BARRHEAD—A devout Christian couple that collectively spent two and a half years detained by the Chinese government will be speaking about how they survived their hellish experience at the Bethel Pentecostal Church on Monday, Feb. 10, at 7 p.m. Kevin and Julia Garratt are both long-time personal friends of Rev. Bob Jones, who took over as pastor of the Bethel Pentecostal Church in August 2019. “I’ve known them for 30 years,” said Jones, who is also hoping to arrange for the couple to speak to students at Barrhead Composite High School. The Garratts originally moved to China in the 1980s and made it their home for the next three decades. They taught English as a Second Language (ESL) at first, but eventually opened a coffee shop in the city of Dadong. Jones noted that Kevin and Julia, who had four children together, also went across the border into North Korea to do compassionate care for orphans. In early 2014, American authorities began arresting individuals involved in Chinese cyber-espionage. One of their targets was Chinese citizen Su Bin, who was accused of stealing technical data on military aircraft. Su Bin was living in B.C. at the time and was apprehended by Canadian officials so he could be extradited. It is widely believed that the Chinese authorities arrested the Garratts in August 2014 as an act of retaliation, accusing the couple of collecting and stealing intelligence materials. Julia was released in early 2015 after roughly six months in prison, but Kevin was detained for a full 775 days. Both were subjected to daily interrogations and were threatened with execution. It was only when Kevin’s health had deteriorated to the point where he was near death that the Chinese government finally released him in late 2016 and deported him to Canada, according to Jones. In an interview with the Globe and Mail, writer Eric Andrew-Gee took note of their shock, fear, confusion and isolation, but also noted that they refused to think of China with bitterness. Jones said the Garratts are now trying to find a silver lining in their terrible ordeal, using their experience of injustice and abuse to help others who have faced the same. “We belong now to a community that we didn’t before — people who have been wrongfully accused, people who have become pawns in other people’s arguments,” Julia said. “Let’s now use this positively to say, ‘Let’s love our neighbours. Let’s serve each other.’” Jones noted there is no cost to attend the Feb. 10 presentation, although copies of their book, Two Tears on the Window, will be on sale.
