Page 235 - Three Score Years & Ten
P. 235
“THREE SCORE YEARS AND TEN” MISSIONARY WORK IN CHINA
Amy Moore
They continued for most of the day, each time when they presented themselves to the officer in
charge being refused as usual, but at last some time in the late afternoon, they met an officer who
seemed more friendly. He explained that we were in a military zone and because of military activities
ahead of us, it was impossible for us to obtain permits to pass through. Then he said that if we were
to go further north to the area under a civil administration, we should have no trouble in getting
through.
With all the politeness he could muster, Percy asked if he would be willing to give us permits to leave
Bengbu and go north to Guide. He said he would and that if Percy cared to go on the back of his
motorbike, he would go with him at once to the railway station and help him get tickets for rail travel to
Guide. Miracle of miracles! They could hardly believe it, but the other three men handed all their
official documents to Percy and quite soon he was on the back of the Jap officers motorbike on his
way to the station. The officer took him in, introduced him to the station master, and then left him to it.
Having come to them under the auspices of the military command, everybody was very polite to him,
but they took a long time to go through all the passports of our large party. There were 32 of us
altogether, including our four children, and the Japs got a lot of amusement out of lining up the
passports of all the ladies, and comparing them to see who was the best looking! Percy would never
tell us what their final decision was! As they got our four parties sorted out (we thought it best to keep
to four parties and travel on different days), they went into shrieks of laughter as they discovered that
each party consisted of one man and seven ladies. They probably thought all foreigners had seven
wives! It took hours to get tickets for us all, but at last it was done and Percy came back triumphant
full of thankfulness to God for what He had done.
We arranged between ourselves that the Davis party should go first as he was a District
Superintendent and his absence was making things difficult in Henan. The Rowes and the Terrys
and ourselves all had longer distances to travel, but we had no deadlines to meet. By this time we not
only had all our own luggage and, with 21 new workers, that was no small amount, but we had found
stacked up in Bengbu boxes and boxes of Bibles from the Bible Society, and cases of stores all
addressed to people in the interior. They had got so far and no further, because of the hostilities
between the Chinese and the Japanese. We decided that, rather than leave them there to rot or be
looted, we would add them to our own luggage and get them to the people waiting for them in some
far off Mission station.
We farewelled the Davis party cheerfully on a Saturday afternoon, but within twenty minutes they were
back owing to some slight difficulty in booking the luggage. They left again on Sunday morning and
succeeded this time in getting through to free China without too much trouble. The Rowe party was
next and they struck trouble on Monday morning when a new group of officials at the station professed
to know nothing of us or our affairs. They eventually gave them permission to travel but only after all
their luggage had been searched twice, once outside the railway station, and again after it had been
taken through on to the platform. The boxes were all roped as well as locked, so each had to be
unroped (by us, not them), everything pulled out and looked over (by them, not us). Then as they
passed on to the next box we were left to repack our scattered possessions, lock the box and rerope
it. Percy and Mr. Terry had gone down with the party to help Stanley with the luggage. By the time
they returned to report to us, they were not only angry at Japanese officialdom, but exhausted with the
effort of tying and untying the ropes. What was maddening too, was that although there were a large
number of Bible Society boxes, they were all exactly alike and their contents were the same, and we
had the bill of lading for each already stamped by the Japanese Customs. In spite of that, every box
was opened and examined, locked again and reopened, not only once but twice. Stanley nearly
missed the train with all this going on, and as he had all the tickets, the rest of the party nearly missed
235
Amy Moore
They continued for most of the day, each time when they presented themselves to the officer in
charge being refused as usual, but at last some time in the late afternoon, they met an officer who
seemed more friendly. He explained that we were in a military zone and because of military activities
ahead of us, it was impossible for us to obtain permits to pass through. Then he said that if we were
to go further north to the area under a civil administration, we should have no trouble in getting
through.
With all the politeness he could muster, Percy asked if he would be willing to give us permits to leave
Bengbu and go north to Guide. He said he would and that if Percy cared to go on the back of his
motorbike, he would go with him at once to the railway station and help him get tickets for rail travel to
Guide. Miracle of miracles! They could hardly believe it, but the other three men handed all their
official documents to Percy and quite soon he was on the back of the Jap officers motorbike on his
way to the station. The officer took him in, introduced him to the station master, and then left him to it.
Having come to them under the auspices of the military command, everybody was very polite to him,
but they took a long time to go through all the passports of our large party. There were 32 of us
altogether, including our four children, and the Japs got a lot of amusement out of lining up the
passports of all the ladies, and comparing them to see who was the best looking! Percy would never
tell us what their final decision was! As they got our four parties sorted out (we thought it best to keep
to four parties and travel on different days), they went into shrieks of laughter as they discovered that
each party consisted of one man and seven ladies. They probably thought all foreigners had seven
wives! It took hours to get tickets for us all, but at last it was done and Percy came back triumphant
full of thankfulness to God for what He had done.
We arranged between ourselves that the Davis party should go first as he was a District
Superintendent and his absence was making things difficult in Henan. The Rowes and the Terrys
and ourselves all had longer distances to travel, but we had no deadlines to meet. By this time we not
only had all our own luggage and, with 21 new workers, that was no small amount, but we had found
stacked up in Bengbu boxes and boxes of Bibles from the Bible Society, and cases of stores all
addressed to people in the interior. They had got so far and no further, because of the hostilities
between the Chinese and the Japanese. We decided that, rather than leave them there to rot or be
looted, we would add them to our own luggage and get them to the people waiting for them in some
far off Mission station.
We farewelled the Davis party cheerfully on a Saturday afternoon, but within twenty minutes they were
back owing to some slight difficulty in booking the luggage. They left again on Sunday morning and
succeeded this time in getting through to free China without too much trouble. The Rowe party was
next and they struck trouble on Monday morning when a new group of officials at the station professed
to know nothing of us or our affairs. They eventually gave them permission to travel but only after all
their luggage had been searched twice, once outside the railway station, and again after it had been
taken through on to the platform. The boxes were all roped as well as locked, so each had to be
unroped (by us, not them), everything pulled out and looked over (by them, not us). Then as they
passed on to the next box we were left to repack our scattered possessions, lock the box and rerope
it. Percy and Mr. Terry had gone down with the party to help Stanley with the luggage. By the time
they returned to report to us, they were not only angry at Japanese officialdom, but exhausted with the
effort of tying and untying the ropes. What was maddening too, was that although there were a large
number of Bible Society boxes, they were all exactly alike and their contents were the same, and we
had the bill of lading for each already stamped by the Japanese Customs. In spite of that, every box
was opened and examined, locked again and reopened, not only once but twice. Stanley nearly
missed the train with all this going on, and as he had all the tickets, the rest of the party nearly missed
235
