Page 149 - Three Score Years & Ten
P. 149
“THREE SCORE YEARS AND TEN” MISSIONARY WORK IN CHINA
Amy Moore
watching the suffering of a loved one, and being unable to do anything to help. I
thought my heart would break.
Then He turned His head and His eyes looked deep into mine over the distance
that divided us. The pain in my heart ceased, and the love He poured into the
very depths of my being was like balm upon a wound, or like peace after a
storm when the tumult dies down and there is quietness.
Only then did I become aware that, in my distress over what He was suffering, I
had been clutching the thorny bush where I was kneeling, and the thorns had
pierced my hands and made them bleed. The deeper heart pain had made me
oblivious to the physical pain until His look brought peace to my heart.
I have loved Him ever since, and far more than any other love He has brought
into my life. He is first always.
The third thing that happened in that eighteenth year of my life, and which was to have a lasting effect
on my future, was when I attended a valedictory meeting for Doris Cole who, though some years older
than I, was one of my friends. She was going out to Shanghai as a missionary with the London
Missionary Society, and a farewell meeting was held in the Maylands Methodist Church. I walked
over from Bayswater to attend. I don’t remember anything about the meeting except that the
speaker said, “Doris has heard the Lord’s call ‘Go ye’ (quoting from Mark 16:15) and she is going in
obedience to that command.” I didn’t hear a voice from Heaven but, at that moment, strong and clear
within me, was the conviction that God was saying to me “You go!” Everything else in the meeting
faded into oblivion.
As soon as I had said goodbye to Doris, I got out the door and started for home. It was some two
miles to walk, but I wanted to walk alone with God and find out what this was all about. He couldn’t
possibly want me to be a missionary. As I looked up into the starry sky I said, “Lord, You know I
couldn’t be a missionary. We couldn’t afford it anyway, and I am the eldest and most needed at home.
Where would I go? How would I get some training?” All these and many other questions went
through my mind, but I couldn’t get away from that very strong conviction that God was calling me to
be a missionary. Finally, as I reached Wisbeck Street, I gave in and said, “Alright Lord, if that is what
You want, but You will have to show me how.”
I don’t know that I told anybody at that time of my missionary call, but it was there in my mind always
as a goal for the future. I began to think of Bible training, but there was no such place in Western
Australia though Rev. Carmen Urquhart was hoping to start some evening classes. Then one
evening, through a young man who was working among the aborigines in the north of WA, I heard
about the Melbourne Bible Institute. I tucked that information away in my heart and quietly decided
that I would go there one day. At that time Melbourne seemed like the other end of the world, but
Mother was getting stronger and I decided I would get a job, one that paid well, so that I could save to
go to Melbourne. This I did and when I was 21 I left home and travelled across the continent to
Melbourne where I had been accepted as a student in the Melbourne Bible Institute.
I spent two happy, learning, growing years at MBI under the good solid Bible teaching of the Rev.
Clifford Nash. He was an old man by this time, and had learned to know God through some hard
experiences in life. As he went through various books of the Bible with us, the Word of God opened
up and became real to me in a way I never dreamed it could. Many times as I sat and listened, I had
that deep sense of being in the presence of God, and all I wanted was to be alone with Him and
worship Him.
149
Amy Moore
watching the suffering of a loved one, and being unable to do anything to help. I
thought my heart would break.
Then He turned His head and His eyes looked deep into mine over the distance
that divided us. The pain in my heart ceased, and the love He poured into the
very depths of my being was like balm upon a wound, or like peace after a
storm when the tumult dies down and there is quietness.
Only then did I become aware that, in my distress over what He was suffering, I
had been clutching the thorny bush where I was kneeling, and the thorns had
pierced my hands and made them bleed. The deeper heart pain had made me
oblivious to the physical pain until His look brought peace to my heart.
I have loved Him ever since, and far more than any other love He has brought
into my life. He is first always.
The third thing that happened in that eighteenth year of my life, and which was to have a lasting effect
on my future, was when I attended a valedictory meeting for Doris Cole who, though some years older
than I, was one of my friends. She was going out to Shanghai as a missionary with the London
Missionary Society, and a farewell meeting was held in the Maylands Methodist Church. I walked
over from Bayswater to attend. I don’t remember anything about the meeting except that the
speaker said, “Doris has heard the Lord’s call ‘Go ye’ (quoting from Mark 16:15) and she is going in
obedience to that command.” I didn’t hear a voice from Heaven but, at that moment, strong and clear
within me, was the conviction that God was saying to me “You go!” Everything else in the meeting
faded into oblivion.
As soon as I had said goodbye to Doris, I got out the door and started for home. It was some two
miles to walk, but I wanted to walk alone with God and find out what this was all about. He couldn’t
possibly want me to be a missionary. As I looked up into the starry sky I said, “Lord, You know I
couldn’t be a missionary. We couldn’t afford it anyway, and I am the eldest and most needed at home.
Where would I go? How would I get some training?” All these and many other questions went
through my mind, but I couldn’t get away from that very strong conviction that God was calling me to
be a missionary. Finally, as I reached Wisbeck Street, I gave in and said, “Alright Lord, if that is what
You want, but You will have to show me how.”
I don’t know that I told anybody at that time of my missionary call, but it was there in my mind always
as a goal for the future. I began to think of Bible training, but there was no such place in Western
Australia though Rev. Carmen Urquhart was hoping to start some evening classes. Then one
evening, through a young man who was working among the aborigines in the north of WA, I heard
about the Melbourne Bible Institute. I tucked that information away in my heart and quietly decided
that I would go there one day. At that time Melbourne seemed like the other end of the world, but
Mother was getting stronger and I decided I would get a job, one that paid well, so that I could save to
go to Melbourne. This I did and when I was 21 I left home and travelled across the continent to
Melbourne where I had been accepted as a student in the Melbourne Bible Institute.
I spent two happy, learning, growing years at MBI under the good solid Bible teaching of the Rev.
Clifford Nash. He was an old man by this time, and had learned to know God through some hard
experiences in life. As he went through various books of the Bible with us, the Word of God opened
up and became real to me in a way I never dreamed it could. Many times as I sat and listened, I had
that deep sense of being in the presence of God, and all I wanted was to be alone with Him and
worship Him.
149
