Page 210 - Three Score Years & Ten
P. 210
“THREE SCORE YEARS AND TEN” MISSIONARY WORK IN CHINA
Amy Moore
The funeral was held a day or two later, and by the time the service and the meal afterwards were
over, it was well on into the afternoon with the rain still tipping down. At 4:30 pm to our amazement, in
walked Norman Mac. He had gone down to Shiquan a week before to see the house as that is where
he and Amy were going to live after they were married. He had gone down by boat, but coming back
by boat against the current was far too slow for Mac, so he walked! He had done 66 miles in less than
a day, 6 am to 4:30 pm, and with the roads like pea soup it had been hard going. We got him a bath
and a hot drink and a meal and were all just beginning to relax when a telegram arrived from Fred
saying they hoped to get through to us that night. With the roads in the state they were we knew they
couldn’t get in early, but we got their room ready and as warm as we could, and from then on jumped
up at every sound, expecting it to be them. At 9 pm, Mac decided to go to bed and not long afterwards
we decided to do the same as we thought they would hardly get in after that. I had just settled the two
children for the night and was getting out of my Chinese gown, when we heard Fred’s voice outside. It
was pitch dark and raining hard. They were wet through, tired out, covered in mud, cold and hungry,
but we were so glad to see them there rather than in some dirty inn on the way with wet bedding. We
scrambled round and got hot water, cups of tea and food and they soon felt warmer and more like
themselves. Little Ridley, not yet a year old, seemed none the worse for the adventure and it wasn’t
long before we were all sound asleep in bed.
I commented in my letter home,
“Travelling in this district never seems to go off gently and quietly as
we think it should. We usually meet with adventures of some kind.
These wet days, week after week of them, are very hard on the
children. At present Raymond is cleaning the bookshelf for me, but
how long he will be contented to stay put is a doubtful question. Alan
has just cut three teeth and is struggling with a fourth. He has his
cross fits when he is decidedly unpleasant to know, but he has his
happy times too and he is such a fat cuddly little boy that we all want
to hug him!”
In July 1937 the ‘Marco Polo Bridge Incident’ when it was claimed that Chinese troops fired on
Japanese, set off the Sino-Japanese War and before long there was fighting all along the China coast,
and our various consuls were trying to decide whether things were bad enough to evacuate all British
and American nationals. The Americans were all for their people getting right out but the British,
perhaps with their longer experience of ‘foreign policy’, were all for their people staying on. So we
stayed, but Miss Begbie and Joy on their way for furlough, found that they could not go to Shanghai
and had to take the train to Wuhan (Hankow) down to Canton and Hong Kong where they were able to
get shipping home. Getting trains was not easy either as they were all commandeered by the military
being sent to the fighting area. That meant also that our mail was held up but we were so used to the
uncertainty of the mail that we only expected things when we saw them.
With Joy going on furlough, Percy’s father asked me to take over the Women’s Bible School which
restarted in October after the summer and the worst of the rainy season. Mrs. Chun would take half
the classes and I the other half, and I went into it feeling very inadequate indeed. Preparation was
going to take a lot of time and, with my family and the housekeeping and the Church work amongst
the women, I hesitated to accept the job at all. However, there was nobody else available, I was on
the spot and Helen would just have to do more of the visiting and women’s work. I usually put Alan
down for a sleep on the upstairs balcony before I went to classes and as Helen’s room opened onto
the balcony, she could keep an eye on him. I could also see his bassinette from the school window
Return to Table of 210
Contents
Amy Moore
The funeral was held a day or two later, and by the time the service and the meal afterwards were
over, it was well on into the afternoon with the rain still tipping down. At 4:30 pm to our amazement, in
walked Norman Mac. He had gone down to Shiquan a week before to see the house as that is where
he and Amy were going to live after they were married. He had gone down by boat, but coming back
by boat against the current was far too slow for Mac, so he walked! He had done 66 miles in less than
a day, 6 am to 4:30 pm, and with the roads like pea soup it had been hard going. We got him a bath
and a hot drink and a meal and were all just beginning to relax when a telegram arrived from Fred
saying they hoped to get through to us that night. With the roads in the state they were we knew they
couldn’t get in early, but we got their room ready and as warm as we could, and from then on jumped
up at every sound, expecting it to be them. At 9 pm, Mac decided to go to bed and not long afterwards
we decided to do the same as we thought they would hardly get in after that. I had just settled the two
children for the night and was getting out of my Chinese gown, when we heard Fred’s voice outside. It
was pitch dark and raining hard. They were wet through, tired out, covered in mud, cold and hungry,
but we were so glad to see them there rather than in some dirty inn on the way with wet bedding. We
scrambled round and got hot water, cups of tea and food and they soon felt warmer and more like
themselves. Little Ridley, not yet a year old, seemed none the worse for the adventure and it wasn’t
long before we were all sound asleep in bed.
I commented in my letter home,
“Travelling in this district never seems to go off gently and quietly as
we think it should. We usually meet with adventures of some kind.
These wet days, week after week of them, are very hard on the
children. At present Raymond is cleaning the bookshelf for me, but
how long he will be contented to stay put is a doubtful question. Alan
has just cut three teeth and is struggling with a fourth. He has his
cross fits when he is decidedly unpleasant to know, but he has his
happy times too and he is such a fat cuddly little boy that we all want
to hug him!”
In July 1937 the ‘Marco Polo Bridge Incident’ when it was claimed that Chinese troops fired on
Japanese, set off the Sino-Japanese War and before long there was fighting all along the China coast,
and our various consuls were trying to decide whether things were bad enough to evacuate all British
and American nationals. The Americans were all for their people getting right out but the British,
perhaps with their longer experience of ‘foreign policy’, were all for their people staying on. So we
stayed, but Miss Begbie and Joy on their way for furlough, found that they could not go to Shanghai
and had to take the train to Wuhan (Hankow) down to Canton and Hong Kong where they were able to
get shipping home. Getting trains was not easy either as they were all commandeered by the military
being sent to the fighting area. That meant also that our mail was held up but we were so used to the
uncertainty of the mail that we only expected things when we saw them.
With Joy going on furlough, Percy’s father asked me to take over the Women’s Bible School which
restarted in October after the summer and the worst of the rainy season. Mrs. Chun would take half
the classes and I the other half, and I went into it feeling very inadequate indeed. Preparation was
going to take a lot of time and, with my family and the housekeeping and the Church work amongst
the women, I hesitated to accept the job at all. However, there was nobody else available, I was on
the spot and Helen would just have to do more of the visiting and women’s work. I usually put Alan
down for a sleep on the upstairs balcony before I went to classes and as Helen’s room opened onto
the balcony, she could keep an eye on him. I could also see his bassinette from the school window
Return to Table of 210
Contents
