A parlormaid in Britain, Aylward had a burning desire to be a missionary to China, but did not pass the exams to join the formal missionary society to China. Undaunted, she saved up enough money for a passage to China and went on her own to help an aging missionary in Yangchen in 1930. During the next eight years, she established a wide reputation for kindness and fairness, as well as a soft spot for taking in orphans into the inn that she owned and operated. One orphan became five, then became 20, as the years went on. She became a Chinese citizen in 1936.
In 1938, when the Japanese attacked her town, Aylward had about 100 orphans at her inn. With a Japanese price on her head (dead or alive), she narrowly escaped with her orphans from Yangchen. She decided to take them to a Chinese government orphanage in Xian 100 miles away. Walking. With almost no food. Across mountains off the regular paths (to avoid capture). Across the Yellow River. For 27 days. She carried toddlers on her back at all times, subsisting on rice water. When she arrived in Xian, she was deliriously ill with typhus, pneumonia, and malnutrition.
Though she reestablished her ministry in Xian, she was eventually forced to leave in 1947 when the Communists took over China. After spending 10 years back in Britain, she moved to Taiwan where she started another orphanage and lived the remainder of her years.
This anecdote illustrates her modest, matter-of-fact attitude for which she earned so much respect in China.
Gladys returned from China to England in the late 1940's an unknown missionary. Alan Burgess, who was producing a series on war heroes for the BBC radio, visited her in the hope a missionary could tell him about heroes she had heard about in China. Well, no, she said in her rusty English. She didn't actually know any heroes.
"What about yourself?" he asked the little woman half-heartedly. "Did you have a scrape or two?"
"I doubt people who listen to BBC would think I've done anything interesting."
"Didn't you even come into contact with the Japanese invaders?" he pressed.
"Yes," she answered cryptically. It wouldn't be very forgiving if she told Alan Burgess the Japanese had shot her down in a field outside Tsechow. Bombed her too. In Yangcheng. Strafed her near Lingchuang too. Smashed her on the noggin once with a rifle butt too. Finally put a price on her head: dead or alive. "Some Japanese are very nice, you know," she volunteered.
"Apparently your life in China was rather sheltered," he grunted dryly.
Gladys had to offer the poor man something. "I did take some children to an orphanage near Sian."
"You don't say?" he grumbled, not hiding disappointment. "Kids? To an orphanage?"
"Yes, we had to cross some mountains."
Burgess perked up. "Real mountains?"
"Yes, I believe you would call them real mountains. The journey was made more difficult because we couldn't walk on the main trails. Oh, and then we had to get across the Yellow River too."
"Isn't that the notorious river that drowns so many it's called 'China's Sorrow'?"
Burgess was more and more aghast as Gladys detailed her trek. His voice choked. "You ran out of food? You had no money? Just you and 100 kids - many of whom were toddlers - trekked for one month across mountains, across the Yellow River, ducking Japanese patrols and dive bombers? And at Sian you were diagnosed with typhus and pneumonia and malnutrition? Yes, Miss Aylward, I think people who listen to BBC would think you've done something interesting…"For more information:
[Source: The Small Woman by Alan Burgess, 1957, revised addition, 1969]
Biography
Sermons by Gladys Aylward
No comments:
Post a Comment