That Hard Place: The Incredible True Story of a Missionary Family in the Philippines During World War II($14.99Value)

Description

An American missionary family’s fight to survive the hell of a Japanese prison camp Arriving in the Philippines in the summer of 1924, Henry and Gladys deVries followed the call to serve Jesus by ministering to the native peoples of the remote interior of the southern island of Mindanao. Settling in the town of Malaybalay, they built a mission, started more than a dozen churches, and raised three children. Then, in December of 1941, the Japanese invaded, bringing the family’s ministry to a screeching halt. Like thousands of other American civilians, the family was trapped in the Philippines with little or no hope of escape. In Malaybalay, Henry, Gladys, and two of their children, Gene and Bud, fled into the remote mountains nearby to escape frequent bombings. Far to the north in Manila, where he was attending high school, eldest son Dave found himself called into action assisting the injured during the invasion. After dealing with a hair-raising escape to the coast and hostile natives, Henry, Gladys, Gene, and Bud found surrendering to the Japanese to be their only option. Separated by more than five hundred miles from Dave and not knowing whether he was alive or dead, Henry and Gladys and the children relied on their faith to get them through their imprisonment in the hope of being reunited with him. Through disease, the cruelty of their captors, a hellish voyage north to Manila, and finally the horror of the notorious Los Baños Internment Camp, faith sustained them. In the face of starvation and death, they maintained the will to go on, hoping and praying that rescue would come.