General Chat

Good morning :-)

The distancing rule is being relaxed here it seems Sylvia - we are down to 1 metre soon. It seems as though that church is way ahead of us!! I went to a funeral in a local cemetery yesterday. Quite a good number of people scattered around and obviously trying to maintain distance but you could tell it was a struggle for them - they just wanted to be with their friends. On the whole though, they were being careful.

A Prayer of Thanks

Father, despite all the problems which surround us,
we thank you for summer days.
For green grass
and beautiful flowers
leafy trees and
running streams.

For birdsong and children laughing as they play.
For sunshine
and clear skies
the smell after a summer rain
and beauty
everywhere
we turn. Amen.


Cx :-)

I've enjoyed reading the Gladys Aylward story. Thank you, Cynthia.


Update on the Baptist Church from yesterday.

No sign of the Canadian Baptist members, but the Filipeno church members were there from 9:00 am, people arriving with what looked like food between then and the start of their service about 10 or 10:30 am.

Found out why the food when I next went into the kitchen .......... several of the cars had left, but some were left, and people were preparing for a Father's Day Lunch to be held in the basement, including one poor father standing just outside the basement door with a small (very small) BBQ, with a woman (probably his wife!) continually checking that he was doing it right.

Spatial distancing round that BBQ seemed to have gone by the board, because the next time I looked out, he was being "helped" by 3 men!

Good morning :-)

Thank you for those words Vera and I hope you are keeping well.

Good to see you back David and do take care of yourself.

Epilogue - Gladys Aylward


Her friends insisted she take her first furlough after 17 years, to see her family and recover her strength. Through a popular biography (The Small Woman by Alan Burgess); a Hollywood movie of her life, (The Inn of the Sixth Happiness, starring Ingrid Bergman), which received numerous awards; and a BBC interview on “This is Your life,” she became an international figure. She was invited to many places to tell her story and dined with such dignitaries as the Archbishop of Canterbury and even Her Majesty the Queen.

But after ten years in England, China beckoned again. Gladys settled in Taiwan, and once again began working with orphans. She opened the Gladys Aylward Orphanage, and within days it was filled with children. She used her fame and prestige to raise money for them. When the burden became too great as her strength began to fail with increasing age, the Lord sent Kathleen Langton-Smith from England to help her with administration.

On New Year’s morning, 1970, just one month shy of her sixty-eighth birthday, after speaking to soldiers' wives at the American army base, Gladys went to bed without supper, and later that night slipped into the presence of the Lord she had served so faithfully. Her body now lies in a marble tomb on a hill in the garden of Christ’s College at Taipei, the capital of Taiwan.

In an interview during her later years, she had expressed her surprise at God’s call to serve Him in China with all her educational limitations. She confided:
“I wasn’t God’s first choice for what I’ve done for China. There was somebody else…I don’t know who it was—God’s first choice. It must have been a man—a wonderful man. A well-educated man. I don’t know what happened. Perhaps he died. Perhaps he wasn’t willing…And God looked down…and saw Gladys Aylward.”

We thank God for the example set by this extraordinary woman.

Cx :-)

Wishing you all well <3 <3

Hello all

A Prayer for Father's Day.

Thank you God, for all who show a father's love in
our world. Thank you to those who are special to us,
thank you for those who are no longer with us now.
Be close to those who are feeling sad today. Help us
to know that you, our Father are always close.
In Jesus' name. Amen.

Good morning

I've been enjoying the Gladys Aylward story. What a remarkable woman! Thank you Cynthia for your posts about her.

We have never made a big thing in our family of Fathers' Day or Mothers' Day as we've felt that they were just commercial inventions, as opposed to Mothering Sunday. Good parents are due love and respect all the time. I am aware that both OH and I were blessed with wonderful fathers. Mine could be quite strict and in my teens I didn't always have the freedom some of my friends had which sometimes led to a bit of teenage angst, but I never, ever doubted his love. I now know what a great gift he gave me in that sense of security and protection.

It's been a great joy to me to see my children have a wonderful relationship with their father, and it is the same for my grandchildren. So today I shall raise a glass (well, a cup of tea) to fathers everywhere and will spare a thought for those children who don't have the blessing of the love and care of an earthly father..

Good morning :-)


Today is Father's Day and we give thanks for all those special men who have loved and cared for us. <3


The Collect (special prayer) for today:

Lord, you have taught us
that all our doings without love are nothing worth:
send your Holy Spirit
and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of love,
the true bond of peace and of all virtues,
without which whoever lives is counted dead before you.
Grant this for your only Son Jesus Christ’s sake,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen

Cx :-)

Good morning :-)


Hoping all are well - haven't seen Emma for a bit, is she okay? <3


Gladys Aylward......

The Long March

It was unsafe to use the roads, so through little used trails and over high mountains Gladys led her brood. Their cloth shoes wore out, the small children began to cry, and all were hungry. Arriving at the broad Yellow River, she asked herself, “Whatever can I do now?” Then, unexpectedly, the Nationalist army allowed her to use their boats to ferry everyone across.

Once, while alone, some Japanese soldiers saw her and tried to shoot her. Running into a field of grain, she escaped, though bullets tore through her clothes and one scorched her back.

When they finally reached Xian, Gladys was exhausted and ill. She collapsed and was in a semi-coma for weeks. She had a fever of 105 degrees, typhus, pneumonia, and malnutrition. Finally she recovered, and was happy that all the children had been received by one family or institution or other.

She continued working with refugees, lepers, anyone who needed help. She brought to the hopeless the hope of Christ. An American doctor observing the lepers, noted: “Their bodies are so contorted with disease, they cannot kneel. Their hands are so crippled, they can barely receive the elements. Yet their eyes flame with joy and hope - all because Gladys Aylward brought them Christ.”


Cx :-)

Hello all

Cynthia, another interesting topic. Thank you.

Wet and chilly and not at all like Summer. Take care.

I hope David is improving.

Stay safe and keep well everyone.

Good morning :-)


The War

Gladys made friends with officers of the Chinese Nationalist army, led by Chiang Kai-shek. At one time she thought she was in love with a Colonel Linnan who wanted to marry her. But she realized they had two very different goals in life, and above all, he was not a Christian. Through Linnan she came to see that China not only faced the danger of the Japanese invasion, but alsot another Chinese army, the Communists.

The war uprooted people. Four times Yangcheng was bombed and overrun by the Japanese; each time the people returned when the invaders left. Then one day Gladys was informed that the Japanese had put a price on her head; her friends urged her to leave. As the invading army came closer, she gathered up her children and made preparations to seek sanctuary in the far West in Xian. A whole orphanage was entrusted to her care.

Soon she was leading 100 children, some of them mere infants. The prison warden wondered what to do with the prisoners. They couldn’t travel in chains. Custom dictated that he behead them all. Shocked, Gladys presented a scheme to the Mandarin to place them under the care of relatives who would be responsible for them. No one took Feng, the leader, so she did, and he was a great help to her on the long march to safety.

Cx :-)

Good morning :-)

Hope your daughter and family cope well with the work going on Sylvia. It's unsettling at the best of times. Whenever we had any major type work done, I worked my way through it but husband and daughter could get in a right old state as their routines were disrupted. :-D

Good wishes to David - hope he is soon back with his tantalizing thoughts. :-D

Funny you should mention the Mandarin Tabitha :-D


Continuing with Gladys Aylward...

The Mandarin

The local Mandarin liked to talk with her. He spoke of his long years of education in the Confucian classics. As Gladys listened, she came to appreciate the Confucian ethical content but noted the lack of a provision of spiritual power such as she knew through the Holy Spirit, the missing hope of forgiveness through the sacrifice of Christ, and a total absence of expectation of life beyond the grave.

One day the Mandarin invited her to a special dinner. The prison warden was there, as were other officials, and several wealthy merchants. Then he stood and gave a speech:

From the other side of the world Ai-Weh-Deh journeyed to China, owing allegiance only to her living God. She brought her Christianity to Yang-cheng. She had not sat hidden inside a temple contemplating how virtuous she was. She had unbound the feet of infants. She had helped the poor. She had visited the jails. She had taken orphans under her roof. She had nursed the wounded.

Her faith was alive. More than anyone the Mandarin had ever met, Ai-Weh-Deh demonstrated the power of love. She loved China so much she became a citizen…

The Mandarin admitted he had debated with her the merits of her faith against the merits of his old Confucius ways, a hundred times. He ended with “But Confucianism lives in my head, not in my heart, as Christianity does in Ai-Weh-Deh
and her converts. As a result I wish to become a Christian!


Cx :-)

I too remember seeing the film ........... that was when we went to the cinema regularly, at least once a week!!

Vera ....... thank you for the good wishes for my daughter!

They have lived in the house for just over 10 years, so they know it pretty well ..... but not what's behind the walls.

They knew when they bought it that they wanted to make some changes, including adding an extension on the back, but their first job was to immediately re-do the roof, under the terms of the mortgage they had.

Houses over here are largely built of wood, and roofs used to be covered with cedar shingles, later asphalt shingles were used, now more modern materials still. Most cedar and asphalt shingles have to be re-done about every 20-30 years. They added digging around the foundations and putting in new drainage and deepening the floor of the basement to that. So they lived in a bit of chaos for several weeks almost immediately ..... particularly after the builder found that there was a spring running under the house! Tht added a bit more waterproofing to the job :-D

Daughter is an architect, so she drew up the plans for the extension. I think we all know what architects can be like .......... turned out the two floor extension with basically 1 room per floor would cost twice what the house cost! So that's been put off and finally discarded, for what they're now planning.

But this is where the time comes in, as Vera and I both know, and they still don't seem to have realised.

Son-i-l is a bit of an obsessionist with his plans ......... if he decides this is going to happen on this date and that on that date, that is what will happen. Then he gets thoroughly disturbed when it doesn't.

The first time we realised this was when daughter told us he had announced that they would start trying for a child in September or October, child would be born at the beginning of July as then he would be able to spend the 2 month summer vacation at home helping. :-S

When we finished laughing, daughter added "And he did do 1st year Biology at university!". :-D

She's adapted well to his idiosyncrasies!!

Sending get well thoughts to David - hope you are back here posting your thoughts very soon.

As my grandmother always use to say "he should take more water with it" :-D :-D :-D

Hello all

Cynthia, another interesting story line. Thank you.

I've seen David posting on the general chat and he's fallen and been admitted into hospital but is back at home again now. Sending my good wishes David,
I hope that you feel a little better soon. Take care.

Stay safe everyone.

I must admit - I do love the film The Inn of the Sixth Happiness. Even if some of the things are not quite right, they still got the meaning of the film over.

Such wonderful actors Robert Donat - Athene Seyler - Burt Kwouk - Ingrid Bergman and the lovely Curt Jurgens. You couldn't help but fall in love with the story. Also a very sad one.
Borrowed from Wikipedia

Robert Donat's final role was the Mandarin of Yang Cheng in The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958). His last spoken words in the film, an emotional soliloquy in which the Mandarin confesses his conversion to Christianity, reducing Ingrid Bergman as the missionary Gladys Aylward to tears, were the prophetic, "We shall not see each other again, I think. Farewell." He had collapsed with a stroke during filming but managed to recover enough to complete the film. He had a brain tumour the size of a duck egg and cerebral thrombosis, hew was only 53 and died in London.

I had Gladys as one of my 5 amazing women for my A level exam. You had to write a precis of their life, how they changed the world and what they meant to you.

Lovely memories. I love hearing her story again.

Thank you Cynthia Hope you get a new computer soon. <3 <3

Good morning :-)

What a day - yesterday, I accidently spilt something on my computer and voila - puff - that was it. Fortunately I have a friend who is a computer guru and the result is...…I have to get a new computer!! I am cross with myself for being careless so, it wasn't really an accident was it? It was my own stupidity.

My daughter has lent me hers thankfully but I am still getting used to it :-S


Pat, I hadn't thought of the tall/short stature before but, yes, you're right! (As soon as I saw your name I said 'bells' :-D

Vera, it can be so hard keeping schtumm at times can't it - they have to learn these things, as we did, by experience! It's been quite noticeable how the reduction in traffic means we can hear birdsong more clearly - simply lovely.

Moving on.....

The Inn

Mrs. Lawson’s missionary aim was to establish The Inn of the Eight Happinesses. Yangchen was an overnight stop for mule caravans on six-week or three-month journeys. The two women provided forage for the mules, a nourishing supper, and then would entertain the men with Bible stories as a Christian witness.

As time when on, Gladys became fluent in Chinese and learned to work with Mrs Lawson until the older lady’s death. This left Gladys to manage the Inn only with the help of an older Chinese helper. One day she was visited by the local Mandarin (magistrate). He asked that she assist him by becoming his “foot inspector,” making sure that the new laws against the ancient custom of female foot binding were being complied with. As a result, A-Weh-Deh (“the virtuous one”) became increasingly known and respect by the citizenry not only of Yancheng, but also of the villages in the whole territory.

Wherever she went, she not only examined feet, but also spoke of the Lord Jesus and the salvation He offered to all who believed. After 2,000 years, the Gospel had finally come to these mountain villages, and it was she, a tiny woman from a modest house on 67 Cheddington Road, delivering it in a sing-songy mountain dialect of Chinese. Only two years before she had been a parlour maid in an English manor. Over the years, little groups of believers in each of these villages began meeting together to worship the Lord—fruit of her ministry.

One day she saw a poor woman sitting by a wall with a small, very dirty child. “Is that your child?” Gladys asked her. “It looks very sick.” “What is that to you?” the woman replied with hostility. “Do you want to buy her or not?” Shocked at the idea of selling a human being, Gladys asked the price. All she had was nine pence. The woman agreed, probably sure that the infant would die anyhow. Though Gladys gave her the official name of Mei-en (“Beautiful Grace”) she always called her Ninepence. This was the first child she adopted. Soon she had more, many more, especially as the country erupted into war.


Cx :-)

When I was in my teens I went to a talk on Gladys life by someone who had worked with her in China. The collection was for Gladys's orphanage.

I saw the film about her on TV some years later, I hadn't realised up till then that that Ingrid Bergman played Gladys and I was astonished - a tall woman playing a very small woman :-S

Stay safe <3

Good morning

Good luck to your daughter with her house renovations Sylvia. We had a similar situation with our son. A couple of years ago he bought a beautiful large Victorian house that looked as though it hadn’t been touched since Victoria was on the throne. It was definitely a “project”! He thought he would have the house completely remodelled with all mod cons in about 6 months. Two years on it is just about done apart from all the decorating, carpeting etc. We have refrained from saying we told him so :-)

Kandj, you asked if my granddaughter was still at the care home. Yes, she is and will probably stay for several months of her gap year.

Thank you for the Gladys Aylward post Cynthia. I just have a slight knowledge of her story so it’s good to learn a little more.

I have been sitting in the garden listening to the birdsong, one of the blessings of lockdown. I’ve also realised how bee-friendly our garden is and had time to notice just how many different kinds of bees there are from tiny little ones to big fat bumblebees. Maybe I should make more time to “stand and stare” at some of the wonders of the natural world.

Good morning :-)


We've certainly had some rain here over the last few hours - thunder and lightning yesterday too..... :-D

Continuing the story of Gladys Aylward

The Call

Gladys May Aylward was born in February 1902 in London. Her family were hardworking people, faithful in their attendance at the Anglican church. One day, in Sunday School, the clergyman told of missionaries who worked in China and Gladys left the church in a daze. From that day on she dreamed of serving the Lord in that country. She left school and went to work at 14 but had no money.

Twelve years passed but the call remained steady in her heart and she applied to the China Inland Mission but was turned down as they didn’t think she had the capabilities needed.

She went to work as a maid for Sir Francis Younghusband, a famous military officer who had served in the Far East. Whilst cleaning his library, she learned of Mrs. Jennie Lawson, an elderly widow working as a missionary in China, who had written, asking for someone to go and help her. Gladys saw this invitation as her opportunity. She wrote to Mrs. Lawson and, after working extra hours and week-ends virtually spending nothing on herself, she had enough for the passage by the year’s end.

On October 15th, 1932, Gladys set off on the long train journey to the land of her calling. She had no money to buy food so packed her suitcase with things she could eat. She felt very much alone but had an abiding peace that she was doing the will of God.

She arrived in China on the 8th of November 1932. An overland trip of a month took her to Yancheng, where she met the widowed Scottish independent missionary then in her seventies.

Continued tomorrow..........

Cx :-)

Hello all

I remember Ingrid Bergman playing the Gladys Aylward character in the late 1950s film, and look forward to learning more about this Christian lady.

A bright warmish day but I need to push myself to do the prayer walking around the village. My Get Up and Go.... has Got Up and Gone today.

Happy Monday Greetings. Stay safe everyone.