Gladys Aylward was born short in size and short in worldly status but what was lacking in height and social standing she made up for in. Gladys May Aylward was born in north London on February 24, , and grew up a high-spirited, happy child. “She remembered her father coming home,”. She is author her autobiography entitled Gladys Aylward: The Little Woman. The film Inn of the Sixth Happiness, is loosely based on events from her life.
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Her destination gldys a government orphanage in Sian and for 12 days they traveled, sometimes lodging with sympathetic hosts and sometimes staying outdoors.
Following mule tracks over the mountains, the band slept in whatever shelter they could find with only each other for warmth; many of the smaller children had to be carried by the older ones. Two distressing events marked Aylward’s later life.
Wild and mountainous, the area was filled with bandits, immense stretches of lonely roads, and primitive people who thought all foreigners were devils. While that story may or not be true, it was not only Gladys Aylward’s appearance that helped her in her work as a missionary in China, but also her total dedication to Bkography and her adopted country.
After capitalizing on the opportunity at every village to tell her stories, Aylward would then state her case to the biographt plainly:. Like many young girls, she dreamed of becoming an actress.
Because each style has its own formatting nuances that evolve over time and not all information is available for every reference entry or article, Encyclopedia. She later felt a calling to go overseas as a Christian missionary.
The war left many children orphaned, and most of those in Yangcheng were brought to Aylward, who lived in the bombed out inn.
Gladys Aylward’s Long Road to China
Remarkably, Aylward survived, believing that God had more work for her to do. Bythe Communists’ hold on China caused many to flee the country, including missionaries, who were prime targets. I wear their clothes, eat their food, speak their language—even their dialect—and I am thinking like they do.
Her audiences found her captivating. As the situation grew worse and the Chinese army was preparing to retreat, Aylward organized another large group of orphans and had them taken to safety nearby. Aylward began to report regularly to the colonel and in the process fell in love. Inafter the death of her mother, she finally felt free to leave England again. She occasionally visited the Mandarin’s home and while he did not accept her faith, he enjoyed their conversations.
A native of Kansas CityMissouriAnne grew up in northwestern Ohioand holds degrees in history: As she continued to work. Because she lived and dressed as her neighbors, they more readily accepted her, and listened to her message. Then Gladys received word that the Japanese were returning to invade the area, and that there had been discovered a Japanese circular offering a reward for her capture or death.
Gladys Aylward
Though she had no money, Aylward decided to take the second group of orphans to Sian. This meant that a girl with such feet could only walk slowly, with tottering steps. Realizing that their unlikely traveler was not to be deterred from making the long, dangerous journey, they allowed her to pay little by little on her ticket toward the full amount.
The following years were restless ones for Aylward. Aylward died aylwsrd 3 Januaryjust short of her 68th birthday, and is buried in a small cemetery on the campus of Christ’s College in Guandu, New TaipeiTaiwan. Hours later, the train halted, the lights went out, and the soldiers got off.
Gladys Aylward’s Long Road to China by – Church
Home Women Encyclopedias almanacs transcripts and maps Aylward, Gladys — But along the way, he and the funds were captured by the Japanese; it was presumed that Tsin Pen-kuang had been shot. He can open the river for us. Then a young girl asked Aylward if she believed the story of Moses taking the children of Israel across the Red Sea. The next time a mule train approached the inn, she ran out to grab the harness of the lead aylawrd and biograaphy him biogra;hy the inn courtyard. Their encampment was soon interrupted with the arrival of a Chinese officer.
Learn more about citation styles Citation styles Encyclopedia. Modern Language Association http: Life is pitiful, death so familiar, suffering and pain so common, yet I would not be anywhere else. When Aylward said that she did, the girl asked, “Then why don’t we go across? She was disturbed by stories of the horrors of life in China under Communist rule but was persuaded that a return there would be too dangerous. However, Gladys’ journey from English parlor maid to becoming “Ai-weh-deh” or “virtuous one” her Chinese name involved a series of adventures that may well demonstrate that God not only designed her appearance but was also a constant presence in her life.
She taught them lessons, read them stories from the Bible, and begged food from everyone, including the Japanese, to keep them fed.
A freelance writer since the early s, she has published in Christian. It became more and more obvious that if she was ever going to get to China … she would have to pay her own fare.
Gladys Aylward, Missionary To China
Quite possibly Gladys and her adventures could have remained obscure, known only to God and those involved, but it was not to be. The Inn of Eight Happinesses was soon opened and quickly boycotted. She was also nearly penniless, and officials, desperate for skilled factory workers, wanted boigraphy keep her in Russia.
Aware that Madame Chiang Kai-shek Song Meiling had started a fund for government-run orphanages, Aylward wrote for help and was told that the children would be looked after if she could get them to Sian, in Free China, and that money would be sent for the work of the Mission in Yangcheng.
There, the five-foot, pound Aylward wandered the streets, talking to the homeless, penniless women and girls, and led them back to the hostel run by the mission for down-and-outs.
Amid the chaos, she improvised a hospital and established small Christian communities in the region, sometimes glsdys villages under Japanese occupation and reporting any observations on her travels that might prove useful to the Aylwrad Nationalists.
After three months in the program, the chair of the C. They talked at odd moments in between battles and births and baptisms.