Page 317 - Three Score Years & Ten
P. 317
“THREE SCORE YEARS AND TEN” MISSIONARY WORK IN CHINA
Amy Moore
hear tales later from other people about where she had been and what she had been doing. The
Pastor had rebuked her on one occasion and she was really rude to him in answering him back.
Percy decided this could not go on and I certainly did not have time to watch her all the time, so we
formed a committee of some of the Chinese people who had been friends of Mr. Carwardine and knew
him and Mei Shui very well. They suggested we should arrange a marriage for her with a Chenggu
boy who knew her well and would like to marry her. He was quite a nice fellow and we were happy
with this suggestion, but she was not happy and we discovered she had been meeting some fellow in
Hanzhong who she said wanted to marry her. I asked her why, if he wanted to marry her, he did not
come to us through a middleman and say he would like to marry her in the proper Chinese way. The
committee had moved a Mrs. Liu to be their middleman for her affairs, so I told her about this man in
Hanzhong. She made enquiries about him and found out he came from Shandong and would be
returning home soon. She came to the same conclusion that I had, that he was only playing with Mei
Shui and had no intention of marrying her. She herself cooled off a bit too when she realised he was
going to Shandong, and if she went with him it would be a long way from all her friends. In the end a
very nice young man in the Hanzhong church asked for her hand in marriage and, as Mei Shui
seemed happy about that, it looked as if her affairs would soon be settled.
Fred Smith and his family were going on furlough in 1947 and, as he was the Assistant
Superintendent, we would have to wait till 1948 for our furlough, that is till Fred was back and able to
take over the responsibility for Percy’s work. The school holidays were getting close and we were
longing to have the boys home again, but wishing air fares were not so high so that they could come
and go more quickly than by road or train. Travel to and from Shanghai was going to take so much
time of our summer together. Then our loving Heavenly Father showed His loving care once again. A
letter from the Financial Department in Shanghai said an anonymous gift had been paid into our
account to cover the fares of all our three boys to fly home for the summer holidays. Our hearts were
full of praise as we wrote to tell the boys.
Chefoo School was not closing for the long summer holidays till 23 July, but with our being able to pay
for them to come home by plane, we could expect them home soon after that. We were beginning to
count the days.
In the meantime in Western Australia my father died on 6 May 1947, but with the slowness of mails I
did not know for quite a few weeks after that. He had been unwell for some time so it did not come as
a surprise, but I felt sad for my mother and the family and wished I could have been with them at that
time and sad too that I had not been able to see my father again. It was nearly seven years since we
had returned from our furlough in Australia.
My father was a staunch Methodist all his life, having been brought up in the Neil Street Methodist
Church in Ballarat. His twin brothers, Jack and Frank became Methodist ministers in Australia where
they served in churches in Victoria and also Western Australia, but later both of them went to South
Africa where they spent the rest of their lives and where members of their family still live.
When Father moved to Northam in Western Australia, he found a thriving active Methodist Church
there and promptly joined it. It was there he met and married my mother. Her family were all Baptists,
but as there was no Baptist Church in Northam they too attended the Methodist Church. Years later
when we moved from Brown Hill down to Bayswater, we attended both Methodist and Baptist
Churches at different times according to which was nearest, and most of us children eventually
became members of the Bayswater Baptist Church. After we left home, my parents were still
attending that church which was quite close to our home. But my mother sensed that there were
things about the Methodist Church which my father still missed, so she told him she would be quite
317
Amy Moore
hear tales later from other people about where she had been and what she had been doing. The
Pastor had rebuked her on one occasion and she was really rude to him in answering him back.
Percy decided this could not go on and I certainly did not have time to watch her all the time, so we
formed a committee of some of the Chinese people who had been friends of Mr. Carwardine and knew
him and Mei Shui very well. They suggested we should arrange a marriage for her with a Chenggu
boy who knew her well and would like to marry her. He was quite a nice fellow and we were happy
with this suggestion, but she was not happy and we discovered she had been meeting some fellow in
Hanzhong who she said wanted to marry her. I asked her why, if he wanted to marry her, he did not
come to us through a middleman and say he would like to marry her in the proper Chinese way. The
committee had moved a Mrs. Liu to be their middleman for her affairs, so I told her about this man in
Hanzhong. She made enquiries about him and found out he came from Shandong and would be
returning home soon. She came to the same conclusion that I had, that he was only playing with Mei
Shui and had no intention of marrying her. She herself cooled off a bit too when she realised he was
going to Shandong, and if she went with him it would be a long way from all her friends. In the end a
very nice young man in the Hanzhong church asked for her hand in marriage and, as Mei Shui
seemed happy about that, it looked as if her affairs would soon be settled.
Fred Smith and his family were going on furlough in 1947 and, as he was the Assistant
Superintendent, we would have to wait till 1948 for our furlough, that is till Fred was back and able to
take over the responsibility for Percy’s work. The school holidays were getting close and we were
longing to have the boys home again, but wishing air fares were not so high so that they could come
and go more quickly than by road or train. Travel to and from Shanghai was going to take so much
time of our summer together. Then our loving Heavenly Father showed His loving care once again. A
letter from the Financial Department in Shanghai said an anonymous gift had been paid into our
account to cover the fares of all our three boys to fly home for the summer holidays. Our hearts were
full of praise as we wrote to tell the boys.
Chefoo School was not closing for the long summer holidays till 23 July, but with our being able to pay
for them to come home by plane, we could expect them home soon after that. We were beginning to
count the days.
In the meantime in Western Australia my father died on 6 May 1947, but with the slowness of mails I
did not know for quite a few weeks after that. He had been unwell for some time so it did not come as
a surprise, but I felt sad for my mother and the family and wished I could have been with them at that
time and sad too that I had not been able to see my father again. It was nearly seven years since we
had returned from our furlough in Australia.
My father was a staunch Methodist all his life, having been brought up in the Neil Street Methodist
Church in Ballarat. His twin brothers, Jack and Frank became Methodist ministers in Australia where
they served in churches in Victoria and also Western Australia, but later both of them went to South
Africa where they spent the rest of their lives and where members of their family still live.
When Father moved to Northam in Western Australia, he found a thriving active Methodist Church
there and promptly joined it. It was there he met and married my mother. Her family were all Baptists,
but as there was no Baptist Church in Northam they too attended the Methodist Church. Years later
when we moved from Brown Hill down to Bayswater, we attended both Methodist and Baptist
Churches at different times according to which was nearest, and most of us children eventually
became members of the Bayswater Baptist Church. After we left home, my parents were still
attending that church which was quite close to our home. But my mother sensed that there were
things about the Methodist Church which my father still missed, so she told him she would be quite
317
