The kids in my Mission Adventures class were riveted by the story I read. I couldn’t blame them! This missionary lady was about to walk–by herself–into a Chinese prison full of rioting prisoners armed with only prayer. It was crazy! She walked into a horrible scene. Blood was everywhere. Dead and dying men lay all around her. The really bizarre part of her story is that this missionary lady was a lowly housemaid, didn’t even finish her missionary course, and was almost too sick to even make it to China. But Gladys Aylward relied on the Lord more than herself and had a deep commitment to serving Him in China.
And then she was taken prisoner…
Gladys didn’t get discouraged. She could have. She was dismissed from missionary training school for not being able to learn Chinese well enough. She took a job as a housemaid in London, and her employer was an who had been to China and had many books on the country. He allowed Gladys to borrow them and she continued her education. Every week, she put a portion of her paycheck toward a ticket to China.
When she had finally paid enough to travel, her journey was anything but easy. Russia was at war, making it dangerous to travel through the country. Gladys couldn’t afford the expensive sea voyage around Africa, so she had to take the riskier train route through Europe into Asia. There came a point when the train couldn’t travel any further because of fighting on the tracks. Gladys had to walk back to the safety of the previous train station and nearly froze to death.
For a brief while, she was taken prisoner by the Russians who wanted to force her to work in a factory as a machinist. God provided an escape for her and she slipped out of Russia on a boat to Japan. Gladys didn’t get discouraged in any of this. She kept looking for God’s plan.
How far did they walk?!
Gladys didn’t get overwhelmed. She once encountered a child seller. After exhausting all the possibilities of involving the authorities, Gladys bought the child herself. She named her Ninepence after the price she’d paid for her. Throughout her time in China, Gladys took in hundreds of children. She always had room for one more.
When the Japanese invaded China in 1938, there was trouble ahead. Bombs wiped out villages, leaving more orphans that Gladys gladly took in. When the area became more dangerous and the Japanese put a price on Gladys’ head, she and 94 children set out to walk more than 200 miles to the orphanage. I don’t even want to take ONE of my children into a store, and here’s Gladys with nearly 100 children trekking through war torn China.
She made her home there
Gladys didn’t waver or quit when things were challenging. When she first arrived in China, the missionary she was meant to work with, Mrs. Lawson, had assumed Gladys wasn’t coming–remember all the delays in Russia?–and had left the town they were to meet in. Mrs. Lawson had also never expected a London housemaid to ever save enough money to come to China. Gladys finally met up with her three weeks later after traveling by train, bus, and mule. She was surprised that Mrs. Lawson had a prickly temperament and wasn’t easy to get along with. But Gladys stuck it out.
Through all the turmoil and fighting in China, Gladys stayed. Even when she was personally wanted (in exchange for a reward of one hundred dollars), Gladys didn’t flee the country. She remained to encourage, cheer, and help her fellow Chinese friends and neighbors. She even became a Chinese citizen. When communism took over the country, and she was expelled, she didn’t return to the comforts of life in Great Britain. She stayed on in Taiwan with other Chinese expats and continued her work. She died there, and beside her bed in a cradle was the newest orphan she’d taken in.
Follow the example of Gladys
Gladys Aylward didn’t get discouraged. She didn’t get overwhelmed, and she didn’t waver or quit. Can we say the same of our Christian life? We get discouraged when our prayers don’t seem to be answered. We get overwhelmed by the tasks of our day. We waver and quit when it just isn’t working. But we don’t have to.
The next time things get hard, may we remember the example of Gladys, who stayed true to the purpose God had put on her life until the end.
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