a nice experience I was taken out to get a dress isn't it lovely I've received so many lovely gifts since I've been home this time someone asked me if I was color coded really didn't know what that meant but when they explained that it was the colors that best suits you they said have you been color coded and I said yes I have they said what are your best colors I said whatever my Lord sends I thought that Was nice that the gentleman who prayed for your offering mentioned the young lady and

he's right I want you to know that this is young blood you're looking at it's just in an old container if I were to choose a text with which to preface what I would like to say to you tonight would be the words of the psalmist bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me bless His Holy Name so often people say to me wasn't that a Terrible experience oh no beloved have you ever thought how special it was that God took so much time to teach me the things I needed to

know if I could change anything of my life and I can't but if I could I don't know of anything that I would want changed one of the gifts that my God has given me is found in the words of Paul for it is given unto you it is a gift not only to believe on him but also to suffer with him I could go back to my people in New Guinea no matter what I was going through or they were going through we could kneel down together and I could say to them beloved I

understand I've been there I also have suffered that tune but let me tell you what God can do for you I had already been up in New Guinea was the first woman from the outside world at those people the western half the island have ever seen and I shall never Forget that day after crossing 14 mountain ranges and we came to the top of the last of the mountain ranges and I looked down into the valley all day the carrier's had been hurrying me and there's a good psychologist they didn't say hurry up like that

they just turned around and looked at me and they'd say to one another look at that thing back there are no legs at all on her so I started to go the more rapidly that's exactly what they wanted me to do and I Got to the top of the mountain and I looked down and I saw those people coming out of the gardens and out of houses and they were coming up the mountainside to meet me someone had run ahead and said the woman is here and when I got to the top and looked down

and saw them and heard them yodeling to me half of your crowd says from the other half answers I was so excited that I began to wave my hands at them and I was running down the mountain top side With the tears running down my cheeks and I was singing to the top of my lungs I'm home I'm home I'm home and for 46 years that was home to me we came back after the Holland had been overrun by the Germans and they said we had to abandon our post there in the interior of New

Guinea and so we walked back down the Trail and to our headquarters on the island of syllabus in Mikasa I had been there while I was waiting for the Opportunity to join my husband who was the first missionary who ever went into the heart of New Guinea and he had lost over 60 pounds in just 18 days on that trail we walked back down leaving our people there and when we got to Mikasa I began teaching again in the Bible school I had learned the Indonesian language it's a very beautiful language and one day after

dr. and mrs. Geoffrey dr. Geoffrey was our field chairman they had come back from just a very short trip up To the Philippines he had had a letter from New York headquarters to say that he should think about retiring and I was acting as his secretary at that time I remember the letter saying retiring that's exactly what I'm doing I'm putting on new tires and I'm rolling right ahead for the Lord and believe me if I know because at my age they would like to put me out to pasture but I put on new tires

and I'm rolling right ahead for the Lord And hat man was such an example to me a man of God who had spent over 30 years in China and then he came down and opened the first day of angelical work in Vietnam then he went on to the Indies he saw the great stretch of islands and knew that there were multitudes there who had never heard and then at the conference my husband was chosen as the assistant to dr. Jaffrey so that meant we had to remain in Makassar when dr. Jaffrey and Margaret arrived Back

from a short visit up to the Philippines that morning I turned on the radio and we heard that Pearl Harbour was being bombed none of us I'm sure none of you ever realized how well-prepared Japan was for war you see we had had Japanese there in Makassar who was a barber and almost ten years that man had been there we did not realize that he spoke a word of English everybody communicated with him in the Indonesian Language we had to variety stores called conical and those men had been there a similar period of time and

every Sunday we would see them on their bicycles going out in different directions around their necks were beautiful cameras and they were photographing every inch of that Ireland especially the coastline when we heard that they had invaded Manila we all held our breath and we all said to one another well that won't last very long but beloved it was not long Till Hong Kong had fallen China had already been invaded Vietnam they were going through Thailand into Burma they were moving down the peninsula of Malaya and then into Singapore they had those beautiful ships of

war there the Prince of Wales they thought that could never be sunk but they did not count on the kamikaze pilots those that met their death by diving into ships and then we realized it was very near us we could even go up to the top of the mountains Of the Interior and see the ships coming down the macarthur straits all of our students that we could get shipping for from our bible school were sent back to their islands those that could not get back we made a camp for them and then i went out

into the storehouse and i took up my five drums of wedding presents and i just laid them aside and knew that probably i would never ever be able to use we took just some kerosene some rice and Other items of food some soap and with just a few things we went on up into the mountains to get away from the shock troops we had heard the stories of what had happened when the shock troops moved in to terrify the people and we remembered listening to Manila the broadcast that young man that was talking and he

was telling about what was happening there and he said I think this will be my last broadcast he said they are bombing the city of Manila and You could hear the sound of the bombs exploding and suddenly he cried I must go and he screamed out come on America and you could hear the sob in his voice and the radio went dead when we were in the mountains we were about sixty kilometers from the coast we had there a conference place we could accommodate quite a few people at one time but dr. Jeffery and mrs.

Jeffery had built a house there miss Marsh one of the British errs had also built a house and So we divided up and we were staying in these two houses we were in the midst of the Bugis people now they were the Pirates of the islands they were feared by other people because they were they built beautiful Prowse their boats could skim through the water and they looted and plundered other ships and we knew that they were there and very much aware of the fact that Japan was nearing the island of celebi's they had caught

four Dutchman just down over the mountain From us and those men had been knifed to death and they were running the Bugis people were running away when they docked police finally caught them they were covered with blood I when they went to find the other Dutch people they had been badly brutalized by these boogies people there was a woman whom I later learned to know who was trying to get up to an area just five kilometres further inland from us at a village called Manila most of the Dutch People were there and this woman had

in her bag just her identification papers and she did not have money and out of the jungle came a group of these Buddhist people they wanted that bag thinking that it contained money and when she held on to it one of them ripped out his machete and almost severed her hand from her wrists and she of course let go they tightened they tied it up with her to her girls with her she had four four daughters and they Finally made their way up to Manila there those were the kind of people among whom we were

living we knew that if the war lasted very long we were going to have to have some gardens so we began immediately to plant some gardens we listened to our radio we went to the top of the mountain again we saw the Battle of the Makassar Straits taking place and we knew that within a matter of just days the Japanese would be landing on the island there was a Dutch Police officer who came to our place on a Wednesday just before the landing of the Japanese and he said we have one ship down on the

south coast lying at anchor we're going to evacuate all the women and children that want to go and all the foreigners and when dr. Jaffrey heard this he said we will pray about it and the man went away saying I would be back with a truck on Friday to pick you up dr. Jaffrey was a wise man he said I Don't want you to talk with one another about this I want you to go to your knees and you wait on God and you see what the Lord would say to you so that if you

go you will know that it is God who has directed you to leave but if you stay no matter what happens in the months and maybe years ahead you will know that you are exactly where God wanted you to be we came together on the Friday there was not one person among us That felt we should leave and so the truck stopped dr. Jeffrey said we have chosen to remain we heard through our radio that that ship had been torpedoed three days out and as far as we know there were no survivors so in the

years that lay ahead of me I knew that I was right where God wanted me to be we heard through the grapevine some of our national workers some of the natives who were bringing food to us they would come during the night hours and bring us food And they said they have landed not where the fortifications were but down on the beach of Bertram bone not a shot was fired they began to kill indiscriminately people just to terrorize the natives and then we waited and we knew that it would not be long before they arrived

in the interior one day I looked up from the garden and I saw Japanese soldiers coming they were the kind that were off the ships and they they wore the tennis shoes with the Great toe separated from the rest of the toes so that they could climb the ropes of the ships when they came to the first house mr. pres Wood was sitting outside and he turned and he put his hands up but does anyone would do a token of surrender and the moment he put his hands up they took their bayonets and they began

to slash at his arms because they didn't want him to put his hands up but mr. pres we didn't know that and he was a very tall man and they Spies tall people I have seen them jump up to slap people on the face that we're taller than they were and then he came over to the house where we were staying and of course they said come over and join the rest of them and they had their bayonets fixed on their gun and I tell you that's a great persuader we hurried we got there the

one officer slops down in the chair threw his leg over to the side and he proceeded to tell us that we were now prisoners of the Imperial Japanese army that we were going to be imprisoned right there on the hillside that if we ever were caught outside of the premises that we would be shot on sight that we were to have no contact with any of the natives that we were to remain there until they came back again and told us what they were going to do with us dr. Jeffery was asked what nationality it

was and of course he was as nervous as the rest of them he said kakuka Canada and the man said where is Cooker Co Canada and he did not know where Canada was so he just dismissed dr. Jeffery was the Americans that he hated and then he saw that mr. diver had his hands folded together in front of him and he said something to one of the soldiers and he went over and he had his bayonet but it was inside of the sheath and he began to pound on my husband's hands and he would put

knock them down and he would put them back up again and finally mr. pres was poked up and he Said Russell he wants you just to put your hands down at the side of course it wasn't he couldn't have told him that and I watched and I saw how his hands were beginning to swell and then they told us that we could go back to the other house but never ever were we to leave the premises there I remember the day when it was just two weeks after the first time they had come we heard

the sound of the trucks and of course all of us Immediately began to gather near the door so we could go out and not angry them when the car pulled up in front of the house I would jump the soldiers and two officers the one officer came in and we of course greeted him by bowing to him and he said turning to me gets some clothes for your husband not many we're only going to take them down for a few days to question them and he said no bags so I ran in and grabbed a

pillowcase and I Caught picked up my husband's Bible and put that in and then a notebook and a pen and then the clothes that were there close at hand and then I ran out and I was going to say goodbye to him because I saw that he had already disappeared so he must be on the truck when the officer said to me what's wrong with that old man in there and I said well dr. Jeffery has diabetes he was in a coma just before we came up here he has a kidney problem he has the

beginning of Parkinson's disease and when he heard all of the things that were wrong with dr. Jeffery he just said all right go in and tell the old man he doesn't have to go because anybody as sick as he is will never last anyway so I ran in and I said dr. Jeffery he said you don't have to go you stay with us and I ran out then and already they had started the trucks and I thought I wasn't even going to be able to say goodbye to Russell I ran over and I grabbed hold

of a the back of the Truck and I handed up these little bag of things to him and I shall never forget that day it was Friday the 13th of March and I have a bit of Irish in me but I'm not at all superstitious I really believe that God means exactly what he says in Romans 8:28 that all things all things work together for good to those who love the Lord and as I reached up there and I put my hand hanging on to the tailgate he reached down and he took my hand He

said remember one thing dear God said he would never never leave us nor forsake us and immediately he was taken away I watched the truck until it was out a slight sight and then I turned to go and I thought it was one of those days when God had left me had forsaken me and I looked up and there stood my lord on the parapet of heaven and I knew that never for a moment would I be out of his sight I knew he would be there I ran into dr. Jeffery and I said they're

gone and then I said that officer told me anybody who needed as much medicine as you did wasn't going to last I said what medicine was he talking about and dr. Jeffery said I don't know he said I just picked up this little black satchel that belong to my father was a very wealthy man a senator the owner of The Globe and Mail in Toronto Canada and he always kept that with him and then he said I knew that if they took us from Here they were going to take us to the coast and he

said you know how I like order clon he perspired freely he just loved to put out a clone on there and it was very refreshing to mop up his face with and I looked in that bag and he had about six bottles of Eau de cologne now dr. Jeffery was a very wise man he had a birthday on the 16th of December and so many people gave him his Christmas and his birthday gift together so he thought he had to put an end to That and on the 16th of January he would say on 11

more months to my birthday and the 16th of February it was only 10 more months till his birthday and so on through the year so none of us ever forgot his birthday and we all knew he liked Eau de cologne so he always got a lot of eau de cologne and I loved that how the Lord fooled that Japanese officer he thought that was medicine and God knew we needed dr. Jeffery there with us we were them seven women and dr. Jeffery and elderly gentlemen we tried to protect all of our food as much as

possible because if we had rats now those houses they looked very nice on the outside but they were single clapboard houses and there were many places where the rats could come in and as the rain started they invited all the country cousins to join them so they all came in the house and we if you left your shoes out you could count on it that they would have Gnawed on your shoes so we put everything into the closets and we shoved the doors shut and made sure that there were no places where they could enter

those wardrobes then as we it was getting dark in the evening Margaret Jeffrey and I would go through that house starting at the back and we would look under and in everything and every rat that was there we would run it out into the hall and we kept collecting them and then we would run them into the Kitchen because it was the only room in the house where you could shut the doors and shut off their exits then we joined them each of us armed with a broom and we fought those rats until we had

killed every one of them I hate rats they will run up the walls and they jump on to you and we'd scream and yell and get them off and we would then start working on them with the brooms and we killed them all I said someday if I ever have time I'm going to write a book on the rat and I in my missionary life I have had rats we had him in the Baalim that weighed 30 pounds I have had rats in my bed I have had them hanging on the screen looking inside and

I said after I had had that one in my bed during the internment that was it they are no longer my friends or my favorite people or one night and it must have been around midnight and I heard noise all through that house you know how sometimes you're just partly awake And I could hear them there was rustling and rumbling around there and there and finally I came fully awake and I sat up in bed and I thought rats and I reached over and I shook Margaret Jeffries bed and I said Margaret get out of

bed because we must have left a lot of rats in the house I said I can hear them in all the rooms of the house she got on her bathrobe and the two of us went to the door and when I opened the door that ran in that way I went into a hall that Ran the length of the house from the living room dining room into a bathroom at this end off of this hall were the bedrooms and there was the bathroom there and when I came out into the hall I could see someone

just rushed past me in the dim light of a tiny little oil lamp that we had there for dr. Jaffrey you sometimes had to get up in the night hours and I thought what a strange way for dr. Jaffrey to be acting but as I came out and I looked down the hall There stood one of those boogey spanis they always wore the black sarong and he just grabbed that surround threw it up over his shoulders and then he pulled out his machete and there he stood and I don't know why I did what I

did I'm really quite a coward but I started down that hall after him and I know he looked at me so shocked I suppose wondering what that crazy woman was going to do and he turned and he ran and I went right after him through that bathroom Across the porch down over the mountains so I don't know what I was going to do but when I saw several others join him out of the jungle there I stopped dead and I just said aloud Lord what a stupid thing for me to do and immediately my Lord

answered me he said my child the angel of the lord encamps around about them that fear him and delivers I went back I reached to pull the door shut the door knob was gone the lock was gone they're very clever with their machetes They had carved out the nicest little porthole you ever saw by this time dr. Jaffrey and the rest of the we're wide awake and they wanted to know what had happened I said we've had bandits in here yes they'd been there they had taken curtains any kind of material that they could see

all the books were out on the floor probably thinking we had hidden money in the books that were in the bookcases but not one of the bedroom doors had been opened I thought about that many times and I thought whoever that was knew the layout of this house after the war my second husband took me back up to bend and Tinggi and I went out to find a young man that I thought would have known the layout of that house he had been a gardener for the Japanese for that doctor Jeffrey and when I found

him I said to him normal during the war the big fight I said were you at the house did you come in the house and he dropped His head and he said yes no and yeah I was there and he said you know we were having a very hard time too I said but normal we heard you people coming back night after night but you never again came in the house I said we had nothing with which to protect ourselves he said oh but you had all those people and white standing guard around your house

and beloved I believe in the angel of the Lord I know that they encamped around about those that fear Him and Love him we were almost a year in the mountain we had to learn them to eat various kind of grasses this one dear little woman who was a boogies woman but I had led her to the Lord before the war and one day she came running in and she said Nyonya I have something special for you people today and I thought AHA I know what it is because the flying ants were coming out of

the holes in the ground by the hundreds and I had seen the children out running over the mountainside catching these flying ants and she handed a half a coconut shell to me and when I looked in it here were little things that look like little cheese tidbits of course you don't eat the head you don't eat the wings you just take off the back part in the body and you drop it in coconut oil and they were really quite delicious I said I have never refused anything that my people have ever given me nothing Caterpillars

my present husband says to me that must be like swallowing a toothbrush I said oh no you just take a handful those big cocoons out of which the men make the headpiece that they have to cover their bald heads because you know you can take a man out of the 20th century or you can take him out of the Stone Age and they're all the same when the forehead begins to travel and that's our word for getting bald the forehead begins to travel and when It gets back here in the past complete tips serious matter

so Adagio leap de Mer goes and he gets these big cocoons he eats the caterpillars first then he pulls that down over his head and then he puts pure potter's clay over it and gets the plumes of the casa weary bird and he puts those in my don't we think we're smart here in America with our good wigs why they've had wigs out there for centuries and they're not bad believe me It's just that it takes so many of those caterpillars to make a meal but they gave us many strange and weird and wonderful things

and we ate them there was one special seed that we liked it looks something like millet the more water you added to it the more it swelled and so we kept kept cooking and adding water and then it would swell and swell as well and our stomachs were full they took us from Benton tinggi up to where the Dutch people were and Then they pointed across on the cross of Valley and over on another mountainside and they said you go over there and we finally arrived after dark and I had mrs. presswood and I had

sent the others ahead so that they could take their time and walk and we came with their bags one of the officers had said here are some people that will help you and they were my boogies friends I'm not sure how friendly they were but I said to mrs. presswood whatever you do make like bold Like you're very brave and so I would start from the front and I would go down and I would call out their number and she would start from the back and she would count them and we arrived with everything but

when they finally set down the little cases that we were allowed of clothes that we were allowed to bring I wasn't feeling very well and I said quick I need someplace I'm sick and mrs. Jaffrey had carried with her a beautiful silver soup tureen and She handed it to me I filled it for her I had to make some beds I was glad my father felt that a girl ought to learn to use a hammer and saw and know how to make things we were there for several months and I'm gonna skip over this there

were many things that I completely blocked out of my mind the thing I remember most about that time we had had only two letters up until this time knowing that our husbands were them down in Makassar and we didn't hear anything In the months went by so it was more than a year but mrs. presswood and I would stand outside in the rain the rain beating down on us we had an open wood fire and we would stir that beautiful porridge and we would sing to the top of our lungs the song I loved most

of all was he makes the Rose the object of his love he guards the Eagle through the pathless air and surely he remembers me my Heavenly Father watches over me sometimes I wondered when they Came and they would loot and take anything that they saw there and I wondered how it was that dr. Jeffreys flashlight and his father's watch were never taken and I said to him one day what did they do when they come into that little time it was just a little tiny cubicle that became his room and I said how is it

that they haven't gotten your flashlight and he said Lassie because he was scotch and I was a Macintosh he said last year I always put It under the pillow and I just smooth it up and I say Lord I need that flashlight and he said that watch was my father's that means much to me and when they would walk in the room they would reach down at the foot of the bed and they were thrilled a little tiny mat up over that and look underneath and there was nothing there you know while I was writing

this book I thought about that that was two solid years that that flashlight had gone on every time he Pushed the button he never had any batteries to change it with he said no I asked the Lord to keep it burning as long as I needed it then one day they came they said we're going to take you somewhere else you're living in much too much luxury here it was ridiculous but they walked what watched us as we went back across the valley and then up onto the other side and into molino and they said

get into the church and by this time everybody Was gathering in the church everybody with a little bundle of something I had been just within six months of my fertile and I knew that my clothes would not last very long and so I put on as many dresses as I could get on and I did not look like a PLW I looked like a nice fat little lady we tried to get a bench in this church for dr. and mrs. Jaffrey to lie on and all the other older people on the benches and then we

slid in underneath on the cement floor And I thought during the night Lord how long does the morning light was coming all I could think of us oft methinks I hear his footsteps stealing down the path of time in the future dark with shadows brightens with a hope sublime he's going to come back again I and I would say all Jesus come quickly suddenly I heard the sound of the trucks being revved up and so we gathered up our few things we ran outside was best never to keep Them waiting we got up into this

truck with a stake bed on it and those of us who were young and I was only 20 when I went to the mission field and I was still in my early 20s and I said to Margaret and Ruth that some of the younger ones let's get where we can grab a hold of the hood of the truck and then let's put our arms out so that we can hold these older people in there because if we don't they're going to throw them out of The truck they would go around those corners they were traveling

at at tremendous speeds I think trying to throw us off of that stake bed trap of the truck we finally made it down I thought my arms would never be able to bend again I had held them so long in that position trying to keep those order people from falling off the back of the truck and then we saw that they were pulling up in front of what I knew had been the native tuberculosis sanitarium We saw that there were great long barracks made made out of bamboo mat wall with grass rules mud floors double

decker bamboo racks on which we were to sleep we found our place and then they immediately said no we want all the foreigners in this one barracks barrack 8 and that night as we came together all of the foreigners we began to discuss someone to be the head of our barracks Because we were told we had to choose someone why they chose me I don't know because I was one of the youngest of the women there I think it was probably because of my languages I spoke Dutch fluently I spoke English and I also spoke

the Indonesian language and the first night I said we are going to need the help of God in these months or years the lie ahead of us and that night I read in their languages and I prayed that God would protect and keep us and Draws together and those that did not know him might come to know him as Lord and Savior we learned later that many of the women from other camps of other barracks would come over and sit down outside because they felt such a need and a hunger for God and out of

all of those barracks in that camp barricade was the one that held together and it was because of our faith in Jesus Christ as soon as they would take some of those young boys that had reached the age of Sixteen to send them up to where the men were there were Dutch people waiting to come in because they had a heart hunger after God we had to work for the Japanese we were their work crew we had to make uniforms for them the older women who could not do the heavy work outside were expected to

nipt white socks for the officers and so their needles were busy all the time all the Oma's all the grandmothers if you were cooking porridge you were up at 4 O'clock in the morning cooking in a large drum it had had kerosene in it there was no way we could wash it out and get that taste out until after many many cooking's of rice for porridge in the morning there was just above the drum in which we cooked the core of porridge allege one night something must have happened we figured out later it must have

been that there was a bird roosting up there and a rat had come to get the Bird and in the struggle they had fallen into the drum while it was so dark out there you could not see and so merrily we stirred their porridge and when it was dished up everybody said that's the best porridge we've ever had it tastes just like chicken but when the light of day came and we could look down into that here were feathers the tail of a rat carcasses some of them gave their porridge back to mother nature and

I decided I'd hang on to it and I tell you It wasn't bad I can tell you this that a rat is cleaner than a duck because most of them eat seeds anyway they we had to those of us who were young we took the work the heavy work some of them raised pigs for their Japanese he would go out our camp commander into the villages and he would shoot the dogs bring them in they had to be skinned cut up and cooked with the stems of the banana plants so that those pigs could have

three hot meals a day And would come the garbage and of course you always gave us a finger test if it's stuck between your fingers it was big enough to eat and also I could not tell the difference between a dog's liver and calves liver then we had to build roads for them out there in the Sun working with those great heavy hose and building roads for them we had to work on their game we unloaded their truck for them I can remember standing on the pier down in Mikasa watching the coolies Come to unload

the ships and I saw that they always rolled their shoulders over and waited until that hit their shoulders and they grabbed the ears of those big sacks and I learned to do that I wore a brace for several years after the war because of the injury to my spine but you walked off with those loads or else we also raised chickens we had to gather up all the manure from the chickens we had big pistols and mortars that we Used we put the chicken manure down in there and then we'd stand with those big 6-foot

pistols pounding that and it had to be as fine as sand then we had to sieve it so that there would be no little lumps in there and that was sent down for the rose gardens of the Japanese we had to make Gardens for them we worked in the rice fields sometimes almost up to our hips in mud mud that was filthy from pigs and from water buffalo we developed the big tropical Ulcers eating into our skin we didn't have any medicine so we would save soap suds and we would put our bandages in the

soap sets and then put them around our legs you never threw away a bandage you always washed it out and so it became a mosaic of blood and pus and dirt to pick up the work for those that were sick and bit that could not get out of bed any longer they made a barracks for them we took them out there and those that were in the last stages of Dysentery or guards were set around those beds to keep the rats off of them because they smell death so we had a third of our camp

down we began to pick up more and more jobs for the older ones and those that were sick so that we would fill out the court of work that was demanded of us I remember a day when the priest came down from the men's camp and with him was a new second-in-command and he was a little fellow I don't suppose that boy Was much more than 15 or 16 years of age and he had such a sweet face we promptly named him sweet 17 and that young man asked immediately who I was and he would

come over and he would shake hands with me and he would find me two or three times a day and he would come and he would bow to me and then because he knew it was our custom he would shake hands with me and he would greet me and finally he scared me I didn't know why he was sorting it was coming to me in Particular so I asked the other women pleased to watch and when they saw him coming just to let me know so that I could get out of the way but somehow

he always seemed to find me all he did was greet me and the Catholic priest was there and everybody was trying to get a chance to talk to him he had been brought down to butcher those pigs so that they could be sent down already slaughtered to the coat to the coast to Mercosur I thought many time I'm going Over and I'm gonna ask him about Russell and then I would see so many other women crowded around him women that didn't know the Lord women that were very anxious about their families anxious yes I was

concerned about my husband but the Lord would say not now not now and so I waited and a month went by after he'd been there and still there were always people around him I would say Lord I'm going over and see him now and he would say not now my Child not now then one day about three months after he had arrived in our camp I saw mrs. Yost Rahul's the Dutch woman head over the camp under mr. Yamaji the Japanese camp commander she came over to the door of our barrack and she said I'm

afraid I've lured like to speak to you and so we walked out onto a grassy plot there in front of the little place where we were we had our meals and we began to talk about the work and I said I know I understand but I have several other Young women and I said I am young and we can pick up more jobs I'm sure we can for other people even of other barracks and suddenly she stopped and she said but I didn't come to talk to you about the work she said I came over

to tell you that your husband up in pottery party has been very ill and then I saw tears in her eyes and I reached out and I grabbed her shoulders I said mrs. Yost rrah you don't mean he's gone she said yes some three months ago He died in the camp party party I was like every young person I loved him I was waiting for the day when the war would be over and we could go back to our people in New Guinea was just like all my hopes were shattered and gone I just turned

from her and I started to walk away and I said God did me didn't he answered me he said my child did I not say to you that when now passes through the waters I would be With you and through the floods did not overflow you he said I will never leave you nor forsake you I said Lord there's so much sorrow in this camp I'm just asking one thing of you help me not to make my sorrow other people sorrow it just helped me to dry my tears all over the nights when I lay

on that rack up there the tears with I learned that there is a piece that cometh after sorrow of hopes that are Surrendered out of hopes fulfilled a piece that look at not upon tomorrow but only on a tempest distilled a piece not now enjoys except there in that happy life of love secured it's a piece that come from conflicts one while learning to endure love it it's not the peace that over Eden brooded that untried peace but it's that that triumph and Gethsemane my Lords not my will god never allows anything in your life

But what is for your good and His glory just remember that won't you I can remember the days when if you just mentioned the shock troops sent terrible fear into your heart but then there came a time when we learned to fear another group much more than the shock troops they were called the Kempeitai the secret police of the Japanese some of our women were taken away some of them never returned but those that did return never talked about what happened to them And then I remember the day when that big black limousine we called

it the death wagon it came up and it stopped in front of the headquarters and they called from Miss Kemp and miss Celie the only two other Americans in that camp there was an American woman who came from another island but we were the ones the only two three that were Americans that spoke the Indonesian language and we're known by the people there and that day when they took miss Kevin miss Celie Away we all turned around and looked at one another and we asked why were they taking them and we waited and we prayed

and they did not return one week went by two weeks went by and then one day the whisper went through the whole campus it always did Kemp eat I can bet I the secret police are coming and that day is I ran out front so I could see Miss Kemp and miss city were getting out of the car and when I saw that there were soldiers and officers getting out of That car and running up into the quarter office I knew in my heart they had come for me and so I started over toward the

office because I did not want to keep them waiting and just them sweet seventeen came down out of the office and he said yes they're coming for you come quickly when I walked up into the office they were walking around me and laughing there was only one word that I understood and that was America Languages have come easily to me I spoke seven languages and I did not understand what they were saying I had certain commands I had to give in Japanese and I just closed my ears to it because it was better for you

not to know the language and when those men walked around laughing America when I'm stopped and he put down something in front of me and he I looked down at that piece of paper and I saw my name written on it darlene diver He said you dot you are darlin a diver today I said yes sir I am darling diver but I didn't write that he said I didn't ask if you wrote it but he said what do you know about Morse code and he began to tap up messages on that desk to me I

didn't know Morse code I didn't know what he was tapping out so I didn't respond I said sir I do not know Mars code he said go over and get another dress come back he said we're going to take you somewhere else to internal and I grabbed a dress which had a full circular skirt why I had put that dress on that day I don't know but I had another one and so I grabbed that and I grabbed my Bible off at the top rack where I'd been sleeping and then I ran back so that

I could get into the car they ushered me in with two soldiers one on either side they had their bayonets fixed on the gun and the two officers were up front with the chauffeur when we came down to the City of Mikasa I recognized the building into which they were going to go into the driveway and I saw that they had made a jail out of it and they are just in front of me as we pulled up I saw Miss Kemp a woman who had weighed about a hundred and seventy pounds and in just

two weeks that woman looked like she was skin and bone she was hanging on to the bars and shaking her head at me and I saw her arms were all black and blue and when I stepped out of that car I just Cried out to the Lord Lord you took Russell must I now go through this and so sweetly my Lord answered me he said my child whom I love they are the ones that I chase and I discipline I said all right Lord but please help me to be a good soldier and those were

the last words that dr. Jeffery ever said to me when he was being taken away from our camp I run up ran up to the back of the truck and he was being taken to the Men's camp and I looked up at him and I said goodbye dr. Jeffrey he leaned down they put his hand over mine and patter that he said Lassie whatever you do be a good soldier for Jesus Christ and I said Lord I don't know what's going to happen to me here but please make me to be a good soldier I

said if ever I come out of this place and if in my fellow Americans ever hear about what happened to me here I don't want them to be ashamed of me The first thing they grabbed away was my Bible they said you don't need that and you are not going to have it you just sit in that cell and you would read that book and not think again about your evil deeds against the Imperial Japanese Army they grabbed the other dress and I handed at them as they were trying to grab it and I said

to the girl there behind the desk I said would you see that miss camp gets this because she hadn't even had time to get a dress or Anything except for the work suit that she was wearing and as I walked out through that cellblock there was a man behind me with his bayonet on the gun and when you feel a prick of that bayonet you move and I was moving to try to keep ahead of he went across a courtyard and then there was another big cellblock there and I saw the guard point this way

and I turned and I went along that cellblock he came to a cell that had been completely Boarded up window so that no one could see who was in that one and then he stopped at that one and I looked up and I read on the door or during any Mazda mati this person must die and I knew I was in death row I could hear miss Celie and I knew that within two weeks that woman was a raving maniac and when he opened the door and shoved me and I hit the other wall and

I turned around and I came back and I dropped on my knees in front of the door because I wanted to Watch that key I knew when it made a complete revolution I was locked in death row as I sat there and I saw that man pull the key out start to walk away I suddenly realized I was sitting on the floor and I was singing do you know what I was singing a song I learned as a little girl in Sunday school fear not little flock whatever your lot he enters all rooms the doors

being shut he never forsakes he never is gone so count on his presence from darkness till Dawn and I knew that they could not lock my Lord out of that cell even when they locked me in I don't know if you'll understand it but that little cell became a sanctuary to me because my God was there with me that afternoon they strew a plate of rice across the floor to me it was in a tin plate with no spoon nothing to eat it with but I'd learned well from the Indonesians I knew how to get

a bit of Rice and roll it into a ball stick it down there and with your thumb you go like that right into your mouth but I couldn't eat when he picked it up he said so you don't like sugar and there was a little bit of sugar in the top of it he said you'll never get it again and no I didn't and they left me there in that cell about 48 hours without allowing me to go out and relieve myself I prayed and I suffered I knew that if I did anything on the

floor that cell that I might be like some of the others he have to eat it up off the floor it wasn't until the next day in the late afternoon they finally took me out to where there was a toilet and I looked at the door it was shut but I could see fecal matter loosening out from under that door and when I reached to open the door it just gushed out and I said Lord I have all these ulcers on my leg and if I step into that I'll be almost to my knees and

I saw a young man run up to the officer who was watching me to see what I would do and the young man said I will get water for you sir I will wash that down for you and he just nodded to him in that way and so he ran I can't tell you how many buckets of water that young man carried and I know that he knew who I was till he finally had it cleaned out and then I was taken back and they realized that I had dysentery I had had dysentery I knew

That but somebody had to pick up the extra work and those of us who were still on our feet we tried to do the other things that our sick people could not do when they found out that I had dysentery they didn't bring me any rice the dry rice I saw the first day when he tossed that across the floor to me and the only opening or light came through the little transom above the door and I reached down and I thought in the dim light in the cell that beautiful white Stuff on the top

oh and I clap my hands and I said Lord there's somebody out there that knows I just love grated coconut but then when I picked it up and the light from the transom fell on it I realized it wasn't coconut it was full of worms I started to push the worms up onto the side of the plate but because there was nothing but an open tin that they had brought into myself and I had dysentery and hundreds of these big blue Bottle flies were in the cell with me all the time and they left the

drug they bucket there and they came and they were sitting on my rice and they were eating those worms and I was trying to get rid of them and I kept going like that but I you you can't handle rice porridge and it was just rice that had not been washed it was dirty there was no salt in it because I also had berry berry which is a form of dropsy and my legs were swelling and I Knew that I had the dysentery so that's why they put me on rice orange and as I was

pushing those worms up on there I decided if those flies can eat that silk and I and I never took another worm out of there and I could bow my head and thank God that I had that bit of rice porridge and perhaps a bit of protein as well and I would eat it and say thank you Lord I could be here without anything yes I went to the hearings I asked the Lord to help me Never to cry before them no matter what they did I never shed a tear before them they knew how

do you do - use judo chops on you I thought many time he was gonna break my neck and then with his finger he would flick me right between my eyes didn't realize that was such a sensitive place the doctor said there are many nerves there my eyes became black and blue and I would answer their questions that I know I did not have a radio no sir I did not go into the jungle I have Never reported to any of the allies anything about troop movements I don't know anything about them I don't know

anything about your planes I have never had contact with anybody from the native sector no sir I did not have a radio what did you do with the radio I said sir I never had a radio no matter what you said they wouldn't believe you the man that was just out of my line of vision would make the questions and this fellow would turn them in to the Indonesian language and he would shoot the Matt way and I'd say sir I'm I am innocent I did not spy on the Japanese I have never been outside

of that camp I don't know anything about it your soldiers I don't know anything about where you have your encampments it didn't make any difference what you said even though they tried to brainwash you and they beat you and other things I never shed a tear but he'll be honest with you tonight when I got back to that Cell and the guard would lock the door and I knew he was gone he couldn't hear me I wept literally buckets of Tears I crying I said please Jesus I can't go through another one I please slower

no more no more I can't do it doll always he would say to me but my child my grace is sufficient for you I didn't know why I had felt I had to memorize a poem by Annie Johnson Flint two of our missionaries had set it to music when the Lord received this and my Child my grace is sufficient for you I would sit up in the cell and I'd take that skirt of my dress and I would wipe up all the tears lest the guard come back and find them dead I would begin to

sing he giveth more grace when the burdens grill greater he sendeth more strength when the labors increased to add add affliction he added this mercy to multiply trials his multiplied peace when we have exhausted our store of endurance and our strength is filled Here the days have done when we reached the end of our hearted resourceless our fathers full giving has only begun his love has no limit his Grace has no measure his power has no boundary known unto men for out of His infinite riches in Jesus he given I could go through another one

and another one till finally I knew I was to be executed they told me that I was to be executed there's an American spy I had continually lost weight I had Malaria now one day I needed some air and I climbed up to the up the bars of the window I was glad that I'd had gymnastics and swimming my strong arms and I pulled myself up the bars till I could reach the transom above the door the minute I got up there and I was waiting for the air to strike my face I looked down

and there was a knife I'll alleged I dropped to the floor and I was shaking I said Lord I think they planted that hair they're going to try to make Out that I've had contact with somebody to have gotten that knife I don't know where it came from Lord and then I got my dress and I went I've wiped off all my fingerprints everywhere that I could find and I sat down on the floor and all the fear that came over me because I knew somebody had put that knife there and I said Lord if

they find it they will say they have evidence against me that somebody was getting a knife to me for three days I prayed and I prayed That God would remove that knife somehow and I said Lord if you could make that ax head to swim if you could lift that iron up out of that water until its surface to the top I said Lord is nothing for you to remove that knife Lord before they find it three days I waited and I prayed and I said Lord you can take it away and I went up

I pulled myself up the bars of the window and I had not left my room in all those days and I looked there the knife was Gone do you believe he is who he said he was I do I had become very very ill when I came out of that cell I weighed 60 pounds this one day I was having a fever again the malaria and I would shake with the chills and then the terrible fever would come over me and it was cerebral malaria that usually is fatal and this day I said Lord I

really need some air so I pulled myself up until I got hold Of the bars of the window and then I looked out and I saw that the guard was coming he was bringing the native women who were there for just minor misdemeanours and there was miss Kemp also she looks so terrible and I was watching them and suddenly I realized that there was something about one woman that was with the group every time the guard with his gun on his arm went in that direction this woman was scurry off in the other Direction and

I watched her and I looked down there and I thought there she goes in there he goes oh he's coming back now here she's standing there as though she hadn't been doing anything and he clicked his heels down here and then he went off in that direction again and I watched her and there she was she was headed for that fence at the end of the courtyard and I thought if she wants to go over by the fence why didn't she just go over there by the fence but no this Time he went back and

when she got to the fence I saw a hand come through that fence and on that hand was a whole bunch of bananas and she put it in under her sarong and she walked away and nobody knew she had those bananas but I did I could smell bananas I could remember the flavor of bananas and I looked at those bananas when he passed him over they had disappeared now and I just dropped down off of that door and I got on my knee and I said Lord I'm not asking you like For a whole bunch

like she has I just want one banana Lord then I began to figure out how God could get a banana into that cell to me don't tell me you haven't done it try to figure out how God could answer your prayer and I said Lord now there are four possibilities these are the two men Lord that have been trying me neither one of those men would ever bring me a banana I know that and this is that guard that's on duty in the daytime and I know he wouldn't he Wouldn't bring me a banana and

I said then there is this older Indonesian man that comes at night to guard I think he might even bring me a banana but lord please you mustn't ask him if he were caught bringing a banana to me they just shoot him so I said lord please don't even let him think about bringing me a banana will you and I said Lord there's no way you could ever get a banana into this sell to me and I said please don't think that I'm not grateful I really am Grateful for the rice porridge I just saw

that banana and I thought I wanted one the next day I heard officers coming often when ships were in you were put out on display before these men and I said Lord I really need strength to stand on my feet so that when I get out there I can make a proper bow to them and I said lord help me to bow low enough so that they won't hit me across the back with her cane so she always carried when that door of the cell Opened I looked and in the door stood our Japanese camp

commander from that other camp from which I had been brought down to the and he was smiling and the months had gone by and this was the first time I'd ever seen a smile on anyone's face I was so thrilled to see that man to see that smile on his face and I just clapped my hands and I said altering your magic it's a pretty layout Soviet Lama mr. Yamada it's like seeing a friend and I saw the big tears come in his eyes and he turned and walked right back out of the cell without

a word and he began to talk to those two men who had been trying me and I saw their heads getting lower and lower as he talked and talked I don't really know what he said but I've always felt that what he was telling them was what I had said to him the day when I heard that Russell had been gone for three months the late afternoon mr. your magic called me over To his office and he said Nyonya this is war I said yes sir I understand that he said what you heard this afternoon

many women in Japan have heard I said I understand that sir he said you're very young and some day the war really will be over and you can go back to America and you can go down sing and go to the theaters and you can forget all about these awful days you can marry again and I said sir may I have permission to speak to you you never spoke to them Without first asking permission er they're just instinctively threw up their hands Maya smacked you across the mouth I said may I have permission to speak

to you he motioned for me to sit down at a desk at his desk there was a chair there and he went around to sat down behind it I said I would like to tell you about someone that perhaps you don't even know and I didn't learn about him until I was nine years old back in Boone Iowa in America and I said his Name is Jesus he's the son of God the Creator who created all things so that's why I don't sorrow like people that have no hope I know that someday I will see

Russell again and I said mister Yamaji I don't know maybe you have never heard about Jesus so I would like to tell you about him I said that's why I don't hate you mister Yamaji because we're the love of Jesus is there's no room for hatred and I said My Lord gave his life for you too and God gave me the Most beautiful opportunity to lay a plan of salvation before that man and as I talked to him I saw the tears start down over his cheeks and I said he loves you mr. hamachi I

said maybe God brought me here just for you I don't know but if you were to believe it would be worth everything that it's caused me he got up couldn't control his tears anymore and he went into his room I could hear him crying and blowing his nose in there I only know this that from that moment on That man was my friend he made me head over the whole camp toward the end after the bombings I think that's what he was telling those men because they became very quiet and her heads went down I

didn't know at the time but he had these men had been up to the camp and told mr. Yamaji and the women that I was never to be returned to the camp because I was dying of tuberculosis they said not wanting them to know that I was to be beheaded Mr. Yamaji came back into the cell and he looked down at me and he said oh you are very ill aren't you and I said sir I am he said I'm going back to the camp now I just wanted to know if there was any word

you had for the women everybody's asking about where you are what's happened to you and I said mister Yamaji when you go back would you tell those women that I am alright and they will understand and I think mr. Yamaji You will understand I'm alright because I'm still trusting in the Lord he nodded to me he turned he walked out his cell the door was locked and as soon as I heard them going I remembered I hadn't out to those Kempeitai man oh the fear that came over me and I said God please why didn't

you help me to remember because just as soon as mr. yamaji's gone that guards going to come back here and he's going to get me and he's gonna take me back to the heroine please God I Want to go back there anymore that I heard the guard coming so I stood up and I said Lord once more please help me not to shed any tears the door opened then walked the guard and he just laid them all out on the floor in front of me said they're all yours they're all from mr. Yamada you know

what they were don't you there were bananas I don't know how you would feel but never in my walk with my lord have I felt such shame before him and I just pushed him over in the corner After counting them there were 92 bananas and I said Lord I don't have any right to eat dogs I said yesterday I was telling you here they are for people and that's all and there's no way you could get a banana in here to me and I said Lord look what you're done I said it's almost a hundredfold

so sweetly the Lord said to me but my child that's the way I delight to do things the exceeding abundant above anything you ask or think they Don't want to eat them all once I knew I didn't dare to because I knew that I would be eating it off the floor again if I did and I said Lord on how much character but would you just help me to not eat any more bananas than I can my body can a similar it each time and one day I was very ill and I hardly had the

strength to get up off the floor and I would crawl over and I'd get the bananas they were black now and I'd take one and then two and then I Would leave it and i sat there realizing that if they didn't behead me that I probably would die anyway of starvation I was that sick and all of a sudden I heard the most beautiful singing it was like an angel chorus and somebody was singing outside and it was singing in the Indonesian language because it's so beautiful there oh how sweet the name the name of

Jesus it's like a refuge in time of trouble and my heart just swelled when I heard this Those words and I said Lord I'm still under the shadow of your wings and I climbed up to the transom above the door and I thought whoever that is out there I would like to see their face I would like to hear them singing and when I got up there and I leaned out and I looked in every direction there was no one there except a guard and the girl from the desk and they were talking and laughing

they weren't hearing that singing and suddenly great awe came over Me I got down out the door that was an angel singing wasn't it the voice went on saying to me into my heart thrilled with his presence I was telling this to dr. aw Tozer I don't know if you know I may be a great man of God he said to me girl did you ever think that that was an angel I said yes I did there was no one there and yet that voice was singing to me one day the Lord began to speak

to me with from three phrases of a verse that says Who delivered delivered from so great a death who delivered and doth deliver he will yet deliver and I said Lord I know you've delivered me from the law of sin and death I know that I belong to you and up to this moment you have kept me and he would go right back to the beginning and say who delivered and death deliver he will yet deliver I said God how could you get me out of this place and God was trying to make me to

know that day when I picked up the last banana and I peeled it here came the guard and he said quickly we're going to take you somewhere else and when we started out in that car to go back to the camp we would had to have turned left and we didn't we went right to the Gestapo headquarters we spoke of it as the Gestapo because it was patterned after the German Gestapo we went right to the headquarters we were taken into a room miss Campo miss Celie we're told to sign And write out and sign

a paper how grateful they were to the Imperial Japanese Army for being so kind to them and for having forgiven them and because they were going to release them and Margaret was so shaky she couldn't write and she turned to me and she said darling would you write this for many thanks for being so kind to us and for forgiving us and went on to say that they were grateful to the imperial japanese army for their goodness and Then the two of them had to put their thumbprint on it and then the man came over

to me they were taken into the other part of the the headquarters building and I was there where they the action executions took place he walked up in front of me the brains of the team and he held out this big sheaf of papers all the things that have written he went through them he said I was guilty of having had a radio that I had been in contact with the Allies had reported on Troop movements that I knew where the Allies were in the Japanese and that I had been giving all of this information

to their enemy and then he looked at me and he said you have done those things where of you're worthy of death and drew his finger across his throat and grabbed his sword at his side and he began to pull it out and while that sword was coming out my heart was singing I live for him who died for me and I said Lord that's a strange song when I'm going to Die and just as he was beginning to pull that out of there I suddenly heard sound of vehicles of all kinds of vehicles running

up to the front of that building honking their horns screeching their brakes and they ran into the building it was ceramic tile on the floor they were the hijack boots with the leather heels and they were running back and forth and yelling and yelling for this man and he shoved that back down into his into the sheath and then he ran into the Headquarters and they were talking in there at the top of their lungs and I stood there and waited somebody said why didn't you run away where would you run to there no place

to run and I stood there quietly waiting for him to come back to finish the execution and suddenly he came and he rat grabbed hold of my arm he took me out and put me into a car and soldiers jumped in behind me he jumped in and then he put two bottles of wine And he said when you get back you give those to mr. Yamaji we were going like we were top secret material I don't know what happened that day I only know that when we lost all of our men and others of those

godly missionaries died somehow on the Providence of God he spared me died vowed that day for any days that were ever left to me they were all his well we got back to the camp and we were just across the moat and go in the gate that man behind me who was the brains of This team that had been trying me he red reached up and my arm was just the bone was skinned drawn over it he grabbed my arm and I sure he was going to break it I bit my lip trying to keep

him screaming it hurts so bad as he twisted it he said if you ever tell anybody anything that's happened to you hop it back and I will get you oh the fear that came over me thinking I wasn't free of them when we got there I just motioned for someone to come please Take miss camp and miss Celie he put miss camp in the hospital she weighed in at 90 pounds and miss Celie was so bad that she was beginning to run away and do terrible things and so they took her down and put her

in a little shed that had bars in front of it so that she couldn't get out and they locked the door on her I started back nobody seemed to be even have the courage to come and say we're glad you're back I looked at them As soon as I got around the bend so that nobody from the office could see Ruth press would put her arm around me and she took me in and I saw that her mirror was hanging there and I looked and I said Ruth my hair it was white she just nodded

the tears started down over her cheeks when they weighed me I weighed 60 pounds I had just left her and all of a sudden here came a woman who had been a prostitute for the Japanese everybody feared her nobody Wanted to have anything to do with her and there she was and she motioned for me to come out into the little dining area and here she had a washcloth and I saw my name embroidered on it and she said I was down in prison - and your indonesian friend viescha was in the cell with me

and she said i asked her if she wanted to send anything to you and so she made this for you and there was my name embroidered on it and I knew she was trying to trick me And I remembered the native the words of that man if you ever have contact with anybody outside of this camp I'll get you the next time and I said this is Klaus I am NOT gonna take that she said you have to take it I said no I don't have to take that I'm not gonna take that I said

they told me I could have nothing to do with anybody outside I said you're trying to trick me she was so angry with me she was absolutely white and says she was screaming at me She said I risked my life she said to bring that to you mrs. press would hurt her she came out and I was she said what's the matter darling and I started to cry I said she's trying to trick she's brought this she's trying to make me make it appear that I had contact with Visha her missus press would reached over

and grabbed her arm she said if I ever see you near her again I don't know what I want to do to you and Fear came on me fear that I was going to be taken back again and days I would go out and I would work and I'd come home and I didn't dare to sleep I was afraid I was gonna lose my mind and I would go to the house bill Margaret Kemp's memory was gone and I would go down and I asked if I could work with the chickens because I could be

near miss Celie and I could hear her in there and I would go up and try to put my hands around hers and talk To her and then I would turn away and I thank God look at these women women have such faith and Who am I I'm the youngest of all of them and look at these women of such tremendous face so broken father and that fear stayed with me I didn't care to go to sleep at night and one day two day three days four days five days I worked and at night I

couldn't sleep I was afraid to I was afraid my mind would go while I was sleeping I would just drop off to sleep and then I'd wake up And I was just perspired because of the fear that was on me and I would sit up and I'd say Lord I've tried to trust you I've tried in every way I could to be a good soldier for you and please Lord I can't go on any longer and then I walked out of the barracks one morning and I said I have no more strength father I said

I've tried with everything who was within me to reach up to you and I don't know where you are anymore I threw up my arms and I said I'm gone I'm gone it was like arms went underneath me I suddenly began to sing underneath you all how precious you have not to mount on high but to rest upon his promise in a trustful resting life and I thought he wanted to teach me you can't mount up to God your own righteousness is like filthy rags just rest upon your God for underneath are always and ever

the everlasting arms of God we had had bombings every year and we dug our own Slit trenches to try to be protected in a measure from the shrapnel that came into the camp and then one day we looked up and we saw planes coming over and then one of them separated from the other planes and he came down it came right over the camp and he dropped something and I looked and I saw a large thing that I didn't know what it was it turned out to be an auxilary gasoline tank I felt so angry

because when I looked up who was dropping this and There was the American insignia on that plane and I saw the pilot they thought how dare you do that those children are out there you could have hit some of those children why are you dropping that here and I realized later that that man was trying to tell us something two days later just about noon we heard the sound of planes and we all ran out and we stopped we were starved for news in all those years we'd never had one Red Cross package never any

letters from home Never any letters or pamphlets from anywhere we were just locked inside the barbed wire of that camp and we looked up and those planes were coming double fuselage planes that were painted silver and they were such a beautiful sight and all the sudden things were dropping out of those planes that we were yelling I was screaming chocolate bars look at them they're chocolate bars notice another canned goods the others said I think they're Pam Let's suddenly we heard the whistling of the bombs we knew that we were wrong over that little camp

of just two acres square they laid over 5,000 incendiary bombs just within moments everything was going up in smoke I ran to jump into the ditch and just as my feet hit the bottom that dips the Lord said to me you borrowed a Bible from that little Chinese woman mrs. Li I said that's right Lord I have no life right to let it burn my Bible had gone To pieces I ran inside I reached up on my rack I grabbed my Bible and I came out and I saw them they had opened the gates and

we started to run and we ran out of the camp and when we got outside and across the road here were machine guns set up and hundreds of Japanese soldiers and they just world on you with their guns with their bayonets fixed on them and they yelled T door in you t George you just threw yourself out prostate straight in the midst of them And they were running over the top of us and they were firing at the planes as they went over and so the plane just circled around and mid-late another layer bombs and

then they came back and they began to machine-gun us and I dropped my head onto my arm and I said God if anybody's alive at the end of this day it will be a miracle and when the last of the planes were gone the smoke had died down everything was burned flat I looked up and I was alive And I said God once again I tell you if I have any days left to me they're all yours and then I start I found mrs. pressed wood and I said let's go back and see if we

could find our cans that we were eating out of and maybe our spoons in the ashes there when I came back to where barrack aid had been and I saw on the top of the ashes somehow nobody knew that I had had my brides book with me I had sewn it inside of a native mat and when That barracks had burned the roof had fallen backwards the bed had burned and dropped down the mat had burned away and somehow the fingers of the wind had just opened it at the center page and I looked down

at it and there on that beautiful black page was the certificate written in Golding my marriage certificate and I looked down at it and I said Lord that was the only thing I had left I said everything else is God I said Lord couldn't I just have that and When I reached out to pick it up the minute my fingers touched it it disintegrated it was completely gone I said lord I don't have anything left it was the only thing I had and he said to me my child that's what I want to do with

you I want to make you like pure gold even if I have to take you through the fire seven times I bowed before my Lord and I said all right Lord I saw that the woman who was head of the barracks next to me was crying and I Went over to her and I put my arms around her and I said don't cry she said but my mattress burned and I said oh yes I said everything's burned but I said we much to thank God for we're alive we're still alive she said but I didn't

leave that little mattress it was just a little mat in the barracks she said I dragged it out and I threw it in the ditch where you always lie and I walked over to the edge of that ditch and I looked down into it and there was the Casing from the bomb and the ashes of the Mattress right where I had been lying I felt I was in the presence of the Almighty I said God it wasn't it wasn't mrs. Lee's Bible was it that you wanted me to get you want to get me out

of that ditch wasn't it and I walked away and I said Cod for any days I have left I tell you once more I'm available they put us in shacks they knew that this bombing was coming and there were shacks up There in the wilderness and three days later we had a bombing a shrapnel bomb and there were those that were killed children without arms and legs and one of the young men was from our barracks and others whose legs had been chopped off by the force of the bomb hitting them I remember the day

when finally at the end of August 1945 we were called out and there was mr. ammaji and there were the others standing there all in dress uniform and They told us that there had been announcement on the radio by the Imperial Japanese Emperor Hirohito that there was to be a cessation of all fighting I have seen pictures of the victory celebrations in San Francisco and New York and other big cities and I thought that wasn't the way it was that day when they told us that they were going to make arrangements when it would be

possible they would take us down to Mikasa and then of course we would have To wait for the boats to come to evacuate us and they asked if I would come he asked if I would come and I would take over translating interpreting for the Japanese and the Australian the Dutch and the Americans and I was translating for them the American told us that the Philippines had over six months been free and why nothing was ever said to us we were still their prisoners and I one day walked back to the little shack up in

the jungle and I Heard the sound of a man's voice and I looked and coming up the pathway was this young man all in white I he looked beautiful he was so squeaky clean and here we were we'd cut off our hair because we didn't have any combs because livestock was plentiful and we didn't have any way to keep our hair dry so we'd cut our chopped our hair off very short and I was in my work shorts and a sleeveless blouse because everything else had Burned in the bombing and I looked at that man

coming and he had shoes that were so highly polished that you could see yourself in them and I thought oh my I have never seen such all togetherness in my life how when he got up next to me he said are you the American and I said yes sir I am an American and he just looked at me and I know that I didn't look like any American girl he'd ever seen I was a mess he couldn't keep his eyes off my bare feet I and he said Don't you have shoes I said oh no

I said we've never had she was and that's all right because I like walking barefoot he said I'm gonna see that you get some shoes he said oh sorry he said I should introduce myself I'm Tom Sawyer and I'm with the American Navy and it was on tip of my tongue to say sure and I'm Becky Thatcher but I didn't know if he had a sense of humor or not so I decided I better not so I said I'm darling divert from Boone Iowa and so he want to know what I needed and I said

all combs and soap and but most of all we need food for the children he said can you mark out a place where I can do a free drop for you tomorrow we'll get your food and whatever else you need and they did I marked it out I went to mr. yamaji he gave me the white cloth in order to mark out the space on this old rice field and that day when the the friction type lid on the top of these Tim's when the tin Would hit the ground that friction type lid would just

blow off and everything was pouring out of there and the little children were screaming they thought they were more bombs and we tried to explain to them that those weren't bombs that those are those who were containing food and I was out there with the rest of them we were trying to get these things up and I found a can of sweetened condensed milk that had burst when it hit the ground and so I thought that's a Terrible thing to let that be wasted so I pulled it up and what was left in there I

ran it into my hand and then I licked it off there it was beautiful but it wasn't long till it came back the other way I says the only time I ever enjoyed food going both ways and then one day they said well we're going to take you now because the American boys have been flown out those boys suffered as I have seldom heard of suffering they were Beaten with iron pipes and sometimes they said it would be 200 times and the people would faint and they'd pour water on them and beat them again till

there's their bodies were like pulp but they were flying those that had survived out to get medical aid and they said if you want to go we'll take you on the last plane Lord so I remember the day when I went down there with miss camp Celie we couldn't get her to come and so she was being put in a place where they Could look after and that day when I stood there all I could see in my mind's eye were too lonely crosses on a jungle hill under one was my husband under the other

was dr. Ari Jaffrey they had taken the men on a death march and many of them never came back and I thought about that and I thought here I arrived on my first wedding anniversary and I'm going home widowed at 26 with not a thing I can call my own even the clothes I have I Borrowed I said lord I don't think I'll ever come back to these islands again and then I heard as I stepped into this little boat to go out to the plane that was there anchored in the bay I said lord

I hear the sound of those running feet but I'm not gonna look at them I'm not going to turn back and look at them and then suddenly I heard them calling and then they began to sing god be with you till we meet again and I turned and I looked and the tears burst out and I Said God that's right that's why I came to these islands not because I was Reverend divers wife I came here because one day as a little girl I stood in a missionary meeting the closing service I was about the

second row from the back all of the appeal was made for high school and college young people nobody noticed this little girl with brown hair sitting there at the back and when we stood up and I heard the appeal made to them and I felt a Hand on my shoulder and I turned around and looked and there was no one there and I knew it was my Lord and I just said to him Lord what is it and he spoke to me he said would you go anywhere for me no matter what it costs I

was so thrilled to think that God had even noticed me and I'd said to him that night Lord Jesus I'd go anywhere for you no matter what it costs and as I turned and I looked and God broke my heart and I Called out to them someday I will come home again to you it took me three years before I passed a physical on the way home they took us to Balak papa and there they put us in the hospital and that night I tell you I didn't realize what a terrible thing a bed was

that thing had a give to it and every time in the night when I would turn that thing was turning over and I knew I was being thrown out or it was an earthquake and I'd grabbed the sides of The bed and I whispered to Margaret Margaret are you sleeping and she said I can't sleep and she said let's get out and get on the floor I said that's a good idea let's get out and we'll sleep there and then we'll wake up and jump back into bed before all these nurses see us and then

we talked it over a little more and said what do we do if they catch us on the floor we said we bare stay in bed they had gone out and gotten pajamas for Us they thought we that and I said oh we're used to sleeping in our clothes they said tonight you're not sleeping in them and all I could find were some pajamas that belonged to these Australian troops and they were these very tall people and I remember putting on those trousers and I got it right up to here and I said oh I

don't need this top but I thought I won't have much movement of my arms so I pulled it down and rolled up the legs and then I put my Arm in this when I rolled it up - I found this hand then I rolled this one up and find it we all laughed and we were in bed they said tonight you're not sleeping in your clothes and then the next day after we had had tea in the morning here came a Jeep and they took us out and they said we're taking you on the last

plane load of each one of the hops between here Manila so then they took us up to Palawan Island and I saw that large cemetery out there white stones marking the place where many American boys lay down their lives I am a patriotic I believe in America and I'm glad that God allowed me to be born here to learn about him to have a Bible when I was a child I had a compulsion to memorize Scripture I memorized books of the Bible chapter Psalms that didn't matter that they took my Bible away from me because

it was all there and God played it back to me I Wonder if you lost your Bible tonight how well off would you be you don't know when it's going to be taken away from you even to your hymns I see y'all with your hymn books up there in front of you you ought to have it down here because God does minister to music through music and I remember when we got into Palawan Island and I looked down and we were still had the mentality of a peel W and when I saw that white white

buildings painted white all the men in white I Said to miss Kim they are not very well camouflaged and there they were and they were all in dress uniform and I thought they don't know who's coming we're just POWs I wonder who they really expected but when we got up there and there was a sidewalk up to this big dining hall and there were men on both sides standing at attention boy my heart just burst with pride seeing those boys and then when we got inside someone struck up the band and They started to play

star-spangled banner and they unfurled that beautiful flag down to the center okay I went to pieces I just cried and cried cry they come up and they Pat us on the shoulder and he said don't cry you're free now and I said I know but there was so many times I thought I'd never see that beautiful flag they said don't cry it's all right it's all right we're going to have dinner now and I tried to straighten up My face and Hinda I tried to get these clothes so they looked a little better because it

was about a size 16 on a size 6 body and I had taken a belt and tied it real tight and cinched it around I blaust it up over the top of it so that the hem the bottom the hem wasn't down but to my ankles but when we walked in and I saw all that white linen on the table claws and they put us up at the head table and everyone was smiling to us and I thought if I eat all this is Here in front of me I'm gonna be sick but it's gonna

be worth it this time and everyone was so pleased and they just tried to do everything for us and that night they had outside a film that they were showing and we sat down I remember anything about the film but I remember the ice cream and the chocolates and then the next day they were all out there ready to see us on our way we were the last camp that was ever found so this was the closing up of bringing the POWs in and then we dropped down in Manila and they said here's a bus

I'd tell you that man who drove that bus he would have done well the Indianapolis 500 and I just we just hung on to the backs and the sides of the seat to keep from being rolled into the aisle of that the bus they finally got us there and one of the first things they did was to give us a physical and they said oh my and they laid out all these vitamins that we had to take and the medicine I Said sir after I've eaten all those I'm not going to need anything else I

won't have room for it and then they said here you go over we're going to have see that you get a permanent I thought isn't that beautiful I like doctors that write out prescriptions for a permanent I'm so they got our hair fixed up and then they brought in the boxes from the Red Cross and the first place I wanted to find was The post office and I went over and I said would you have any mail for Darlene diver he looked he said I'm sorry I don't and I went back day after day and

finally he said boy I don't know why somebody wouldn't write to you and I was so embarrassed I didn't go back again till the day I was to be taken out and the ship came the clip one time and they had left us there for almost a month because they didn't feel we were strong enough even to go on a ship but finally They put us on 23 days out outside of San Francisco we were supposed to dock in San Francisco we just gone in under the Golden Gate and I saw all those lights of

San Francisco everybody was so excited all that beautiful city I said I don't care I said I don't know anybody out here no one at all I had an auntie that live down south but I don't know where she is I don't even know the address and everybody was owing and I and I was feeling Lord what am I going To do when I get off this ship and then I saw the lights oh I said to Margot don't they know that a war is on no it is not and I was so fascinated with

lights that you had turned on everywhere and then we were just getting ready to pull in and suddenly the loudspeaker was turned on and they said we're pulling out again because the whole harbour is full there are no berths empty so they're going to take you on up to Seattle Washington and There you will be taken off the ship I was so glad to spend another two days on that ship that was known territory when I got off there I hadn't had any letter from my mother and and I hadn't heard from anybody and I

thought I just thought when I get there I don't know where I'm going and when we finally docked it was Navy day and they said tonight we will did lost you and then tomorrow we'll start processing you I was glad to spend another night on That ship and we were sleeping three deep in hammocks out on the deck there were so many POWs of us then the next morning I saw my friends leaving and I saw them going down the gangplank and meeting their families and their friends out there and I stood there at they

Braille and suddenly it struck me the reason you haven't heard from other dad is that they're gone and I went back and I crawled in underneath of those hammocks and I said Lord you took Russell did you have to take mother and daddy also so sweeping my Lord spoke to me and he said my child you can still trust me I said all right father but I need to find a Red Cross woman I've been looking for one all morning and I said I haven't seen them and I came around the corner the deck of

the ship and I saw a Red Cross woman and I latched on to her and I said you wait a minute now you have to help me I said I'm a powa and I said it's been over four years I haven't Heard anything for my father and mother I don't know where they are but I need money I've got to get back to Iowa to trace anybody from the family that's alive and she said honey what's your name I said darling diver she said I've been on the ship all morning looking for you three telegrams

they're all from mother and dad and I opened them up mother said we moved out to Oakland California in 1942 and we knew you were on the ship and we wanted to get there In order to greet you but when they took you on up to Seattle we wouldn't have time to get there and so we've sent money to the western union office and you go there and you get that money and you get a ticket on the train and come down and we'll be here to meet you and you call collect as soon as

you can get to a telephone I went to get my ticket first after getting the money and I looked at everybody who was going by me on the street and I said oh my just Look at their coats it's all that real tight nap this year and I looked down at this code I'd gotten from the Red Cross and I looked like a bear it was a real long shaggy thing and I he went back to the ship and I asked the captain if I could borrow his razor and he looked at me rather puzzled

and I found a secluded spot on the deck and I gave my coat a shave and it really looked pretty good then I went to the train station and I went up To this window and I said please sir I would like to have a ticket for Oakland California he said my dear don't you know a war has been on on the Army Navy Air Force personnel Tao travel I was just ready to faint and I said sir I'm sorry I didn't know that I said I'm a powa I just got here and I'm trying

to get home oh he said we've got lots of tickets for people like you and I was in business again then I got over to a telephone oh my goodness it wasn't one Of those things that just was on the wall and you lift up the thing that someone says number please and I said here was this round thing there and had numbers and it had letters and I was standing there and I thought now how am I gonna use this thing and somebody who must have known how puzzled I was he stepped up and

he just shoved the door open a little bit and he said could I help you and I said yeah I I I'm a powa I don't know how to operate that thing And I'm trying to call my folks and he said what's the number and I said this is the number and so he called I said call collect and so he rang it through for me you know I've said so many times tonight the Lord spoke to me and people say how do you it's the Lord this is the best illustration I know when I

got that call went through and I heard the receiver going up on the other end and I heard someone say hello darling I know it was mother nobody ever said my name like mother dead I hadn't heard her voice in 8 years but it was mother I said hello mother then I couldn't say another thing she so calmly told me that my brother had just gotten in from new from Germany in New York the night before and he said mother did you hear anything from darling I said mm-hmm and then she went on to tell

me about my dad in about everybody and all I could say was him hmm I couldn't answer I was Crying so hard she said no honey you just go and knock you just be sure that you get on that train and and we'll be here to meet you I got I somebody told me that I really needed to have a good foundation garment well at that moment I didn't have a thing to girdle but I went and I decided I get some something that looked decent and I'd gotten the money from the Western Union and

then I thought I'm going to be on that train for a day in the night and I better have A suitcase and so I went and got a suitcase and a purse and I put what little money I had in there I got on that train I suddenly realized that Portland Oregon I had not told mother and dad what train I was coming in on so it's 2 o'clock in the morning and so I went out and I found a man who would take my telegram and I didn't realize it was just sent right through

it was phoned right through and I said kill the fatted calf Love Darlene I'm arriving at 9:30 tomorrow morning and then I got back on the train not realizing that it was being phoned directly through and dad said when that telephone began to ring mother jumped up and she rammed the telephone he said all I could hear was quiet and then something would be repeated and she said what and then evidently the girl laughed and she said have you not heard of the the lost son the prodigal son Sure lost his found kill the fatted

calf she said thank you and put the receiver down quickly and ran in and shook my dad and they laughed she said she had she's alright she hasn't lost her sense of humor and then the next morning when it rolled into the depot in Oakland California I was looking for two faces and I finally spotted my father at the time he saw me and he was waving to me darling darling he always called me baby he said baby and he turned and yelled Mother she's here she's here my father came up he put his arms

around me and mother joined us nicer daddy mother I thought so many times I would never ever see you again and as I looked out over the tops of their heads the Sun broke through the clouds those beautiful clouds and suddenly I thought oh Lord someday those clouds will part asunder and you will be there and I will know you through the eyes of my spirit I've Looked into that beautiful face I have no regrets for any of the things that God has led me through I wonder about you young people I was on a

field where we had more graves than live missionaries I'll tell you this tonight if you don't know him you aren't gonna make it I look at young people like you and I often think God if some day you just called to me and say come on home I wonder who's going to step into my place Out there do you have a life to give for your Lord he gave everything for you I heard him call come follow and that was all my gold grew dim I rose and followed him wouldn't you follow if you heard

him call I don't cost count the cost anymore I still say to my lord at night when I lie down precious lord I'd still go anywhere for you the compensations are so tremendous