Page 320 - Three Score Years & Ten
P. 320
“THREE SCORE YEARS AND TEN” MISSIONARY WORK IN CHINA
Amy Moore
given us. I was on my bike and Frank on his, while Raymond and Alan each had one of the girls
(Dorothy and Isobel) on theirs. Frank was a little way ahead of us and, as we were going down
through the City gate, a team of horses came galloping through it towards us. My heart was in my
mouth as Frank seemed to be right in their way, but he swerved and let them pass. We had pulled
over to one side, and they thundered past us and I was able to see Frank safely through the gate
waiting for us on the other side. How relieved I was and how thankful to God for taking care of us all.
Frank was a funny little fellow at this stage with an imagination twice as big as himself. He was very
protective of the girls who were both younger than himself. One day he asked me if he could take
Dorothy and Isobel for a walk on the city wall, so I let them go. The city wall was not very far from
where we lived and we often went for walks there ourselves. Quite a while later I looked out the back
door and saw Isobel rushing up the path with a face as white as a ghost. I went to meet her and said,
“Isobel, whatever is the matter?” She said, “We saw communists!” I said, “But Isobel dear, there are
no communists here. If there were I never would have let you three go out alone.” “Well,” she said,
“We saw them from the wall and they had guns, and Frankie said they were communists so we
thought we had better go down to one of the dugouts in the city wall. When we got there we saw an
alligator, so we ran home for our lives!”
They had got down into one of those filthy dugouts and seen something dark in one corner which
Frank decided was an alligator. The three of them came home almost scared out of their wits by the
imaginary terrors they had seen, thanks to Frank’s imagination! Isobel went back to her mother in
Xi’an with Percy and the boys. I commented in my home letter, “Poor lonely little girl. I wish her
mother would let her go to Shanghai to school with the others, but she is sending her to a Chinese
school instead, for the present anyway.” After all, Isobel was Maida’s only child, and perhaps she felt
as all of us parents did, that parting with our children was the hardest thing we ever had to do.
The Becks went up to Xi’an with Percy and the children too, partly because Gwenda was going to
school for the first time, and with both their children at school, they would be going home to an empty
house.
Dorothy and I went to see them all off on the bus for Xi’an and then I got into a rickshaw with her on
my knee and cried all the way home. Percy told me later that as the boys were sitting in the bus
waving to us, Alan said as if surprised and a bit upset, “Mummy’s crying”, and Raymond promptly shut
him up by saying, “Of course she is, Silly!”
If we had only known they could have had an extra week at home as the plane from Xi’an was
delayed. It made them two days late for school but could not be helped as the railway had been
broken by communists, and that was the only other way they could have returned to Shanghai. Over
thirty miles of railway lines and sleepers had been torn right up, and over forty bridges broken, so it
was going to be months before that line would be through again.
A note from Percy from Xi’an made me laugh. He said, “I suppose it is no use hoping you are getting
a good rest now we are all away”. Far from it! I had hardly got back from seeing them off when a
telegram from Shanghai asked us to send Helen Dalton as soon as possible to the hospital in Kaifeng
to help the nursing staff there. We had been asking HQ to send somebody to work with Helen in Yang
Xian as Percy did not feel she should be alone there, although she was not an easy person to work
with. Helen happened to be in Hanzhong when the telegram came and she felt she must go back
straight away to pack and close up house. She dreaded the whole thing, so I offered to go for a few
days to help her, and she jumped at that. She went off on the Sunday afternoon on her bicycle and
Dorothy and I went by bus (truck!) next morning and were in Chenggu by nine o’clock. Sadie and Mrs.
Duan were holding meetings there, so we went round to the Mission Home to see them and found Li
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Contents
Amy Moore
given us. I was on my bike and Frank on his, while Raymond and Alan each had one of the girls
(Dorothy and Isobel) on theirs. Frank was a little way ahead of us and, as we were going down
through the City gate, a team of horses came galloping through it towards us. My heart was in my
mouth as Frank seemed to be right in their way, but he swerved and let them pass. We had pulled
over to one side, and they thundered past us and I was able to see Frank safely through the gate
waiting for us on the other side. How relieved I was and how thankful to God for taking care of us all.
Frank was a funny little fellow at this stage with an imagination twice as big as himself. He was very
protective of the girls who were both younger than himself. One day he asked me if he could take
Dorothy and Isobel for a walk on the city wall, so I let them go. The city wall was not very far from
where we lived and we often went for walks there ourselves. Quite a while later I looked out the back
door and saw Isobel rushing up the path with a face as white as a ghost. I went to meet her and said,
“Isobel, whatever is the matter?” She said, “We saw communists!” I said, “But Isobel dear, there are
no communists here. If there were I never would have let you three go out alone.” “Well,” she said,
“We saw them from the wall and they had guns, and Frankie said they were communists so we
thought we had better go down to one of the dugouts in the city wall. When we got there we saw an
alligator, so we ran home for our lives!”
They had got down into one of those filthy dugouts and seen something dark in one corner which
Frank decided was an alligator. The three of them came home almost scared out of their wits by the
imaginary terrors they had seen, thanks to Frank’s imagination! Isobel went back to her mother in
Xi’an with Percy and the boys. I commented in my home letter, “Poor lonely little girl. I wish her
mother would let her go to Shanghai to school with the others, but she is sending her to a Chinese
school instead, for the present anyway.” After all, Isobel was Maida’s only child, and perhaps she felt
as all of us parents did, that parting with our children was the hardest thing we ever had to do.
The Becks went up to Xi’an with Percy and the children too, partly because Gwenda was going to
school for the first time, and with both their children at school, they would be going home to an empty
house.
Dorothy and I went to see them all off on the bus for Xi’an and then I got into a rickshaw with her on
my knee and cried all the way home. Percy told me later that as the boys were sitting in the bus
waving to us, Alan said as if surprised and a bit upset, “Mummy’s crying”, and Raymond promptly shut
him up by saying, “Of course she is, Silly!”
If we had only known they could have had an extra week at home as the plane from Xi’an was
delayed. It made them two days late for school but could not be helped as the railway had been
broken by communists, and that was the only other way they could have returned to Shanghai. Over
thirty miles of railway lines and sleepers had been torn right up, and over forty bridges broken, so it
was going to be months before that line would be through again.
A note from Percy from Xi’an made me laugh. He said, “I suppose it is no use hoping you are getting
a good rest now we are all away”. Far from it! I had hardly got back from seeing them off when a
telegram from Shanghai asked us to send Helen Dalton as soon as possible to the hospital in Kaifeng
to help the nursing staff there. We had been asking HQ to send somebody to work with Helen in Yang
Xian as Percy did not feel she should be alone there, although she was not an easy person to work
with. Helen happened to be in Hanzhong when the telegram came and she felt she must go back
straight away to pack and close up house. She dreaded the whole thing, so I offered to go for a few
days to help her, and she jumped at that. She went off on the Sunday afternoon on her bicycle and
Dorothy and I went by bus (truck!) next morning and were in Chenggu by nine o’clock. Sadie and Mrs.
Duan were holding meetings there, so we went round to the Mission Home to see them and found Li
Return to Table of 320
Contents
