Page 304 - Three Score Years & Ten
P. 304
“THREE SCORE YEARS AND TEN” MISSIONARY WORK IN CHINA
Amy Moore
to look after some business transaction for him and Pastor Niu helped me untangle many a problem.
The meeting of workers had asked Bertha and Ruth Saunders who was still with us, to go to Chenggu.
The students had moved on, either back to the coast or to Xi’an , and the Contentos had moved to
Xi’an too. It was felt by the Chinese leaders that two lady missionaries could be a great help in
building up the church which was never very strong there anyway. For the first time for years we
found ourselves alone as a family and it was a lovely feeling to feel we could please ourselves what
time we had our meals or did other things. I was rejoicing that I could catch up on some of the jobs
that needed doing round home and also get some church visiting done to help the church
deaconesses in their work a little. With 200 - 700 people at services and some of them living miles
from the church, it was not easy to keep up with them all.
My joy was short lived. At the end of May Dorothy went down with bronchitis and, as her temperature
was quite high I felt I must keep her in bed. She was such a little scamp that even with a high
temperature, she was still so lively that it was hard to keep her in bed and one of us needed to sit by
her till she went to sleep.
I was always amazed and thankful for the way in which the Lord kept us from the many dangers and
diseases which were all around us. One afternoon, after Dorothy was better, she wanted to go for a
walk. As it was still quite early for her to go to bed, I took her round to visit one of my Sunday School
children. We were nearly to their house which opens out on to one of the main streets, and saw the
child’s father sitting on a stool on the sidewalk holding the baby. When I got closer I was horrified to
see that the baby was covered in smallpox sores. I hated to turn away from them and, had it only
been myself, I would not have done so, but I did not want to expose Dorothy to infection. To my relief
the father called out that the child I had come to see was down by the riverside and the mother had
gone out, so I did not stop.
We had all had our annual injections against smallpox, so it was probably alright, but here was this
sick child right out on the main street with people coming and going all round her, and her brothers
and sisters were coming regularly to Sunday School. In fact, on the previous Sunday they had been
sitting with our children at church and I had had no idea that they had smallpox in the house.
Teaching Raymond and Frank from 9am to noon each day kept me busy all morning, and to try and
get a little more visitation done in the afternoon, I got out the old Mission bicycle and decided to take
up cycling again instead of walking everywhere. It had been quite a long time since I had been using
a bicycle. In China, up to now, I had walked everywhere with some of the church women. I was pretty
wobbly at first, but after the first few days and numerous spills, I began to feel at home on it again.
Percy and the children all cheered me loudly and picked me up when I fell down, and pumped up my
tyres when they were flat and, with so much encouragement, what could I do but persevere. At least I
felt I could go with Percy and the boys when they wanted to take Dorothy and go down to the
riverside.
Another move which the end of the war brought about was that of the NW Bible School which, up to
this time had been based in Fengxiang. The meeting of trustees in 1946 decided that, when a
suitable place became available, they should move to Baoji and carry on. We were all glad about this
as we feared they might want to leave the province altogether, but in Baoji they would be even more
central and accessible to the whole province.
Percy spent a lot of time with Fred in the north at this time trying to form a Union of the churches in the
north such as we had in the south. To make all our churches independent was our aim, but to unite
them together for spiritual help and teaching seemed necessary as well. Percy took Dr. Xiao with him
304
Amy Moore
to look after some business transaction for him and Pastor Niu helped me untangle many a problem.
The meeting of workers had asked Bertha and Ruth Saunders who was still with us, to go to Chenggu.
The students had moved on, either back to the coast or to Xi’an , and the Contentos had moved to
Xi’an too. It was felt by the Chinese leaders that two lady missionaries could be a great help in
building up the church which was never very strong there anyway. For the first time for years we
found ourselves alone as a family and it was a lovely feeling to feel we could please ourselves what
time we had our meals or did other things. I was rejoicing that I could catch up on some of the jobs
that needed doing round home and also get some church visiting done to help the church
deaconesses in their work a little. With 200 - 700 people at services and some of them living miles
from the church, it was not easy to keep up with them all.
My joy was short lived. At the end of May Dorothy went down with bronchitis and, as her temperature
was quite high I felt I must keep her in bed. She was such a little scamp that even with a high
temperature, she was still so lively that it was hard to keep her in bed and one of us needed to sit by
her till she went to sleep.
I was always amazed and thankful for the way in which the Lord kept us from the many dangers and
diseases which were all around us. One afternoon, after Dorothy was better, she wanted to go for a
walk. As it was still quite early for her to go to bed, I took her round to visit one of my Sunday School
children. We were nearly to their house which opens out on to one of the main streets, and saw the
child’s father sitting on a stool on the sidewalk holding the baby. When I got closer I was horrified to
see that the baby was covered in smallpox sores. I hated to turn away from them and, had it only
been myself, I would not have done so, but I did not want to expose Dorothy to infection. To my relief
the father called out that the child I had come to see was down by the riverside and the mother had
gone out, so I did not stop.
We had all had our annual injections against smallpox, so it was probably alright, but here was this
sick child right out on the main street with people coming and going all round her, and her brothers
and sisters were coming regularly to Sunday School. In fact, on the previous Sunday they had been
sitting with our children at church and I had had no idea that they had smallpox in the house.
Teaching Raymond and Frank from 9am to noon each day kept me busy all morning, and to try and
get a little more visitation done in the afternoon, I got out the old Mission bicycle and decided to take
up cycling again instead of walking everywhere. It had been quite a long time since I had been using
a bicycle. In China, up to now, I had walked everywhere with some of the church women. I was pretty
wobbly at first, but after the first few days and numerous spills, I began to feel at home on it again.
Percy and the children all cheered me loudly and picked me up when I fell down, and pumped up my
tyres when they were flat and, with so much encouragement, what could I do but persevere. At least I
felt I could go with Percy and the boys when they wanted to take Dorothy and go down to the
riverside.
Another move which the end of the war brought about was that of the NW Bible School which, up to
this time had been based in Fengxiang. The meeting of trustees in 1946 decided that, when a
suitable place became available, they should move to Baoji and carry on. We were all glad about this
as we feared they might want to leave the province altogether, but in Baoji they would be even more
central and accessible to the whole province.
Percy spent a lot of time with Fred in the north at this time trying to form a Union of the churches in the
north such as we had in the south. To make all our churches independent was our aim, but to unite
them together for spiritual help and teaching seemed necessary as well. Percy took Dr. Xiao with him
304
