“Ai-Weh-Deh” Gladys Aylward, Paul Curtis [great books for teens .txt] 📗

Gladys Aylward

She was born February twenty forth 1902
On the outskirts of London the Oldest sister of two
Her Father was a postman and she also had a brother
Her hard work ethic and faith came from her mother
It was within the Anglican Church that she was raised
And her barely adequate schooling was hardly praised

When leaving school Gladys became a Domestic servant
Becoming a parlor maid when proved to be competent
While she was still a teenager she read a magazine article
About China and the people who had never heard the Gospel
The thought that millions of people had not heard God's word
Affected Gladys profoundly and her conscience was stirred

It was while she was working in one rich West End manor
After many years of cleaning in luxurious library and parlor
She attended a revival meeting and the preacher spoke of
Humbly dedicating one's life to the service of God above
Gladys responded to the message and her heart was full
She knew she was called to China to preach the Gospel

So at the age of twenty-six Gladys became a probationer
At the London branch of the China Inland Mission Center
Gladys attended the school and trained to be a missionary
She passed the examination but still had to wait and see
After three months the mission agency broke the news
She was not considered qualified for service in their views

Undaunted she refused to accept it as the final decision
Serving god in other ways while nurturing her inner vision
Her inner sense of calling to China continued to obsess her
She just had to go with or without an agency to sponsor
Biding her time Gladys began to save her meager pay
Remaining confident that God would help her find a way

Then she heard of a seventy-three year-old missionary
Jeannie Lawson who needed some help to fetch and carry
She was looking for a younger woman to carry on her work
Hard working and devout a Christian who would not shirk
Gladys wrote to Jeannie Lawson and was accepted hence
If she could get to Yangcheng, China at her own expense


She did not have enough money for the journey by ship
But she might soon have enough for the train fare at a snip
Gladys knuckled down working every hour God sent her
To raise the remaining money for her third class ticket fare
At last she did it she could go to China at her own expense
With passport, Bible, her tickets, and two pounds nine pence

So it was on October fifteenth nineteen thirty two, a Saturday
At the age of thirty Gladys Aylward was finally on her way
The journey began from Liverpool street station in London
Traveling on the long and at times dangerous trans-Siberian
To make matters worse and make the journey more of a chore
The Soviet Union and China were engaged in undeclared war


Gladys had several narrow escapes in the midst of hostilities
And she was detained for a time in Russia due to formalities
Arriving in Vladivostok she had to sail from there to Japan
And then eventually board another ship and sail to Tientsin
Thence by train, then bus and finally mule, to her destination
The inland city of Yangcheng, in Shansi’s mountainous region

As if reaching China alone wasn’t enough of a feat to begin
She was to assist a retired missionary woman to run an inn
Most of the Yangcheng residents had never seen Europeans
Now they had Jeannie Lawson and Gladys on their hands
Even Chinese were called foreigners who lived in the hills
The two women were distrusted and feared as foreign devils


Yangcheng was an overnight stop for the mule caravans
Carrying coal, raw cotton, iron goods and pots and pans
But before they could open up there was a great deal to do
And Gladys had to learn the language at least a word or two
Once they had made all necessary repairs in order to open
They laid in a good supply of food for mules and for men


When next a caravan came past the inn, Gladys dashed out,
Grabbed the rein of the lead mule and led it with a shout
Led into the inns yard the caravan followed without a fight
Mules knew that inn’s meant food and rest for the night
Once in the courtyard the muleteers had no choice but stay
Once mules found food the muleteers had to call it a day


The travelers were given good hot food and a warm bed
A standard price was charged and the mules were well fed
But they also had free entertainment, which wasn’t standard
In the form of bible stories the best stories they’d ever heard
After a few weeks, Gladys did not need to kidnap customers
Caravans bypassed other inns preferring to stay at theirs


Some of the travelers became Christians and some did not
But Christians or not the wonderful stories they never forgot
They journeyed from between three months to six weeks
Through deep fertile valleys and along high craggy peaks
Stopping at many inns along the well worn caravan trails
Muleteers retelling more or less accurately the Christian tales


Gladys continued to practice her Chinese for hours each day
And was becoming fluent and comfortable with it to convey
Then Jeannie Lawson fell from one of the Inn's balconies
And despite best efforts dying a few days later of her injuries
Gladys found herself left to continue the mission on her own
But for Yang the cook, a Chinese Christian, she was all alone

After Jeannie's death Gladys quickly became fluent in Chinese
The mission agencies had been sure she lacked the expertise
Despite disproving her doubters Gladys remained philosophical
Calling her great feat "one of God's great miracles" that’s all
So the young English parlor maid and the old Chinese cook
Continued to serve up with dinner stories from the good book


A few weeks after Jeannie's death Gladys met the Mandarin
He arrived in a sedan chair with impressive escort at the inn
He told her that the new reforming government had decreed
That from the practice of foot binding women should be freed
Now to be his foot-inspector she was needed by the mandarin
She could invade without scandal the quarter’s women lived in


China had observed the practice of binding feet for centuries
Amongst the women of the upper and middle class families
The custom involved wrapping the feet of girls during infancy
Tightly in bandages preventing them from developing naturally
Thus grown women had extremely tiny feet, which then meant
They could take only slow tottering steps thought to be elegant


It was a God send that she would be a paid for foot inspecting
As the missionary service had withdrawn her meager funding
It was clear to them both that she was the only possible candidate
Gladys accepted the position and didn’t for a moment hesitate
With her own feet unbound she could travel the district easily
Spreading the Gospels as well as enforcing the government decree


During her second year in Yangcheng Gladys was summoned
By the Mandarin himself and to his palace she was beckoned
At the palace she found the Mandarin with the prison warden
Looking in great distress as there was a riot at the men's prison
Many prisoners died and the guards were afraid to intervene
Gladys was asked to go with the warden and survey the scene


Convicts were rampaging about the prisons bloody courtyards
Screaming like banshees and taunting the frightened guards
Gladys didn’t understand why she’d been asked to be there
It was because she preached that trust in Christ protected her
The warden implored her to enter the prison and stop the riot
She walked boldly into the courtyard and shouted: "Quiet!

Astonishingly when the small woman spoke the men fell silent
Spokesmen were nominated, the prisoners side to represent
The problems were not new, not enough food in their bellies
And too much time with which to occupy minds and bodies
After Gladys had talked with them she spoke with the warden
Give these men paid work and they can feed themselves then


There was no money available for sweeping prison reforms
But someone donated some old looms for weaving uniforms
And a grindstone so that the men could work grinding grain
So Gladys had proved herself to be invaluable once again
The people had a new name for her after what she had done
Calling her "Ai-Weh-Deh," which means "the Virtuous One."


Her courage during the Prison riot cemented her reputation
As a miracle worker and as a well respected holy person
And in nineteen thirty-six Gladys became a Chinese citizen
And she was a regular and welcome guest of the Mandarin
The Mandarin liked Gladys but found her religion ridiculous
But found her conversation was stimulating and humorous


While sharing the Gospel in the surrounding village’s one day
She saw a woman begging with a small child by the roadway
The child covered with sores and suffering from malnutrition
It was clear she was not the mother after a brief conversation
The little girl was about five years old and could barely stand
She bought the child putting ninepence in the beggar’s hand


A year later, "Ninepence" with an abandoned boy following
And she said, "I will eat less, so that he can have something."
Thus Ai-Weh-Deh acquired a second orphan calling him "Less."
And so her family slowly began to grow with great success
Gladys lived frugally and dressed like the people around her
Continuing her work both at the inn and as the foot inspector

Gladys began to take in more and more unwanted children
Before too long she had twenty little ones living at the inn
Then the war came to Yangcheng in the spring of thirty-eight
And then very soon refugees began to arrive at the city gate
The Japanese planes came first and bombed the ancient city
Five days later they would be overrun by the Japanese army

The bombing was devastating and killed and injured many
The Mandarin gathered the survivors and told them to flee
They must retreat into the mountains at least for the duration
Hiding in the remote caves and villages and await liberation
So impressed was he in her life he wished to make it known
That because of Ai-Weh-Deh he would make her faith his own

There remained the problem of the convicts left in the jail
The mandarin consulted Gladys and good sense was to prevail
The traditional policy favored beheading them lest they run
But a plan for relatives to post a bond of guarantee finally won
Every man was eventually released on promise of good behavior
Yet again the virtuous one was to be the poor prisoners savior


As the war continued Gladys was often behind enemy lines
And passed on messages and information of many kinds
She became friends with "General Ley," a Catholic priest
A European who now led a large guerilla force in the east
Ley had taken up arms