Page 207 - Three Score Years & Ten
P. 207
“THREE SCORE YEARS AND TEN” MISSIONARY WORK IN CHINA
Amy Moore
evacuated, and from then till Christmas, he was going away a lot, leading Bible Schools in some of the
villages.
Raymond thoroughly enjoyed having little Dorcas Xiao with us. They were great friends and played
happily together all day long. He began to speak Chinese more than English while she was there.
Percy and I were overcome with mirth one day to see him standing on the back doorstep calling
Dorcas in Chinese, “Lai, Docha, lai.” (Come, Dorcas, come) By this time he seemed to understand
most of what was said to him whether in English or Chinese.
The Women’s Bible School opened at the beginning of November with Mrs. Chun and Joy Betteridge
in charge. A number of the girls who had been educated in the day school under Miss Crystall had
registered for Bible School, and among them one girl who had been helping Bertha and Myrie at Xinji
the other side of Hanzhong. Bertha needed somebody to be there and go with them as they visited in
villages around, and especially now that Myrie was going off to marry Jack Beck, so we suggested
Mrs. Wu. Both she and Bertha were delighted, and she proved to be God’s answer for the work in
Xinji. Her son, Wu Shangwen returned from Hongdong about that time and married one of the local
girls. I commented in one letter at how he had developed and matured through his training, and his
sermons when he preached on Sundays were a joy to listen to.
In the family, Jessie Moore had applied to and been accepted by the CIM, so we expected her to be in
China by the end of the year. Of course we hoped she might come to the Hanzhong Plain! In
Australia my brother Jim was engaged to Hazel McManus and Mother was looking forward to
welcoming her first daughter-in-law.
With Percy away so much, I did not find it as easy to go visiting in the country or even in the town as I
had before we had Raymond. One afternoon I had been thinking about a girl who was usually very
regular at everything in the Church, but we had not seen her for a couple of weeks. She lived five
miles away on a mountain road so, when I used to go there I went prepared to stay the day. What to
do about Raymond if I was away all day? In the end I decided to take both Mr. and Mrs. Long with
me, she for company as she often went visiting with me, and he to take his carrying pole and with
Raymond in a basket at one end and his own little son in a basket at the other, the children would
enjoy the outing too. When we got there the girl was in bed with a very heavy cold, possibly the flu,
and so glad to see us. While debating what to take her, I decided on some noodles, and it proved to
be just right. She said it was what she had been longing for.
By this time I was pregnant again and hoping that by April, Raymond would have a little sister. Her
name, Dorothy Margaret had been ready in case Raymond proved to be a girl.
Red movements in the north of the province sent a lot of the northern workers down to Hanzhong so
we in the south had our turn to host a crowd of refugees. Myrie and Jack were in charge in Hanzhong
at the end of the year 1936 as Percy’s parents had gone to Shanghai for Council meetings.
Mails were being held up somewhere to the north and our Christmas celebrations had to depend on
what we could get locally or make ourselves. We had the carpenter make a little wheelbarrow for
Raymond and he loved it, trotting around all day with two rag dolls sitting in it. I quote,
“They have all recovered from a fall when they all landed on the
ground. I had to first kiss each of the dolls to restore them to life
again. Raymond is telling me now that when the dolls fell out, they
began to cry, and he is crying to imitate them.”
207
Amy Moore
evacuated, and from then till Christmas, he was going away a lot, leading Bible Schools in some of the
villages.
Raymond thoroughly enjoyed having little Dorcas Xiao with us. They were great friends and played
happily together all day long. He began to speak Chinese more than English while she was there.
Percy and I were overcome with mirth one day to see him standing on the back doorstep calling
Dorcas in Chinese, “Lai, Docha, lai.” (Come, Dorcas, come) By this time he seemed to understand
most of what was said to him whether in English or Chinese.
The Women’s Bible School opened at the beginning of November with Mrs. Chun and Joy Betteridge
in charge. A number of the girls who had been educated in the day school under Miss Crystall had
registered for Bible School, and among them one girl who had been helping Bertha and Myrie at Xinji
the other side of Hanzhong. Bertha needed somebody to be there and go with them as they visited in
villages around, and especially now that Myrie was going off to marry Jack Beck, so we suggested
Mrs. Wu. Both she and Bertha were delighted, and she proved to be God’s answer for the work in
Xinji. Her son, Wu Shangwen returned from Hongdong about that time and married one of the local
girls. I commented in one letter at how he had developed and matured through his training, and his
sermons when he preached on Sundays were a joy to listen to.
In the family, Jessie Moore had applied to and been accepted by the CIM, so we expected her to be in
China by the end of the year. Of course we hoped she might come to the Hanzhong Plain! In
Australia my brother Jim was engaged to Hazel McManus and Mother was looking forward to
welcoming her first daughter-in-law.
With Percy away so much, I did not find it as easy to go visiting in the country or even in the town as I
had before we had Raymond. One afternoon I had been thinking about a girl who was usually very
regular at everything in the Church, but we had not seen her for a couple of weeks. She lived five
miles away on a mountain road so, when I used to go there I went prepared to stay the day. What to
do about Raymond if I was away all day? In the end I decided to take both Mr. and Mrs. Long with
me, she for company as she often went visiting with me, and he to take his carrying pole and with
Raymond in a basket at one end and his own little son in a basket at the other, the children would
enjoy the outing too. When we got there the girl was in bed with a very heavy cold, possibly the flu,
and so glad to see us. While debating what to take her, I decided on some noodles, and it proved to
be just right. She said it was what she had been longing for.
By this time I was pregnant again and hoping that by April, Raymond would have a little sister. Her
name, Dorothy Margaret had been ready in case Raymond proved to be a girl.
Red movements in the north of the province sent a lot of the northern workers down to Hanzhong so
we in the south had our turn to host a crowd of refugees. Myrie and Jack were in charge in Hanzhong
at the end of the year 1936 as Percy’s parents had gone to Shanghai for Council meetings.
Mails were being held up somewhere to the north and our Christmas celebrations had to depend on
what we could get locally or make ourselves. We had the carpenter make a little wheelbarrow for
Raymond and he loved it, trotting around all day with two rag dolls sitting in it. I quote,
“They have all recovered from a fall when they all landed on the
ground. I had to first kiss each of the dolls to restore them to life
again. Raymond is telling me now that when the dolls fell out, they
began to cry, and he is crying to imitate them.”
207
