Page 132 - Three Score Years & Ten
P. 132
“THREE SCORE YEARS AND TEN” MISSIONARY WORK IN CHINA
Amy Moore
On 13 May 1922, after Esther and Arthur Moore had returned from furlough and were back in Gansu,
their fifth child whom they named Dorothy, was born in Liangzhou, north east of Lanzhou. A year
later the family moved to Shunde in the Province of Hebei about 200 miles south of Beijing. Percy’s
grandparents, George and Jessie Andrew were already there and it was partly to help them with a
heavy workload that the Mission sent the Moores there. Shunde and Linmingguan near to it, now
became the family base and this made it possible for Arthur and Esther to spend the summer at
Chefoo and for the children to return home for other holidays as they never could to far distant Gansu.
This was the first opportunity the three elder children had to meet their baby sister and they all loved
her.
DOROTHY DIES
So it was a shock to them all when, in October 1924 on the eve of her grandparents retirement to
Chefoo, Dorothy died suddenly after an illness of only a few hours. In Chefoo, where George Findlay
Andrew was now on the staff, it fell to him and his wife, Fanny, to break the news of Dorothy’s death to
her brothers and sisters. None of them ever forgot her.
I don’t know if there was any connection, but it was during the year when his much loved sister died at
the age of two, that Percy began to think seriously about spiritual things. He was baptized the
following year, and from then on could take communion. What he was taught about the Lord’s Supper
at that time had a profound effect on the rest of his life. He didn’t talk about it much, but I was always
aware that it meant something special to him, and he took it very seriously. He never liked to allow too
much time to pass without his having taken the communion.
He was always very sensitive to the needs of others. When we were in Malaya and he was
Superintendent, he had ‘Super’s Days’ at regular intervals in the new villages and always made sure
we took bread and wine with us. Many missionaries were isolated for long periods in the villages
where there was no church and no hope of fellowship with other Christians. Percy felt it was part of
his spiritual ministry to them to be able to share in a communion service with them.
After he died, I was attending an OMF prayer conference in the hills near Melbourne where Don
Brookes had been invited to give the Bible messages. I had not seen Don since we left Malaysia
thirteen years before. When he got up to speak, he acknowledged the Chairman’s welcome and then
said, “I am specially glad to meet
again the wife of my dear first
Superintendent. I will never forget
when they came to visit me, a very
young and new missionary living
alone in one of the villages of South
Malaya. Mr. Moore brought with him
the bread and wine to enable us to
have the Lord’s Supper together. It
was a very precious time as the three
of us remembered the Lord’s death.
No other Super ever did that.”
It was at Chefoo too that daily Bible
reading first became a habit. Scripture Union cards and readings had been introduced in the early
1880's to Chefoo, and every summer CSSM meetings were held on the beach. Percy had vivid
memories of some of them when in typical CSSM style, they built a sand pulpit and he participated in
132
Amy Moore
On 13 May 1922, after Esther and Arthur Moore had returned from furlough and were back in Gansu,
their fifth child whom they named Dorothy, was born in Liangzhou, north east of Lanzhou. A year
later the family moved to Shunde in the Province of Hebei about 200 miles south of Beijing. Percy’s
grandparents, George and Jessie Andrew were already there and it was partly to help them with a
heavy workload that the Mission sent the Moores there. Shunde and Linmingguan near to it, now
became the family base and this made it possible for Arthur and Esther to spend the summer at
Chefoo and for the children to return home for other holidays as they never could to far distant Gansu.
This was the first opportunity the three elder children had to meet their baby sister and they all loved
her.
DOROTHY DIES
So it was a shock to them all when, in October 1924 on the eve of her grandparents retirement to
Chefoo, Dorothy died suddenly after an illness of only a few hours. In Chefoo, where George Findlay
Andrew was now on the staff, it fell to him and his wife, Fanny, to break the news of Dorothy’s death to
her brothers and sisters. None of them ever forgot her.
I don’t know if there was any connection, but it was during the year when his much loved sister died at
the age of two, that Percy began to think seriously about spiritual things. He was baptized the
following year, and from then on could take communion. What he was taught about the Lord’s Supper
at that time had a profound effect on the rest of his life. He didn’t talk about it much, but I was always
aware that it meant something special to him, and he took it very seriously. He never liked to allow too
much time to pass without his having taken the communion.
He was always very sensitive to the needs of others. When we were in Malaya and he was
Superintendent, he had ‘Super’s Days’ at regular intervals in the new villages and always made sure
we took bread and wine with us. Many missionaries were isolated for long periods in the villages
where there was no church and no hope of fellowship with other Christians. Percy felt it was part of
his spiritual ministry to them to be able to share in a communion service with them.
After he died, I was attending an OMF prayer conference in the hills near Melbourne where Don
Brookes had been invited to give the Bible messages. I had not seen Don since we left Malaysia
thirteen years before. When he got up to speak, he acknowledged the Chairman’s welcome and then
said, “I am specially glad to meet
again the wife of my dear first
Superintendent. I will never forget
when they came to visit me, a very
young and new missionary living
alone in one of the villages of South
Malaya. Mr. Moore brought with him
the bread and wine to enable us to
have the Lord’s Supper together. It
was a very precious time as the three
of us remembered the Lord’s death.
No other Super ever did that.”
It was at Chefoo too that daily Bible
reading first became a habit. Scripture Union cards and readings had been introduced in the early
1880's to Chefoo, and every summer CSSM meetings were held on the beach. Percy had vivid
memories of some of them when in typical CSSM style, they built a sand pulpit and he participated in
132
