Page 293 - Three Score Years & Ten
P. 293
“THREE SCORE YEARS AND TEN” MISSIONARY WORK IN CHINA
Amy Moore
Next came a letter from Kathleen Heath who was in the Bible School at Fengxiang, “There was great
excitement last night when the four Taylor children walked in. Your Raymond would have been with
them, but he has been taken on to Kunming with a fractured wrist.”
That was all, and again we were left wondering and waiting! But at least this time we could do
something. Percy went straight down to the airfield and wired to the Chief Chaplain in Kunming asking
him to contact the CIM and Raymond and send him home to us as soon as possible. The next day we
received a telegram from Bill Tyler, our missionary in charge in Kunming, “Raymond here safe and
well. Will send on to Hanzhong or Xi’an as soon as transport is available.”
So we waited again. Telegrams took eight days, so no point in sending one, and nothing we could do
till he came. That was the longest ten days of the whole five years. Prior to this, Air Force planes had
been going up and down between the major cities of Free China all the time, but now with the war at
an end and American GIs returning home, there were not so many. On a Sunday morning while we
still waited, one of the Chinese nurses attached to the Army, came to our Sunday morning service.
She had come do wn from Xi’an the day before in an Army plane. Half jokingly I said, “You didn’t see
a small boy of about 11 with
his arm in a sling anywhere
on the airfield in Xi’an, did
you?” “Well,” she said, “as
a matter of fact there was a
boy about that age there,
but I didn’t know who he
was.” I groaned as I
thought that it could be
Raymond, and Nancy could
so easily have brought him
back with her, but we still
had no news that he had left
Kunming. I walked to the
gate with Nancy and, as I
Nancy Chang thought she left her and turned back
had seen Raymond in
Xi’an, but he had been towards the Church, a
mistakenly taken many telegram came from Xi’an
miles south to Kunming “Your boy is here. Please
(right).
He had broken his arm in arrange escort to
the last days in Hanzhong.” It must have
concentration camp while been our boy Nancy had
chasing after one of the seen.
US Air Force
liberators! We were two full days by
bus from Baoji where the
railway connected with Xi’an, and a half a day after that before we could reach Xi’an. Buses were
neither frequent nor regular, and when they did go, there were so often breakdowns and delays that
precious hours were often spent by the roadside. The ‘buses’ of course were not buses as we know
them, but open trucks with goods and luggage piled high on the back and passengers climbed on top
to go wherever they had bought their ticket for. ‘Bus’ was just a courtesy title. How could we get to
Xi’an quickly and bring Raymond home?
293
Amy Moore
Next came a letter from Kathleen Heath who was in the Bible School at Fengxiang, “There was great
excitement last night when the four Taylor children walked in. Your Raymond would have been with
them, but he has been taken on to Kunming with a fractured wrist.”
That was all, and again we were left wondering and waiting! But at least this time we could do
something. Percy went straight down to the airfield and wired to the Chief Chaplain in Kunming asking
him to contact the CIM and Raymond and send him home to us as soon as possible. The next day we
received a telegram from Bill Tyler, our missionary in charge in Kunming, “Raymond here safe and
well. Will send on to Hanzhong or Xi’an as soon as transport is available.”
So we waited again. Telegrams took eight days, so no point in sending one, and nothing we could do
till he came. That was the longest ten days of the whole five years. Prior to this, Air Force planes had
been going up and down between the major cities of Free China all the time, but now with the war at
an end and American GIs returning home, there were not so many. On a Sunday morning while we
still waited, one of the Chinese nurses attached to the Army, came to our Sunday morning service.
She had come do wn from Xi’an the day before in an Army plane. Half jokingly I said, “You didn’t see
a small boy of about 11 with
his arm in a sling anywhere
on the airfield in Xi’an, did
you?” “Well,” she said, “as
a matter of fact there was a
boy about that age there,
but I didn’t know who he
was.” I groaned as I
thought that it could be
Raymond, and Nancy could
so easily have brought him
back with her, but we still
had no news that he had left
Kunming. I walked to the
gate with Nancy and, as I
Nancy Chang thought she left her and turned back
had seen Raymond in
Xi’an, but he had been towards the Church, a
mistakenly taken many telegram came from Xi’an
miles south to Kunming “Your boy is here. Please
(right).
He had broken his arm in arrange escort to
the last days in Hanzhong.” It must have
concentration camp while been our boy Nancy had
chasing after one of the seen.
US Air Force
liberators! We were two full days by
bus from Baoji where the
railway connected with Xi’an, and a half a day after that before we could reach Xi’an. Buses were
neither frequent nor regular, and when they did go, there were so often breakdowns and delays that
precious hours were often spent by the roadside. The ‘buses’ of course were not buses as we know
them, but open trucks with goods and luggage piled high on the back and passengers climbed on top
to go wherever they had bought their ticket for. ‘Bus’ was just a courtesy title. How could we get to
Xi’an quickly and bring Raymond home?
293
