Page 197 - Three Score Years & Ten
P. 197
“THREE SCORE YEARS AND TEN” MISSIONARY WORK IN CHINA
Amy Moore
Meantime in Shaanxi, Percy was back in Xixiang where he found that both communists and soldiers
had occupied the Church premises at various times. Our rooms had been locked and had not been
broken open, so most of our things were intact. Perhaps as a result of all the troubles throughout the
district, Percy said there were more enquirers coming to the Church than they had seen for many a
long day, and they had started special classes to teach them the basis of the Christian faith. Crowds
were coming into the Preaching Hall every evening to hear the Gospel, and it was being kept open
quite late every night before people wanted to leave.
The political situation was still very uncertain. There were rumours of a band of communists about
eighty miles north of Yang Xian, and when Percy went to Hanzhong to do his fifth language exam, his
father kept him there for a few days until they saw what was going to happen. He went back fairly
soon, but in Jigong we heard that the Government still felt South Shaanxi and South Gansu were
unsafe for travel. By this time Percy and I had been separated three months and although we posted
to each other every second day, we were missing each other very much and he was feeling very badly
about missing so much of his little son’s developments. I wrote home,
“Raymond is such a good happy baby and other people get so much
enjoyment out of him that it seems a shame his daddy cant share it.
The people in this house call him ‘Sunny Jim’ because he smiles so
readily at everybody. Dr. McDonald says he is the prize baby, not too
fat and certainly not thin.”
On 27 August 1935 I was writing,
“And so my dear Grandma has gone Home. It makes Heaven a little
nearer to think of her there, though I find it hard to imagine going
home and not seeing Grandma. She has meant so much to me for
as long as I can remember, but I can’t grieve too much over her
going, because she has so looked forward to ‘going Home’, and her
poor body has seemed so weary and weak this last year or two. My
dear little Grandma.”
My last letter from Grandma was in October 1934, just nine months before she died. She wrote,
“I am just going to try and write a few lines to you to show you and
Percy, my new grandson, what the Lord our Father has done for me.
Eight months ago my arm and hand and leg became useless, no life
in them. Now I can do many things, not as well as before, but I thank
my Father in Heaven that I do not have to be confined to my bed, but
life is pleasant to me and I can help others instead of being a burden.
Praise the Lord that I can be company to Grandpa too. He is so deaf.
Thank God too that He has given me sight, so that I can write and
read and see all the wonderful gifts He has given us to enjoy life with.
He has also given me a clear brain and right thoughts so that I can
pray for others which I do a great deal when I am awake at nights.
This is a lovely world we are living in, and we have a great many
things around us to enjoy.”
Now, dear Amy, I may never see you in this world again, but look
forward to it in the next, and if the world still goes on much longer and
you and Percy have little ones, train them up to know Jesus early in
197
Amy Moore
Meantime in Shaanxi, Percy was back in Xixiang where he found that both communists and soldiers
had occupied the Church premises at various times. Our rooms had been locked and had not been
broken open, so most of our things were intact. Perhaps as a result of all the troubles throughout the
district, Percy said there were more enquirers coming to the Church than they had seen for many a
long day, and they had started special classes to teach them the basis of the Christian faith. Crowds
were coming into the Preaching Hall every evening to hear the Gospel, and it was being kept open
quite late every night before people wanted to leave.
The political situation was still very uncertain. There were rumours of a band of communists about
eighty miles north of Yang Xian, and when Percy went to Hanzhong to do his fifth language exam, his
father kept him there for a few days until they saw what was going to happen. He went back fairly
soon, but in Jigong we heard that the Government still felt South Shaanxi and South Gansu were
unsafe for travel. By this time Percy and I had been separated three months and although we posted
to each other every second day, we were missing each other very much and he was feeling very badly
about missing so much of his little son’s developments. I wrote home,
“Raymond is such a good happy baby and other people get so much
enjoyment out of him that it seems a shame his daddy cant share it.
The people in this house call him ‘Sunny Jim’ because he smiles so
readily at everybody. Dr. McDonald says he is the prize baby, not too
fat and certainly not thin.”
On 27 August 1935 I was writing,
“And so my dear Grandma has gone Home. It makes Heaven a little
nearer to think of her there, though I find it hard to imagine going
home and not seeing Grandma. She has meant so much to me for
as long as I can remember, but I can’t grieve too much over her
going, because she has so looked forward to ‘going Home’, and her
poor body has seemed so weary and weak this last year or two. My
dear little Grandma.”
My last letter from Grandma was in October 1934, just nine months before she died. She wrote,
“I am just going to try and write a few lines to you to show you and
Percy, my new grandson, what the Lord our Father has done for me.
Eight months ago my arm and hand and leg became useless, no life
in them. Now I can do many things, not as well as before, but I thank
my Father in Heaven that I do not have to be confined to my bed, but
life is pleasant to me and I can help others instead of being a burden.
Praise the Lord that I can be company to Grandpa too. He is so deaf.
Thank God too that He has given me sight, so that I can write and
read and see all the wonderful gifts He has given us to enjoy life with.
He has also given me a clear brain and right thoughts so that I can
pray for others which I do a great deal when I am awake at nights.
This is a lovely world we are living in, and we have a great many
things around us to enjoy.”
Now, dear Amy, I may never see you in this world again, but look
forward to it in the next, and if the world still goes on much longer and
you and Percy have little ones, train them up to know Jesus early in
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