One day while cleaning a
wealthy couple’s house, Gladys Aylward came across a Christian magazine. She
flipped through the pages and read an article written by a 72-year-old female
missionary serving in China. The missionary pleaded for anyone willing to come
to China to help spread the Gospel. That article changed Gladys' life, for she
knew at that moment God was calling her to China. But how? She was just a poor
maid with little education.
She applied to become a
missionary to China, but she failed missionary training school. The director of
the school told her she wasn’t smart enough to learn Chinese, and they would
not accept her. But Gladys was determined. If the mission board would not send
her to China, she would find her own way there. She got her pocketbook and
pulled out the few coins she owned and prayed, “Oh Lord, here’s my Bible!
Here’s my money! Here’s me.”
Gladys began hoarding
every cent to purchase passage to China. She could not afford to go by boat, so
she decided she would travel by train across Asia. On October 15, 1932 she left
England for China. Her journey took several weeks, because halfway she was
thrown off the train by Russian soldiers. She was forced to walk or ride a
donkey the rest of the way.
Gladys arrived just a few
days before the aging missionary she was going to assist died unexpectedly.
There she was thousands of miles from home with no one—except God. Gladys
didn’t know what to do next, so she prayed, “Lord, show me your will.” The Lord
opened a door she could have never opened herself.
For many years, the feet
of Chinese girls were wrapped tightly at birth to keep them from growing big.
The Chinese thought small feet were prettier. However, the Chinese government
created a new law which said that all foot-wrapping must end. The Chinese
government was looking for officers who would go from village to village
telling people that foot-wrapping was now illegal. Gladys applied for the job
and go it.
She immediately recognized
the opportunity to spread the Gospel. Gladys traveled thousands of miles going
into small towns taking off foot bandages and telling Bible stories. Through
her efforts many people started coming to faith in Christ. In the process, she
adopted over 100 orphans and the Chinese people gave her a nickname, “The
Virtuous One.”[1]
Gladys Aylward died in
1970 after touching thousands of lives for Christ. Yet, she never saw herself
as a hero. She wrote, “I wasn't God's first choice for China. I don't know who
it was. It must have been a well-educated man. I don't know what happened.
Perhaps he died. Perhaps he wasn't willing. All I know is God looked down and
saw little Gladys Aylwardand God said, “Well, she’s willing.”[2]
We often despise the
thought of failure, but Aylward’s story encourages us that even our failures
lead to success when we follow the Lord’s leading. God uses the weak as opposed
to the strong, those who are willing to look beyond adversity, those who are
willing to let God work in them and through them completely, those who are
daring enough to trust God with the unknown. -DM
[1]
Robert J. Morgan, On This Day (Nashville,
TN: Thomas Nelson, 1997), October 15.
[2]
Fern Neal Stocker, Gladys Aylward (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1988), 108.
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