Page 169 - Three Score Years & Ten
P. 169
“THREE SCORE YEARS AND TEN” MISSIONARY WORK IN CHINA
Amy Moore
he could. He was selling some of his household effects which were not Mission property, and we
were happy to purchase some. I was able to buy his wife’s hand sewing machine, a Singer, which I
continued to use till the end of my missionary life, and which I found invaluable when I had small
children of my own. Miss Parr, who was in charge of the Yangxian station, another day’s journey
further down the Han River, went back there only long enough to help her junior worker, Edna
Lemmon, prepare to leave for furlough, and then they both returned to take the long journey to the
coast with Mr. Carwardine as soon as he was fit to travel. Miss Parr was going to Shanghai for a short
visit to get some medical attention she needed.
So there we were, three new inexperienced workers, with a senior missionary who had spent all her
missionary life near the coast and knew nothing of the local Shaanxi conditions. We had no house
help of any kind, and there was nobody at the beginning who seemed as if they wanted to work for
foreigners. There was also no teacher to help us girls, and we also found ourselves responsible for a
small three year old Chinese girl called Meisui whom Mr. Carwardine had unofficially adopted, but
couldn’t take with him to England.
I was struggling to complete the work for my 1st Section language exam before the heat of summer
made study more difficult. Myrie and Bertha, who had not been able to do their orals at Yangzhou as
I had, were now having to get their ears and tongues used to an entirely different dialect before they
took their orals in Chenggu. How thankful I was for that last minute oral exam Miss Griffith had
pushed me into doing on the morning I left Yangzhou! Had there been a Field Superintendent, all this
would have been attended to before we arrived, but Mr. and Mrs. Moore, who were just as new in the
district as we were, would not be arriving with the party of young men from the Anqing Language
School for some months yet.
The Church evangelist, Mr. Cheng, eventually brought his daughter, who was still in High School to
read with us each day, and we found her very helpful. Miss Cooke started services in the small room
attached to the big Church building and, while I played my little hand-pumped organ given to me by
Norm Williams (Win’s ex-fiancé!) before I left Perth, little Miss Cheng taught the children who came in,
to sing choruses. Our numbers soon grew and we had to move into the bigger building where Mr.
Cheng and Miss Cooke gave them Gospel messages.
By mid June we were all beginning to feel the heat, though the hottest months would be July and
August. This was our first summer in China and we had been warned in Shanghai to do as little as
possible in the heat, sleep whenever we felt like it, and to put all our efforts into getting through the
summer without any illness. So we studied in the early mornings, slept or rested during the heat of
the day, and studied again in the late afternoon. We usually went for a walk with Miss Cheng and
some of her friends up on the city wall for exercise in the evenings. We all had to help Miss Cooke
with the household tasks, cooking, cleaning, etc., and trying to rid the place of rats which abounded. I
also took on the milking of the goats for a time till the one Christian boy in the Church watched me for
a while and decided he could do it, so I thankfully let him.
With the arrival of the Moore party in Hanzhong, my exam papers arrived too, so I was able to take
two days and get my written work done and posted off to Shanghai. What a relief that was, but of
course it also meant Miss Cooke felt I must use the language I had more often, and in no time she had
me taking part in a very simple way. In one of my home letters I wrote, “What do you think? I actually
prayed in Chinese every morning last week when Miss Cheng and I were having prayer before
reading together. On Wednesday morning I led Chinese prayers. It wasn’t easy and I didn’t give them
a sermon of course, but just Bible references, but Miss Cooke tells me I am to lead prayers every
Wednesday in future.” By the following Wednesday I was able to say a little more and I was
encouraged that same week by the return of my exam papers from Shanghai with a mark of 94% with
169
Amy Moore
he could. He was selling some of his household effects which were not Mission property, and we
were happy to purchase some. I was able to buy his wife’s hand sewing machine, a Singer, which I
continued to use till the end of my missionary life, and which I found invaluable when I had small
children of my own. Miss Parr, who was in charge of the Yangxian station, another day’s journey
further down the Han River, went back there only long enough to help her junior worker, Edna
Lemmon, prepare to leave for furlough, and then they both returned to take the long journey to the
coast with Mr. Carwardine as soon as he was fit to travel. Miss Parr was going to Shanghai for a short
visit to get some medical attention she needed.
So there we were, three new inexperienced workers, with a senior missionary who had spent all her
missionary life near the coast and knew nothing of the local Shaanxi conditions. We had no house
help of any kind, and there was nobody at the beginning who seemed as if they wanted to work for
foreigners. There was also no teacher to help us girls, and we also found ourselves responsible for a
small three year old Chinese girl called Meisui whom Mr. Carwardine had unofficially adopted, but
couldn’t take with him to England.
I was struggling to complete the work for my 1st Section language exam before the heat of summer
made study more difficult. Myrie and Bertha, who had not been able to do their orals at Yangzhou as
I had, were now having to get their ears and tongues used to an entirely different dialect before they
took their orals in Chenggu. How thankful I was for that last minute oral exam Miss Griffith had
pushed me into doing on the morning I left Yangzhou! Had there been a Field Superintendent, all this
would have been attended to before we arrived, but Mr. and Mrs. Moore, who were just as new in the
district as we were, would not be arriving with the party of young men from the Anqing Language
School for some months yet.
The Church evangelist, Mr. Cheng, eventually brought his daughter, who was still in High School to
read with us each day, and we found her very helpful. Miss Cooke started services in the small room
attached to the big Church building and, while I played my little hand-pumped organ given to me by
Norm Williams (Win’s ex-fiancé!) before I left Perth, little Miss Cheng taught the children who came in,
to sing choruses. Our numbers soon grew and we had to move into the bigger building where Mr.
Cheng and Miss Cooke gave them Gospel messages.
By mid June we were all beginning to feel the heat, though the hottest months would be July and
August. This was our first summer in China and we had been warned in Shanghai to do as little as
possible in the heat, sleep whenever we felt like it, and to put all our efforts into getting through the
summer without any illness. So we studied in the early mornings, slept or rested during the heat of
the day, and studied again in the late afternoon. We usually went for a walk with Miss Cheng and
some of her friends up on the city wall for exercise in the evenings. We all had to help Miss Cooke
with the household tasks, cooking, cleaning, etc., and trying to rid the place of rats which abounded. I
also took on the milking of the goats for a time till the one Christian boy in the Church watched me for
a while and decided he could do it, so I thankfully let him.
With the arrival of the Moore party in Hanzhong, my exam papers arrived too, so I was able to take
two days and get my written work done and posted off to Shanghai. What a relief that was, but of
course it also meant Miss Cooke felt I must use the language I had more often, and in no time she had
me taking part in a very simple way. In one of my home letters I wrote, “What do you think? I actually
prayed in Chinese every morning last week when Miss Cheng and I were having prayer before
reading together. On Wednesday morning I led Chinese prayers. It wasn’t easy and I didn’t give them
a sermon of course, but just Bible references, but Miss Cooke tells me I am to lead prayers every
Wednesday in future.” By the following Wednesday I was able to say a little more and I was
encouraged that same week by the return of my exam papers from Shanghai with a mark of 94% with
169
