Gladys Aylward, The Little Woman with Big Faith
Book Review: Gladys Aylward, The Little Woman by Gladys Aylward with Christine Hunter. Chicago: Moody Publishers, 1970.
FROM ACTRESS TO MISSIONARY
The Britisher, Gladys Aylward, (1902-1970) wanted to be an actress. As an adult, she supported herself as a parlor maid and took drama classes in the evenings. During this time, she randomly attended a Christian meeting and wound up surrendering her life to Christ. She read an article on China in a Young Life magazine and was haunted by a statistic that said millions of Chinese have no knowledge of Christ. That fact became the embryo of a life of service to the Chinese that eventually catapulted her to fame through her exploits of faith that even Hollywood wanted to applaud. Their movie, in turn, prompted her to write this book to set the record straight about what actually happened during her unbelievable life. Hollywood did its best to tell of her accomplishments in the well-known portrayal of her in its movie, The Inn of the Sixth Happiness, starring Ingrid Bergman, 1958. It added a romantic interest that did not exist. (Photo Amazon Books)
Gladys Aylward is probably most famous for leading one hundred orphans through a war zone to find safety in Free China across the Yellow River during the Japanese Chinese war. Their ages ranged from under three to sixteen. Miracle after miracle happened for twenty-seven days over mountains and rivers. But there are other fascinating accounts that leave the reader marveling at what a human being can accomplish by following the leading of God.
Her missionary career began with failure. She was rejected by Hudson Taylor’s famous missionary society, the China Inland Mission, after she spent a year in their school in England in her late twenties. They felt that she would never be successful at learning the language or enduring the rigors of missionary life. She decided to go to China on her own if no one would send her. But she did gain one thing at the school that equipped her for days ahead. They taught her how to pray! She told the committee chairman, “I have learned to pray, really pray as I never did before, and that is something for which I’ll always be grateful” (p. 9).
Aylward found employment in London at the home of retired missionaries to China who also taught her to pray. She says, “Their implicit faith in God was a revelation to me. Never before had I met anyone who trusted Him so utterly, so implicitly and so obediently” (p. 9). She read about China, saved for China, and prepared supplies for the trip to China. With her parents’ consent, she purchased a train ticket by installments to reach China via the overland route from London to Tientsin, although there was fighting in Manchuria along her route.
OFF TO CHINA
Then, she had to determine where to go in China. She heard of an aging, widowed missionary in China named Jenny Lawson who was praying for a young helper. Aylward wrote to her. Ms. Lawson said “yes” to the application. Aylward left England behind on October 15, 1932. Five weeks and many adventures later, she arrived at Lawson’s door. The older woman’s plan was to open an inn for muleteers so that she could tell Bible stories and preach to them after feeding them and caring for their mules. She needed a young helper to grab the lead mule and steer him into the inn.
Aylward listened to local Chinese for a year and became fluent. She could even tell stories and preach in villages. Then, Ms. Lawson died. By 1939, the young missionary had become a Chinese citizen.
God opened an amazing door of support. The local mandarin hired her to help enforce the new law to stop foot binding of females. She went on his payroll as a foot inspector with two soldiers accompanying her everywhere. She later won the mandarin to Christ. From the start, she got his permission to share the gospel as she did her work. In her travels, she adopted her first orphan, little Ninepence (the amount of money in her pocket with which she paid for the unwanted, dying child). Many others joined later.
Then, the bombs started falling as Japanese planes flew overhead. The mule inn was destroyed. Sometimes Gladys and the children had to resort to the mountains and caves until safety returned. Wounded Chinese and Japanese soldiers filled the mule inn courtyard. She got a price on her head because she sometimes warned the Chinese of Japanese whereabouts.
For her own and the children’s safety she began her famous trek of hundreds of miles through rugged terrain for twenty-seven days to Free China. Her one-hundred-member orphan group started out by faith (p. 81). During a low point in the trip, she wondered why she had gotten involved with all those orphans. She heard a voice saying, “I died for these children. I loved every one of them. I gave them to you to look after, for My sake.” (p. 91)
Aylward almost ruined her health on the trip but was able to turn her charges over to an orphanage operated by Mrs. Chiang Kai-shek. But the work of Gladys Aylward was not over.
Pages 112-120 give a thrilling account a co-worker’s and her visit to a Tibetan monastery of Buddhists lamas. All five hundred accepted Gladys and her friend’s witness because the lamas had been waiting for God to send someone to them to further explain the messages of a tract and a copy of the New Testament which told them of a God who loved them.
She started a revival in a Free China prison by leading a notorious murderer to the Lord. Regarding the prisoners, she heard a rebuke again, “I died for these as I died for you.” (124) She began visiting England and America to tell of the dire needs of Chinese refugees. On one trip to Belfast, Ireland, she was led to a sane Chinese woman confined in an insane asylum, led her to the Lord, and secured her release. She heard that divine voice again, “That is why I brought you to Ireland.” (p. 141)
Sadly, she witnessed the martyrdom of two hundred Christian young people by the Communists when they gained control of China. She was forced to escape to England where she saw her parents again. But not for long. She was off again for Hong Kong and Taiwan.
In addition to this amazing autobiography, YouTube offers several sources, even a cartoon version for children by Torch Lighters. (See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_rUusShwOs.) Another documentary, largely narrated by Carol Purves, is well worth watching. (See her book, Chinese Whispers, The Gladys Aylward Story and documentary at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jX09pOlolE&t=904s.) It closes with the actual voice of Aylward, praying for those listening. At 58:18 minutes in the documentary, Purves says, “She [Aylward] had given herself to God. And she made me want to give more of myself to God.”
That’s exactly what I felt.