Laurens van der Post (1963) and "The Night of the New Moon" (1970). Japanese film director Nagisa Oshima based his film "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence" (1982) on the last two of these books. Following the surrender of Japan, while his fellow POWs were repatriated, van der Post chose to remain in Java, and on 15 September 1945, he joined Admiral Wilfrid Patterson on HMS "Cumberland" for the official surrender of the Japanese in Java to British forces representing the Allies. Van der Post then spent two years helping to mediate between Indonesian nationalists and members of the Dutch Colonial Government. He had gained trust
Parable of the Growing Seed ancient or modern disciples who might be feeling discouraged with the amount of fruitless labor they had extended toward those "who failed to hear the message of which the parable of the Sower spoke. Even when the farmer sleeps, the Kingdom of God is still growing. Its growth is due to God, not man, and follows its own timetable. Paul the Apostle describes the growth of the church in Corinth in a similar way: Unlike the parable of the Sower, the seed here seems to represent the Kingdom of God itself. Differences in interpretation result from emphasising different aspects of