Page 227 - Three Score Years & Ten
P. 227
“THREE SCORE YEARS AND TEN” MISSIONARY WORK IN CHINA
Amy Moore
was restored. At Chinese feasts Percy and I were often amazed at the fund of good stories or jokes
with which he could entertain a table of Chinese guests. The polite words with which he thanked our
hostess when refusing to eat anything more, have come down as a family legend which even his great
grandchildren, who have never been to China, can recite: ‘Bu shi fan bu hao, nei shi wode du pi tai
xiao’ ( It’s not that the food is not good, but that the skin of my stomach is too small). Always good
humoured and usually unruffled by circumstances, with a firm trust in God, Esther used to say
sometimes in exasperation, “Really Dad, if the roof fell in on you, you would still say ‘Praise the Lord’”.
HELEN
That proved to be a prophetic word one day in 1939 after we had left for furlough in Australia. Helen
Dalton, our district nurse, went down suddenly with what proved to be meningitis. Dr. Xiao knew what
serum should be used, but he had none and there was none in the city at that time. Arthur wired the
Baptist Hospital in Xi’an and Dr. Stockley at once sent off all the serum he had, but it was delayed in
the mail. Arthur wrote that by this time . .
“Helen’s head was thrown back, her back was stiff and she was full of
pain and delirious. It seemed that the disease must take its course
and the end was not far off.”
Then the miracle for which they were praying happened. Dr. Xiao was talking to the man who was
Customs officer for goods coming into the city from Sichuan Province. When he mentioned Helen’s
illness and the impossibility of doing anything because there was no serum in the city, the officer said,
“But there is! I had it in my hands this morning in a consignment from Chongqing.” The doctor
immediately went to find out where it was and to borrow equipment for doing a lumbar puncture. He
had set out to have a coffin measured up for immediate burial when she died. They found the serum,
a spinal puncture was made and examination of the fluid showed that it was the epidemic type of
meningitis. Treatment was begun at once with the serum, which was only a small quantity, but before
it was finished, the parcel from Xi’an had arrived, the crisis was over and Helen was responding to
treatment.
In the midst of this situation, one of the worst air raids they had experienced up to that time occurred.
Heavy Japanese bombers flew over to bomb the airfield but also bombed the city in passing. One of
the bombs fell in the garden of the house in which Helen was being cared for. Because she could not
be moved, all the missionaries there at the time stayed upstairs with her taking refuge under the beds
and tables as the planes came nearer. Helen’s mattress was lifted down and put under the bed with
her on it. As the planes got closer, Arthur began to read aloud the 91st Psalm. He had just read the
7th verse, “A thousand shall fall at thy side and ten thousand at thy right hand, but it shall not come
nigh thee”, when the house began to shake, plaster fell from the ceiling and the air was filled with dust.
They discovered later that a bomb had fallen some twenty paces away from the house in the
vegetable garden. It made a hole fifteen feet deep and thirty feet in diameter. Big pieces of shrapnel
were buried in the walls, but the full force of the blast had gone between the house and the Church
without harming anybody. The buildings were untouched except for a few tiles and some plaster off
the roof. Arthur said, “Praise the Lord” very fervently and meant it with all his heart, but he never
ceased to tease a certain middle aged single lady who was there with them, that she could never say
she had never been under the bed with a MAN!
With Hanzhong becoming more and more a target for enemy bombs, Arthur felt it was no place for
women and children. He sent Helen under Sadie Custe’s care to stay at Dr. Xiao’s home which was in
a less vulnerable part of the city. He and one of the other men went round to the bus station to try and
227
Amy Moore
was restored. At Chinese feasts Percy and I were often amazed at the fund of good stories or jokes
with which he could entertain a table of Chinese guests. The polite words with which he thanked our
hostess when refusing to eat anything more, have come down as a family legend which even his great
grandchildren, who have never been to China, can recite: ‘Bu shi fan bu hao, nei shi wode du pi tai
xiao’ ( It’s not that the food is not good, but that the skin of my stomach is too small). Always good
humoured and usually unruffled by circumstances, with a firm trust in God, Esther used to say
sometimes in exasperation, “Really Dad, if the roof fell in on you, you would still say ‘Praise the Lord’”.
HELEN
That proved to be a prophetic word one day in 1939 after we had left for furlough in Australia. Helen
Dalton, our district nurse, went down suddenly with what proved to be meningitis. Dr. Xiao knew what
serum should be used, but he had none and there was none in the city at that time. Arthur wired the
Baptist Hospital in Xi’an and Dr. Stockley at once sent off all the serum he had, but it was delayed in
the mail. Arthur wrote that by this time . .
“Helen’s head was thrown back, her back was stiff and she was full of
pain and delirious. It seemed that the disease must take its course
and the end was not far off.”
Then the miracle for which they were praying happened. Dr. Xiao was talking to the man who was
Customs officer for goods coming into the city from Sichuan Province. When he mentioned Helen’s
illness and the impossibility of doing anything because there was no serum in the city, the officer said,
“But there is! I had it in my hands this morning in a consignment from Chongqing.” The doctor
immediately went to find out where it was and to borrow equipment for doing a lumbar puncture. He
had set out to have a coffin measured up for immediate burial when she died. They found the serum,
a spinal puncture was made and examination of the fluid showed that it was the epidemic type of
meningitis. Treatment was begun at once with the serum, which was only a small quantity, but before
it was finished, the parcel from Xi’an had arrived, the crisis was over and Helen was responding to
treatment.
In the midst of this situation, one of the worst air raids they had experienced up to that time occurred.
Heavy Japanese bombers flew over to bomb the airfield but also bombed the city in passing. One of
the bombs fell in the garden of the house in which Helen was being cared for. Because she could not
be moved, all the missionaries there at the time stayed upstairs with her taking refuge under the beds
and tables as the planes came nearer. Helen’s mattress was lifted down and put under the bed with
her on it. As the planes got closer, Arthur began to read aloud the 91st Psalm. He had just read the
7th verse, “A thousand shall fall at thy side and ten thousand at thy right hand, but it shall not come
nigh thee”, when the house began to shake, plaster fell from the ceiling and the air was filled with dust.
They discovered later that a bomb had fallen some twenty paces away from the house in the
vegetable garden. It made a hole fifteen feet deep and thirty feet in diameter. Big pieces of shrapnel
were buried in the walls, but the full force of the blast had gone between the house and the Church
without harming anybody. The buildings were untouched except for a few tiles and some plaster off
the roof. Arthur said, “Praise the Lord” very fervently and meant it with all his heart, but he never
ceased to tease a certain middle aged single lady who was there with them, that she could never say
she had never been under the bed with a MAN!
With Hanzhong becoming more and more a target for enemy bombs, Arthur felt it was no place for
women and children. He sent Helen under Sadie Custe’s care to stay at Dr. Xiao’s home which was in
a less vulnerable part of the city. He and one of the other men went round to the bus station to try and
227
