Page 198 - Three Score Years & Ten
P. 198
“THREE SCORE YEARS AND TEN” MISSIONARY WORK IN CHINA
Amy Moore
life. May God bless you and Percy in your life together, and may His
will be done in your lives.
Your ever loving Grandma, E.J.Mercer.”
She died on 14 July 1935.
At the end of August the houses on Jigong were all to be closed for the winter. Percy and I both had
been hoping that by the end of the summer we women would be allowed to return to Shaanxi. The
separation seemed to go on and on and we were longing to be together again, and Percy was
desperately hoping that he and his small son would be united once more. But on 27 August a letter
from Shanghai said that the roads into Shaanxi were still not considered safe, so they were sending us
to stations in Henan where we could help with the work among women. I was to go with Raymond to
Yuncheng where Mr. and Mrs. Ford were in charge. They were an older couple - he had his 67th
birthday while we were there - and I already knew them, so was happy to go to them. Tom and Cathie
Murray had hoped I might be able to go with them to Kaifeng to work among women patients and
outpatients in the hospital, but it was not to be.
YUNCHENG (HENAN)
Henan is flat and, to my way of thinking, after beautiful Shaanxi, rather uninteresting, but I was glad to
be back among Chinese women again. Mr. and Mrs. Ford were still very active, and I learned a lot,
living as I did with two experienced and wise senior missionaries, and working with a Church that was
independent and reaching out to the vast multitudes in the surrounding villages. Mrs. Ford let me use
one of her serving women to help with Raymond and take care of him when I was called to help in the
meetings or other work in the Church. There were several new workers living with us doing language
study and getting experience, and they too were always willing to keep an eye on Raymond when I
was called away.
Every day I had work to do, sometimes speaking at meetings, sometimes going out to visit in country
villages, sometimes taking a class of women for reading lessons. Henan people were very poor and,
as I looked at the poor, dirty, miserable looking little kiddies whom they brought with them, most of
them undersized, and many with boils and other horrible looking sores, I couldn’t help contrasting
them with my clean, sweet, healthy little boy. ‘Poor little mites,’ I thought, ‘No wonder the Lord’s heart
went out to them and their poor, dull, ignorant mothers while He was here on earth.’ I felt a deep
compassion for them too, and longed that the Christian message might bring some joy into their lives.
It was November before we were at last given permission to return to Shaanxi. Raymond was ten
months old and I was giving him extras to eat, but hoping I could go on breast feeding him until we
had got the travelling over. He was trying his hardest to stand alone, and in his bath did stand up
clutching both sides and swaying himself backwards and forwards laughing and chuckling all the time.
He loved the Chinese people and, whenever any of them came near him, got really excited, jumping
and waving his arms and shouting as if they were his greatest friends. Mrs. Ford’s cook said one day,
‘The more you look at that baby, the more you want to look!’
One afternoon when one of the new workers was minding him, she spent some time trying to make
him repeat the word ‘hat’ after her. She kept on until at last very slowly and deliberately he opened
his mouth just as she did and said, ‘aat’. After that he wouldn’t stop saying it!
Just before we left Yuncheng, the evangelist whom I had last heard in Yangzhou when I was in
Language School, came to Yuncheng for meetings. Wang Mingdao was well known as a fearless and
198
Amy Moore
life. May God bless you and Percy in your life together, and may His
will be done in your lives.
Your ever loving Grandma, E.J.Mercer.”
She died on 14 July 1935.
At the end of August the houses on Jigong were all to be closed for the winter. Percy and I both had
been hoping that by the end of the summer we women would be allowed to return to Shaanxi. The
separation seemed to go on and on and we were longing to be together again, and Percy was
desperately hoping that he and his small son would be united once more. But on 27 August a letter
from Shanghai said that the roads into Shaanxi were still not considered safe, so they were sending us
to stations in Henan where we could help with the work among women. I was to go with Raymond to
Yuncheng where Mr. and Mrs. Ford were in charge. They were an older couple - he had his 67th
birthday while we were there - and I already knew them, so was happy to go to them. Tom and Cathie
Murray had hoped I might be able to go with them to Kaifeng to work among women patients and
outpatients in the hospital, but it was not to be.
YUNCHENG (HENAN)
Henan is flat and, to my way of thinking, after beautiful Shaanxi, rather uninteresting, but I was glad to
be back among Chinese women again. Mr. and Mrs. Ford were still very active, and I learned a lot,
living as I did with two experienced and wise senior missionaries, and working with a Church that was
independent and reaching out to the vast multitudes in the surrounding villages. Mrs. Ford let me use
one of her serving women to help with Raymond and take care of him when I was called to help in the
meetings or other work in the Church. There were several new workers living with us doing language
study and getting experience, and they too were always willing to keep an eye on Raymond when I
was called away.
Every day I had work to do, sometimes speaking at meetings, sometimes going out to visit in country
villages, sometimes taking a class of women for reading lessons. Henan people were very poor and,
as I looked at the poor, dirty, miserable looking little kiddies whom they brought with them, most of
them undersized, and many with boils and other horrible looking sores, I couldn’t help contrasting
them with my clean, sweet, healthy little boy. ‘Poor little mites,’ I thought, ‘No wonder the Lord’s heart
went out to them and their poor, dull, ignorant mothers while He was here on earth.’ I felt a deep
compassion for them too, and longed that the Christian message might bring some joy into their lives.
It was November before we were at last given permission to return to Shaanxi. Raymond was ten
months old and I was giving him extras to eat, but hoping I could go on breast feeding him until we
had got the travelling over. He was trying his hardest to stand alone, and in his bath did stand up
clutching both sides and swaying himself backwards and forwards laughing and chuckling all the time.
He loved the Chinese people and, whenever any of them came near him, got really excited, jumping
and waving his arms and shouting as if they were his greatest friends. Mrs. Ford’s cook said one day,
‘The more you look at that baby, the more you want to look!’
One afternoon when one of the new workers was minding him, she spent some time trying to make
him repeat the word ‘hat’ after her. She kept on until at last very slowly and deliberately he opened
his mouth just as she did and said, ‘aat’. After that he wouldn’t stop saying it!
Just before we left Yuncheng, the evangelist whom I had last heard in Yangzhou when I was in
Language School, came to Yuncheng for meetings. Wang Mingdao was well known as a fearless and
198
