Page 242 - Three Score Years & Ten
P. 242
“THREE SCORE YEARS AND TEN” MISSIONARY WORK IN CHINA
Amy Moore
BAOJI
We got away from the Mission Home straight after lunch. Our train did not leave till five o’clock, but in
China we always needed to allow plenty of time for complications or difficulties along the way. We
reached Baoji at two o’clock in the morning, only to discover that our bedding had not come on the
train with us. There were no rickshaws at the station, so eventually we put all our hand luggage on to
one wheelbarrow, the two children on another and we walked across the city. As one of the girls said,
it was a case of ‘follow the squeak’, the squeak being the noise made by the wheel of the
wheelbarrow. The moon was nearly full and it was a lovely night, crisp and cool, and we were glad of
the walk to warm us up. For all that, after we had gone by mistake to the street chapel instead of the
Mission Home, we were so thankful when Percy disappeared down a dark lane and came back to lead
us to the right place. By this time it was 3 o’clock in the morning and we longed for nothing so much
as bed and sleep.
Charlie Frencham was determined to live exactly as the Chinese do, so their home had few comforts
of any kind. Since our bedding had not arrived, we had to be content with rolling ourselves in our
travelling rugs. We all felt we had never spent such a cold night and were thankful when morning
dawned at last, even though our night had been such a short one. Ruth’s welcome was warm and
friendly, but she lacked so many things which would have made life a little easier, so we settled down
to make the best of a bad job. We were there for nearly a week before we were able to continue our
journey to the south.
One aspect of life in Baoji which intrigued the girls and rather amazed me too, was Charlie’s goats.
He had a good flock, but nobody to look after them, so a good part of his day was spent taking them
out to find grass and then watching them as they ate. At night they were locked in a small yard at the
back of the house, but to get to it and to leave it every morning, the whole herd had to rush right
through the house! I will never forget the faces of the girls as they saw this happen for the first time!
Trucks going through to the south were not very frequent. Percy managed to get one for all our
luggage, so we decided he had better go on with it and I would wait with the girls for the next one
which could take us all. It was nearly a week after he left that one finally agreed to take us. Petrol
was unobtainable so trucks were running on charcoal or Chinese wine. The one we got was alcoholic
and the fumes nearly choked us, but it was much quicker than charcoal and more likely to be able to
get up the mountains. We had a most disagreeable crowd of fellow passengers and a number of
soldiers who pushed us round whenever they felt like it. One shrew of a woman disliked foreigners on
sight and was determined we should be aware of it.
To me all the difficulties of this trip and of being in charge of the party and the only one who could
speak the language, were all made up for by being able to have yet another glimpse of our wonderful
mountains, so different and so beautiful, stretching as far as the eye could see. The girls fell in love
with them too, and though it was cold, the days were clear and the sun shone on the mountain slopes
and even reached down into the deepest valleys for a short time at noon.
That first day was a very long one, but at night we reached the famous old temple at Miaotaizi, part of
which the China Travel Service had taken over as an inn for the use of travellers. Percy had booked
rooms for us on the way through, so we had no trouble and spent a very comfortable night there.
Now that the Government had pushed through motor roads because of the war and the need to
transport military personnel and goods as quickly as possible, the old days of nine days by foot over
the mountains was a thing of the past. I often looked back on the old leisurely trip by foot with
nostalgia for all the little villages we used to stop at and drink tea and talk and share the Gospel, now
never touched as we shot through in trucks. Most of the Chinese drivers knew little or nothing about
242
Amy Moore
BAOJI
We got away from the Mission Home straight after lunch. Our train did not leave till five o’clock, but in
China we always needed to allow plenty of time for complications or difficulties along the way. We
reached Baoji at two o’clock in the morning, only to discover that our bedding had not come on the
train with us. There were no rickshaws at the station, so eventually we put all our hand luggage on to
one wheelbarrow, the two children on another and we walked across the city. As one of the girls said,
it was a case of ‘follow the squeak’, the squeak being the noise made by the wheel of the
wheelbarrow. The moon was nearly full and it was a lovely night, crisp and cool, and we were glad of
the walk to warm us up. For all that, after we had gone by mistake to the street chapel instead of the
Mission Home, we were so thankful when Percy disappeared down a dark lane and came back to lead
us to the right place. By this time it was 3 o’clock in the morning and we longed for nothing so much
as bed and sleep.
Charlie Frencham was determined to live exactly as the Chinese do, so their home had few comforts
of any kind. Since our bedding had not arrived, we had to be content with rolling ourselves in our
travelling rugs. We all felt we had never spent such a cold night and were thankful when morning
dawned at last, even though our night had been such a short one. Ruth’s welcome was warm and
friendly, but she lacked so many things which would have made life a little easier, so we settled down
to make the best of a bad job. We were there for nearly a week before we were able to continue our
journey to the south.
One aspect of life in Baoji which intrigued the girls and rather amazed me too, was Charlie’s goats.
He had a good flock, but nobody to look after them, so a good part of his day was spent taking them
out to find grass and then watching them as they ate. At night they were locked in a small yard at the
back of the house, but to get to it and to leave it every morning, the whole herd had to rush right
through the house! I will never forget the faces of the girls as they saw this happen for the first time!
Trucks going through to the south were not very frequent. Percy managed to get one for all our
luggage, so we decided he had better go on with it and I would wait with the girls for the next one
which could take us all. It was nearly a week after he left that one finally agreed to take us. Petrol
was unobtainable so trucks were running on charcoal or Chinese wine. The one we got was alcoholic
and the fumes nearly choked us, but it was much quicker than charcoal and more likely to be able to
get up the mountains. We had a most disagreeable crowd of fellow passengers and a number of
soldiers who pushed us round whenever they felt like it. One shrew of a woman disliked foreigners on
sight and was determined we should be aware of it.
To me all the difficulties of this trip and of being in charge of the party and the only one who could
speak the language, were all made up for by being able to have yet another glimpse of our wonderful
mountains, so different and so beautiful, stretching as far as the eye could see. The girls fell in love
with them too, and though it was cold, the days were clear and the sun shone on the mountain slopes
and even reached down into the deepest valleys for a short time at noon.
That first day was a very long one, but at night we reached the famous old temple at Miaotaizi, part of
which the China Travel Service had taken over as an inn for the use of travellers. Percy had booked
rooms for us on the way through, so we had no trouble and spent a very comfortable night there.
Now that the Government had pushed through motor roads because of the war and the need to
transport military personnel and goods as quickly as possible, the old days of nine days by foot over
the mountains was a thing of the past. I often looked back on the old leisurely trip by foot with
nostalgia for all the little villages we used to stop at and drink tea and talk and share the Gospel, now
never touched as we shot through in trucks. Most of the Chinese drivers knew little or nothing about
242
