Page 331 - Three Score Years & Ten
P. 331
“THREE SCORE YEARS AND TEN” MISSIONARY WORK IN CHINA
Amy Moore
We planned to go to Guling with Dorothy and be there early enough to have a month of the summer
holidays with her and the boys before leaving China. Percy felt that he should go to his mother first to
help her clear up her affairs, sell the house and help her settle wherever she would like to go. As her
eldest son, he felt it was he who must be with her at this time, so we planned and left the date of our
going to my mother in Australia to be decided later. So we sorted, packed, prepared Dorothy for
school and began the round of farewells to our friends in the many churches in South Shaanxi. Then
not long before departure date, we had a letter from Headquarters. Mr. RE Thompson had been
taking up cudgels on our behalf. He felt we should be able to take Dorothy home with us at Mission
expense, even though she was school age. In the normal course of events, we would have gone
home a year ago and Dorothy with us, but we had stayed an extra year to allow the Smiths to have
their furlough first. Dorothy had never been out of China and her Australian grandparents had never
seen her. He felt she should go with us, and the Directorate had agreed. What a wonderful day! The
burden on my heart lifted and I felt full of praise to our wonderful God who had worked on our behalf.
We would still be a family divided, but the boys were together and were used to being at school,
whereas their education would suffer if they were out of regular school life for nine months or so. We
would go as planned with Dorothy to Guling to have a month’s holiday all together before leaving for
Canada, and we would return in time to have another month with the boys to settle Dorothy in school
before returning to Shaanxi. It all seemed plain sailing and we left Hanzhong for Xi’an and a plane trip
to Shanghai in joyful anticipation of being reunited with the boys again soon and a relaxing holiday
with them in Guling.
GULING
In Shanghai we spent a few days being interviewed by Headquarters staff and CIM Directors, and
then took a train from Shanghai to Jiujiang from where we were within easy reach of Guling. It was an
overnight trip on the train and Percy was in a sleeping compartment with other men, while Dorothy and
I were in another with a Chinese mother and her small daughter. I did not see a lot of them till we
began to settle down for the night, and then to my horror, I realised the little girl was suffering from
whooping cough! Dorothy had had injections against whooping cough, but even so I was not very
happy for her to be shut up all night in the same cabin with a small girl who was continually coughing
and scattering her germs everywhere! We reached Jiujiang early next morning and I was thankful to
have Dorothy out in the fresh air again.
To reach Guling from Jiujiang we had to go up to a height of 3,900 feet and the only means of getting
there was via the 1,000 steps. We could either walk or be carried in a mountain chair. Percy chose
the former, but Dorothy and I went up by mountain chair. Because I was still worried over the
whooping cough and the possibility of infecting the school, I went to see Dr. Pearce, the school doctor,
immediately and told him what had happened. He thought we were probably alright but just in case,
felt perhaps Dorothy should be kept from contacts with other children, except her brothers, for a short
period just to see if she showed any signs of a cough or cold. She didn’t, and it was not long before
she could mix with the other children.
For our first two weeks or so we were in a small staff house, but once Dorothy was declared free from
infection we were moved to the Fairy Glen Guest House. It was a beautiful well equipped hotel which
had been given to the CIM, as the original owners were leaving China and never expected to return.
So this summer of 1948 it was in full use as missionary families from many parts of China came to
spend the summer holidays with their children in this beautiful summer resort. In Fairy Glen we had a
suite to accommodate all our family, and the boys loved not having to sleep in the school ‘dorms’
during the holidays. At meal times I luxuriated in not having to prepare meals. We all turned up at
331
Amy Moore
We planned to go to Guling with Dorothy and be there early enough to have a month of the summer
holidays with her and the boys before leaving China. Percy felt that he should go to his mother first to
help her clear up her affairs, sell the house and help her settle wherever she would like to go. As her
eldest son, he felt it was he who must be with her at this time, so we planned and left the date of our
going to my mother in Australia to be decided later. So we sorted, packed, prepared Dorothy for
school and began the round of farewells to our friends in the many churches in South Shaanxi. Then
not long before departure date, we had a letter from Headquarters. Mr. RE Thompson had been
taking up cudgels on our behalf. He felt we should be able to take Dorothy home with us at Mission
expense, even though she was school age. In the normal course of events, we would have gone
home a year ago and Dorothy with us, but we had stayed an extra year to allow the Smiths to have
their furlough first. Dorothy had never been out of China and her Australian grandparents had never
seen her. He felt she should go with us, and the Directorate had agreed. What a wonderful day! The
burden on my heart lifted and I felt full of praise to our wonderful God who had worked on our behalf.
We would still be a family divided, but the boys were together and were used to being at school,
whereas their education would suffer if they were out of regular school life for nine months or so. We
would go as planned with Dorothy to Guling to have a month’s holiday all together before leaving for
Canada, and we would return in time to have another month with the boys to settle Dorothy in school
before returning to Shaanxi. It all seemed plain sailing and we left Hanzhong for Xi’an and a plane trip
to Shanghai in joyful anticipation of being reunited with the boys again soon and a relaxing holiday
with them in Guling.
GULING
In Shanghai we spent a few days being interviewed by Headquarters staff and CIM Directors, and
then took a train from Shanghai to Jiujiang from where we were within easy reach of Guling. It was an
overnight trip on the train and Percy was in a sleeping compartment with other men, while Dorothy and
I were in another with a Chinese mother and her small daughter. I did not see a lot of them till we
began to settle down for the night, and then to my horror, I realised the little girl was suffering from
whooping cough! Dorothy had had injections against whooping cough, but even so I was not very
happy for her to be shut up all night in the same cabin with a small girl who was continually coughing
and scattering her germs everywhere! We reached Jiujiang early next morning and I was thankful to
have Dorothy out in the fresh air again.
To reach Guling from Jiujiang we had to go up to a height of 3,900 feet and the only means of getting
there was via the 1,000 steps. We could either walk or be carried in a mountain chair. Percy chose
the former, but Dorothy and I went up by mountain chair. Because I was still worried over the
whooping cough and the possibility of infecting the school, I went to see Dr. Pearce, the school doctor,
immediately and told him what had happened. He thought we were probably alright but just in case,
felt perhaps Dorothy should be kept from contacts with other children, except her brothers, for a short
period just to see if she showed any signs of a cough or cold. She didn’t, and it was not long before
she could mix with the other children.
For our first two weeks or so we were in a small staff house, but once Dorothy was declared free from
infection we were moved to the Fairy Glen Guest House. It was a beautiful well equipped hotel which
had been given to the CIM, as the original owners were leaving China and never expected to return.
So this summer of 1948 it was in full use as missionary families from many parts of China came to
spend the summer holidays with their children in this beautiful summer resort. In Fairy Glen we had a
suite to accommodate all our family, and the boys loved not having to sleep in the school ‘dorms’
during the holidays. At meal times I luxuriated in not having to prepare meals. We all turned up at
331
