Page 188 - Three Score Years & Ten
P. 188
“THREE SCORE YEARS AND TEN” MISSIONARY WORK IN CHINA
Amy Moore
letter purporting to be from the Xixiang Church, congratulating him on the birth of his son and then
asking him to look up certain Bible references. When he turned them up he found they were all ones
referring to s shepherd leaving his flock; “the hireling fleeth because he is an hireling,” etc., implying
that he was not much of a shepherd to leave them as he had. Percy felt very badly and thought of all
the things he could write back, but his father, seeing that something was wrong, got the whole story
out of him, and then persuaded him not to retaliate in any way, to
write nothing and go back as if nothing had happened. This was not
easy of course, but he did and thereby learned a lesson which
remained with him for the rest of his life, that is, not to be hasty in
replying to unjustified attacks, either on our character or our actions.
If we leave it to God, He will justify us in the end, and so it proved in
this case. Percy went back determined not to even mention the
matter, but he had hardly opened the house when one by one, the
Church leaders came to visit him and welcome him back. All of
them, except one man, brought the conversation round to the Church
letter he had received, and each gave him to understand he had had
nothing to do with it. In the end it became evident it was the work of
one man whom we all knew to be a troublemaker with a root of
bitterness in his heart. We felt it was not worth worrying about.
Before Percy left Hanzhong, we felt that as a family we would like to do something for the Xiaos who
had been so good to us. They would not hear of anything personal and suggested something for the
Church as a thank offering to the Lord. So we had a very nice communion table made with two texts
carved across the front:
“Yong Yao gui Ju” (Glory be to God)
“Zan mei Ju en” (Praise the Grace of God)
The first and last words became Raymond’s Chinese name, “Yong En” and there in the Hanzhong
Church we dedicated our first born son to God and to His service, feeling that in a special way He had
kept this little life for Himself.
EVACUATION - FIRST COMMUNIST INVASION
As Chinese New Year drew near that year (1935), rumours from Sichuan and the South about the
advance of the communists became increasingly ominous. While I was still in bed, we had been
shocked by the news of Betty and John Stam’s death at the hands of communists in Anhui. Betty had
been in Language School with me and we had become friends. Her little daughter was born about
three months before Raymond, and when her parents were killed she was rescued and taken to
another Mission station by the pastor of the Church in Anhui. Another missionary in Anhui, an older
man, had completely disappeared about the same time and was never heard of again.
Chinese New Year was on a Sunday and it was soon after that rumours began coming in thick and
fast that the communists had reached Ningqiang where Charlie and Ruth Frencham were. Grandad
and Fred had been in Ningqiang just the previous weekend. When they left to come home, although
there was word that the Reds had passed up towards Gansu, the military in the city did not think there
was anything to fear. Ningqiang is a border city and always liable to be in the danger zone, but
everything seemed so quiet and peaceful that Grandad did not feel it necessary to urge Charlie and
Ruth to come back to Hanzhong with him, though he did tell them to feel free to come if they felt there
188
Amy Moore
letter purporting to be from the Xixiang Church, congratulating him on the birth of his son and then
asking him to look up certain Bible references. When he turned them up he found they were all ones
referring to s shepherd leaving his flock; “the hireling fleeth because he is an hireling,” etc., implying
that he was not much of a shepherd to leave them as he had. Percy felt very badly and thought of all
the things he could write back, but his father, seeing that something was wrong, got the whole story
out of him, and then persuaded him not to retaliate in any way, to
write nothing and go back as if nothing had happened. This was not
easy of course, but he did and thereby learned a lesson which
remained with him for the rest of his life, that is, not to be hasty in
replying to unjustified attacks, either on our character or our actions.
If we leave it to God, He will justify us in the end, and so it proved in
this case. Percy went back determined not to even mention the
matter, but he had hardly opened the house when one by one, the
Church leaders came to visit him and welcome him back. All of
them, except one man, brought the conversation round to the Church
letter he had received, and each gave him to understand he had had
nothing to do with it. In the end it became evident it was the work of
one man whom we all knew to be a troublemaker with a root of
bitterness in his heart. We felt it was not worth worrying about.
Before Percy left Hanzhong, we felt that as a family we would like to do something for the Xiaos who
had been so good to us. They would not hear of anything personal and suggested something for the
Church as a thank offering to the Lord. So we had a very nice communion table made with two texts
carved across the front:
“Yong Yao gui Ju” (Glory be to God)
“Zan mei Ju en” (Praise the Grace of God)
The first and last words became Raymond’s Chinese name, “Yong En” and there in the Hanzhong
Church we dedicated our first born son to God and to His service, feeling that in a special way He had
kept this little life for Himself.
EVACUATION - FIRST COMMUNIST INVASION
As Chinese New Year drew near that year (1935), rumours from Sichuan and the South about the
advance of the communists became increasingly ominous. While I was still in bed, we had been
shocked by the news of Betty and John Stam’s death at the hands of communists in Anhui. Betty had
been in Language School with me and we had become friends. Her little daughter was born about
three months before Raymond, and when her parents were killed she was rescued and taken to
another Mission station by the pastor of the Church in Anhui. Another missionary in Anhui, an older
man, had completely disappeared about the same time and was never heard of again.
Chinese New Year was on a Sunday and it was soon after that rumours began coming in thick and
fast that the communists had reached Ningqiang where Charlie and Ruth Frencham were. Grandad
and Fred had been in Ningqiang just the previous weekend. When they left to come home, although
there was word that the Reds had passed up towards Gansu, the military in the city did not think there
was anything to fear. Ningqiang is a border city and always liable to be in the danger zone, but
everything seemed so quiet and peaceful that Grandad did not feel it necessary to urge Charlie and
Ruth to come back to Hanzhong with him, though he did tell them to feel free to come if they felt there
188
