What does a devoted Christian, obsessed with overseas missions, do when she fails the training school tests? Gladys Aylward, known for her missionary work in China, continued her daily talks with God and asked Him for direction. To Gladys, whose heart remained humble and dependent upon God her entire life, a Christian life was that simple.
Born around 1903 in London, Gladys wouldn’t accept the missionary school’s decision that she was unqualified to serve. She saved her wages earned as a housemaid, knowing God would find a way and place for her in China.
In October of 1932, she boarded a train to Vladi-vostok, Russia. She then sailed to Japan, then to Tientsin, then took a train, a bus, and finally arrived by mule at Yangchen, a short distance from Beijing.
God had connected Gladys with a 73-year-old mission-ary, Mrs. Jeannie Lawson, who searched for a younger woman to carry on her work. Mrs. Lawson ran an inn for muleteers, men who drove the mule trains that carried goods to various cities.
Dealing daily with the people created a miracle: Gladys learned the Chinese language, an impossibility according to the missionary school. From then, she shared the Gospel in surrounding villages and to the muleteers.
Mrs. Lawson died from a fall. Gladys was left to run the mission and inn with only the Christian cook, Yang.
A few weeks later the local magistrate appointed Gladys foot inspector. She thanked God because the new responsibility involved travel, and that meant more opportunities to spread the Gospel.
For centuries the Chinese wrapped a woman’s feet (individually) from infancy to curtail their growth. Thus, as a grown woman, she had tiny feet, forcing her to take slow, tottering steps that the people thought extremely graceful. However, the government decreed against the footbinding, and Gladys traveled to inspect that the law was followed.
Her next year, a prison warden summoned Gladys to break up the inmates’ riots. When Gladys wondered aloud how she could do that, the warden said, “You’ve preached those who trust in Jesus have nothing to fear.”
Gladys walked into the courtyard and shouted, “Quiet!” And the men stopped their noise to listen to the petite woman. She told them to appoint two spokesmen to discuss their complaints. Eventually a prison reform was made through Gladys’ mediation. From then on, she was known as Ai-weh-deh, or virtuous one.
In her travels, Gladys found orphans along the roads and brought them home. With an undeclared war of Japan against Russia and China, she also brought home wounded soldiers.
Gladys became a Chinese citizen, lived frugally, and dressed in Chinese style, which she thought made her ministry more affective.
By spring of 1938, the war neared their village. The inn housed 100 orphans. With the Japanese invasion close, Gladys escaped walking over the mountains with her children. They walked 27 days, spending most nights unprotected on the mountainsides.
When they arrived at Yellow River, they had no way to cross. Gladys was exhausted and discouraged. One child whispered to her, “God can do anything.” So she and the children knelt and prayed, then sang. A Chinese officer heard them, then found a boat for them to cross.
On the other side, Gladys literally collapsed and was diagnosed with typhus.
Later Gladys began a new church in Sian, sharing the Gospel in villages, prisons, and leper colonies.
Her health was permanently impaired, so in 1947, she returned to England for a serious operation. She started ministries there because, as she wrote, “England, seemingly so prosperous while other countries passed through terrible suffering at the hands of Communist domination, had forgotten what was all important--the realization that God mattered in the life of a nation no less than in that of an individual.”
In 1957, Alan Burgess wrote her story in the book, The Small Woman, which was made into the movie “The Inn of the Sixth Happiness,” starring Ingrid Bergman.
Gladys Aylward died January 3, 1970.
The Church in the Wildwood