Stories of Faith and Courage from World War II

more shocked at the state of the young girl. She had yet to respond in any way and seemed to be very close to death. The doctor told the chaplain to, “ Pray hard for her. She needs the Great Physician. Only a miracle can keep her alive.”²⁰⁷

Through the next day and night the chaplain and a group of Marines maintained a vigil, praying for the girl as her life hung in the balance. Finally, on the second day, the girl began to whimper, as her fever seemed to subside ever so slightly. The doctor was called again. After another examination, he proclaimed, “ I’m either a genius doctor, or you’re a genius priest, but in any case, by golly, I think our girl is going to make it.”²⁰⁸

Since evacuation was impossible at the time, Father Gehring became the girl’s unofficial guardian. Thinking that she was probably of Chinese origin, he made up a suitably Chinese name: Patsy Li. News spread quickly through the ten thousand Marines on Guadalcanal that they had a “miracle girl” in their midst. They began to come in droves to see the girl and to bring gifts. They brought fruit, flowers, chocolate, handmade dolls, and parachute silk sarongs. Patsy Li seemed to become a symbol of love and hope in an otherwise God-forsaken place.²⁰⁹

He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us.

—2 Corinthians 1:10

May 29 Miracle Child

By late November 1942, Chaplain Gehring was finally able to arrange for the evacuation of Patsy Li from Guadalcanal. Through a French priest on Espiritu Santo he had her admitted to an orphanage run by French Sisters on the little island of Efate. He delivered her there himself and, while on this mission, met Foster Hailey, a correspondent for the New York Times. Hailey took an immediate interest in the fantastic story of the girl, and sent a series of articles home about Patsy Li and the “Padre of Guadalcanal.”

Years later, Frederic Gehring began receiving letters from a Chinese woman in Singapore named Ruth Li. The New York Times articles had finally come to her attention, and Mrs. Li felt strongly that this must be her daughter (also named Patsy Li), who had been lost at sea in February 1942. The only problem was, she was lost in waters off the coast of Malaysia, four thousand miles from Guadalcanal, when the Lis’ ship was bombed fleeing the Japanese invasion of Singapore. Gehring also knew that his Patsy’s name was a pure fabrication on his part.

Even though Chaplain Gehring discouraged her, Mrs. Li felt compelled to make the costly journey to Efate, via Australia, to see for herself. She finally reached the orphanage in July 1946 to find an awkward, ten-year-old child that she did not recognize at first. Due to the psychological trauma of her early life, young Patsy could remember practically nothing before her years on Efate. Her mother found a scar on her eye and peculiarities of her handwriting that convinced her that this was her child. Within days, Gehring received a telegram: “You have been the architect of a miracle, for I have found my Patsy Li.”²¹⁰ The priest went to the altar and prayed:

Thank you… for having given Ruth Li the strength to ignore the words of fools like me who would have stopped her from completing her mission of faith. Thank you for teaching me that there is no power greater than mother love that mother love can still flatten mountains, turn the earth upside down, and make the wildest dreams of mortals come true.²¹¹

Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.

—Exodus 20:12

May 30 An Act of Love

Patsy Li’s life with her newfound mother did not go well. Ruth Li had been raised in a strict household where much was expected of the children. She felt it her duty to impose the same kind of discipline on her daughter. Since Patsy had only spoken French for years, there was also a language barrier that made intimate conversations impossible. Back in Singapore, Mrs. Li became estranged and then divorced from her husband, causing more tension and insecurity for Patsy. The young girl became increasingly rebellious.

In 1949 a desperate Ruth Li turned again for help to Father Frederic Gehring, now living in Pennsylvania. At her and Patsy’s request, Father Gehring arranged for a guardian and admission to a private school in Williamsburg, Virginia. Patsy seemed to flourish in America, making friends and excelling in academics. She successfully graduated from Catholic University and entered training to become a nurse.

Throughout these years Father Gehring tried unsuccessfully to bridge the gulf between Patsy and her mother. Patsy, however, could not get past her feelings of abandonment. After a lot of prayer and conversation focused on this problem, the story of Moses’ mother finally occurred to the priest. This Hebrew woman had also been forced to abandon her baby to save it. He told Patsy:

You see, there can be times when a mother deserts a child or seems to desert it for very good reason. Moses’ mother left her youngster in an act of love. Your mother’s ‘desertion’ of you was an act of love, too. Your mother has never lost her love for you, Patsy. She has told me that many times, and even though she finds it hard to get this across to you, I have never doubted her.²¹²

Father Gehring’s patient and biblically based counseling led to the final miracle in Patsy Li’s story, reconciliation between a long-estranged mother and daughter.

When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, “I drew him out of the water.”

—Exodus 2:10

May 31 Moral Power

In war moral power is to physical as three parts out of four (Napoleon).²¹³

Mao Tse-Tung was a founding member and leader of the Chinese Communist Party from 1921 until his death in 1976. During World War II he interrupted a bitter civil war against the ruling Chinese government to fight their common and external enemy, the Japanese. He ultimately resumed the civil war and established the Communist People’s Republic of China in 1949. Mao was not only a politician and soldier, but a philosopher as well. More than