Page 151 - Three Score Years & Ten
P. 151
“THREE SCORE YEARS AND TEN” MISSIONARY WORK IN CHINA
Amy Moore
While my missionary call remained strong within me, I still had no idea where God wanted me to go
and, from my first weeks in MBI I began to pray that He would show me very clearly where He wanted
me to serve Him and to keep me from making any mistake.
Another prayer I prayed continually was that God would guide me in the matter of marriage and keep
me from making mistakes in this very vital area. George and I had separated on happy terms and
there were no hurts there because we had both known we had no future together. But Harry Lupton
was a different matter. Harry and I had met through the Metropolitan Christian Endeavour interests,
and he had been dating me intermittently for some time. He often took me out on his motor bike and I
enjoyed that. My parents knew him and liked him and, like myself, he had a clear call to missionary
service, but not sure where. We corresponded all the time I was in MBI and shared many ideas and
thoughts but, while I liked and admired him in many ways, it did not worry me that I would not see him
for two years, nor did I get excited over his letters as I did over the ones from the family, nor did it
trouble me much if I didn’t hear for awhile. In some ways I felt towards him more like a big brother than
a prospective husband!
I made new friends in MBI and, perhaps the most significant in the light of future events, was Allison
Pike. Her parents were in China and it was during our first term at MBI that Mr. Nash called her to his
study one morning and broke the news to her that her father had been killed by brigands. The way
she took this shattering news was a blessing to us all and, when she was asked to choose a hymn
soon after, her choice was significant of her whole attitude. It was “Jesus triumphant though the storm
clouds break.” She had grown up in the Chefoo Schools in Shandong, China, come home to do a
nursing course at the Alfred Hospital, where she was a gold medallist, and was now, with her younger
brother Walter, living with her Mother’s sister, a single lady, in Armadale. So she was a day student at
MBI. With Allison I began to attend the Armadale Baptist Church and got involved with the lively group
of young people there.
Through Allison again I began to attend a prayer meeting for China. We were all supposed to attend
one missionary prayer meeting at least. Helen and Arthur, who had come from Perth with me, always
went to the United Aborigines one and found it a great chance to get together, but I didn’t want to tail
round with them, so I went to the China one with Allison. Through this meeting and again through
Allison at other times, I began to know another group of young people who had all been born in China
and attended the Chefoo Schools through which they had a common bond. So the Embery girls and
the Porteous girls, Ruth and Christine, Mary and Arthur Matthews, Connie Webster and Kitty Waters
who worked in the CIM office, and of course Allison’s brother Walter all began to look on me as
‘Allison’s friend’ and accepted me into their circle.
CALL TO CHINA
On Friday mornings at MBI we always had a missionary speaker during the last period. They came
from many lands and many different mission societies, and we were exposed to the needs and
opportunities for Christian work all over the world. One morning, during the first term in 1930, Mr.
Lack, the secretary of the China Inland Mission in Victoria was the speaker. Neither his personality nor
his message attracted me particularly, but somewhere through his address it hit me like a bolt from the
blue, that China was where the Lord wanted me. There was no Voice from Heaven, nor did I have a
vision from God, but just a strong clear certainty in my heart that I have never been able to doubt
since, that China was the place where God wanted me. I had been praying for a long time that He
would show me, and this was the answer. I was shaken to the very centre of my being. In MBI there
had grown up a feeling among us that God only took the best for China. Certainly as we looked at
those accepted by the CIM they did seem to be rather special people like Allison who, by this time,
151
Amy Moore
While my missionary call remained strong within me, I still had no idea where God wanted me to go
and, from my first weeks in MBI I began to pray that He would show me very clearly where He wanted
me to serve Him and to keep me from making any mistake.
Another prayer I prayed continually was that God would guide me in the matter of marriage and keep
me from making mistakes in this very vital area. George and I had separated on happy terms and
there were no hurts there because we had both known we had no future together. But Harry Lupton
was a different matter. Harry and I had met through the Metropolitan Christian Endeavour interests,
and he had been dating me intermittently for some time. He often took me out on his motor bike and I
enjoyed that. My parents knew him and liked him and, like myself, he had a clear call to missionary
service, but not sure where. We corresponded all the time I was in MBI and shared many ideas and
thoughts but, while I liked and admired him in many ways, it did not worry me that I would not see him
for two years, nor did I get excited over his letters as I did over the ones from the family, nor did it
trouble me much if I didn’t hear for awhile. In some ways I felt towards him more like a big brother than
a prospective husband!
I made new friends in MBI and, perhaps the most significant in the light of future events, was Allison
Pike. Her parents were in China and it was during our first term at MBI that Mr. Nash called her to his
study one morning and broke the news to her that her father had been killed by brigands. The way
she took this shattering news was a blessing to us all and, when she was asked to choose a hymn
soon after, her choice was significant of her whole attitude. It was “Jesus triumphant though the storm
clouds break.” She had grown up in the Chefoo Schools in Shandong, China, come home to do a
nursing course at the Alfred Hospital, where she was a gold medallist, and was now, with her younger
brother Walter, living with her Mother’s sister, a single lady, in Armadale. So she was a day student at
MBI. With Allison I began to attend the Armadale Baptist Church and got involved with the lively group
of young people there.
Through Allison again I began to attend a prayer meeting for China. We were all supposed to attend
one missionary prayer meeting at least. Helen and Arthur, who had come from Perth with me, always
went to the United Aborigines one and found it a great chance to get together, but I didn’t want to tail
round with them, so I went to the China one with Allison. Through this meeting and again through
Allison at other times, I began to know another group of young people who had all been born in China
and attended the Chefoo Schools through which they had a common bond. So the Embery girls and
the Porteous girls, Ruth and Christine, Mary and Arthur Matthews, Connie Webster and Kitty Waters
who worked in the CIM office, and of course Allison’s brother Walter all began to look on me as
‘Allison’s friend’ and accepted me into their circle.
CALL TO CHINA
On Friday mornings at MBI we always had a missionary speaker during the last period. They came
from many lands and many different mission societies, and we were exposed to the needs and
opportunities for Christian work all over the world. One morning, during the first term in 1930, Mr.
Lack, the secretary of the China Inland Mission in Victoria was the speaker. Neither his personality nor
his message attracted me particularly, but somewhere through his address it hit me like a bolt from the
blue, that China was where the Lord wanted me. There was no Voice from Heaven, nor did I have a
vision from God, but just a strong clear certainty in my heart that I have never been able to doubt
since, that China was the place where God wanted me. I had been praying for a long time that He
would show me, and this was the answer. I was shaken to the very centre of my being. In MBI there
had grown up a feeling among us that God only took the best for China. Certainly as we looked at
those accepted by the CIM they did seem to be rather special people like Allison who, by this time,
151
