Page 262 - Three Score Years & Ten
P. 262
“THREE SCORE YEARS AND TEN” MISSIONARY WORK IN CHINA
Amy Moore
1938, she was back in Shanghai and, to her great disappointment, was not sent to work among the
Chinese people, but was asked to be the school nurse at Chefoo.
When David arrived in Shanghai, Jessie was relieving one of the nurses there and so was the one
who had to give all the new workers their injections for cholera. She didn’t see him again till 1940
when, after a brief period for language study, she was once again in Chefoo working with Dr. Howie.
By that time David was living and teaching in the Boys’ School by the sea at the other end of the
compound, and rarely went near the hospital.
In August 1940 he resigned from the CIM to try and work with Watchman Nee. He was quickly
disillusioned with their life style and, on Bishop Houghton’s invitation, rejoined the CIM and by early
1941 was back in Chefoo. He and Jess became engaged the next day and on 4 March were married
in Shanghai. Jess had invited Laura Robinson to be her bridesmaid. She was a fellow nurse from the
Shanghai hospital. Because her parents were not there, she was given away by her mother’s brother,
George Findlay Andrew who, with his wife Auntie Fan and their son Les, were all at the wedding.
George and Fanny left for Canada four days later, but returned to Singapore on 5 November 1941 for
Uncle to take up work with the British and Chinese Governments at the wartime capital of Chongqing.
A week later on 13 November their only daughter died at Chefoo after an appendix operation.
After a short honeymoon, Jess and David began the long overland trip through South China to the
west and north to Gansu where they had been appointed to work at Lanzhou, the city where both
Percy and Jessie had been born. On 29 December, while Jess and David were with us in Xixiang, we
received news that the ‘Sydney’ had been sunk with all lives lost. My cousin Harry Tassell was on
board and my heart was very much with Auntie Elsie and Uncle Percy in this first big loss in their
family, and of course with Debbie his wife, and the two little girls.
DECISION TO MOVE TO HANZHONG
So we came to our last months in Xixiang. We were fêted and feasted, and I think the Church were
genuinely sorry to see us go. I was always amused that in China when there was to be any kind of a
feast, all the beggars seemed to know by instinct when it was being planned. There was a ‘beggar’s
union’ in Xixiang as in most places, and before the day of the feast, a representative of the union
would come round to see the host family to make arrangements with them. According to the number of
tables being planned (eight people to a table) the union would send round a certain number of
beggars to be fed and given alms to. This was actually quite a good arrangement in that it prevented
all the beggars in town landing at the feast causing embarrassment, not only to the host family, but to
their guests as well.
The move to Hanzhong was made early in 1942. By this time I was pregnant again and we had heard
from Jess in Lanzhou that she too was pregnant and expecting their first child sometime in late August
or early September. Percy’s parents were now settled back in Hanzhong after a long, tiring and
dangerous journey along the Burma Road from India, into West China, then up through Yunnan,
Guizhou and Sichuan to Hanzhong. The MacIntoshes had been moved up to Lanzhou in Gansu.
We had actually had a trip to Hanzhong sometime before our move there because we had had a wire
from Chengdu to say the Moores had left and we wanted to be in Hanzhong to welcome them back.
Unfortunately they had a breakdown and were held up for five days. We waited and waited and had
almost decided that we could wait no longer and we must go back without seeing them. Then quite
unexpectedly they arrived. I was in the sitting room reading and Percy was down at the office near the
back gate. He came back after a while and I didn’t look up all at once. When I did, he was just
262
Amy Moore
1938, she was back in Shanghai and, to her great disappointment, was not sent to work among the
Chinese people, but was asked to be the school nurse at Chefoo.
When David arrived in Shanghai, Jessie was relieving one of the nurses there and so was the one
who had to give all the new workers their injections for cholera. She didn’t see him again till 1940
when, after a brief period for language study, she was once again in Chefoo working with Dr. Howie.
By that time David was living and teaching in the Boys’ School by the sea at the other end of the
compound, and rarely went near the hospital.
In August 1940 he resigned from the CIM to try and work with Watchman Nee. He was quickly
disillusioned with their life style and, on Bishop Houghton’s invitation, rejoined the CIM and by early
1941 was back in Chefoo. He and Jess became engaged the next day and on 4 March were married
in Shanghai. Jess had invited Laura Robinson to be her bridesmaid. She was a fellow nurse from the
Shanghai hospital. Because her parents were not there, she was given away by her mother’s brother,
George Findlay Andrew who, with his wife Auntie Fan and their son Les, were all at the wedding.
George and Fanny left for Canada four days later, but returned to Singapore on 5 November 1941 for
Uncle to take up work with the British and Chinese Governments at the wartime capital of Chongqing.
A week later on 13 November their only daughter died at Chefoo after an appendix operation.
After a short honeymoon, Jess and David began the long overland trip through South China to the
west and north to Gansu where they had been appointed to work at Lanzhou, the city where both
Percy and Jessie had been born. On 29 December, while Jess and David were with us in Xixiang, we
received news that the ‘Sydney’ had been sunk with all lives lost. My cousin Harry Tassell was on
board and my heart was very much with Auntie Elsie and Uncle Percy in this first big loss in their
family, and of course with Debbie his wife, and the two little girls.
DECISION TO MOVE TO HANZHONG
So we came to our last months in Xixiang. We were fêted and feasted, and I think the Church were
genuinely sorry to see us go. I was always amused that in China when there was to be any kind of a
feast, all the beggars seemed to know by instinct when it was being planned. There was a ‘beggar’s
union’ in Xixiang as in most places, and before the day of the feast, a representative of the union
would come round to see the host family to make arrangements with them. According to the number of
tables being planned (eight people to a table) the union would send round a certain number of
beggars to be fed and given alms to. This was actually quite a good arrangement in that it prevented
all the beggars in town landing at the feast causing embarrassment, not only to the host family, but to
their guests as well.
The move to Hanzhong was made early in 1942. By this time I was pregnant again and we had heard
from Jess in Lanzhou that she too was pregnant and expecting their first child sometime in late August
or early September. Percy’s parents were now settled back in Hanzhong after a long, tiring and
dangerous journey along the Burma Road from India, into West China, then up through Yunnan,
Guizhou and Sichuan to Hanzhong. The MacIntoshes had been moved up to Lanzhou in Gansu.
We had actually had a trip to Hanzhong sometime before our move there because we had had a wire
from Chengdu to say the Moores had left and we wanted to be in Hanzhong to welcome them back.
Unfortunately they had a breakdown and were held up for five days. We waited and waited and had
almost decided that we could wait no longer and we must go back without seeing them. Then quite
unexpectedly they arrived. I was in the sitting room reading and Percy was down at the office near the
back gate. He came back after a while and I didn’t look up all at once. When I did, he was just
262
