Have you read the bestselling book “Unbroken” by Laura Hillenbrand? It’s a story about the life of Louis Zamberini, a 94-year-old Olympian and World War II hero. He spoke at Menlo Park Presbyterian Church last weekend and I had the great privilege of hearing him (along with thousands of others!). He’s just amazing. Funny, irreverent, a survivor, and a committed Christian. But the Christian part came later to him–after returning home from three grueling years in a Japanese P.O.W. camp. Well, you can find out for yourself by listening to the video:
 Louis Zamberini

Here’s a little info about his life:

Growing up in California in the 1920s, Louie was a hellraiser, stealing everything edible that he could carry, staging elaborate pranks, getting in fistfights, and bedeviling the local police. But as a teenager, he emerged as one of the greatest runners America had ever seen, competing at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, where he put on a sensational performance, crossed paths with Hitler, and stole a German flag right off the Reich Chancellery. He was preparing for the 1940 Olympics, and closing in on the fabled four-minute mile, when World War II began. Louie joined the Army Air Corps, becoming a bombardier. Stationed on Oahu, he survived harrowing combat, including an epic air battle that ended when his plane crash-landed, some six hundred holes in its fuselage and half the crew seriously wounded.

On a May afternoon in 1943, Louie took off on a search mission for a lost plane. Somewhere over the Pacific, the engines on his bomber failed. The plane plummeted into the sea, leaving Louie and two other men stranded on a tiny raft. Drifting for weeks and thousands of miles, they endured starvation and desperate thirst, sharks that leapt aboard the raft, trying to drag them off, a machine-gun attack from a Japanese bomber, and a typhoon with waves some forty feet high. At last, they spotted an island. As they rowed toward it, unbeknownst to them, a Japanese military boat was lurking nearby. Louie’s journey had only just begun.