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Wartime
Pen Pal
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Sixty years ago, Japan’s emperor formally accepted the terms of surrender and effectively ended World War II. The news allowed a young preacher in Arkansas to take pause – he had established a special tie with the families of soldiers who’d passed through his congregation. As Reed Galin reports, his service was one of prayer, pen and paper. |
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SCRIPT:
(Locator: Little Rock, Arkansas)
In 1942, an army of flyboys was propelled into World War II. The Walnut Ridge Army Flying School in Arkansas sprang up almost overnight.
The Rev. Robert Bearden/Retired United Methodist pastor: “In the height we had more soldiers than we did locals in our Sunday morning worship.”
The Reverend Robert Bearden soon had an overflowing congregation – as cadets came to worship at his Methodist church.
The Rev. Robert Bearden: “I had a bulletin which I prepared and on the back it had a message there, the servicemen, if you will write your parents’ name and address, I will write them next week.“
During the war, he wrote hundreds. And parents wrote back. Some to say thank you; others to say their boy was missing; and even some asking that someone bake and deliver a cake to the barracks.
The Rev. Robert Bearden: “So they could have some of mother’s food is really what it was for.”
The young pastor was often called upon to comfort the community.
The Rev. Robert Bearden: “There were just a great many boys killed in those trainers. This was the first plane they had, you see, this was the basic flying field and they had a lot of deaths.”
Of course, no one knew if the young soldiers filling the pews would make it back safely.
The Rev. Robert Bearden: “It was a feeling that you’ve got a little part, that you were doing a little something in an enormous human situation and tragedy. I think I’d say in nearly 60 years of ministry, it was the most exciting years I had.”
TAG:
Reverend Bearden also visited the German prisoners in Arkansas. There was a large POW camp in the state and Japanese prisoners were added to the population in the summer of 1945.
For more information about the work of wartime chaplains, contact the United Methodist Endorsing Agency at: http://www.gbhem.org/chaplains.
And to hear more of
Rev. Bearden's memories, see
Serving WWII airmen became pastor’s most memorable
ministry.