As the fighting moved closer, Gladys knew she would have to leave and get her children to safety. By this point Gladys had accumulated one hundred abandoned or orphaned children, ranging from toddlers to teenagers. At first, Yangcheng was not affected, but then the bombs began to fall nearby. Satisfied, the prisoners returned to their cells. When she saw the appalling conditions they lived in, she promised to ask the mandarin to improve them and find useful work for the prisoners to fill their days. Gladys, only four foot ten inches, stepped into the prison and began to listen to the complaints of the criminals. One day, the mandarin called on her to stop a prison riot. Gladys praised God as she tramped through the mountain passes to remote villages she had never visited before. Through this opportunity, she was allowed to visit every home and share the good news about Jesus. Foot binding of young girls’ feet had been banned but not actively enforced, and Gladys was called upon to ensure the decree was being followed. Pleased with this decision, the mandarin offered Gladys the job of foot inspector. Gladys appeared to be an unlikely candidate for mission work, but God chose her and gave her the determination to do the work.īy 1936, Gladys felt so much at home in Yangcheng that she decided to become a Chinese citizen. However, as he watched Gladys at her work, he was touched to see her take in abandoned children, as well as offering basic medical care to any who came to her. Not used to people standing up to him, she startled him by disagreeing with him about his religion. Even the mandarin of the town was interested and invited her for a meal. Her stories about Jesus began to garner interest in the town too, so that large crowds would gather in the evening to hear the small woman speak. Gladys learned the country dialect from her customers so that she could share the gospel with them. InfluenceĮven though Gladys was told she could never learn the Chinese language, necessity made it possible. But she returned to nurse Jeannie when she fell ill and eventually died. After a few months of conflict, Gladys left. Jeannie, a demanding elderly woman, put Gladys in charge of the mules instead of the people. From the beginning, Jeannie and Gladys did not get on. Then, a kind stranger got her passage on a ship to Japan, and from there she was able to continue.įinally arriving at her destination, Gladys discovered that Jeannie Lawson’s mission was an inn for muleteers who stopped overnight on their trade routes. She was briefly arrested, questioned, and released, but she still couldn’t get to China. War was raging between the two countries, and Gladys was caught in the middle. The train trip across Europe and Asia on her own in 1932 was fraught with danger, but God supplied strangers who took Gladys under their wing until she arrived at the border between Russia and China. Finally, missionary Jeannie Lawson had written the congregation asking for a young woman to help her mission work in Yangcheng in northern China. Friends and employers gave her necessary items such as clothing, a suitcase, and a small stove. She managed to earn and be given enough fare money in one year instead of the three she had calculated. She asked God to clear the way for her, and He did. The Mission felt she could not be adequately prepared for the mission field.ĭisappointed but undeterred, Gladys went back to working as a maid, determined to earn the money needed to travel to China. However, after three months she was asked to leave because, even though she had excelled in the practical work, she had failed the classroom work. They accepted her into their training program despite her poor education and her being in her late twenties. Feeling the call to go, she presented herself as a candidate to the China Inland Mission in 1929. Through one of their magazines, she learned about the many people in China who had never heard the gospel. She joined Young Life Campaign and spent her off days learning to share the good news of Jesus. The focus of her life changed completely. By the time she left the meeting, she had become a Christian. Unsure why she had chosen to attend, she found herself being challenged by the gospel. One evening, Gladys, in her mid-twenties, went to a revival meeting. The work was hard, but she enjoyed living the life of the rich vicariously. She found that working as a parlor maid in the big London houses was more to her taste than school. Growing up in a churchgoing, working-class family, Gladys left school at the age of fourteen. Gladys was born in Edmonton, a town north of London, in 1902. Although she appeared to lack the resources for mission work, God affirmed her calling and gave her many opportunities to overcome practical obstacles. Once she felt the call to the mission field, she refused to allow any excuses to hold her back.
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