Page 225 - Three Score Years & Ten
P. 225
“THREE SCORE YEARS AND TEN” MISSIONARY WORK IN CHINA
Amy Moore
he needed it. He had been very deaf for many years and, after he retired from work, he spent most of
his time in the garden which he loved, his white head bent over his petunias and mignonettes, pansies
and wallflowers, and his happy face as he looked up were a familiar sight to all who passed by. It was
not difficult to see that he had an inner peace that was not dependent on circumstances. He never
heard us approaching and I often heard him humming one of his favourite hymns:
Oh Beulah Land, sweet Beulah Land,
As on thy highest banks I stand,
I look away across the sea
Where mansions are prepared for me,
And view that shining glory shore,
My Heaven, my home forever more.
It was obvious to all that he was just waiting to go. When he became ill, Mother brought him to
Wisbeck Street and took care of him, but it was not long before he quietly stopped breathing and was
with the Lord. Mother grieved for her father whom she had been close to all her life, but I think for her
and for all of us his going was so peaceful that we could only feel he was ‘home at last’. It was 30
November 1939. We had called Frank after him and gave him his second name of Robert after my
father.
CHRISTMAS IN AUSTRALIA
We were only home for one Christmas and the children were able to join in all the activities at the
Church and Sunday School. I will never forget Alan at the Sunday School party that year. I took both
the boys and Raymond sat with the children of his own age group with whom he had been attending
Sunday School. Alan sat with me in the back seat, still a little shy and uncertain about Santa Claus
when he arrived and began giving out presents to the children. Suddenly Alan’s name was called and
he looked up at me and said, “For me?” and when I nodded he quickly ran down to the front to grab
the parcel he was given. His little face was literally beaming with excitement.
The other thing that happened that Christmas was that Mother and Father rented a cottage up in the
hills at Kalamunda for the annual Christmas/New Year Convention, and we all went. Percy had to
speak several times, but I only had one meeting so was free to enjoy the other speakers. Perhaps
what remains longest in my memory is not the speakers or the Christian fellowship, all of which was
wonderful after the years in China without them, but just the sheet joy of being in the Australian bush
again. To get up in the morning and walk through the bush and smell the gum trees and hear the
kookaburras in the branches above me was delight indeed, and I soaked it all in, knowing full well it
might be another eight years before I could experience it again.
One funny incident from that Convention remains in my memory. Early one morning I walked alone
from our cottage to the Conference Centre to attend the early prayer meeting. The sun was not yet up
and I didn’t feel the need for a hat or any other head covering. So it was a surprise to be taken aside
after the meeting quietly and lovingly by one of my uncles, and told that perhaps for the sake of others,
I should wear a hat at the meeting! To say I was astonished is to put it mildly! For eight years in
China I had not worn a hat to meetings and, although to go hatless to Church was not yet commonly
accepted at home as it is today, it had never occurred to me that the informality of that early prayer
time together with a few others, demanded the wearing of a hat.
225
Amy Moore
he needed it. He had been very deaf for many years and, after he retired from work, he spent most of
his time in the garden which he loved, his white head bent over his petunias and mignonettes, pansies
and wallflowers, and his happy face as he looked up were a familiar sight to all who passed by. It was
not difficult to see that he had an inner peace that was not dependent on circumstances. He never
heard us approaching and I often heard him humming one of his favourite hymns:
Oh Beulah Land, sweet Beulah Land,
As on thy highest banks I stand,
I look away across the sea
Where mansions are prepared for me,
And view that shining glory shore,
My Heaven, my home forever more.
It was obvious to all that he was just waiting to go. When he became ill, Mother brought him to
Wisbeck Street and took care of him, but it was not long before he quietly stopped breathing and was
with the Lord. Mother grieved for her father whom she had been close to all her life, but I think for her
and for all of us his going was so peaceful that we could only feel he was ‘home at last’. It was 30
November 1939. We had called Frank after him and gave him his second name of Robert after my
father.
CHRISTMAS IN AUSTRALIA
We were only home for one Christmas and the children were able to join in all the activities at the
Church and Sunday School. I will never forget Alan at the Sunday School party that year. I took both
the boys and Raymond sat with the children of his own age group with whom he had been attending
Sunday School. Alan sat with me in the back seat, still a little shy and uncertain about Santa Claus
when he arrived and began giving out presents to the children. Suddenly Alan’s name was called and
he looked up at me and said, “For me?” and when I nodded he quickly ran down to the front to grab
the parcel he was given. His little face was literally beaming with excitement.
The other thing that happened that Christmas was that Mother and Father rented a cottage up in the
hills at Kalamunda for the annual Christmas/New Year Convention, and we all went. Percy had to
speak several times, but I only had one meeting so was free to enjoy the other speakers. Perhaps
what remains longest in my memory is not the speakers or the Christian fellowship, all of which was
wonderful after the years in China without them, but just the sheet joy of being in the Australian bush
again. To get up in the morning and walk through the bush and smell the gum trees and hear the
kookaburras in the branches above me was delight indeed, and I soaked it all in, knowing full well it
might be another eight years before I could experience it again.
One funny incident from that Convention remains in my memory. Early one morning I walked alone
from our cottage to the Conference Centre to attend the early prayer meeting. The sun was not yet up
and I didn’t feel the need for a hat or any other head covering. So it was a surprise to be taken aside
after the meeting quietly and lovingly by one of my uncles, and told that perhaps for the sake of others,
I should wear a hat at the meeting! To say I was astonished is to put it mildly! For eight years in
China I had not worn a hat to meetings and, although to go hatless to Church was not yet commonly
accepted at home as it is today, it had never occurred to me that the informality of that early prayer
time together with a few others, demanded the wearing of a hat.
225
