Page 250 - Three Score Years & Ten
P. 250
“THREE SCORE YEARS AND TEN” MISSIONARY WORK IN CHINA
Amy Moore
forgive her sins and save her and to help her not to tell lies. Then she prayed for her father and
mother.
It was never possible to forget that we lived in the midst of darkness, as all around us were the
offerings being offered to the idols and the ancestors and the sound of the bells from the nearby
temple rang in our ears by day and night. A strange story came to us one day about a man who had
been given some opium to look after for his boss. When the boss died, some of his friends came to
the man to collect the opium, but he claimed he knew nothing about it. Soon after, his dead body was
found under a bridge over the river not far from us.
There was no clue as to who had murdered him, or even if it was a murder, and nothing would have
come of it if his wife had not suddenly become possessed by a demon. She went into a trance and
her dead husband’s voice spoke through her lips and gave details of the night on which he died. He
gave the names of the two men who had killed him and then dumped his body in the river. The
authorities arrested and convicted the two men on the evidence of the dead man’s spirit speaking
through the lips of his wife. The spirit world is very real to the people of China.
THE CHILDREN
Raymond lived with Dr. and Mrs. Howie at Chefoo until the new school term began in 1941. Jessie
was in and out of their home all the time as she worked in the hospital with Dr. Howie. She took
Raymond under her wing and wrote us long and interesting accounts of all his doings and sayings, all
of which helped to ease our own loneliness and the longings which were always there, to see our little
son again.
But in March 1941 Jessie got engaged to David Bentley-Taylor, one of the young men who had
recently joined the CIM and been sent to Chefoo for language study. Because of the Japanese
invasion, it was not possible for them to go to Anqing along the Chang Jiang (Yangtze) where the
Men’s Language School normally was. That group of men were called ‘The Sons of the Prophets’ by
the Chefoo children who loved having them there.
Very soon Jess and David were on their way to Shanghai to be married, and after a brief honeymoon,
set off on the long overland journey to Lanzhou in north west China where Jess and Percy had been
born. They could not take the route we had taken, so had to make their way through the southern
provinces of Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Guizhou and Sichuan. They planned to break their journey from
Sichuan and come north to be with us, but when that would be we had no idea and neither had they.
With no weekly letters from Jess, we were dependent on Raymond’s for news of him, although Ailsa
Carr did try to include a note from herself as often as possible. Even though so short, his letters were
very precious, and Percy kept the first note we received in his Bible ‘to show him when he grows up.’
One of our girls had a letter one day from a friend of hers who taught at Chefoo and sometimes taught
Raymond. She said he had been in sick bay with chicken pox. She went to see him and enquired
how he was. He said, “I’m quite well thank you, but I don’t know if I’m quite normal!” He was probably
referring to his temperature, but it sounded funny.
In my letters home I said:
“I am missing Jessie’s letters about him. He seems so far away sometimes and I just
ache for a sight of my little boy. Miss Carr wrote me an awfully nice letter about him
and said that everybody who knows him loves him.”
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Contents
Amy Moore
forgive her sins and save her and to help her not to tell lies. Then she prayed for her father and
mother.
It was never possible to forget that we lived in the midst of darkness, as all around us were the
offerings being offered to the idols and the ancestors and the sound of the bells from the nearby
temple rang in our ears by day and night. A strange story came to us one day about a man who had
been given some opium to look after for his boss. When the boss died, some of his friends came to
the man to collect the opium, but he claimed he knew nothing about it. Soon after, his dead body was
found under a bridge over the river not far from us.
There was no clue as to who had murdered him, or even if it was a murder, and nothing would have
come of it if his wife had not suddenly become possessed by a demon. She went into a trance and
her dead husband’s voice spoke through her lips and gave details of the night on which he died. He
gave the names of the two men who had killed him and then dumped his body in the river. The
authorities arrested and convicted the two men on the evidence of the dead man’s spirit speaking
through the lips of his wife. The spirit world is very real to the people of China.
THE CHILDREN
Raymond lived with Dr. and Mrs. Howie at Chefoo until the new school term began in 1941. Jessie
was in and out of their home all the time as she worked in the hospital with Dr. Howie. She took
Raymond under her wing and wrote us long and interesting accounts of all his doings and sayings, all
of which helped to ease our own loneliness and the longings which were always there, to see our little
son again.
But in March 1941 Jessie got engaged to David Bentley-Taylor, one of the young men who had
recently joined the CIM and been sent to Chefoo for language study. Because of the Japanese
invasion, it was not possible for them to go to Anqing along the Chang Jiang (Yangtze) where the
Men’s Language School normally was. That group of men were called ‘The Sons of the Prophets’ by
the Chefoo children who loved having them there.
Very soon Jess and David were on their way to Shanghai to be married, and after a brief honeymoon,
set off on the long overland journey to Lanzhou in north west China where Jess and Percy had been
born. They could not take the route we had taken, so had to make their way through the southern
provinces of Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Guizhou and Sichuan. They planned to break their journey from
Sichuan and come north to be with us, but when that would be we had no idea and neither had they.
With no weekly letters from Jess, we were dependent on Raymond’s for news of him, although Ailsa
Carr did try to include a note from herself as often as possible. Even though so short, his letters were
very precious, and Percy kept the first note we received in his Bible ‘to show him when he grows up.’
One of our girls had a letter one day from a friend of hers who taught at Chefoo and sometimes taught
Raymond. She said he had been in sick bay with chicken pox. She went to see him and enquired
how he was. He said, “I’m quite well thank you, but I don’t know if I’m quite normal!” He was probably
referring to his temperature, but it sounded funny.
In my letters home I said:
“I am missing Jessie’s letters about him. He seems so far away sometimes and I just
ache for a sight of my little boy. Miss Carr wrote me an awfully nice letter about him
and said that everybody who knows him loves him.”
Return to Table of 250
Contents
