Shadow of the Sun: Based on an Extraordinary True Story of Survival during WWII Japanese Occupation of the Dutch Indies

Menno was not supposed to be here. Hidden in the shadows of a gargantuan fig root, the Dutch headmaster snatched a moment to pencil another secret letter to his wife. He poured his soul into the tiny note he knew would never be sent, and if found, was punishable by death. Thousands of burial mounds of WWII POWs already lined the Burma railroad as it snaked northward through Thailand. “Don't lose hope, Flor,” he wrote, exhausted from another tortuous day building the train line. “God will not abandon us.” Writing kept him alive.

Young and fragile, Flor had barely passed the mission’s medical requirements before being swept away to the Dutch Indies. Menno, her indomitable-spirited husband and protector had vowed to take care of her. But now she stood alone. Facing the hallway mirror, she pinned back strands of disheveled waves from her delicate face. She knew she had no choice. With Menno conscripted to fight the invading Japanese Imperial Army, Flor was left to protect her seven children and the two families taking refuge in her home. The angry rebel mob yelled obscenities outside, yet Flor stepped into the night, desperate for help.

When Menno and Flor Giliam left Holland for the Dutch Indies in 1928, they never imagined separation, Japanese internment, starvation, and the constant shroud of death. Nor had they envisioned the God-sized answers to simple children’s prayers and the blessings purging would bring. It changed their lives for good.