As Gladys Aylward stares at the dilapidated building, she wonders, Can this possibly be the right place? Gladys has just completed a long two days of travel by mule to reach this little village high up in the mountains of China, but this house, where she has been told Mrs. Lawson is living, hardly seems inhabitable. The front door is hanging by a single hinge and there are piles of trash in the courtyard.
But the white-haired woman who greets Gladys is indeed Jeannie Lawson. Mrs. Lawson is curt and unsmiling. Gladys sometimes struggles to understand her, and she quickly learns that Mrs. Lawson is prone to unexplained mood swings.
For Gladys, it’s an eventful first day in Yangcheng, this remote Chinese village. Besides being introduced to the mercurial Mrs. Lawson, Gladys also learns that the inhabitants of the town don’t take kindly to these white women coming to live in their village.
She quickly learns to recognize the Chinese phrase for “foreign devil” as women and children hurl the phrase at her whenever she leaves the house.
As days and weeks pass, Gladys and Mrs. Lawson work to fix up the old house and the inhabitants grow grudgingly accustomed to the presence of the two women. But the people of Yangcheng still want nothing to do with these British missionaries. No one wants to listen to them share the gospel or do a Bible study with them.
But Mrs. Lawson has an idea. They will turn the house into an inn! Often mule trains pass through Yangcheng on their way higher up into the mountains and back down to the towns below. If the old house becomes an inn, the Chinese muleteers will stay the night on their way to other places. Then, when people stay at the inn, Mrs. Lawson will tell them Bible stories, especially the story of Jesus. No one will turn down the opportunity to listen to a new story, so she will have a captive audience and her audience will then pass the stories on to others all through the region.
It’s not normally how missionaries have evangelized in the past, but it seems like the perfect fit in Yangcheng.
The inn is a big success. The number of travelers staying there quickly grows and the gospel slowly starts to spread by word of mouth. The women are very encouraged when Yang, the cook, accepts Christ as his Savior and immediately joins in trying to retell the Bible stories Mrs. Lawson has taught him.
When Mrs. Lawson dies after getting injured in an accident, Gladys is saddened, but she feels like she and Yang can carry on the work in her absence. But one thing she doesn’t reckon on is the politics.
One day, soon after Mrs. Lawson’s death, Yang tells Gladys he thinks she needs to go see the Mandarin. The Mandarin is the the local ruler—Gladys knows that—but she has never considered paying him a visit. Yang insists, but Gladys is saved the worry of making the trip to visit the Mandarin because the next day, Yang dashes in, crying, “The Mandarin is coming! The Mandarin is coming!”
Gladys tries her best to calm her nerves and straighten herself.
Is the Mandarin going to shut down the inn? Is he going to throw her out of town? Is he going to make an example of this “foreign devil” and her unfamiliar stories?
She hardly has time to wonder before his procession is at the gate. Compared to the squalor of the town, the Mandarin and his entourage are truly impressive. The Mandarin sits in a sedan chair. In front of him, a group of well-trained soldiers. Behind him, advisors in decorative gowns.
A servant helps the Mandarin down from his chair and Gladys bows, not knowing what to do or how to speak to the ruler.
The Mandarin’s tone and manner are cold and emotionless.
He begins by telling Gladys that the national government has issued a decree outlawing foot binding. For centuries in China, Gladys knows, foot binding has been the custom for Chinese women. It’s a grotesque practice that involves breaking bones in the feet of young girls and binding their feet with bandages to keep them from growing naturally. The practice results in tiny feet that are prone to infection and can be very painful. Still, the practice has endured because the Chinese people have come to consider unnaturally small feet a sign of beauty.
Now, the Mandarin explains, he needs a foot inspector, a woman who will travel from village to village spreading news of the new decree and unbinding the feet of the women in each village. The inspector needs to be a woman and she needs to have unbound feet herself. She also needs to be fluent in the local dialect.
The Mandarin asks Gladys if she knows such a woman. Relieved that this is the reason for the Mandarin’s visit, Gladys tells him she will do her best to find someone who can take the job.
Next time he visits, the Mandarin asks Gladys if she has found him a woman who can serve as an acceptable foot inspector.
“Your Eminence, I wanted to make sure you had the very best foot inspector possible, so I have written many letters. Not everyone has responded to my letters…”
“An excellent start. In the meantime I am sure you will want to assume the duty yourself.” It’s not a request. It’s a command. He goes on to explain just how he expects her to carry out her new responsibility.
“Yes, your Eminence. [sigh] But, while I am in these villages I will speak to the people about Jesus Christ.” Gladys can hardly believe she has dared to make such a demand, but the Mandarin doesn’t seem to care.
He tells her she will begin the next day.
Thus begins another chapter of Gladys’s life that she never would have envisioned back home in England. Who would have known that being a missionary would involve serving as an inn-keeper and a foot inspector?
But the new position is clearly a gift from God. Gladys is able to spread the gospel much more clearly and more quickly than she could at the inn back in Yangcheng. As she unbinds the feet of the women of her district, Gladys lovingly tells them how they can be spiritually set free.
Even as the number of women with bound feet dwindles to nothing, Gladys continues to travel from village to village, spreading the good news of Jesus Christ. The number of Christians slowly grows and Gladys’s heart thrills as she begins to hear the words of Christian hymns being sung in the remote villages where she is privileged to serve.
Then, one day, Gladys is walking through Yangcheng when she sees a woman and a small child. The child is covered in sores, her clothes are filthy, and her belly is swollen with malnourishment. When Gladys asks the woman about the child, the woman responds coldly, clearly unconcerned about what happens to this little girl.
Then, she offers to sell the girl to Gladys for two dollars.
Gladys in both horrified and furious.
She doesn’t have two dollars, but fearing for the child’s life, Gladys offers to give the woman all the money in her pocket, an amount that adds up to about nine English pennies. It’s a far cry from what the woman asked for, but she takes the money greedily and leaves Gladys with the sickly little girl. Just like that, Gladys finds herself a mother. She nurses the girl back to health and calls her Mei-en, which means “Beautiful Grace”. It doesn’t take long before Gladys can hardly imagine life without Mei-en, or “Ninepence” as Gladys nicknames her.
One evening, Ninepence approaches Gladys with a question: “If I eat a little less for dinner, would you eat a little less, too?”
“Why?”
“There’s a boy at the gate who is hungry. If I eat less, and you eat less, and we put our lesses together, we would have enough to feed him, too.”
And so “Less”, as Gladys calls the little boy, also becomes a part of her family. There are many needy children in Yangcheng and as time goes on, Gladys adopts three more as her own.
Gladys certainly could not have foreseen all that her missionary work in China would involve, but she’s overjoyed at where God’s Providence has led her. The gospel is spreading, the inn is thriving, and the children are flourishing under her care. It seems like Gladys can now spend the rest of her life serving God in her remote corner of China.
But God has other plans. War erupts between China and Japan. At first, the inhabitants of Yangcheng are untouched by the conflict. Then, one day, without warning, Japanese planes fly over, dropping bombs on the little town. Yangcheng is decimated. Villagers are killed, and many homes are destroyed or severely damaged. Gladys is shocked.
When news comes that Japanese forces are on their way, it’s clear what needs to be done.
They needed to leave. Everyone in Yangcheng needs to flee for their lives.
In Acts 23, Paul is discouraged. He’s just been arrested and nearly killed in Jerusalem. Tonight, he’s sitting in a jail cell. It looks like his gospel ministry is over. His days of traveling and preaching are behind him. Paul has been an effective minister of God, but what now?
But the Lord himself has a word of encouragement for Paul that night. He tells Paul, “Be of good cheer, Paul: for as thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome.” (Acts 23:11)
Rome—the center of western civilization, the city where Caesar lives—Paul will preach the gospel in Rome. He may be a prisoner, but God is not bound by Paul’s circumstances. He has a purpose even in this.
Paul has preached the gospel as a tent-maker. He has preached the gospel as a teacher and as a traveling evangelist. Now, he will preach the gospel as a prisoner.
Later, in Philippians 1, Paul, still in prison, reflects on his time as a prisoner. “…I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel;” (Philippians 1:12)
Even this is part of God’s plan to spread His good news.
When we think of sharing the gospel with other people, we often envision that happening in very specific circumstances. We might think of a preacher standing in a pulpit or a missionary standing on a street corner. We might think of someone being invited to share their faith with a friend or neighbor. God can use all that, but He’s also a lot more creative than we are.
His way of furthering the gospel might look like an inn keeper in rural China sharing Bible stories with visiting travelers. It might look like a foot inspector sweetly telling women and girls about Christ as she unbinds their feet. God’s way of furthering the gospel might involve a wrongful imprisonment. It might involve an unexpected illness or a sudden tragedy. Or it might involve more mundane things like a mother daily investing in the life of her child.
The point is, God will put us just where we need to be. He will work out the circumstances so that we will have opportunities to point others to Him. We just need to be ready.
In all of Gladys’s dreams about missionary life in China, she probably never thought that inn keeper, foot inspector, or mother of outcasts would be part of her life there. But as she followed God one step at a time, he led her just where she needed to go, all “for the furtherance of the gospel”.
Learn More
Read Gladys Aylward: The Adventure of a Lifetime by Janet & Geoff Benge
or Gladys Aylward: Missionary to China by Sam Wellman
Exempla 