Page 57 - Three Score Years & Ten
P. 57
“THREE SCORE YEARS AND TEN” MISSIONARY WORK IN CHINA
Amy Moore
chair which was on top of the table and tried to touch the ceiling, but slipped and fell, knocking her
head against one of the brass corners. It was her grandfather Andrew telling her that she looked like
a wounded soldier with her bandaged head that comforted her eventually. She also has vivid
memories of a neighbour's dog chasing her and biting her so that the skin was broken. Arthur lay her
down and sucked the wound to draw our any poison, lest the dog should have rabies which was very
common in China in those days.
Percy's memories are of the donkey which his father bought for him to ride. He fell off on one
occasion and broke his right arm. It had to be re-broken and set three times before it was right again,
but in the meantime Percy had learned to use his left arm almost as easily as his right. Arthur often
took him out on some of his weekend trips to adjacent villages. He never forgot his friendship with
John, the pastor's son in Lanzhou, who must have been about the same age, and years later when he
was a missionary himself, he could recall some of the games they played together.
DIHUA AT LAST
Percy Mather was a young man from Lancashire who had been stationed in the province of Anhui
since he had left the language school. Feeling a call to work with Mr. Hunter in the far north west of
China, he wrote to Mr. Hoste in 1913 offering to go and join the lonely pioneer in Xinjiang. By the
end of 1913 Mr. Hoste had agreed for him to go and suggested to Arthur Moore that he escort him
from Lanzhou on the long 1300 mile journey to far distant Dihua.
It took Percy Mather two months to reach Lanzhou, but the trip ahead was to take a further three
months over terrible roads and with few mission stations en route where they could stay. In his diary
for 1 March 1914, Percy Mather wrote, "I am enjoying one of the happiest weekends I have ever had
with Mr. and Mrs. George Andrew, real Lancashire folk, bright, warm hearted, cheery Christians.
Their married son George came out to meet me bringing a note of welcome from his father. I tell you
it was worth coming for that welcome, and the singing here has been glorious, a foretaste of Heaven."
On 2 March Arthur Moore and Percy Mather set out on the first stage of their long journey, a stage of
some one hundred and eighty five miles to Liangzhou. By covering anything from thirteen to thirty
miles per day it took them eight days to get there. Liangzhou like Lanzhou stands at about five
thousand feet above sea level, but all the seven nights en route from Lanzhou were spent at altitudes
of up to ten thousand feet. Most of the way they were close to and travelling parallel with the great
wall of China.
They took with them Mr. Meng to help with evangelism, and also with them as far as Liangzhou was
Miss Eltham who had been appointed to work there and was glad to have their escort. At each stage
they took opportunities to preach to the crowds who would listen, and to sell Gospel portions for which
there was a great demand. Miss Eltham had quite a ministry among the women.
At Liangzhou they delayed two days to repair one of the carts, but they were glad of the rest and, as
this was the last mission station until they reached Dihua some fifteen hundred miles away, it was
good to catch up with their friends there again.
From Liangzhou to Ganzhou was another one hundred and sixty nine miles, which they did in seven
stages of from seventeen to thirty miles each. As before they had a good reception at each place as
they stopped to preach on the streets and, in a few places, they actually met solitary Christians from
other provinces whose work had brought them to these isolated places.
57
Amy Moore
chair which was on top of the table and tried to touch the ceiling, but slipped and fell, knocking her
head against one of the brass corners. It was her grandfather Andrew telling her that she looked like
a wounded soldier with her bandaged head that comforted her eventually. She also has vivid
memories of a neighbour's dog chasing her and biting her so that the skin was broken. Arthur lay her
down and sucked the wound to draw our any poison, lest the dog should have rabies which was very
common in China in those days.
Percy's memories are of the donkey which his father bought for him to ride. He fell off on one
occasion and broke his right arm. It had to be re-broken and set three times before it was right again,
but in the meantime Percy had learned to use his left arm almost as easily as his right. Arthur often
took him out on some of his weekend trips to adjacent villages. He never forgot his friendship with
John, the pastor's son in Lanzhou, who must have been about the same age, and years later when he
was a missionary himself, he could recall some of the games they played together.
DIHUA AT LAST
Percy Mather was a young man from Lancashire who had been stationed in the province of Anhui
since he had left the language school. Feeling a call to work with Mr. Hunter in the far north west of
China, he wrote to Mr. Hoste in 1913 offering to go and join the lonely pioneer in Xinjiang. By the
end of 1913 Mr. Hoste had agreed for him to go and suggested to Arthur Moore that he escort him
from Lanzhou on the long 1300 mile journey to far distant Dihua.
It took Percy Mather two months to reach Lanzhou, but the trip ahead was to take a further three
months over terrible roads and with few mission stations en route where they could stay. In his diary
for 1 March 1914, Percy Mather wrote, "I am enjoying one of the happiest weekends I have ever had
with Mr. and Mrs. George Andrew, real Lancashire folk, bright, warm hearted, cheery Christians.
Their married son George came out to meet me bringing a note of welcome from his father. I tell you
it was worth coming for that welcome, and the singing here has been glorious, a foretaste of Heaven."
On 2 March Arthur Moore and Percy Mather set out on the first stage of their long journey, a stage of
some one hundred and eighty five miles to Liangzhou. By covering anything from thirteen to thirty
miles per day it took them eight days to get there. Liangzhou like Lanzhou stands at about five
thousand feet above sea level, but all the seven nights en route from Lanzhou were spent at altitudes
of up to ten thousand feet. Most of the way they were close to and travelling parallel with the great
wall of China.
They took with them Mr. Meng to help with evangelism, and also with them as far as Liangzhou was
Miss Eltham who had been appointed to work there and was glad to have their escort. At each stage
they took opportunities to preach to the crowds who would listen, and to sell Gospel portions for which
there was a great demand. Miss Eltham had quite a ministry among the women.
At Liangzhou they delayed two days to repair one of the carts, but they were glad of the rest and, as
this was the last mission station until they reached Dihua some fifteen hundred miles away, it was
good to catch up with their friends there again.
From Liangzhou to Ganzhou was another one hundred and sixty nine miles, which they did in seven
stages of from seventeen to thirty miles each. As before they had a good reception at each place as
they stopped to preach on the streets and, in a few places, they actually met solitary Christians from
other provinces whose work had brought them to these isolated places.
57
