Page 274 - Three Score Years & Ten
P. 274
“THREE SCORE YEARS AND TEN” MISSIONARY WORK IN CHINA
Amy Moore
Alan is growing up fast and does lots of things now to help me. He
has taken a craze lately to get himself up in the morning, wash and
dress himself, do his hair all by himself and then make his bed. He
has rigged up a place for a wash basin, towel and flannel in his room,
and has a little mirror there too. He says he has a shave every
morning just like Daddy. He is very like his grandad Moore and likes
to have everything just so. He spends hours packing and unpacking
a box with all his things in, and arranging and rearranging the
furniture in his room. After he got over the measles, he amused
himself for a long time cutting out pretty pictures to paste on
cardboard and hang on the walls of their bedroom. The room looks
quite gay now with birds and animals and flowers.”
In Chefoo the children had all been moved to a Presbyterian School compound in Wei Xian which the
Japanese were using as a concentration camp for all non military personnel in north east China. Our
German friends in Chefoo who had been getting letters through to us were now no longer able to do
so, and we had to be dependent on the Red Cross. In Shanghai too our missionaries had all been
transferred from ‘house arrest’ in our compound to concentration camps and things were tightening up
everywhere. In my letter home I said,
“Oh for the day when wars will cease. I just long for a sight of
Raymond and would do anything to get him home, but that seems
more impossible than ever now.”
REFUGEES
As the Japanese advanced further into China, refugees were coming in increasing numbers from the
east through our province to Chongqing or Kunming further south to try and get planes out of China, if
they were Westerners, or just to find a safe place if they were Chinese. Some of them were Christians
who were glad to find a welcome in the Church. One Sunday a Mr. Chu was with us and gave his
testimony of how God had delivered him. He was not a young man and declared it was more than
one miracle which saved him and brought him out from the hands of the Japanese. First they tried to
shoot him, but the gun didn’t go off. Then they bound him with ropes and threw him into a well thirty
feet deep with five feet of water at the bottom. He said they threw him in head first and as he went
down into the water, he felt sure he was going to die. As he struggled he felt the ropes that bound him
loosen and fall off and he was able to tread water. Then he began to think that perhaps the Lord
wanted to save him, so he cried out, ‘Lord, save me!’ He said that as he cried out, he felt as if strong
hands lifted him to the top of the well and he was free. As he told this story to the Church full of
people, he said, “I am like the man born blind in John 9. People try to find one reason after another to
account for my escape, but none of them could get away from the fact that I was at the bottom of a 30
foot well in 5 feet of mud and water, bound hand and foot, and the Lord brought me out!” He felt he
must give his testimony wherever he went to the glory of God.
By 3 March it was diagnosed that what Jess had was sprue. (Sprue = Celiac Disease. This is a
condition that damages the lining of the small intestine and prevents it from absorbing parts of food
that are important for staying healthy. The damage is due to a reaction to eating gluten, which is found
in wheat, barley, rye, and possibly oats. ed.) The decision was made then that Percy’s mother
should bring the whole family down to Hanzhong where she could look after Jess and the twins in her
own home. David would then be able to help in the work among students which was increasing all the
time as more and more came over from the east. On 23 March they all arrived, after much excitement
274
Amy Moore
Alan is growing up fast and does lots of things now to help me. He
has taken a craze lately to get himself up in the morning, wash and
dress himself, do his hair all by himself and then make his bed. He
has rigged up a place for a wash basin, towel and flannel in his room,
and has a little mirror there too. He says he has a shave every
morning just like Daddy. He is very like his grandad Moore and likes
to have everything just so. He spends hours packing and unpacking
a box with all his things in, and arranging and rearranging the
furniture in his room. After he got over the measles, he amused
himself for a long time cutting out pretty pictures to paste on
cardboard and hang on the walls of their bedroom. The room looks
quite gay now with birds and animals and flowers.”
In Chefoo the children had all been moved to a Presbyterian School compound in Wei Xian which the
Japanese were using as a concentration camp for all non military personnel in north east China. Our
German friends in Chefoo who had been getting letters through to us were now no longer able to do
so, and we had to be dependent on the Red Cross. In Shanghai too our missionaries had all been
transferred from ‘house arrest’ in our compound to concentration camps and things were tightening up
everywhere. In my letter home I said,
“Oh for the day when wars will cease. I just long for a sight of
Raymond and would do anything to get him home, but that seems
more impossible than ever now.”
REFUGEES
As the Japanese advanced further into China, refugees were coming in increasing numbers from the
east through our province to Chongqing or Kunming further south to try and get planes out of China, if
they were Westerners, or just to find a safe place if they were Chinese. Some of them were Christians
who were glad to find a welcome in the Church. One Sunday a Mr. Chu was with us and gave his
testimony of how God had delivered him. He was not a young man and declared it was more than
one miracle which saved him and brought him out from the hands of the Japanese. First they tried to
shoot him, but the gun didn’t go off. Then they bound him with ropes and threw him into a well thirty
feet deep with five feet of water at the bottom. He said they threw him in head first and as he went
down into the water, he felt sure he was going to die. As he struggled he felt the ropes that bound him
loosen and fall off and he was able to tread water. Then he began to think that perhaps the Lord
wanted to save him, so he cried out, ‘Lord, save me!’ He said that as he cried out, he felt as if strong
hands lifted him to the top of the well and he was free. As he told this story to the Church full of
people, he said, “I am like the man born blind in John 9. People try to find one reason after another to
account for my escape, but none of them could get away from the fact that I was at the bottom of a 30
foot well in 5 feet of mud and water, bound hand and foot, and the Lord brought me out!” He felt he
must give his testimony wherever he went to the glory of God.
By 3 March it was diagnosed that what Jess had was sprue. (Sprue = Celiac Disease. This is a
condition that damages the lining of the small intestine and prevents it from absorbing parts of food
that are important for staying healthy. The damage is due to a reaction to eating gluten, which is found
in wheat, barley, rye, and possibly oats. ed.) The decision was made then that Percy’s mother
should bring the whole family down to Hanzhong where she could look after Jess and the twins in her
own home. David would then be able to help in the work among students which was increasing all the
time as more and more came over from the east. On 23 March they all arrived, after much excitement
274
