It was a beautiful love story that very nearly didn’t happen except for God’s providence . . . two young people so far apart in culture, language, geography, and religion meeting in what could only be arranged by God himself.
Born in 1928 to a Chinese mother and American father, Jack Bateman lived in North China with his parents and two siblings, Jimmy and Sally, until the Japanese invaded in 1937. His father had died three years after Jack was born so Mrs. Bateman lived with her parents and seven sisters and did her best to provide for the children after his death from tuberculosis.
As the children grew older, however, Ms. Bateman had difficulty provide for all the children’s needs, including food and education. Chinese citizens were given food rations, but since the three Bateman children were American citizens they received none. But by the grace of God, the American Legion began providing them financial assistance then God then led a Methodist missionary to send them to a mission school in northeast China.
Then, in another act of providence, God led them to John Blaylock, a single Baptist missionary who agreed to take care of the children and ended up doing so for almost two years. Life in Japanese-occupied China had became dangerous, especially for American missionaries, so Blaylock received permission from Mrs. Bateman to leave the country and take the children out of China, first to the Philippines, an American territory, and then on to America. But God had other plans.
After arriving in Manila, the Philippines, on November 2, 1941, Blaylock and the children lived in a small rented apartment. But on December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and the Philippines. By the end of December 1941, all U.S. Soldiers had left Manila, and soon the Japanese found and took them into custody to a prison camp on the University of Santo Tomas campus.
Blaylock’s and the children’s futures were uncertain to say the least. Prisoners at Santo Tomas spent the next three years and one month trying to avoid starvation. Many died under those harsh conditions. But God had instilled in Jack an instinct for survival even though he had witnessed the horrors of disease, starvation and mistreatment of prisoners.
God’s grace continued . . . Fourteen-year-old Jack and other detainees were assigned kitchen duty, which included preparing and cleaning huge pots of tasteless, meager food for the entire camp. That assignment kept him, his siblings, and Blaylock alive. Jack saved the few scrapings left over from each “meal” and shared them with his loved ones. There were just enough peelings, crumbs, and scraps of food to keep them alive for three years and one month.
Their liberation by American soldiers happened just two days before the Japanese carried orders to kill all prisoners.
Finally they made it to California where he, Jimmy, and Sally lived with a family in California. Jack was saved in 1945 and two years later met high school student Latrell Johnson at a Bible conference. Both had already surrendered their lives to serving the Lord in ministry.
The couple continued to have difficult times even before they arrived in Taiwan, but Jack and Latrell’s optimistic and burdened spirits, their love for the lost, and constant prayer would carry them through as they shared the gospel to the lost people of Taiwan.
Both great people. It was a blessing to have befriended their family many years ago in Taiwan.