Page 281 - Three Score Years & Ten
P. 281
“THREE SCORE YEARS AND TEN” MISSIONARY WORK IN CHINA
Amy Moore
slept in his cot on the verandah, Arthur Raymond and Alan George came on their scooters to the back
door and told Grandma the milkman had come. We went all over it again and again every day, and
sometimes it was the milkman and at others it was the baker or the greengrocer. He never tired of
hearing about them.
END OF AN ERA 1945 - 1948
As 1945 dawned we had no idea what an eventful year it would prove to be. Mails were bad and news
only filtered through very slowly so it was quite some time before we knew that the war in Europe was
over, Hitler was dead and Germany had surrendered. It made little difference to us. The Japanese
were still bombing China and day by day large numbers of B24's moved over our heads towards
Japan. The noise was quite alarming and I was glad they were not enemy planes bombing us.
Letters dated September, October and November 1944 were only getting through to us in March and
April 1945 and seemed to have been held up somewhere in India. I kept writing to Raymond in Wei
Xian, but we had heard nothing from him for months.
Christmas 1944 was probably the best we had had as far as food was concerned since the war
started. I thought it would be the worst as my
stores were down to a minimum and what I could
buy on the street was either non existent or so
expensive I could not even think about it. To
make a Christmas cake or pudding seemed an
utter impossibility as I had used the last of my
dried fruit on the previous Christmas. However
Percy got back from Council meetings in
Chongqing with candied fruit from a place which
makes it down there, and one of the American
Airforce boys gave me some raisins, so I began to
think I might be able to manage something special
The CIM Mission Home and Church in
Hanzhong where both Arthur and Percy after all.
were Superintendents.
The two storey building on the left is the The story of my supply of baking powder is like the
Mission Home and the half of the building widow’s cruse of oil (2 Kings 4:1-7). Over and
nearest the camera was the visitors half over again I had nearly reached the end of it and
with the “Supers” and their families living over and over again new supply came from
in the other half. somewhere. Several times as refugees from
Japanese occupied provinces came through and
stayed with us for days or weeks, they would leave me the remains of any stores they were able to
bring out with them and often there would be some baking powder. When Percy’s parents went home,
his mother left me what she had over and that kept me going till November. Christmas looked like
being a very lean one till the dried fruit began to come in, but my baking powder was pretty low again.
I began to think of ways and means to substitute with Chinese yeast, but was not feeling too
281
Amy Moore
slept in his cot on the verandah, Arthur Raymond and Alan George came on their scooters to the back
door and told Grandma the milkman had come. We went all over it again and again every day, and
sometimes it was the milkman and at others it was the baker or the greengrocer. He never tired of
hearing about them.
END OF AN ERA 1945 - 1948
As 1945 dawned we had no idea what an eventful year it would prove to be. Mails were bad and news
only filtered through very slowly so it was quite some time before we knew that the war in Europe was
over, Hitler was dead and Germany had surrendered. It made little difference to us. The Japanese
were still bombing China and day by day large numbers of B24's moved over our heads towards
Japan. The noise was quite alarming and I was glad they were not enemy planes bombing us.
Letters dated September, October and November 1944 were only getting through to us in March and
April 1945 and seemed to have been held up somewhere in India. I kept writing to Raymond in Wei
Xian, but we had heard nothing from him for months.
Christmas 1944 was probably the best we had had as far as food was concerned since the war
started. I thought it would be the worst as my
stores were down to a minimum and what I could
buy on the street was either non existent or so
expensive I could not even think about it. To
make a Christmas cake or pudding seemed an
utter impossibility as I had used the last of my
dried fruit on the previous Christmas. However
Percy got back from Council meetings in
Chongqing with candied fruit from a place which
makes it down there, and one of the American
Airforce boys gave me some raisins, so I began to
think I might be able to manage something special
The CIM Mission Home and Church in
Hanzhong where both Arthur and Percy after all.
were Superintendents.
The two storey building on the left is the The story of my supply of baking powder is like the
Mission Home and the half of the building widow’s cruse of oil (2 Kings 4:1-7). Over and
nearest the camera was the visitors half over again I had nearly reached the end of it and
with the “Supers” and their families living over and over again new supply came from
in the other half. somewhere. Several times as refugees from
Japanese occupied provinces came through and
stayed with us for days or weeks, they would leave me the remains of any stores they were able to
bring out with them and often there would be some baking powder. When Percy’s parents went home,
his mother left me what she had over and that kept me going till November. Christmas looked like
being a very lean one till the dried fruit began to come in, but my baking powder was pretty low again.
I began to think of ways and means to substitute with Chinese yeast, but was not feeling too
281
