Page 327 - Three Score Years & Ten
P. 327
“THREE SCORE YEARS AND TEN” MISSIONARY WORK IN CHINA
Amy Moore
workers there would let us know if they had any information to pass on, while in the south we looked to
our Lutheran friends at Ankang to keep us informed. Some of the Henan workers had had to
evacuate again and Percy had a wire from Shanghai to say that several of them were in Xi’an and
were available for work in our area. So Helen and Ian Anderson and Miss Kreik were waiting in Xi’an
for Percy to give them some direction where they should work. Not only that, but the wire further told
Percy that the Henan jeep had been flown to Xi’an and was now for his use as Super of the Shaanxi
work. This was wonderful news and would save all those long tiring bus trips up and down over the
mountains between south and north, and also the long trips on his bike in the south.
Ailsa went with Percy to Xi’an to have some dentistry done, so Betty and Dorothy and I were alone.
The girls had finished their first exam and were working on their second, but I had got them both
involved in a little more practical work to help their spoken language ability. So they were taking
prayers with the Chinese in turns each Wednesday morning and also helped with the Sunday School.
Betty did not dare leave the city at this time as the Pastor’s wife was expecting a baby any time and
had asked Betty to deliver it. She was very capable as she had done midwifery training in Melbourne
and also District Nursing. Ilma’s second baby was also due in another month and Betty could take
care of her too. With the Pastor’s wife, I would need to be there too to interpret anything that needed
to be said.
Writing home I said,
“Dorothy’s main aim at the moment seems to be to have a baby!
She lay in bed the other night and said, “Mummy, I would like a baby”.
I said, “Oh well, when you get big perhaps you will have a nice little
baby of your own”. “Well”, she said, “I am getting pretty big now.”
She loved babies and was always carrying the cook’s little girl round
or else giving her a piggy back.”
Joy Chen whom we knew so well in Xixiang and who was studying in University in Xi’an came through
one day on her way home for holidays. There was no bus for several days so she spent the few days
with us. I felt sad for her as she was no longer the bright happy girl she had been. She had been very
involved with a nice young man in the University and they were very much in love. Then she
discovered he had a wife and several children back in Henan. It is one of the old problems in China -
an arranged marriage when they were both small children, but the boy going on to higher education
while the girl was illiterate and the family drudge. There was no love between them and he meets a
girl like Joy and falls in love. It had hurt Joy deeply and I did not know how to help her.
The next thing was word from Percy and the arrival in Hanzhong of the three Henan workers and Ailsa
without him. Apparently he and Ailsa had arrived in Xi’an to find everybody in a ferment. Communists
were coming towards Xi’an from the north and Louyang on our border with Henan had also fallen to
them. The American Consul had warned all American workers to be ready to evacuate, and the
Governor (our old next door neighbour General Zhu) had told all foreigners to come into the city of
Xi’an. He could not guarantee he could hold the smaller places outside. Percy quickly sent our four
back to Hanzhong but stayed on himself to see how things would go. In a few days it all calmed
down, so at the end of the week he collected his jeep and drove down in it. He was like a child with a
new toy, and as soon as he returned he took Miss Kreik to Xixiang and settled her in there and took
the Andersons to help in Chenggu.
The excitement over, I had just gone to bed on Sunday night when the Pastor’s sister came and called
me to say the baby was coming, so Betty and I got dressed and went down to the room at the front.
327
Amy Moore
workers there would let us know if they had any information to pass on, while in the south we looked to
our Lutheran friends at Ankang to keep us informed. Some of the Henan workers had had to
evacuate again and Percy had a wire from Shanghai to say that several of them were in Xi’an and
were available for work in our area. So Helen and Ian Anderson and Miss Kreik were waiting in Xi’an
for Percy to give them some direction where they should work. Not only that, but the wire further told
Percy that the Henan jeep had been flown to Xi’an and was now for his use as Super of the Shaanxi
work. This was wonderful news and would save all those long tiring bus trips up and down over the
mountains between south and north, and also the long trips on his bike in the south.
Ailsa went with Percy to Xi’an to have some dentistry done, so Betty and Dorothy and I were alone.
The girls had finished their first exam and were working on their second, but I had got them both
involved in a little more practical work to help their spoken language ability. So they were taking
prayers with the Chinese in turns each Wednesday morning and also helped with the Sunday School.
Betty did not dare leave the city at this time as the Pastor’s wife was expecting a baby any time and
had asked Betty to deliver it. She was very capable as she had done midwifery training in Melbourne
and also District Nursing. Ilma’s second baby was also due in another month and Betty could take
care of her too. With the Pastor’s wife, I would need to be there too to interpret anything that needed
to be said.
Writing home I said,
“Dorothy’s main aim at the moment seems to be to have a baby!
She lay in bed the other night and said, “Mummy, I would like a baby”.
I said, “Oh well, when you get big perhaps you will have a nice little
baby of your own”. “Well”, she said, “I am getting pretty big now.”
She loved babies and was always carrying the cook’s little girl round
or else giving her a piggy back.”
Joy Chen whom we knew so well in Xixiang and who was studying in University in Xi’an came through
one day on her way home for holidays. There was no bus for several days so she spent the few days
with us. I felt sad for her as she was no longer the bright happy girl she had been. She had been very
involved with a nice young man in the University and they were very much in love. Then she
discovered he had a wife and several children back in Henan. It is one of the old problems in China -
an arranged marriage when they were both small children, but the boy going on to higher education
while the girl was illiterate and the family drudge. There was no love between them and he meets a
girl like Joy and falls in love. It had hurt Joy deeply and I did not know how to help her.
The next thing was word from Percy and the arrival in Hanzhong of the three Henan workers and Ailsa
without him. Apparently he and Ailsa had arrived in Xi’an to find everybody in a ferment. Communists
were coming towards Xi’an from the north and Louyang on our border with Henan had also fallen to
them. The American Consul had warned all American workers to be ready to evacuate, and the
Governor (our old next door neighbour General Zhu) had told all foreigners to come into the city of
Xi’an. He could not guarantee he could hold the smaller places outside. Percy quickly sent our four
back to Hanzhong but stayed on himself to see how things would go. In a few days it all calmed
down, so at the end of the week he collected his jeep and drove down in it. He was like a child with a
new toy, and as soon as he returned he took Miss Kreik to Xixiang and settled her in there and took
the Andersons to help in Chenggu.
The excitement over, I had just gone to bed on Sunday night when the Pastor’s sister came and called
me to say the baby was coming, so Betty and I got dressed and went down to the room at the front.
327
