Between Gladys Aylward’s dream and its fulfilment lay an insurmountable chasm. She crossed it for the sake of people with no future, looking only to the One who promised them one.
The woman, lying in one of the hospital beds in Xi’an, was at the crossroads between life and death. Two Chinese peasants had brought her in their ox-drawn cart to the Scandinavian-American mission in Xinping, providing no details whatsoever about the circumstances in which they had found her. It was wartime, and everyone was too consumed by their own tragedies to concern themselves with those of others. Had the woman been Chinese, the peasants would not have bothered to take her with them. However, her European origins and the Bible she was holding convinced them to take her to the mission, so that she could die alongside people who worshipped the same God.
The woman, who was still unidentified, had a high fever and was unconscious. She was diagnosed with typhus, malaria, and pneumonia. Exhausted, malnourished, and in a state of terrible mental agitation, she often hallucinated, talking about children in danger. Whenever the bombardments began, her body would convulse in agony until she was drenched in sweat.
After weeks of agony, the first signs of recovery appeared and the stranger revealed her name: Gladys Aylward. It was a name that was to become very well known over the following decade: churches all over the world invited her to recount her experience; the Queen of England wished to meet her; and Hollywood considered her a notable figure worthy of a film.
As a token of gratitude for adopting their customs and way of life, the Chinese called her Ai-vo-te, meaning “she who loves us”[1]—a name earned through nearly four decades of ministry. Her mission was marked by hardship, danger, opposition, and intense inner struggles, and often seemed impossible to continue. However, Gladys never succumbed to the temptation of helplessness. Aware of her own weaknesses, she always relied on the strength of the One who gave the command: “Love each other as I have loved you” (John 15:12). She practised this authentic love every day, writing in her diary: “It does not seek its own benefit; it does not expect to be rewarded. It seeks only God and desires to be with Him.”[2]
Faith at the heart of Christian resilience
Christians in Gladys’s day knew little of the challenges of overseas missions, as evidenced by her prayers. In them, she confessed that she expected an answer only from the Maker of heaven and earth and not from people who were all too quick to forget their generous promises.
In fact, studies in recent decades have highlighted the intense stress faced by overseas missionaries, as well as the high level of resilience shown by most of them. Significant sources of stress for half of the missionaries surveyed in an earlier study included language and cultural barriers, encounters with hostile individuals, an excessive workload, and difficult decisions regarding priorities.[3]
Recent global field research has shown that, at the start of their ministries, missionaries face challenges relating to language and culture, making new friends, accessing healthcare, and building relationships with the local community. For long-serving missionaries, stressors include managing family-related issues, such as their children’s education or their partner’s periodic depression. Despite these challenges, most do not abandon their mission. Even though the risks are significant, the majority demonstrate remarkable resilience by developing a wide range of skills and coping strategies.[4]
The authors of a book on community crises defined resilience by drawing on the example of a rubber band, which can absorb the tension of external forces without altering its properties and return to its original shape.[5] Early Christians demonstrated the same resilience, as described by the Apostle Paul: “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair” (2 Corinthians 4:8).
Multidisciplinary research has concluded that the key ingredient of resilience is faith. In other words, resilience depends on “where we look for hope” and, as always, hope comes from beyond ourselves, from God, who embodies love and wisdom.
On paths trodden only by His footsteps
Reflecting on her mission in China, Gladys expressed her belief that she was not God’s first choice: “I don’t know who it was… It must have been a man… a well-educated man. I don’t know what happened. Perhaps he died. Perhaps he wasn’t willing… And God looked down… saw Gladys Aylward… and God said, ‘Well, she’s willing.”’
The greatest asset of this woman, born in north London at the start of the last century, seems to have been the fervour with which she strove to reach a country about which she knew nothing. However, she had learnt that millions of people in that country had never heard of the salvation promised by Jesus Christ, and that was enough for her. Despite having no money, no qualifications, and no remarkable intellectual abilities (the examination board of a Christian mission had declared her incapable of learning Chinese), and lacking the financial support of any organisation or church, she forged her own path to China.
As the cost of the sea voyage exceeded her savings from her salary as a domestic worker, she opted for the Trans-Siberian Railway, a choice that even the travel agent’s clerk doubted would get her to her destination. The harsh reality of the journey tested the naïvety with which she had left home, but it also focused all her hopes on the One who alone could help her. There was a war in Manchuria, so the train stopped in Russia and she was forced to disembark in Siberia. She had to walk all night through freezing temperatures and blizzards alongside the railway tracks. She was arrested by the Russian communists but managed to escape with the help of some strangers and eventually took refuge on board a Japanese ship bound for China.
Her missionary work in the small town of Yangcheng got off to a less than promising start. The much older missionary, Jeanie Lawson, welcomed her at the door of a dilapidated house with rubble on the floor and no windows. Unable to speak Chinese, Gladys was unable to build relationships with the locals and was forced to return to her previous job as a domestic helper. She quickly encountered the locals’ fierce hatred of missionaries, who would hurl insults and throw manure at her whenever she ventured out onto the town’s streets.
Over time, however, her perseverance and extraordinary ability to adapt began to bear fruit. Together with her mentor, she opened an inn in the town situated on an old trade route. It became known for its cheap accommodation, good food and, above all, the extra services it offered. In the evenings, “wonderful tales from an unknown book” were recounted there.[6]
Following Mrs Lawson’s death, Gladys remained the only European in the province but coped well despite the most difficult circumstances. She continued to look after the inn with the help of the chef, Chang, but her role expanded. At the behest of the local mandarin, she was appointed “foot inspector”[7] in the mountainous regions of Shanxi Province, tasked with enforcing the ban on foot binding. She spread the good news of the Gospel wherever she went. Despite the desperate protests of the cook, who had to cook meals for an ever-growing family from increasingly meagre supplies, she rescued abandoned children from death.
The “peaceful” life in Yangcheng came to an end with the outbreak of war. Shortly before the arrival of Japanese soldiers, she left the town, leading over 100 children, many of them very young, southwards along the precipitous mountain paths. The gruelling journey, during which she constantly faced danger and a lack of food, lasted more than a month. Despair overwhelmed her during this trial, and she believed all was lost.
In fact, throughout her ministry, her weakness often reared its head, only for hope and courage to shine all the more brightly when she finally glimpsed a favourable outcome. Even before she mastered the language of her new compatriots (she was granted Chinese citizenship in 1936, renouncing her British citizenship) Gladys spoke the dialect of compassion fluently to those no one saw or heard. She found solace in He who grants miracles and providential encounters in His own time.
Aware of her own fragility, Gladys spent every day waiting for Him, and her faith was rewarded with guidance whose origin could not be denied. In extreme situations where swift decisions had to be made, God answered her simple and fervent prayers by reminding her of a Bible verse that showed her the way forward.
The treasure hidden in the clay jar
In the autumn of 1940, after bringing the orphaned children to safety, Gladys continued her mission in circumstances that tested her endurance to the limit. With no money and having gone without food for days, she continued to care for refugees in the south of the country with only a Bible and a shawl to protect her from the night-time cold. Eventually, she was found unconscious by the side of the road.
After several weeks of agony in a hospital in Xi’an, Gladys regained consciousness, driven by the same desire to serve God’s most humble brothers and sisters. Although deep wrinkles criss-crossed her face, she was not yet 40. She worked at a hospital in Chengdu, encouraging the sick, and in a prison in the same city, preaching to death row inmates. She would also embark on a gruelling journey through Tibet, becoming the first woman to enter a monastery of Buddhist monks to speak to them about her loving God who gave heaven as a gift through His Son.
Hunted by the communists who had taken over the country after the war with Japan ended (and who had begun executing Christians in public squares), Gladys fled first to Hong Kong and then to Taiwan, where she established an orphanage—a project that came at the cost of further suffering. She served the Lord just as she had wished, right up to the last moment of her life. Though she was suffering from pneumonia, she still attended a Christian gathering. However, her condition worsened upon her return home, and the woman caring for her found her breathless with her hands clasped in a final prayer. After a ministry of uncompromising faith, God called one of His bravest and most weary soldiers to rest.
The fact that such a fragile vessel withstood all the blows and trials she experienced aroused bewilderment among her contemporaries and continues to do the same for the millions of people who read her biography. Many must have wondered what sort of clay such a vessel was made of. However, the real wonder is this: “Who is this Potter?” The answer comes swiftly, for it comes from the One who wishes to save us from the futility of uncertainty and distrust: “I am the Lord, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?” (Jeremiah 32:27).
Carmen Lăiu follows in the footsteps of Gladys Aylward, who initially seemed ill-equipped for the challenging life of a missionary in China, but ultimately proved to be in the right place at the right time.
