Page 15 - GFA – A Different Drumbeat
P. 15
GFA – A Different Drumbeat 15
EARLY YEARS
GFA arrived in this world in 14th July 1887 with the heritage of a hardworking, honest,
middle class family with strong principles and a fervent and personal Christian faith. At the
time this faith was mostly influenced by Methodism with its commitment to a personal
relationship with God, coupled with an emphasis on family, industry and integrity and
spreading the message. It has also been said that “Methodism was born in song” due to the
wide use of the hymns written by Charles Wesley.
In early 1889, when GFA was 18 months old, the family returned to England on their first
furlough. It was over eight years since George had left England, and over seven since
Jessie had set sail for China. When they passed through Shanghai on their way to England,
Hudson Taylor, who had originally welcomed George to China, was there again, and in a
special gesture, laid his hands on GFA and prayed for him.
In 1891 the family returned to China, to Yangchou on the Grand Canal. GFA spent the
next three years or so with his parents and then was enrolled as a boarder at the Chefoo
School from 1894 to 1900. The Chefoo School was established by the China Inland
Mission at Chefoo, Northern China, in 1880. In 1886 the Boys and Girls schools were
separated, and by 1894 when GFA started there as a six year old, the children of China
Inland Mission workers alone numbered over 200 children. GFA’s sister Esther began
school at Chefoo in 1891. His brothers John, Jim and Alfred followed.
3GFA remembers his somewhat traumatic start at the school. As an old man living out his
last years in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, his mind went back to his early days at Chefoo.
Last Sunday" he wrote, "I lived vividly through the sensations I had in the late spring
of 1894 when as a late arrival made my first entrance into Chefoo school life. I had
to walk the seemingly endless length of the aisle in the main schoolroom of the Boys'
School during the Children’s Service, to take my place among the "under tens" (this
was pre Prep School days) at
the front of the Assembly. I
was rising seven and trying to
recover from a homesick,
seasick voyage from
Shanghai where I had
embarked after a hurried trip
from the interior city of
Yangchou."
3 This quotation and the one from Dr Parry on the next page are quoted in Amy Moore’s “Three Score Years
and Ten”
EARLY YEARS
GFA arrived in this world in 14th July 1887 with the heritage of a hardworking, honest,
middle class family with strong principles and a fervent and personal Christian faith. At the
time this faith was mostly influenced by Methodism with its commitment to a personal
relationship with God, coupled with an emphasis on family, industry and integrity and
spreading the message. It has also been said that “Methodism was born in song” due to the
wide use of the hymns written by Charles Wesley.
In early 1889, when GFA was 18 months old, the family returned to England on their first
furlough. It was over eight years since George had left England, and over seven since
Jessie had set sail for China. When they passed through Shanghai on their way to England,
Hudson Taylor, who had originally welcomed George to China, was there again, and in a
special gesture, laid his hands on GFA and prayed for him.
In 1891 the family returned to China, to Yangchou on the Grand Canal. GFA spent the
next three years or so with his parents and then was enrolled as a boarder at the Chefoo
School from 1894 to 1900. The Chefoo School was established by the China Inland
Mission at Chefoo, Northern China, in 1880. In 1886 the Boys and Girls schools were
separated, and by 1894 when GFA started there as a six year old, the children of China
Inland Mission workers alone numbered over 200 children. GFA’s sister Esther began
school at Chefoo in 1891. His brothers John, Jim and Alfred followed.
3GFA remembers his somewhat traumatic start at the school. As an old man living out his
last years in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, his mind went back to his early days at Chefoo.
Last Sunday" he wrote, "I lived vividly through the sensations I had in the late spring
of 1894 when as a late arrival made my first entrance into Chefoo school life. I had
to walk the seemingly endless length of the aisle in the main schoolroom of the Boys'
School during the Children’s Service, to take my place among the "under tens" (this
was pre Prep School days) at
the front of the Assembly. I
was rising seven and trying to
recover from a homesick,
seasick voyage from
Shanghai where I had
embarked after a hurried trip
from the interior city of
Yangchou."
3 This quotation and the one from Dr Parry on the next page are quoted in Amy Moore’s “Three Score Years
and Ten”
