Page 248 - Three Score Years & Ten
P. 248
“THREE SCORE YEARS AND TEN” MISSIONARY WORK IN CHINA
Amy Moore
Christian funeral and two other heathen funerals held at about the same time. There was a certain
amount of sadness with us for we all loved the old man, but there was joy too because we knew he
was in Heaven with the Lord he had loved and served. Further along the street, before the other
funerals had even begun, there was a continuous weeping and wailing from the professional
mourners. The Buddhist priests sat there morning and night reciting prayers while the monotonous
tap, tap, tap of the little hammers they use, went on endlessly. There was an awful hopelessness
about it all.
It was towards the end of March that I had a miscarriage to my surprise, as I was not even sure I was
pregnant. I had been working pretty hard ever since our return and my two little ‘pickles’ kept me
going too, but what actually did the damage was a trip into the country that I took with ‘Jiu Jiu’, one of
our Church young women. We went out to visit one of the country women and wandered on through
the rice fields on paths about nine inches wide, until we reached the back of her place. We had a
good visit with her and when we left, came out through the front entrance onto the ‘big road’, big
because it is about two and a half feet wide instead of nine inches. We soon got on to the paths
between the rice fields again and wandered along, keeping our eyes glued to the path because it had
rained recently and we didn’t want to slip over into the fields full of water. It wasn’t till we had
gone some distance that I began to think we were taking a long time to get home. Jiu Jiu seemed a
bit doubtful of our whereabouts then too, but we went on till we came to a street full of people who all
stared at us as if they had never seen a foreigner before.
I said, “Jiu Jiu, wherever are we?” She said, “I don’t seem to recognise it either, but I’ll ask.” When
they said, ‘Yangheba’ we nearly fainted! Yangheba is fifteen li from Xixiang and ten li from Mrs.
Zhou’s so we had walked ten li in the wrong direction. By this time it was getting dark and the thought
of walking fifteen li in the dark on a narrow muddy track with four feet of water on either side if we
happened to slip, did not thrill either of us. However it was the only way of getting home, so we
started out. Before we got half way it was pitch dark and the road was more and more difficult to see.
Road and water looked exactly the same colour in the dark and at one stage Jiu Jiu stepped firmly
forward on to a light patch of road and found to her sorrow that it was a light patch of water instead.
We suddenly saw a dark mass of some kind by the side of the road and discovered it to be man. He
said, “You need a light”, to which we answered fervently “We do!” Much to our surprise he offered to
go to his home and get us a lantern. We were only too thankful and the lantern helped enormously.
God’s angels must have been on the road that night, because some distance further along, we met
another man going in the same direction as ourselves and actually living in the same street as we did.
He offered to take us by a short cut to the river, and when we got there and crossed it on the one
plank bridge, we met Percy and the goat boy coming to look for us. As we joined forces and went
home together we kept meeting some of the Church people coming to look for us, but when we told
them we had gone to Yangheba by mistake they simply collapsed into laughter. It really gave them
something to talk about and Jiu Jiu and I lost face completely.
Two nights later I lost the baby I hardly suspected was there. We thought of sending for Sadie again
to help in the house, but in the end everybody helped and it wasn’t long before I was well again. Ilma
looked after me as she was a nurse and a midwife, Ruth and Millicent took charge of the children and
Jessie and Olive looked after the kitchen. By this time my good old ‘Cookie’ was well installed and
they didn’t have too much to do except discuss with him what we should eat and what he needed to
buy. After a consultation with me each morning, they went down armed with pencil and paper to the
kitchen. It all did wonders for their language, and the rest did me good as I was more tired than I had
guessed. For some time afterwards I found my back, which had been a problem ever since Alan was
born, playing up again and aching quite badly, but that was probably a good warning to take care.
248
Amy Moore
Christian funeral and two other heathen funerals held at about the same time. There was a certain
amount of sadness with us for we all loved the old man, but there was joy too because we knew he
was in Heaven with the Lord he had loved and served. Further along the street, before the other
funerals had even begun, there was a continuous weeping and wailing from the professional
mourners. The Buddhist priests sat there morning and night reciting prayers while the monotonous
tap, tap, tap of the little hammers they use, went on endlessly. There was an awful hopelessness
about it all.
It was towards the end of March that I had a miscarriage to my surprise, as I was not even sure I was
pregnant. I had been working pretty hard ever since our return and my two little ‘pickles’ kept me
going too, but what actually did the damage was a trip into the country that I took with ‘Jiu Jiu’, one of
our Church young women. We went out to visit one of the country women and wandered on through
the rice fields on paths about nine inches wide, until we reached the back of her place. We had a
good visit with her and when we left, came out through the front entrance onto the ‘big road’, big
because it is about two and a half feet wide instead of nine inches. We soon got on to the paths
between the rice fields again and wandered along, keeping our eyes glued to the path because it had
rained recently and we didn’t want to slip over into the fields full of water. It wasn’t till we had
gone some distance that I began to think we were taking a long time to get home. Jiu Jiu seemed a
bit doubtful of our whereabouts then too, but we went on till we came to a street full of people who all
stared at us as if they had never seen a foreigner before.
I said, “Jiu Jiu, wherever are we?” She said, “I don’t seem to recognise it either, but I’ll ask.” When
they said, ‘Yangheba’ we nearly fainted! Yangheba is fifteen li from Xixiang and ten li from Mrs.
Zhou’s so we had walked ten li in the wrong direction. By this time it was getting dark and the thought
of walking fifteen li in the dark on a narrow muddy track with four feet of water on either side if we
happened to slip, did not thrill either of us. However it was the only way of getting home, so we
started out. Before we got half way it was pitch dark and the road was more and more difficult to see.
Road and water looked exactly the same colour in the dark and at one stage Jiu Jiu stepped firmly
forward on to a light patch of road and found to her sorrow that it was a light patch of water instead.
We suddenly saw a dark mass of some kind by the side of the road and discovered it to be man. He
said, “You need a light”, to which we answered fervently “We do!” Much to our surprise he offered to
go to his home and get us a lantern. We were only too thankful and the lantern helped enormously.
God’s angels must have been on the road that night, because some distance further along, we met
another man going in the same direction as ourselves and actually living in the same street as we did.
He offered to take us by a short cut to the river, and when we got there and crossed it on the one
plank bridge, we met Percy and the goat boy coming to look for us. As we joined forces and went
home together we kept meeting some of the Church people coming to look for us, but when we told
them we had gone to Yangheba by mistake they simply collapsed into laughter. It really gave them
something to talk about and Jiu Jiu and I lost face completely.
Two nights later I lost the baby I hardly suspected was there. We thought of sending for Sadie again
to help in the house, but in the end everybody helped and it wasn’t long before I was well again. Ilma
looked after me as she was a nurse and a midwife, Ruth and Millicent took charge of the children and
Jessie and Olive looked after the kitchen. By this time my good old ‘Cookie’ was well installed and
they didn’t have too much to do except discuss with him what we should eat and what he needed to
buy. After a consultation with me each morning, they went down armed with pencil and paper to the
kitchen. It all did wonders for their language, and the rest did me good as I was more tired than I had
guessed. For some time afterwards I found my back, which had been a problem ever since Alan was
born, playing up again and aching quite badly, but that was probably a good warning to take care.
248
