Page 221 - Three Score Years & Ten
P. 221
“THREE SCORE YEARS AND TEN” MISSIONARY WORK IN CHINA
Amy Moore
that long journey out of China and the lack of exercise. I was longing to visit friends and relations, and
yet did not feel like going out. A lot of people came to see me and though I felt and looked anything
but glamorous, I was glad to see them all again.
Mr. Hogg was still the Pastor of the Bayswater Baptist Church and he was delighted to meet Percy as
he and Arthur Moore had been fellow students at the Glasgow Bible Training Institute. He gave Percy
the run of his library which was a great boon as we were both hungry for devotional reading and Bible
study. Percy also bought or borrowed a bike and rode over to North Perth every day to attend lectures
under the Rev. Carmen Urquart at the Perth Bible Institute. He was a wonderful lecturer and Bible
teacher and Percy soaked it all in. He also made friends there with a number of the men students who
were about his own age.
By this time Mr. Powell, who represented CIM in Western Australia when I went to China, had retired
and Mr. Glanville was in charge. He arranged a ‘welcome home’ meeting for us before Frank was
born. I felt far too conspicuous to either sit on the platform or to speak at the meeting, so I sat down in
the congregation with my parents. My sisters were immediately behind us. Their sense of humour
almost upset them and me too, when the hymn ‘Still There’s More to Follow’ was announced. The
chorus went on and on, ‘more and more, more and more, still there’s more to follow’. With their
suppressed giggles and my own consciousness of looking very much as if there were more Moores to
follow, I had hard work to keep a straight face and not disgrace myself as a missionary. I didn’t dare
look at Percy!
Mr. Hogg often asked Percy to fill in for him at the Bayswater Church when he was preaching
elsewhere, and he enjoyed that, though he often found words in Chinese came more easily to his
tongue than the English ones. It was eight years since he had preached in English, and his Chinese
was fluent. There were times when he simply could not think of the English word and on one
occasion he asked me from the platform, “Whats ‘xilianpen’?” to which I replied, “A wash basin”. My
mother loved to hear him preach and said “He’s so natural”. It was nice to have my husband so loved
and accepted by my family and he fitted into the life at Wisbeck Street as if he had always been there.
It was the first real home he had ever had outside of China.
SECOND WORLD WAR
Between our arrival in Perth and Frank’s birth, came the big event which changed all our lives and that
of most of the rest of the world also. Clearly and distinctly over my father’s radio, on the morning of 3
September, the day before my 31st birthday, came the voice of Neville Chamberlain announcing that
we were at war with Germany. We couldn’t know of course, how it was going to affect each of us, but
we were not left long in doubt about Australia’s involvement. The beautiful ‘Queen Mary’ was
transformed into a troop ship and it was not long before the first contingent of Australian and New
Zealand troops arrived in Perth. They were to take ship on the camouflaged ‘Queen Mary’ waiting in
Fremantle Harbour.
That weekend, with Perth and Fremantle full of boys going off to the war, was a disgrace to the
organisers. It was the first time we heard the song ‘Roll Out the Barrel’ as drunken soldiers rolled
barrels of beer down the main Post Office steps and along the streets. Before the ‘Queen Mary’ sailed
on Sunday morning, Fremantle Railway Station was littered with drunken men being picked up by
military MP’s and loaded on to the ship. It was their last touch with ‘home’. It was never as bad again
because Churches and social organisations stirred themselves after that to entertain and care for the
boys who passed through our State en route to the battlefields of Europe. The first occasion had
found us all utterly unprepared.
221
Amy Moore
that long journey out of China and the lack of exercise. I was longing to visit friends and relations, and
yet did not feel like going out. A lot of people came to see me and though I felt and looked anything
but glamorous, I was glad to see them all again.
Mr. Hogg was still the Pastor of the Bayswater Baptist Church and he was delighted to meet Percy as
he and Arthur Moore had been fellow students at the Glasgow Bible Training Institute. He gave Percy
the run of his library which was a great boon as we were both hungry for devotional reading and Bible
study. Percy also bought or borrowed a bike and rode over to North Perth every day to attend lectures
under the Rev. Carmen Urquart at the Perth Bible Institute. He was a wonderful lecturer and Bible
teacher and Percy soaked it all in. He also made friends there with a number of the men students who
were about his own age.
By this time Mr. Powell, who represented CIM in Western Australia when I went to China, had retired
and Mr. Glanville was in charge. He arranged a ‘welcome home’ meeting for us before Frank was
born. I felt far too conspicuous to either sit on the platform or to speak at the meeting, so I sat down in
the congregation with my parents. My sisters were immediately behind us. Their sense of humour
almost upset them and me too, when the hymn ‘Still There’s More to Follow’ was announced. The
chorus went on and on, ‘more and more, more and more, still there’s more to follow’. With their
suppressed giggles and my own consciousness of looking very much as if there were more Moores to
follow, I had hard work to keep a straight face and not disgrace myself as a missionary. I didn’t dare
look at Percy!
Mr. Hogg often asked Percy to fill in for him at the Bayswater Church when he was preaching
elsewhere, and he enjoyed that, though he often found words in Chinese came more easily to his
tongue than the English ones. It was eight years since he had preached in English, and his Chinese
was fluent. There were times when he simply could not think of the English word and on one
occasion he asked me from the platform, “Whats ‘xilianpen’?” to which I replied, “A wash basin”. My
mother loved to hear him preach and said “He’s so natural”. It was nice to have my husband so loved
and accepted by my family and he fitted into the life at Wisbeck Street as if he had always been there.
It was the first real home he had ever had outside of China.
SECOND WORLD WAR
Between our arrival in Perth and Frank’s birth, came the big event which changed all our lives and that
of most of the rest of the world also. Clearly and distinctly over my father’s radio, on the morning of 3
September, the day before my 31st birthday, came the voice of Neville Chamberlain announcing that
we were at war with Germany. We couldn’t know of course, how it was going to affect each of us, but
we were not left long in doubt about Australia’s involvement. The beautiful ‘Queen Mary’ was
transformed into a troop ship and it was not long before the first contingent of Australian and New
Zealand troops arrived in Perth. They were to take ship on the camouflaged ‘Queen Mary’ waiting in
Fremantle Harbour.
That weekend, with Perth and Fremantle full of boys going off to the war, was a disgrace to the
organisers. It was the first time we heard the song ‘Roll Out the Barrel’ as drunken soldiers rolled
barrels of beer down the main Post Office steps and along the streets. Before the ‘Queen Mary’ sailed
on Sunday morning, Fremantle Railway Station was littered with drunken men being picked up by
military MP’s and loaded on to the ship. It was their last touch with ‘home’. It was never as bad again
because Churches and social organisations stirred themselves after that to entertain and care for the
boys who passed through our State en route to the battlefields of Europe. The first occasion had
found us all utterly unprepared.
221
