Page 308 - Three Score Years & Ten
P. 308
“THREE SCORE YEARS AND TEN” MISSIONARY WORK IN CHINA
Amy Moore
might be, if you got that number you were the server. The servers were also responsible for filling the
empty bowls at each meal. Drawing tickets meant that on the whole one was at a different table and
next to a different person for each meal, and everybody took their turn at serving. The first meeting
was a devotional one from 9am to 10am with a different speaker each day, and the rest of the day till
5pm was given to business. Fred brought us some very helpful messages from the Word of God.
With so many of us either on furlough of having left the field, there were only seven of us western
workers there, but the churches were well represented. There were 12 workers altogether from both
southern and northern churches, and we felt a real sense of unity between us as we prayed and
planned for God’s Church in Shaanxi. We planned a Short Term Bible School for the last two weeks
in the month at Chenggu and invited two students from the Bible College in Baoji to come during the
holidays and help with open air preaching in each church. Young Mr. Zhang from Yang Xian would
move with his wife to Ningqiang in the hope that change would be a help to him.
A couple called Wei who had a good tailoring business in the city had decided to sell their business
and do full time Christian work in Baocheng, and the feeling of the meeting was that it would be good if
they could go to the Bible School in Baoji in the autumn. They would probably need financial help
from the churches, but as the Lord was blessing the churches surely He would pour out on them a
spirit of liberality so that the needs of all His servants would be met. Moving Bertha and Ruth to
Chenggu was an effort to help and revive the church there, and the Hanzhong church was pledging
itself to an effort to revive and strengthen the small group at the 18 li village.
Things were happening too in the Bible School at Baoji with the Back to Jerusalem Band. In May a
business meeting was called, a constitution drawn up and officers elected with Pastor Ma as
Chairman and Mr. Liu Beifang as Business Manager. It was to be interdenominational, made up of
people who accepted the whole Bible as God’s Word. Their aim was to preach the Gospel and so to
hasten the Second Coming of the Lord, and their sphere of work was to be the seven provinces on the
western borders of China and the seven countries on the borders of Asia stretching as far as Pakistan.
The first two to go forward were Macca Zhao and another young man called Timothy Tai. A Miss
Helen Bailey from Henan felt God was calling her to go too, and so she joined them. It was felt that as
an older experienced worker who had been many years in China, she could be a help to the other two,
so her offer was accepted gladly.
After much hard travel and many difficulties, they got as far as Xining and the shores of Lake Kokonor
and finally reached Kashgar where they settled for a time to try and learn the language and evangelise
the area. It was March 1947 before five young women set out from Baoji for the northwest and long
journey to Xinjiang.
With the war over and transport a little easier, we were beginning to hope for missionaries from home
countries to be able to return to us. So in August 1946 it was a great joy one morning to look through
the dining room window and see Sadie Custer walking up the path. She had just got in from Shanghai
and two days later Helen Dalton arrived. What excitement! And how we enjoyed seeing all the lovely
things they had brought back from America. They told us things were very scarce and very expensive
in America, but to us who had been living in China, America seemed like the ‘land of plenty’, especially
when we saw all they had managed to bring back with them. Sadie gave me a new silk dress, a pair
of shoes and a woollen cardigan, and I found it really thrilling to have something new to wear. It was
six years since I had had either a new dress or a new pair of shoes, and I certainly enjoyed the
sensation. She knew all the latest hair styles to try out on us and also had a full set of flannelgraph to
use in her meetings.
308
Amy Moore
might be, if you got that number you were the server. The servers were also responsible for filling the
empty bowls at each meal. Drawing tickets meant that on the whole one was at a different table and
next to a different person for each meal, and everybody took their turn at serving. The first meeting
was a devotional one from 9am to 10am with a different speaker each day, and the rest of the day till
5pm was given to business. Fred brought us some very helpful messages from the Word of God.
With so many of us either on furlough of having left the field, there were only seven of us western
workers there, but the churches were well represented. There were 12 workers altogether from both
southern and northern churches, and we felt a real sense of unity between us as we prayed and
planned for God’s Church in Shaanxi. We planned a Short Term Bible School for the last two weeks
in the month at Chenggu and invited two students from the Bible College in Baoji to come during the
holidays and help with open air preaching in each church. Young Mr. Zhang from Yang Xian would
move with his wife to Ningqiang in the hope that change would be a help to him.
A couple called Wei who had a good tailoring business in the city had decided to sell their business
and do full time Christian work in Baocheng, and the feeling of the meeting was that it would be good if
they could go to the Bible School in Baoji in the autumn. They would probably need financial help
from the churches, but as the Lord was blessing the churches surely He would pour out on them a
spirit of liberality so that the needs of all His servants would be met. Moving Bertha and Ruth to
Chenggu was an effort to help and revive the church there, and the Hanzhong church was pledging
itself to an effort to revive and strengthen the small group at the 18 li village.
Things were happening too in the Bible School at Baoji with the Back to Jerusalem Band. In May a
business meeting was called, a constitution drawn up and officers elected with Pastor Ma as
Chairman and Mr. Liu Beifang as Business Manager. It was to be interdenominational, made up of
people who accepted the whole Bible as God’s Word. Their aim was to preach the Gospel and so to
hasten the Second Coming of the Lord, and their sphere of work was to be the seven provinces on the
western borders of China and the seven countries on the borders of Asia stretching as far as Pakistan.
The first two to go forward were Macca Zhao and another young man called Timothy Tai. A Miss
Helen Bailey from Henan felt God was calling her to go too, and so she joined them. It was felt that as
an older experienced worker who had been many years in China, she could be a help to the other two,
so her offer was accepted gladly.
After much hard travel and many difficulties, they got as far as Xining and the shores of Lake Kokonor
and finally reached Kashgar where they settled for a time to try and learn the language and evangelise
the area. It was March 1947 before five young women set out from Baoji for the northwest and long
journey to Xinjiang.
With the war over and transport a little easier, we were beginning to hope for missionaries from home
countries to be able to return to us. So in August 1946 it was a great joy one morning to look through
the dining room window and see Sadie Custer walking up the path. She had just got in from Shanghai
and two days later Helen Dalton arrived. What excitement! And how we enjoyed seeing all the lovely
things they had brought back from America. They told us things were very scarce and very expensive
in America, but to us who had been living in China, America seemed like the ‘land of plenty’, especially
when we saw all they had managed to bring back with them. Sadie gave me a new silk dress, a pair
of shoes and a woollen cardigan, and I found it really thrilling to have something new to wear. It was
six years since I had had either a new dress or a new pair of shoes, and I certainly enjoyed the
sensation. She knew all the latest hair styles to try out on us and also had a full set of flannelgraph to
use in her meetings.
308
