Page 268 - Three Score Years & Ten
P. 268
“THREE SCORE YEARS AND TEN” MISSIONARY WORK IN CHINA
Amy Moore
hours, but now they hardly come at all. There had been much prayer
concerning them as they spent so much time in our kitchens and with
our food carefully rationed things became a little difficult when a good
deal of our milk and bread was being tucked away.”
THAT LONG SUMMER
I called it a long summer. I think it was probably one of the hardest summers of my life and as I look
back and try to remember why that should have been so, I can see a number of contributing factors.
Firstly I was pregnant and feeling nauseated and unwell most of the time. I was probably missing
Xixiang with its roomy house and big garden, but also the work there which I had so enjoyed. In
Hanzhong I was a member of the Team and had my work as treasurer, but I had no other outlet,
whereas in Xixiang I was fully occupied with the work among the women and children as well as
regular visitation. Here I seemed to be in a backwater where my main occupation was caring for my
children and taking them for walks in the cooler part of the day to the nearby drill ground or up on the
city wall. Shaanxi summers are hot and humid, sapping all one’s energy and that July and August of
1942 were no exception.
Another thing which probably helped to make me feel depressed and unwell was the food situation. It
was impossible to get stores from the coast as we had always been able to previously, so we were
limited to what we could buy locally, not only limited to what we could buy, but to what we could afford
to buy. Inflation was going up and up. I wrote to my parents that
“Prices jump 100% overnight sometimes, and people just seem to ask
anything they like for things. Tea for instance was $40 per pound
when we bought it one week. By the next week it was up to $96. It
was the same tea but they heard it was being sold in Chongqing for
$100 per pound so up it went. An Australian pound (£) is changing for
about $60 so the price of tea is about £1.13.4d per pound. Our
problem of course is that the Chinese Government has fixed the rate
of exchange for the money coming in from other countries, so with
inflation rising daily the value of our pound (£) is decreasing all the
time.”
Thinking back, I can see that the food I was eating was probably not the best diet for a pregnant
woman.
Then of course there was the constant thought of Raymond. What was happening to my precious
son? Day after day brought no news and my heart longed to have him home with us. At that time
God gave us a word from Himself. “He is able to keep what you have committed to Him.” We clung to
that through all the years that followed.
I remember one hot August day going into the Church where it was cooler and sitting there crying and
feeling utterly miserable. Percy and his mother came looking for me and when they asked me what
was the trouble, I said, “I’m so sick of living like this.” I think I probably hit rock bottom that day
because I never remember feeling so bad again. It was probably that episode which made Percy and
his dad talk about a holiday. In every other province people got away every two years or so to a hill
resort to escape the worst of the summer heat. In South Shaanxi we had never been able to do this
because the mountains around us were full of bandits. We ourselves were governed by war lords and
often we were not sure which was the worst, the bandits or the war lords.
268
Amy Moore
hours, but now they hardly come at all. There had been much prayer
concerning them as they spent so much time in our kitchens and with
our food carefully rationed things became a little difficult when a good
deal of our milk and bread was being tucked away.”
THAT LONG SUMMER
I called it a long summer. I think it was probably one of the hardest summers of my life and as I look
back and try to remember why that should have been so, I can see a number of contributing factors.
Firstly I was pregnant and feeling nauseated and unwell most of the time. I was probably missing
Xixiang with its roomy house and big garden, but also the work there which I had so enjoyed. In
Hanzhong I was a member of the Team and had my work as treasurer, but I had no other outlet,
whereas in Xixiang I was fully occupied with the work among the women and children as well as
regular visitation. Here I seemed to be in a backwater where my main occupation was caring for my
children and taking them for walks in the cooler part of the day to the nearby drill ground or up on the
city wall. Shaanxi summers are hot and humid, sapping all one’s energy and that July and August of
1942 were no exception.
Another thing which probably helped to make me feel depressed and unwell was the food situation. It
was impossible to get stores from the coast as we had always been able to previously, so we were
limited to what we could buy locally, not only limited to what we could buy, but to what we could afford
to buy. Inflation was going up and up. I wrote to my parents that
“Prices jump 100% overnight sometimes, and people just seem to ask
anything they like for things. Tea for instance was $40 per pound
when we bought it one week. By the next week it was up to $96. It
was the same tea but they heard it was being sold in Chongqing for
$100 per pound so up it went. An Australian pound (£) is changing for
about $60 so the price of tea is about £1.13.4d per pound. Our
problem of course is that the Chinese Government has fixed the rate
of exchange for the money coming in from other countries, so with
inflation rising daily the value of our pound (£) is decreasing all the
time.”
Thinking back, I can see that the food I was eating was probably not the best diet for a pregnant
woman.
Then of course there was the constant thought of Raymond. What was happening to my precious
son? Day after day brought no news and my heart longed to have him home with us. At that time
God gave us a word from Himself. “He is able to keep what you have committed to Him.” We clung to
that through all the years that followed.
I remember one hot August day going into the Church where it was cooler and sitting there crying and
feeling utterly miserable. Percy and his mother came looking for me and when they asked me what
was the trouble, I said, “I’m so sick of living like this.” I think I probably hit rock bottom that day
because I never remember feeling so bad again. It was probably that episode which made Percy and
his dad talk about a holiday. In every other province people got away every two years or so to a hill
resort to escape the worst of the summer heat. In South Shaanxi we had never been able to do this
because the mountains around us were full of bandits. We ourselves were governed by war lords and
often we were not sure which was the worst, the bandits or the war lords.
268
