Christine Hunter - Gladys Aylward: The Little Woman

MY ONE BIG AMBITION in life was to go on the stage. I had nothing much in the way of education, but I could talk, and I loved to act.

I was brought up in a Christian home and went to church and Sunday school as a child, but as I grew older I became impatient with anything to do with religion.

In those days most girls of the ordinary working class went into service because there were few other openings for them. So I became a parlormaid; but in the evenings I went to dramatic classes, as I was determined to save and, by hook or by crook, get on the boards.

One night, however, for some reason I can never explain, I went to a religious meeting. There, for the first time, I realized that God had a claim on my life, and I accepted Jesus Christ as my Saviour. I joined the Young Life Campaign, and in one of their magazines I read an article about China that made a terrific impression on me. To realize that millions of Chinese had never heard of Jesus Christ was to me a staggering thought, and I felt that sorely we ought to do something about it.

First I visited my Christian friends and talked to them about it, but no one seemed very concerned. Then I tried my brother. Surely if I helped him he would gladly go off to China!

Not me! he said bluntly. That's an old maid's job. Why don't you go yourself?

Old maid's job, indeed! I thought angrily. But the thrust had gone home. Why should I try pushing other people off to China? Why didn't I go myself?

I began to ask how I could prepare to go to a country thousands of miles away, of which I knew practically nothing except that they needed people to tell them of God's love for them. I was told that I must offer myself to a certain missionary society, and eventually I went to this society's college for three months.

By the end of that time the committee decided that my qualifications were too slight, my education too limited to warrant my acceptance. The Chinese language, they decided, would be far too difficult for me to learn.

I left that committee room in silence, all my plans in ruins. Looking back now, I cannot blame them. I know, if no one else does, how stupid I must have seemed then. The fact that I learned not only to speak, but also to read and write the Chinese language like a native in later years, is to me one of God's great miracles.

The committee chairman followed me out.

What are you going to do, Miss Aylward? he asked kindly.

I don't know, I replied, but I am sure God does not want me to be a parlormaid again. He wants me to do something for Him.

In the meantime, would you like to help two of our retired missionaries who need a housekeeper?

Where are they?

In Bristol. Will you go?

Very well, but first I would like to say thank you for the kindness of everyone here. I'm sorry I haven't been able to learn much at the college, but I have learned to pray, really pray as I never did before, and that is something for which I'll always be grateful.

* * *

I went to Bristol to look after a Dr. and Mrs. Fisher. I learned many lessons from them; their implicit faith in God was a revelation to me. Never before had I met anyone who trusted Him so utterly, so implicitly and so obediently. They knew God as their Friend, not as a Being far away, and they lived with Him every day.

They told me stories of their own lives overseas. God never lets you down. He sends you, guides you and provides for you. Maybe He doesn't answer your prayers as you want them answered, but He does answer them. Remember, no is as much an answer as yes.

How am I to know if He wants me to go to China or to stay in Bristol? I queried.

He will show you in His own good time. Keep on watching and praying.

The old missionaries helped me and strengthened me, but still I longed to be about my Father's business.

Next I went to Neath to work for the Christian Association of Women and Girls. But I did not find enough scope, so I moved to Swansea where I worked as a rescue sister. Each night I went down near the docks and in the dark, unpleasant streets, under the yellow gas lamps, I pleaded with the women and young girls who loitered there.

I went into public houses and rescued girls the sailors had made drunk, and took them back to the hostel. And on Sundays I took as many as I could to Snelling's Gospel Mission.

I enjoyed this work and felt it was something worthwhile, but still the thought of China tormented me. Always it was China! I could not rid myself of the idea that God wanted me there.

I decided that if no missionary society would send me, perhaps I could go out with a family who needed a children's nurse. I went to London to ask advice, but everyone was against such an idea.

Put the thought of China out of your head, they insisted. Carry on with the grand rescue work you are doing.

I went back to Swansea depressed and dejected, and in the train I pulled out my Bible. I don't really know enough about this to start preaching to other people, I said to myself as I turned over the pages. May be I ought to set about really getting to know it.

So I started to read at the very first verse and I read on until I came to Abraham. Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee: and I will make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing (Gen. 12:1-2).

That verse pulled me up sharply. Here was a man who had left everythinghis home, his people, his securityand gone to a strange place because God told him to. Maybe God was asking me to do the same.

My next arresting message came when I read the story of Moses. Here again was a man who did something on nothing. What courage he had to set out with a crowd of people who had already shown themselves decidedly difficult! What faith he must have had to obey God and defy all the might of Egypt and the despotism of Pharoah! But Moses had to make the move; he had to leave his quiet home in the desert.

Here I believed I had come upon a really important message. If I wanted to go to China, God would take me there; but I would have to be willing to move and to give up what little comfort and security I had.

Eventually I decided to return to London, get a job as a housemaid, and earn enough money to pay my fare to China.

On the third day on my new job, I was sitting on my bed reading my Bible. I had now reached Nehemiah. I felt very sorry for him and understood why he wept and mourned when he heard about Jerusalem in its great need and could do nothing about it. He was a sort of butler and had to obey his employer just like I did, I thought. Then I turned to the second chapter. But he did go, I exclaimed aloud, and got up, a strange elation within me. He went in spite of everything!

As if someone was in the room, a voice said clearly, Gladys Aylward, is Nehemiah's God your God?

Yes, of course! I replied.