Page 93 - Three Score Years & Ten
P. 93
“THREE SCORE YEARS AND TEN” MISSIONARY WORK IN CHINA
Amy Moore
died peacefully. Findlay Andrew went out to buy a coffin, but the big problem was where to bury their
friend, as the CIM owned no land in Zhongwei. During the morning the old Belgian Catholic priest
came around to offer his sympathy to Mrs. Rist and, hearing from GFA of the problem, he offered them
a corner of the beautiful garden he had created many years before outside the city on the Lanzhou
road. It was richly stocked with flowers from home, and there they laid him sleeping among the
flowers in the sure and certain hope of a glorious resurrection. GFA produced Mr. Manns letter for
Mrs. Rist and, after reading it, she decided to accompany him on the raft to go to her children in
Chefoo.
At the time when Mr. Rist died, Paul Contento was a fairly new worker living with them at Zhongwei.
He wrote:
“The situation at the time of the death of Lloyd Rist is still vivid. We
had managed to send on a telegram to Lanzhou for medical help and
Miss Gomersal volunteered to come. She must have been about
thirty at that time and highly respected as an efficient nurse. GFA
volunteered to escort her down the Yellow River by raft because it
would have been too dangerous for her to come alone. When
George arrived at the riverside, I rushed them by horseback to the
city. Mr. Rist had been getting steadily worse and was approaching
the crisis. Mrs. Rist had been quite depressed and was
considerably cheered when George and Gammy arrived. After
she had taken charge Gammy told George and me that Lloyds fever
was already 105 and climbing, but she kept him alive for three days
with various drugs. He died on the Thursday morning.
It was decided that Mrs. Rist should leave at once with George and
Gammy for escorts down the Yellow River to the coast where her
children were at the Chefoo School. George was just the right man to
console a stricken widow, and I am sure that the two weeks they
travelled together helped Mrs. Rist keep her sanity. She had always
been very dependent on her husband.”
On Friday 12 July they embarked from Zhongwei and travelled day and night down through the
Alashan Desert beyond Ningxia which Government troops had recently recaptured from the Moslem
bandits under the command of their young general Ma Zhongying. It seemed wiser to hide close
under the bank by day and to travel by night. But early one morning they were caught by a band of
forty Turkish speaking men camped right on the bank, who covered them with their guns. They were
“rough and swarthy, heavily dressed against the cold, and armed with huge knives.”
GFA parleyed with them from the raft, speaking Mandarin to two Chinese in the party. His friendliness
and cheerfulness made some kind of dialogue possible. They wanted money, but he managed to
convince them there was none “on the raft”. He did not feel it necessary to tell them he had a
considerable sum on his arms and in his belt, and also sewn up in a lambskin tied under the raft!
Then they decided to take him off for ransom, and they brought two horses down to the river bank for
that purpose. Negotiations lasted six hours, and eventually he persuaded them to take his field
glasses and some of his clothes instead. Two of the bandits decided to go with him as an escort, but
that seemed a small price to pay for freedom to continue their journey down the muddy river.
93
Amy Moore
died peacefully. Findlay Andrew went out to buy a coffin, but the big problem was where to bury their
friend, as the CIM owned no land in Zhongwei. During the morning the old Belgian Catholic priest
came around to offer his sympathy to Mrs. Rist and, hearing from GFA of the problem, he offered them
a corner of the beautiful garden he had created many years before outside the city on the Lanzhou
road. It was richly stocked with flowers from home, and there they laid him sleeping among the
flowers in the sure and certain hope of a glorious resurrection. GFA produced Mr. Manns letter for
Mrs. Rist and, after reading it, she decided to accompany him on the raft to go to her children in
Chefoo.
At the time when Mr. Rist died, Paul Contento was a fairly new worker living with them at Zhongwei.
He wrote:
“The situation at the time of the death of Lloyd Rist is still vivid. We
had managed to send on a telegram to Lanzhou for medical help and
Miss Gomersal volunteered to come. She must have been about
thirty at that time and highly respected as an efficient nurse. GFA
volunteered to escort her down the Yellow River by raft because it
would have been too dangerous for her to come alone. When
George arrived at the riverside, I rushed them by horseback to the
city. Mr. Rist had been getting steadily worse and was approaching
the crisis. Mrs. Rist had been quite depressed and was
considerably cheered when George and Gammy arrived. After
she had taken charge Gammy told George and me that Lloyds fever
was already 105 and climbing, but she kept him alive for three days
with various drugs. He died on the Thursday morning.
It was decided that Mrs. Rist should leave at once with George and
Gammy for escorts down the Yellow River to the coast where her
children were at the Chefoo School. George was just the right man to
console a stricken widow, and I am sure that the two weeks they
travelled together helped Mrs. Rist keep her sanity. She had always
been very dependent on her husband.”
On Friday 12 July they embarked from Zhongwei and travelled day and night down through the
Alashan Desert beyond Ningxia which Government troops had recently recaptured from the Moslem
bandits under the command of their young general Ma Zhongying. It seemed wiser to hide close
under the bank by day and to travel by night. But early one morning they were caught by a band of
forty Turkish speaking men camped right on the bank, who covered them with their guns. They were
“rough and swarthy, heavily dressed against the cold, and armed with huge knives.”
GFA parleyed with them from the raft, speaking Mandarin to two Chinese in the party. His friendliness
and cheerfulness made some kind of dialogue possible. They wanted money, but he managed to
convince them there was none “on the raft”. He did not feel it necessary to tell them he had a
considerable sum on his arms and in his belt, and also sewn up in a lambskin tied under the raft!
Then they decided to take him off for ransom, and they brought two horses down to the river bank for
that purpose. Negotiations lasted six hours, and eventually he persuaded them to take his field
glasses and some of his clothes instead. Two of the bandits decided to go with him as an escort, but
that seemed a small price to pay for freedom to continue their journey down the muddy river.
93
