Page 95 - Three Score Years & Ten
P. 95
“THREE SCORE YEARS AND TEN” MISSIONARY WORK IN CHINA
Amy Moore
SHORT RESPITE IN CHEFOO
By August he was back at Chefoo, surprised to find it hard to think straight after the long drawn out
horrid nightmare through which he had passed. He could still hear the cries of the abandoned
children in Gansu, children whose parents had tried in vain to sell them in the market. At dawn on
Easter Sunday he recalled that he had to turn his back and run away from them “for there was nothing
I could do.”
But his accounts of the famine had galvanised many American Christians into action and soon funds
were pouring into the coffers of the International Famine Relief Commission. There was one condition
attached to this generosity. It was insisted that George Findlay Andrew must be given the
responsibility for its wise use, and so the CIM was once again asked to release him. He shrank from
the task, but Mr. DE Hoste, the General Director, agreed that he should take it up, even though some
questioned whether physical relief was really part of the missionary program. Mr. Hoste felt it was
impossible to hold aloof.
“Relief effort, prompted by the right motive of missionary zeal, is an
interpretation in living terms of the Gospel of the Son of God Who
Himself spoke so eloquently through a ministry of loving deeds”, he
said.
6 February 1930 was fixed for his departure from Chefoo. Then his father was taken ill on 3 February
and GFA held his arm on that last walk up to the house. Father was very anxious that I should not
delay my departure, he wrote later, and asked those around him to use their influence to get me to
go and leave him. This however Findlay was not willing to do, and he was probably right for George
Andrew died on 10 February and the funeral was on the 12th. In deference to his wishes GFA left by
the first available boat for Tianjin, which was on the 14th. He took Fanny with him as far as Beijing, for
he feared that otherwise she would collapse, and there were other staff members who were willing to
take over her workload.
FAMINE RELIEF - 1930
Reports of fighting and banditry in Kansu were so bad that he decided to get his own one and a half
ton lorry. Paul Contento remembers GFA when he was working with the Famine Relief Commission.
The main problem was transportation. He and Mr. Rule of the C&MA brought up a truck with relief
supplies, but the roads were so bad the truck broke down and had to be pulled into Lanzhou by oxen.
During the course of his duties he often dropped in to the Lanzhou Mission Home. We discovered his
great capacity for retelling events or stories in his own inimitable way. Night after wintery night we
would sit round the fire to listen to George relating some event or happening while we hung on his
every word. One night Mr. Rule was sitting in the circle and George was silent. Suddenly Mr. Rule
spoke up and said “George, are you going to tell stories tonight? If not, I’m going to bed!”
With three companions and enough petrol for the three thousand mile round trip, GFA left Tianjin on 6
March travelling through Shanxi and Shaanxi to Pingliang in Gansu. From then on they were
struggling to stay alive, skirt battlefields, care for the wounded and keep the lorry going. At length it
gave up and he succeeded in hiring mules, six cows, two donkeys and twenty men to tow it
ignominiously over the last eighty miles to Lanzhou. It took them three days, but at last on 12 April
they arrived at the capital.
95
Amy Moore
SHORT RESPITE IN CHEFOO
By August he was back at Chefoo, surprised to find it hard to think straight after the long drawn out
horrid nightmare through which he had passed. He could still hear the cries of the abandoned
children in Gansu, children whose parents had tried in vain to sell them in the market. At dawn on
Easter Sunday he recalled that he had to turn his back and run away from them “for there was nothing
I could do.”
But his accounts of the famine had galvanised many American Christians into action and soon funds
were pouring into the coffers of the International Famine Relief Commission. There was one condition
attached to this generosity. It was insisted that George Findlay Andrew must be given the
responsibility for its wise use, and so the CIM was once again asked to release him. He shrank from
the task, but Mr. DE Hoste, the General Director, agreed that he should take it up, even though some
questioned whether physical relief was really part of the missionary program. Mr. Hoste felt it was
impossible to hold aloof.
“Relief effort, prompted by the right motive of missionary zeal, is an
interpretation in living terms of the Gospel of the Son of God Who
Himself spoke so eloquently through a ministry of loving deeds”, he
said.
6 February 1930 was fixed for his departure from Chefoo. Then his father was taken ill on 3 February
and GFA held his arm on that last walk up to the house. Father was very anxious that I should not
delay my departure, he wrote later, and asked those around him to use their influence to get me to
go and leave him. This however Findlay was not willing to do, and he was probably right for George
Andrew died on 10 February and the funeral was on the 12th. In deference to his wishes GFA left by
the first available boat for Tianjin, which was on the 14th. He took Fanny with him as far as Beijing, for
he feared that otherwise she would collapse, and there were other staff members who were willing to
take over her workload.
FAMINE RELIEF - 1930
Reports of fighting and banditry in Kansu were so bad that he decided to get his own one and a half
ton lorry. Paul Contento remembers GFA when he was working with the Famine Relief Commission.
The main problem was transportation. He and Mr. Rule of the C&MA brought up a truck with relief
supplies, but the roads were so bad the truck broke down and had to be pulled into Lanzhou by oxen.
During the course of his duties he often dropped in to the Lanzhou Mission Home. We discovered his
great capacity for retelling events or stories in his own inimitable way. Night after wintery night we
would sit round the fire to listen to George relating some event or happening while we hung on his
every word. One night Mr. Rule was sitting in the circle and George was silent. Suddenly Mr. Rule
spoke up and said “George, are you going to tell stories tonight? If not, I’m going to bed!”
With three companions and enough petrol for the three thousand mile round trip, GFA left Tianjin on 6
March travelling through Shanxi and Shaanxi to Pingliang in Gansu. From then on they were
struggling to stay alive, skirt battlefields, care for the wounded and keep the lorry going. At length it
gave up and he succeeded in hiring mules, six cows, two donkeys and twenty men to tow it
ignominiously over the last eighty miles to Lanzhou. It took them three days, but at last on 12 April
they arrived at the capital.
95
