Page 299 - Three Score Years & Ten
P. 299
“THREE SCORE YEARS AND TEN” MISSIONARY WORK IN CHINA
Amy Moore
the few sheets she had sent back were such a dirty gray, but they had had to wash everything without
soap, so it was impossible to get things really clean.
FAMILY COMPLETE
At the beginning of 1946 we were still not a complete family all under one roof which was what made
‘home’ to me. Raymond was home at last after five long years, and he had made friends with his baby
sister who was three before he had ever seen her, so not a baby any more. Frank was making the
acquaintance of his big brother whom he did not remember as he had been just over a year old when
Raymond left us. Only Alan remembered him and had missed him and talked about him with
nostalgia, and Alan was still in India. The school party which was coming back to Shanghai had to
wait for a ship, and ships and planes were overbooked and overcrowded in those post war days with
people trying to get back to their home countries. Priority was given to the old, the ill, and to the
prisoners of war, and a school full of healthy children was not really considered a priority, even if they
had been separated from their parents for a long time. So had many English children who had spent
the war years in America or Canada. Separations were just a way of life in war time. That did not
keep us of course from longing impatiently for the last member of our family to come home.
The American Air Force were all disbanding and Percy’s work as a Chaplain for the group centred in
Hanzhong was really over as far as the American Government was concerned, though those still
remaining to clear up things at the Hanzhong base were still coming in and out to our home and to the
church services.
In January we were surprised by an official letter from the Headquarters of the US Forces (China
Theatre) written for the Head Chaplain by his deputy and enclosing a medal for civilian service and a
citation with thanks for his ‘contribution to the spiritual comfort of the members of the United States
Army on duty in China.’ It was nice to have his ‘war service’ recognised and appreciated. I thought of
all the pies and cakes I had made in that period and of our home which had been open to them all and
felt that the children and I had had our part in the war effort too.
We all went for Christmas to Xixiang and really enjoyed it and I felt as if I had had a real holiday after
months of hard work. We had glorious sunny weather most of the time and we were able to spend a
lot of the time down by the river. We had spent eight happy years at the beginning of our married life
at Xixiang and to the three boys it was the first home they had ever known. For Dorothy, Hanzhong
was home and she had never been to Xixiang. The women gave me a royal welcome as they had not
seen me for four years, and they all had to look at and exclaim over the little daughter the Lord had
given me since then. It never ceased to be a joke with them that I had always wanted a daughter
even though I had the ‘fu qi’ (pronounced ‘foo chee’ and meaning ‘happiness’ or ‘prosperity’) of three
sons. It did my heart good to see them all again. After all the struggles we had had to help them to
independence, they were probably one of the most independent now of all the South Shaanxi
churches and were not only completely self-supporting, but even paying to send an evangelist to a
church which had no church worker.
We arrived to back in Hanzhong to hear that the Xiao’s second son Joseph, had died. He was a
lovely fellow about 20, but had contracted TB and all their efforts to help him had failed. As soon as
we returned from Xixiang I went around to see Mrs. Xiao and she just wept and wept as she asked me
to pray for them. She said this sorrow was like a big black cloud over them and they were finding it
hard to get above it.
299
Amy Moore
the few sheets she had sent back were such a dirty gray, but they had had to wash everything without
soap, so it was impossible to get things really clean.
FAMILY COMPLETE
At the beginning of 1946 we were still not a complete family all under one roof which was what made
‘home’ to me. Raymond was home at last after five long years, and he had made friends with his baby
sister who was three before he had ever seen her, so not a baby any more. Frank was making the
acquaintance of his big brother whom he did not remember as he had been just over a year old when
Raymond left us. Only Alan remembered him and had missed him and talked about him with
nostalgia, and Alan was still in India. The school party which was coming back to Shanghai had to
wait for a ship, and ships and planes were overbooked and overcrowded in those post war days with
people trying to get back to their home countries. Priority was given to the old, the ill, and to the
prisoners of war, and a school full of healthy children was not really considered a priority, even if they
had been separated from their parents for a long time. So had many English children who had spent
the war years in America or Canada. Separations were just a way of life in war time. That did not
keep us of course from longing impatiently for the last member of our family to come home.
The American Air Force were all disbanding and Percy’s work as a Chaplain for the group centred in
Hanzhong was really over as far as the American Government was concerned, though those still
remaining to clear up things at the Hanzhong base were still coming in and out to our home and to the
church services.
In January we were surprised by an official letter from the Headquarters of the US Forces (China
Theatre) written for the Head Chaplain by his deputy and enclosing a medal for civilian service and a
citation with thanks for his ‘contribution to the spiritual comfort of the members of the United States
Army on duty in China.’ It was nice to have his ‘war service’ recognised and appreciated. I thought of
all the pies and cakes I had made in that period and of our home which had been open to them all and
felt that the children and I had had our part in the war effort too.
We all went for Christmas to Xixiang and really enjoyed it and I felt as if I had had a real holiday after
months of hard work. We had glorious sunny weather most of the time and we were able to spend a
lot of the time down by the river. We had spent eight happy years at the beginning of our married life
at Xixiang and to the three boys it was the first home they had ever known. For Dorothy, Hanzhong
was home and she had never been to Xixiang. The women gave me a royal welcome as they had not
seen me for four years, and they all had to look at and exclaim over the little daughter the Lord had
given me since then. It never ceased to be a joke with them that I had always wanted a daughter
even though I had the ‘fu qi’ (pronounced ‘foo chee’ and meaning ‘happiness’ or ‘prosperity’) of three
sons. It did my heart good to see them all again. After all the struggles we had had to help them to
independence, they were probably one of the most independent now of all the South Shaanxi
churches and were not only completely self-supporting, but even paying to send an evangelist to a
church which had no church worker.
We arrived to back in Hanzhong to hear that the Xiao’s second son Joseph, had died. He was a
lovely fellow about 20, but had contracted TB and all their efforts to help him had failed. As soon as
we returned from Xixiang I went around to see Mrs. Xiao and she just wept and wept as she asked me
to pray for them. She said this sorrow was like a big black cloud over them and they were finding it
hard to get above it.
299
