Page 261 - Three Score Years & Ten
P. 261
“THREE SCORE YEARS AND TEN” MISSIONARY WORK IN CHINA
Amy Moore
PEARL HARBOUR
December 1941 brought the event that changed all our lives and took the whole world by surprise - the
bombing of Pearl Harbour by the Japanese. What was happening at Chefoo? Would the British
gunboats be taking our children off to some safe place as they had promised? Where were Percy’s
parents? Had they been able to get to Chefoo to see Raymond as they had hoped, and perhaps been
able to bring him home with them? These and many other questions filled our minds, but mails were
slower than ever and there was nothing we could do but sit and wait and pray. The local Chinese
papers were soon rejoicing in the announcement that Britain and the Commonwealth countries were
now officially at war with Japan, but our hearts were in Chefoo with our little boy as we prayed
continually that God would keep and protect him and bring him safely home. It was another four years
before we saw the answer to that prayer, but as we turned daily to God’s Word for some comfort or
assurance, He gave us the words of 2 Timothy 1:12:
“I know Whom I have believed and am sure that He is able to guard until that Day
what has been entrusted to me.” Or, as the NIV says, “what I have entrusted to Him
until that day.”
To that we clung through all those long agonising years until Raymond did at last come home again.
Jessie and David arrived just before Christmas. They had had a long tiring journey through all the
southern provinces of China after leaving Shanghai, then up through Guizhou and Sichuan until they
finally reached Hanzhong. With the Moores still not back, they came straight to us in Xixiang. Percy
had not seen his sister since he left Canada eleven years previously, and I had never met her.
Neither Percy nor I had ever met our new brother-in-law. We liked him at once and spent many hours
during the next few weeks just chatting, talking about the family and exchanging views and getting to
know each other. David told us all about his remarkable conversion which IVF has put into a little
booklet called, ‘God Intervenes’. His home was in Hereford and his parents were nominal Anglicans,
but David arrived at the University stage of his life knowing very little about the things of God or his
own need of salvation. In spite of that, God’s Hand was upon him and during his first few days at
Oxford he was soundly converted.
As he described what happened, he went on to say,
“It was not long before I discovered that life had changed altogether. For one thing
sport was definitely dethroned and could never dominate again. In temptation or
adversity I found Jesus Christ to be a Rock. A good many things passed out of my life
forever. Contract bridge, dancing and gambling and race meetings ceased to make
any sense at all and I parted from them without a shadow of regret. I began to seek
the will of God for my life and in due course I found it.”
It was in October 1938 that David arrived in China and for the first time met Jessie who was to become
his wife, though neither of them knew it at the time. After Chefoo, Jessie had gone to Toronto and
done a nursing course. Her parents were there with her and together they attended the Church where
TT Shields was the well known and rather controversial pastor. Some time after her parents left, Jess
protested about his criticisms of a friend of the Brownlees who were in charge of the CIM home. Her
name was promptly removed from the Church roll and she commenced attending Calvary Baptist
Church, where she and later David and then their eldest son Michael and his wife and family have had
close connections ever since. By 1935 Jess knew that God wanted her back in China. By the end of
261
Amy Moore
PEARL HARBOUR
December 1941 brought the event that changed all our lives and took the whole world by surprise - the
bombing of Pearl Harbour by the Japanese. What was happening at Chefoo? Would the British
gunboats be taking our children off to some safe place as they had promised? Where were Percy’s
parents? Had they been able to get to Chefoo to see Raymond as they had hoped, and perhaps been
able to bring him home with them? These and many other questions filled our minds, but mails were
slower than ever and there was nothing we could do but sit and wait and pray. The local Chinese
papers were soon rejoicing in the announcement that Britain and the Commonwealth countries were
now officially at war with Japan, but our hearts were in Chefoo with our little boy as we prayed
continually that God would keep and protect him and bring him safely home. It was another four years
before we saw the answer to that prayer, but as we turned daily to God’s Word for some comfort or
assurance, He gave us the words of 2 Timothy 1:12:
“I know Whom I have believed and am sure that He is able to guard until that Day
what has been entrusted to me.” Or, as the NIV says, “what I have entrusted to Him
until that day.”
To that we clung through all those long agonising years until Raymond did at last come home again.
Jessie and David arrived just before Christmas. They had had a long tiring journey through all the
southern provinces of China after leaving Shanghai, then up through Guizhou and Sichuan until they
finally reached Hanzhong. With the Moores still not back, they came straight to us in Xixiang. Percy
had not seen his sister since he left Canada eleven years previously, and I had never met her.
Neither Percy nor I had ever met our new brother-in-law. We liked him at once and spent many hours
during the next few weeks just chatting, talking about the family and exchanging views and getting to
know each other. David told us all about his remarkable conversion which IVF has put into a little
booklet called, ‘God Intervenes’. His home was in Hereford and his parents were nominal Anglicans,
but David arrived at the University stage of his life knowing very little about the things of God or his
own need of salvation. In spite of that, God’s Hand was upon him and during his first few days at
Oxford he was soundly converted.
As he described what happened, he went on to say,
“It was not long before I discovered that life had changed altogether. For one thing
sport was definitely dethroned and could never dominate again. In temptation or
adversity I found Jesus Christ to be a Rock. A good many things passed out of my life
forever. Contract bridge, dancing and gambling and race meetings ceased to make
any sense at all and I parted from them without a shadow of regret. I began to seek
the will of God for my life and in due course I found it.”
It was in October 1938 that David arrived in China and for the first time met Jessie who was to become
his wife, though neither of them knew it at the time. After Chefoo, Jessie had gone to Toronto and
done a nursing course. Her parents were there with her and together they attended the Church where
TT Shields was the well known and rather controversial pastor. Some time after her parents left, Jess
protested about his criticisms of a friend of the Brownlees who were in charge of the CIM home. Her
name was promptly removed from the Church roll and she commenced attending Calvary Baptist
Church, where she and later David and then their eldest son Michael and his wife and family have had
close connections ever since. By 1935 Jess knew that God wanted her back in China. By the end of
261
