Page 314 - Three Score Years & Ten
P. 314
“THREE SCORE YEARS AND TEN” MISSIONARY WORK IN CHINA
Amy Moore
The weeks before Christmas I was busy trying to train the Sunday School children with some special
Christmas songs and a programme. When I first arrived in China I was surprised to find the Chinese
school children all learned singing by the Tonic Solfa method, but instead of writing doh, ray, me, they
wrote 1,2,3 and called them doh, ray, me. That made it very easy for me to teach them any song at all
because I was very familiar with the Tonic Solfa and could transcribe it from the music book if we did
not have it already. The children came in nearly every day to practise their songs and then we spent
some time decorating the church.
I did not manage to think of decorating our own rooms till the afternoon of Christmas Eve. In the
winter we ate and lived most of the time in our sitting room as it was much easier to keep one room
warm. Our heating was all done with charcoal and we had the same as all the Chinese had, a ‘huo
pen’ in the middle of the floor. It consisted of a low wooden stand with a kind of big iron ‘wok’ set in
the middle, raised about nine inches above the floor. The wok was filled with ashes on which was laid
pieces of red hot charcoal. A kettle could be stood on the wooden stand close enough to the charcoal
to bring it to the boil if necessary. It was one day when Dorothy was playing with her little friend Lili,
the Pastor’s daughter, that playing in their living room, they knocked the kettle over. Dorothy’s foot
was badly scalded and it took a long time before it really healed. She had the scar for the rest of her
life.
So on Christmas Eve I had the room warm and had just sent one of the children to cut a branch of
bamboo which I could use for a Christmas tree, when he came back shouting that two foreigners had
come in two big trucks and brought a Christmas tree with them. When I went to investigate I found it
was two of the Friends’ Ambulance Unit men. They had gone through to Xi’an some time before and
called in to see us and stayed the night as they often did. When they left, Percy had told them that if
they were anywhere near us at Christmas time they were welcome to spend it with us. Like all
members of the FAU, they were Quakers and pacifists, but they were willing to help the Army by
carrying stores or other things (not arms I think) and the Army were glad to use them. They were on
their way south again and as they came through the mountains, had stopped to cut a young fir tree for
us for a Christmas tree. They spent Christmas Day with us and they were grateful for a home in
which to spend it. I felt that they must have felt very lonely sometimes driving their big trucks up and
down China. Christmas Day was busy with the Church Service, quite a long one, in the morning and
Chinese visitors in and out all afternoon to wish us a happy Christmas and bring odds and ends of
gifts for Dorothy.
Next morning we were all up bright and early and had an early breakfast. The FAU boys wanted to
get on the road early. Percy had to get a bus to Xi’an, and Dorothy and I were going off to Chenggu for
a few days. By this time we had Mei Shui with us, a big girl of 16 whom nobody knew what to do with.
There seemed to be no will among Mr. Cawardine’s things, his son in England would take no
responsibility for her and his father did not seem to have made any arrangements for her. So for the
present she was with us and, as we were going to Chenggu, she wanted to go too as she had friends
there. Percy was going to Council meetings in Shanghai and would discuss her situation with HQ staff
there. In the meantime she lived with me. We stayed over the weekend at Chenggu and then on
Monday morning Bertha and Ruth, Sadie and Helen and also Faith Leeuenberg from Gansu who was
staying with Sadie over Christmas, all went back to Hanzhong with me.
The CIM Annual Day of Prayer was on 31 December. We spent it together in prayer and then on 1
and 2 January joined with our Chinese colleagues for prayer and discussion of the work. Jack Beck
came up from Xixiang and with Percy away it was good to have him there to speak for CIM affairs. It
was the first time too that our new young Hanzhong Pastor had been present at any of our Fellow
Workers Meetings, so we had an opportunity to get to know him a little. Dorothy’s friend Li was his
314
Amy Moore
The weeks before Christmas I was busy trying to train the Sunday School children with some special
Christmas songs and a programme. When I first arrived in China I was surprised to find the Chinese
school children all learned singing by the Tonic Solfa method, but instead of writing doh, ray, me, they
wrote 1,2,3 and called them doh, ray, me. That made it very easy for me to teach them any song at all
because I was very familiar with the Tonic Solfa and could transcribe it from the music book if we did
not have it already. The children came in nearly every day to practise their songs and then we spent
some time decorating the church.
I did not manage to think of decorating our own rooms till the afternoon of Christmas Eve. In the
winter we ate and lived most of the time in our sitting room as it was much easier to keep one room
warm. Our heating was all done with charcoal and we had the same as all the Chinese had, a ‘huo
pen’ in the middle of the floor. It consisted of a low wooden stand with a kind of big iron ‘wok’ set in
the middle, raised about nine inches above the floor. The wok was filled with ashes on which was laid
pieces of red hot charcoal. A kettle could be stood on the wooden stand close enough to the charcoal
to bring it to the boil if necessary. It was one day when Dorothy was playing with her little friend Lili,
the Pastor’s daughter, that playing in their living room, they knocked the kettle over. Dorothy’s foot
was badly scalded and it took a long time before it really healed. She had the scar for the rest of her
life.
So on Christmas Eve I had the room warm and had just sent one of the children to cut a branch of
bamboo which I could use for a Christmas tree, when he came back shouting that two foreigners had
come in two big trucks and brought a Christmas tree with them. When I went to investigate I found it
was two of the Friends’ Ambulance Unit men. They had gone through to Xi’an some time before and
called in to see us and stayed the night as they often did. When they left, Percy had told them that if
they were anywhere near us at Christmas time they were welcome to spend it with us. Like all
members of the FAU, they were Quakers and pacifists, but they were willing to help the Army by
carrying stores or other things (not arms I think) and the Army were glad to use them. They were on
their way south again and as they came through the mountains, had stopped to cut a young fir tree for
us for a Christmas tree. They spent Christmas Day with us and they were grateful for a home in
which to spend it. I felt that they must have felt very lonely sometimes driving their big trucks up and
down China. Christmas Day was busy with the Church Service, quite a long one, in the morning and
Chinese visitors in and out all afternoon to wish us a happy Christmas and bring odds and ends of
gifts for Dorothy.
Next morning we were all up bright and early and had an early breakfast. The FAU boys wanted to
get on the road early. Percy had to get a bus to Xi’an, and Dorothy and I were going off to Chenggu for
a few days. By this time we had Mei Shui with us, a big girl of 16 whom nobody knew what to do with.
There seemed to be no will among Mr. Cawardine’s things, his son in England would take no
responsibility for her and his father did not seem to have made any arrangements for her. So for the
present she was with us and, as we were going to Chenggu, she wanted to go too as she had friends
there. Percy was going to Council meetings in Shanghai and would discuss her situation with HQ staff
there. In the meantime she lived with me. We stayed over the weekend at Chenggu and then on
Monday morning Bertha and Ruth, Sadie and Helen and also Faith Leeuenberg from Gansu who was
staying with Sadie over Christmas, all went back to Hanzhong with me.
The CIM Annual Day of Prayer was on 31 December. We spent it together in prayer and then on 1
and 2 January joined with our Chinese colleagues for prayer and discussion of the work. Jack Beck
came up from Xixiang and with Percy away it was good to have him there to speak for CIM affairs. It
was the first time too that our new young Hanzhong Pastor had been present at any of our Fellow
Workers Meetings, so we had an opportunity to get to know him a little. Dorothy’s friend Li was his
314
