Gladys Aylward... from Parlor Maid to Chinese Missionary

All this week we are looking at missionaries. I have five favorite missionaries:

• Patrick as in saint Patrick to the Irish
• Bruce Olson to the Motilones (Bari) people
• and today... Gladys Aylward to the Chinese people.

You will have to come back to find out the other two. In any event, when I get to heaven I want to meet Gladys Aylward (pronounced ALL-YEARD). This is one very tough woman. She was also humble and self-deprecating! And, she loved Jesus!

Spiritually tough people don't over complicate things! They don't have the time or the patience. Distractions of any kind, let alone endless contemplations and second guessing are annoying! Spiritually tough people are usually on a mission.  It doesn't mean they don't contemplate the great questions of life... they do! However, their faith in Jesus can be summarized in Moses statement in Genesis 18:25, "Shall not the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob do that which is right?" They learn to relax in the PROVISION of Jesus! Understand, some people want to be philosophers through life and others want to GET STUFF DONE! Some want to spend time contemplating their navel, and others don't have time to pick the lint out of their navels! Some people trust Jesus to be God, and others spend their lives trying to define Jesus. Which one are you?

In Gladys early days before China, Gladys heard a missionary talk about the great need for the people of China to hear the Gospel message. So, Gladys became a parlor maid to raise money to send her brother to the mission field. Just one problem! BROTHER DID NOT WANT TO GO! What was to follow was one BIG FIGHT! When the dust settled Gladys was haunted by the words of her brother... "If it is so important... then you go and be a missionary!" She had never considered that she could go! After all, she was a parlor maid.

However, in typical 'Gladys' fashion she became intent on seeing 'how she could go!" First, she signed up for a missionary school and was discharged because she was not 'smart enough.' Then Gladys went to the China Inland Mission thinking they would sponsor someone 'dumb or naive' enough to go to a dangerous place.  BUT, you guessed it! The agency officials said, "Gladys, you are not QUALIFIED or EDUCATED enough... you don't even have a skill." So, like my other favorite missionaries... GLADYS SENT HERSELF in 1930!

Gladys is one of those people no one ever notices. People who KNOW HOW TO WORK. The custodians, the caretakers, the working class, the parlor maids who make our world work... yet are never appreciated. So, despite ALL ODDS Gladys said, "Here I Am, Lord!"

Gladys could not afford the safer steam ship passage so Gladys arrived via the Trans-Siberian Railway. In the 1930s this was VERY DANGEROUS. However, if anyone could make it the determined Gladys COULD and DID!

And now it was 1940 in war torn China. Thirty-eight year-old Gladys Awlyard was about to take the trip of her life. Gladys was a missionary to Chinese orphans and the Japanese Army was quickly advancing on the orphanage. Nothing in Glady's life had prepared her for this moment. Of course, that wasn't exactly true. We often discount the subtle life experiences that God used to form our character. Gladys came from a British working class family. Gladys entire life was all about work and 'getting through' the challenges of daily life. You see, Gladys never had an easy life. In any event, Gladys was about to discover the ways God had prepared her.  So, Glady's grabs her 100+ kids and heads out over the mountains of China in an attempt to get everyone to safety. With a Japanese bullet wound in her shoulder! And this is not the only adventure Gladys and her children will experience. I suggest you read Glady's own book, "Gladys Awlyard-The Little Woman." It is available on Amazon Kindle for only $5.00! We need to read these stories to our children and GRANDCHILDREN!

Link

You may also want to view the cartoon story of Gladys Aylward, "Gladys Aylward" on Amazon Prime Video by Torchlighters for $2.00.

Link

And of course, if you would like to watch the 20th Century Fox Motion Picture starring Ingrid Bergman then you can rent the famous, "The Inn of the Sixth Happiness."

Link

The Chinese believe in 5 Happiness's: wealth, longevity, good health, virtue, and a peaceful death in old age. So, the ministry Gladys Aylward and Jennie Lawson set-up was called the "Inn of the Sixth Happiness." This was an Inn in which Gladys and Jennie hoped mule team drivers would stop, eat, hear the Gospel and share it with the rest of China. In any event, it should not be a surprise to discover along with the mule team drivers that Jesus is the Sixth Happiness!

I trust you will take time to read about Gladys Aylward. Gladys went from being a 'foreign devil' in the eyes of the people, to being given a new Chinese name, Jenai, by these same people,  which meant "...one who loves people." And she did in the name of Jesus!

If you want to take a short-cut on your learning about Gladys Awlyard you can find her in Wikipedia. However, the book is better!

Gladys died in 1970 and I have placed a link to her obituary below!

Obituary