Page 252 - Three Score Years & Ten
P. 252
“THREE SCORE YEARS AND TEN” MISSIONARY WORK IN CHINA
Amy Moore
streets were noisy with the sound of drums and gongs as the rain processions went up and down with
people crying out to their various deities to send rain. Often they paraded them out in the midday sun
to give them a taste of what we were all enduring, but still the rain held off and the skies were like
brass.
With a houseful of new workers and two small
children all facing their first China summer, I was
trying to think up new and interesting recipes to
tempt jaded appetites during the heat when
nobody felt like eating anyway. My old cook,
whom I had trained before furlough, was back with
me and I could leave most of the kitchen work to
him as well as the shopping, but the girls were not
yet used to Chinese food all the time, and I knew
they would feel even less like it as the summer
went on. I wanted to get them through their first
summer as healthy as possible, so I planned
ahead. Fortunately South Shaanxi produced
End of 1940 and Amy and Percy travel plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables and we had a
with 7 new female workers (“the seven lot in our own garden, so I spent a lot of time
maidens”) back to Xixiang where they live bottling fruit and making jam. I also made my own
and learn Chinese. bacon and pickled and smoked hams while it was
This picture taken a few months later in still cool enough.
August 1941.
Raymond had left the family in Shanghai I had planned with Joy Chen to have a Daily
to go to Chefoo. Vacation Bible School (DVBS) for children during
the summer holidays, but Joy went down with
cholera just the week before we were to start. I asked Winnie Strange to come and help me instead,
and she agreed. My comment when it was all over was that we had 50 of the wildest, most
uncontrolled little urchins in Xixiang! In spite of that, we had a good time with them form 9 am to 11
am each morning and from 4:30 to 6 every afternoon, thus avoiding the worst of the heat. We taught
them to sing choruses and to learn Scripture verses and told them Bible stories, a series of Old
Testament ones illustrating that there is only one way of salvation. They also did handwork, making
scrolls etc., and, at the end, we invited the parents to come to a programme the children put on for
them. Quite a few asked if we would do it again next year.
Alan didnt seem to feel the heat at all, and during the children’s meetings he joined in the singing with
every ounce of energy he possessed, the veins of his neck standing out with the effort.
“You never saw anything so funny” I wrote to my parents, “He is going
to be quite a chivalrous young man and is very gentle and
affectionate with anybody younger than himself. They seem to bring
out the best side of his nature. He loves to give me ‘bear hugs’ and
nearly throttles me when he does. Frankie likes to pretend he is
killing me and thinks it a great joke when I pretend to cry, but Alan
always sticks up for me and takes my side.”
Alan liked to watch me write letters and I often had to include letters from him to Grandma and
Grandpa as well as pictures of himself and Raymond and Frank and our little dog Titch. He often
wrote to Raymond too.
252
Amy Moore
streets were noisy with the sound of drums and gongs as the rain processions went up and down with
people crying out to their various deities to send rain. Often they paraded them out in the midday sun
to give them a taste of what we were all enduring, but still the rain held off and the skies were like
brass.
With a houseful of new workers and two small
children all facing their first China summer, I was
trying to think up new and interesting recipes to
tempt jaded appetites during the heat when
nobody felt like eating anyway. My old cook,
whom I had trained before furlough, was back with
me and I could leave most of the kitchen work to
him as well as the shopping, but the girls were not
yet used to Chinese food all the time, and I knew
they would feel even less like it as the summer
went on. I wanted to get them through their first
summer as healthy as possible, so I planned
ahead. Fortunately South Shaanxi produced
End of 1940 and Amy and Percy travel plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables and we had a
with 7 new female workers (“the seven lot in our own garden, so I spent a lot of time
maidens”) back to Xixiang where they live bottling fruit and making jam. I also made my own
and learn Chinese. bacon and pickled and smoked hams while it was
This picture taken a few months later in still cool enough.
August 1941.
Raymond had left the family in Shanghai I had planned with Joy Chen to have a Daily
to go to Chefoo. Vacation Bible School (DVBS) for children during
the summer holidays, but Joy went down with
cholera just the week before we were to start. I asked Winnie Strange to come and help me instead,
and she agreed. My comment when it was all over was that we had 50 of the wildest, most
uncontrolled little urchins in Xixiang! In spite of that, we had a good time with them form 9 am to 11
am each morning and from 4:30 to 6 every afternoon, thus avoiding the worst of the heat. We taught
them to sing choruses and to learn Scripture verses and told them Bible stories, a series of Old
Testament ones illustrating that there is only one way of salvation. They also did handwork, making
scrolls etc., and, at the end, we invited the parents to come to a programme the children put on for
them. Quite a few asked if we would do it again next year.
Alan didnt seem to feel the heat at all, and during the children’s meetings he joined in the singing with
every ounce of energy he possessed, the veins of his neck standing out with the effort.
“You never saw anything so funny” I wrote to my parents, “He is going
to be quite a chivalrous young man and is very gentle and
affectionate with anybody younger than himself. They seem to bring
out the best side of his nature. He loves to give me ‘bear hugs’ and
nearly throttles me when he does. Frankie likes to pretend he is
killing me and thinks it a great joke when I pretend to cry, but Alan
always sticks up for me and takes my side.”
Alan liked to watch me write letters and I often had to include letters from him to Grandma and
Grandpa as well as pictures of himself and Raymond and Frank and our little dog Titch. He often
wrote to Raymond too.
252
