Page 209 - Three Score Years & Ten
P. 209
“THREE SCORE YEARS AND TEN” MISSIONARY WORK IN CHINA
Amy Moore
her, but she went, hoping that later she might be free to get more language and work in the interior.
Two girls from her Language School group were sent to work under Arthur and Esther in Shaanxi, one
was Norman McIntosh’s fiancée, Amy Carter, and the other was Sadie Custer. Amy got as far as
Fengxiang and then stayed on to get some experience under Ruby Thompson, while Sadie came on
to Hanzhong. Sadie was to work with Bertha out at Xinji and Bertha came in to meet her and take her
back. Sadie was a lovely American girl whom we all liked from the start and we felt she would be a
good partner for Bertha who had been alone since Myrie married Jack Beck.
It was mid May before we returned to Xixiang and I was glad to have our travelling over before the
heat of the summer. By the end of June the Women’s Bible School in the premises at the back was
closed for the summer, and Joy Betteridge left for furlough. With our spare room empty, Arthur sent
Helen Dalton to live with us and continue language study while getting some experience in the work
among the women. The summer brought not only hot humid days which made us all feel pretty
lifeless, but also mosquitoes and fleas to help add to the general discomfort. Alan seemed to thrive in
spite of the heat, and in his bassinette on the balcony upstairs was protected from the mosquitoes and
fleas and often lay there wide awake listening to the birds and gurgling at them.
Raymond did not find the hot weather so easy and, with flea bites and mosquito bites to make him
miserable, it was hard work keeping him well and comfortable during the long summer days. By lunch
times he seemed to have no energy at all, and when I put him down for a sleep after lunch he would
wake up an hour or two later absolutely soaked in perspiration. Percy had not had a summer out of
the heat since we first came to Shaanxi, though I had had one in Jigong which did me so much good,
and I felt that summer of 1937 he was very run down and needed a good change and a rest. We had
been in China almost six years and the thought of furlough was beginning to be attractive. In Henan
the workers went off to the mountains for the summer at least every second year in turn, and in
Shaanxi we ought to have been able to do the same, but though we had delightful mountains all
around us, they were so over run with bandits that it was foolish to even think of going there for any
length of time. To go to summer resorts in other provinces was far too expensive for us even to think
about, so we stayed and endured until the worst of the heat was over.
The rainy season usually came as a conclusion to the hot humid summer months, generally
September, and once it started, the rain did not seem to know when to stop. One year it literally
rained for ‘forty days and forty nights’. Although we welcomed it as the end of summer, yet by the time
it was over we were always pretty tired of it. The rivers rose, making travel between stations difficult,
mud brick walls surrounding many compounds would suddenly collapse if the tiles on top had moved
at all, and the roads would turn into quagmires. Percy was holding a Bible School in the school
buildings at Xixiang during the rainy season in 1937. Fred and Marj were coming to stay with us so
that Fred could help Percy, but as the rain went on and on and they still had not arrived, we decided
that the river must be too high for them to cross. Percy carried on alone, finding it a pretty big job for
one man and specially as one of the students who had come all the way from Hanzhong became very
ill soon after commencement. With no medical help nearer that Hanzhong, I did all I could, but wished
many times I had more medical skill than I did. All I could do was to use what knowledge I had and
pray. One Sunday afternoon Percy walked round to the telegraph office to try and get a message
through to his father in Hanzhong, but while he was away Yong Seng died while I was there with him.
He was only 18 and had TB in a mild form, but was never very strong. He had grown up in Miss
Haslam’s Primary School and worked at times for Percy’s parents. He was a quiet, reserved kind of
boy, very sensitive and with few friends, but a really keen Christian who had been getting a lot out of
Bible teaching until he became too ill to attend. Strangely enough, when he came to the Bible School,
he said he would like to die in Xixiang, so he had his wish, but it was a shock to us.
209
Amy Moore
her, but she went, hoping that later she might be free to get more language and work in the interior.
Two girls from her Language School group were sent to work under Arthur and Esther in Shaanxi, one
was Norman McIntosh’s fiancée, Amy Carter, and the other was Sadie Custer. Amy got as far as
Fengxiang and then stayed on to get some experience under Ruby Thompson, while Sadie came on
to Hanzhong. Sadie was to work with Bertha out at Xinji and Bertha came in to meet her and take her
back. Sadie was a lovely American girl whom we all liked from the start and we felt she would be a
good partner for Bertha who had been alone since Myrie married Jack Beck.
It was mid May before we returned to Xixiang and I was glad to have our travelling over before the
heat of the summer. By the end of June the Women’s Bible School in the premises at the back was
closed for the summer, and Joy Betteridge left for furlough. With our spare room empty, Arthur sent
Helen Dalton to live with us and continue language study while getting some experience in the work
among the women. The summer brought not only hot humid days which made us all feel pretty
lifeless, but also mosquitoes and fleas to help add to the general discomfort. Alan seemed to thrive in
spite of the heat, and in his bassinette on the balcony upstairs was protected from the mosquitoes and
fleas and often lay there wide awake listening to the birds and gurgling at them.
Raymond did not find the hot weather so easy and, with flea bites and mosquito bites to make him
miserable, it was hard work keeping him well and comfortable during the long summer days. By lunch
times he seemed to have no energy at all, and when I put him down for a sleep after lunch he would
wake up an hour or two later absolutely soaked in perspiration. Percy had not had a summer out of
the heat since we first came to Shaanxi, though I had had one in Jigong which did me so much good,
and I felt that summer of 1937 he was very run down and needed a good change and a rest. We had
been in China almost six years and the thought of furlough was beginning to be attractive. In Henan
the workers went off to the mountains for the summer at least every second year in turn, and in
Shaanxi we ought to have been able to do the same, but though we had delightful mountains all
around us, they were so over run with bandits that it was foolish to even think of going there for any
length of time. To go to summer resorts in other provinces was far too expensive for us even to think
about, so we stayed and endured until the worst of the heat was over.
The rainy season usually came as a conclusion to the hot humid summer months, generally
September, and once it started, the rain did not seem to know when to stop. One year it literally
rained for ‘forty days and forty nights’. Although we welcomed it as the end of summer, yet by the time
it was over we were always pretty tired of it. The rivers rose, making travel between stations difficult,
mud brick walls surrounding many compounds would suddenly collapse if the tiles on top had moved
at all, and the roads would turn into quagmires. Percy was holding a Bible School in the school
buildings at Xixiang during the rainy season in 1937. Fred and Marj were coming to stay with us so
that Fred could help Percy, but as the rain went on and on and they still had not arrived, we decided
that the river must be too high for them to cross. Percy carried on alone, finding it a pretty big job for
one man and specially as one of the students who had come all the way from Hanzhong became very
ill soon after commencement. With no medical help nearer that Hanzhong, I did all I could, but wished
many times I had more medical skill than I did. All I could do was to use what knowledge I had and
pray. One Sunday afternoon Percy walked round to the telegraph office to try and get a message
through to his father in Hanzhong, but while he was away Yong Seng died while I was there with him.
He was only 18 and had TB in a mild form, but was never very strong. He had grown up in Miss
Haslam’s Primary School and worked at times for Percy’s parents. He was a quiet, reserved kind of
boy, very sensitive and with few friends, but a really keen Christian who had been getting a lot out of
Bible teaching until he became too ill to attend. Strangely enough, when he came to the Bible School,
he said he would like to die in Xixiang, so he had his wish, but it was a shock to us.
209
