Gladys Aylward
Series: Steadfast in Faith
Speaker: Rachel Ciano
Date: 2nd February 2025
00:00:00 --> 00:00:02 Thank you so much for having me here today.
00:00:03 --> 00:00:08 You don't know how much of a joy it is to bring the things that I love
00:00:08 --> 00:00:13 to the people that God cares and loves for.
00:00:13 --> 00:00:15 This is a real joy for me.
00:00:17 --> 00:00:21 So we are going to look at this theme of steadfast in humility.
00:00:21 --> 00:00:28 And I think humility is a really good word that captures Gladys Alwood.
00:00:28 --> 00:00:35 And I think she's going to help us wrestle with that pull
00:00:35 --> 00:00:41 that I think we can all feel about wanting to leave a legacy in this world.
00:00:41 --> 00:00:43 We want to be remembered.
00:00:44 --> 00:00:50 We want people to know our names both now and after we're gone.
00:00:51 --> 00:00:55 We want to be people worthy of honour and known to be worthy of honour.
00:00:58 --> 00:01:03 So I wonder as we start today what kind of legacy you want to leave.
00:01:03 --> 00:01:06 I have to think about this for my own life.
00:01:07 --> 00:01:08 How do I want to be remembered?
00:01:08 --> 00:01:10 Do I want to be remembered?
00:01:10 --> 00:01:15 What are the things that I want to be known for after I'm gone?
00:01:15 --> 00:01:20 And what's remarkable about Gladys Alwood is she's not a person
00:01:20 --> 00:01:21 that strives for this.
00:01:22 --> 00:01:24 And that's going to come out in her story.
00:01:24 --> 00:01:30 She wasn't someone who wanted to be recognised in the circles that she moved in,
00:01:31 --> 00:01:34 which I find can be tempting for us,
00:01:34 --> 00:01:38 that temptation to be recognised in our communities,
00:01:38 --> 00:01:41 in our jobs, in our social circles.
00:01:42 --> 00:01:44 Her world's no different.
00:01:44 --> 00:01:49 It's not a problem that just belongs to our generation.
00:01:49 --> 00:01:52 It's a perennial universal problem.
00:01:53 --> 00:01:58 But I think for her it's her prayerful reliance on the Lord
00:01:58 --> 00:02:02 that allows her to be free of that need.
00:02:02 --> 00:02:04 It just doesn't have a hold on her.
00:02:05 --> 00:02:08 She's just not interested in it.
00:02:08 --> 00:02:16 And so I'm going to tell you her story, her remarkable story.
00:02:16 --> 00:02:19 I'm going to tell you just some of it,
00:02:19 --> 00:02:23 but it's full of fascinating twists and turns.
00:02:24 --> 00:02:30 But it is the story of a person making decision after decision,
00:02:30 --> 00:02:32 prayerfully making decision after decision,
00:02:33 --> 00:02:34 to pursue God's will.
00:02:34 --> 00:02:39 She's a woman of great spiritual momentum.
00:02:40 --> 00:02:42 She's very unimpressive outwardly.
00:02:42 --> 00:02:44 She's a tiny little thing.
00:02:45 --> 00:02:47 But she has gravitas.
00:02:48 --> 00:02:50 She's got huge spiritual momentum.
00:02:50 --> 00:02:53 She didn't know where God would take her in this world,
00:02:54 --> 00:02:56 but she made prayerful choice after choice
00:02:56 --> 00:02:59 to live for him and not for herself.
00:02:59 --> 00:03:06 So Gladys was born into a Christian family in London
00:03:06 --> 00:03:10 right at the beginning of the 20th century, so 1902.
00:03:11 --> 00:03:13 Her dad was a warden at the local church.
00:03:13 --> 00:03:17 Her mum raised the siblings in her home,
00:03:17 --> 00:03:19 you know, according to Christian values.
00:03:19 --> 00:03:21 But they weren't really sticking for Gladys.
00:03:21 --> 00:03:22 She wasn't interested.
00:03:22 --> 00:03:24 It was in her teenage years
00:03:24 --> 00:03:27 that things really switch on for her spiritually.
00:03:27 --> 00:03:34 Soon after that, what we might call a conversion experience,
00:03:36 --> 00:03:41 for her it was the idea of millions of people in China
00:03:41 --> 00:03:44 dying without access to the gospel.
00:03:45 --> 00:03:48 That's what really gripped her heart.
00:03:48 --> 00:03:53 Now, what she did about that
00:03:53 --> 00:03:57 is she tried to convince everyone else to go instead.
00:03:57 --> 00:03:58 You need to go.
00:03:58 --> 00:03:59 No, you need to go.
00:03:59 --> 00:04:00 No, you need to go.
00:04:00 --> 00:04:03 And one day her brother got so frustrated with her
00:04:03 --> 00:04:05 in their kitchen at home
00:04:05 --> 00:04:07 that he just kind of had an outburst
00:04:07 --> 00:04:10 and said, Gladys, stop bugging us.
00:04:11 --> 00:04:12 Why don't you go?
00:04:12 --> 00:04:13 And then he stormed out.
00:04:14 --> 00:04:15 So they got her thinking.
00:04:16 --> 00:04:17 I don't think she'd even thought that was a possibility.
00:04:19 --> 00:04:24 So she was 27 when she was accepted for missionary training
00:04:24 --> 00:04:26 with China Inland Mission.
00:04:26 --> 00:04:28 I don't know if you've heard of that organisation.
00:04:28 --> 00:04:32 It was an organisation that Hudson Taylor had set up
00:04:32 --> 00:04:34 about 70 years before this.
00:04:34 --> 00:04:37 And he set it up because lots of the missionaries
00:04:37 --> 00:04:41 were staying on the eastern coast of China,
00:04:41 --> 00:04:43 but they weren't heading inland.
00:04:43 --> 00:04:49 So there was a vast interior that did not have access to the gospel.
00:04:49 --> 00:04:53 And so he sets up the aptly termed China Inland Mission.
00:04:53 --> 00:04:57 So that's who she goes and approaches for missionary training.
00:04:57 --> 00:04:59 She is accepted.
00:05:01 --> 00:05:03 But soon the wheels fall off.
00:05:05 --> 00:05:08 She had been educated up to a point of...
00:05:08 --> 00:05:10 at 14 years of age and then had stopped.
00:05:10 --> 00:05:13 She'd gone out and worked in a shop instead.
00:05:13 --> 00:05:20 And she wasn't demonstrating a proficiency in learning language.
00:05:21 --> 00:05:24 And so China Inland Mission deemed her unacceptable
00:05:24 --> 00:05:26 for missionary service
00:05:26 --> 00:05:30 because of her language acquisition skills were lacking.
00:05:30 --> 00:05:32 So she wasn't allowed to continue.
00:05:33 --> 00:05:34 She was heartbroken.
00:05:34 --> 00:05:35 She was devastated.
00:05:36 --> 00:05:36 Devastated.
00:05:38 --> 00:05:42 China Inland Mission said when they brought her in
00:05:42 --> 00:05:45 for kind of the exit interview, as we might call it,
00:05:45 --> 00:05:50 she did say to them that she had really learnt to pray in this time.
00:05:50 --> 00:05:52 She may not have learnt language,
00:05:52 --> 00:05:55 but she had learnt to pray at this time.
00:05:55 --> 00:06:00 I love what Tim Keller says on prayer.
00:06:00 --> 00:06:01 He says,
00:06:01 --> 00:06:04 God will either give us what we ask
00:06:04 --> 00:06:07 or give us what we would have asked for
00:06:07 --> 00:06:10 if we knew everything he knew.
00:06:12 --> 00:06:14 So she keeps praying.
00:06:15 --> 00:06:18 She ends up in the home as a housekeeper
00:06:18 --> 00:06:21 of a retired China Inland Mission couple.
00:06:21 --> 00:06:22 So they've returned from the field
00:06:22 --> 00:06:24 and she goes into their house
00:06:24 --> 00:06:27 to help them in their later years.
00:06:28 --> 00:06:30 And as she watches them,
00:06:30 --> 00:06:32 she sees their prayerful reliance on the Lord.
00:06:32 --> 00:06:36 And she continues hearing stories about China,
00:06:36 --> 00:06:38 about the work of the gospel there.
00:06:41 --> 00:06:44 And she eventually finds out
00:06:44 --> 00:06:48 about a 73-year-old Scottish widow
00:06:48 --> 00:06:51 looking for someone to join her
00:06:51 --> 00:06:53 in ministry in northern China.
00:06:54 --> 00:06:57 So she asks if she could come.
00:06:57 --> 00:06:58 This Scottish widow,
00:06:59 --> 00:07:00 Jeannie Lawson is her name.
00:07:00 --> 00:07:01 She's quite very,
00:07:01 --> 00:07:01 she's very dow,
00:07:01 --> 00:07:02 she's very serious.
00:07:03 --> 00:07:03 And she says,
00:07:03 --> 00:07:04 basically,
00:07:04 --> 00:07:05 if you can find your way to me,
00:07:06 --> 00:07:07 you're welcome.
00:07:08 --> 00:07:11 This woman had been looking for someone young
00:07:11 --> 00:07:12 to come and take over her work.
00:07:13 --> 00:07:13 She's widowed,
00:07:14 --> 00:07:14 she's elderly,
00:07:14 --> 00:07:16 she wants someone to come
00:07:16 --> 00:07:17 and take over the work.
00:07:17 --> 00:07:21 And so that's what Gladys is now trying to do.
00:07:21 --> 00:07:24 So she saves up for a train ticket.
00:07:24 --> 00:07:27 I don't know if you've gone on like webjet.com
00:07:27 --> 00:07:29 and looked up flights.
00:07:29 --> 00:07:30 What are the cheapest flights?
00:07:30 --> 00:07:31 The ones that are like,
00:07:32 --> 00:07:32 you know,
00:07:32 --> 00:07:34 five stops around the world
00:07:34 --> 00:07:37 before you want to get to your destination.
00:07:37 --> 00:07:38 For her,
00:07:39 --> 00:07:40 the cheapest train ticket
00:07:40 --> 00:07:42 that she could get to China
00:07:42 --> 00:07:44 would take her through Europe,
00:07:45 --> 00:07:45 Russia,
00:07:46 --> 00:07:47 Siberia,
00:07:47 --> 00:07:49 and into northern China.
00:07:49 --> 00:07:51 So she put it on lay-by.
00:07:52 --> 00:07:54 She would go and make payments
00:07:54 --> 00:07:57 at the train station
00:07:57 --> 00:07:58 to pay off this ticket.
00:07:58 --> 00:08:01 She eventually got the money,
00:08:01 --> 00:08:02 pay for the ticket.
00:08:03 --> 00:08:04 The train teller said,
00:08:04 --> 00:08:06 you really shouldn't be going, sweetheart.
00:08:06 --> 00:08:07 You really shouldn't be going.
00:08:08 --> 00:08:11 Because there was war on at the time
00:08:11 --> 00:08:14 between China and Japan
00:08:14 --> 00:08:17 and on one of China's allies was Russia.
00:08:19 --> 00:08:20 But she sets off.
00:08:21 --> 00:08:22 1932,
00:08:23 --> 00:08:24 30 years of age,
00:08:25 --> 00:08:25 she sets off.
00:08:26 --> 00:08:28 She considered later the cost
00:08:28 --> 00:08:29 that this would have been
00:08:29 --> 00:08:30 for her family.
00:08:31 --> 00:08:31 Because really,
00:08:32 --> 00:08:34 if you're getting a train to China
00:08:34 --> 00:08:38 through Europe, Russia, Siberia,
00:08:38 --> 00:08:41 it's not easy to get your baby girl back, is it?
00:08:45 --> 00:08:47 Right at the beginning of her journey,
00:08:48 --> 00:08:50 she meets the Dutch couple.
00:08:50 --> 00:08:51 So she's on the train.
00:08:52 --> 00:08:53 She meets a Dutch couple
00:08:53 --> 00:08:57 coming back from attending
00:08:57 --> 00:08:58 the Keswick Convention.
00:08:58 --> 00:08:58 in England.
00:08:59 --> 00:09:00 So the Keswick Convention's like
00:09:00 --> 00:09:02 going to Katoomba
00:09:02 --> 00:09:03 or going to...
00:09:03 --> 00:09:04 It's one of those big things.
00:09:05 --> 00:09:07 And so they're getting the train
00:09:07 --> 00:09:09 back home to Holland,
00:09:10 --> 00:09:11 to the Netherlands,
00:09:12 --> 00:09:13 and they have a conversation.
00:09:14 --> 00:09:16 They talk with Gladys.
00:09:16 --> 00:09:17 They learn that she's off to China
00:09:17 --> 00:09:18 with the gospel.
00:09:19 --> 00:09:20 And the woman in the couple
00:09:20 --> 00:09:23 promises that at 9 o'clock,
00:09:23 --> 00:09:25 every night,
00:09:25 --> 00:09:27 she's going to pray for Gladys.
00:09:27 --> 00:09:28 9 o'clock,
00:09:28 --> 00:09:28 every night,
00:09:28 --> 00:09:30 she's going to pray for Gladys
00:09:30 --> 00:09:32 for the rest of her life.
00:09:33 --> 00:09:34 She said,
00:09:34 --> 00:09:36 can we write one another's names
00:09:36 --> 00:09:37 in each other's Bibles
00:09:37 --> 00:09:39 so we can remember each other?
00:09:41 --> 00:09:41 The man,
00:09:41 --> 00:09:42 I don't know if he felt awkward
00:09:42 --> 00:09:43 at this point.
00:09:43 --> 00:09:44 I don't know his motives,
00:09:45 --> 00:09:46 what he was doing,
00:09:46 --> 00:09:47 if he just wanted to help.
00:09:48 --> 00:09:49 But he gives Gladys
00:09:49 --> 00:09:51 a one-pound British note.
00:09:52 --> 00:09:53 Now, this woman's not going back
00:09:53 --> 00:09:54 to a country
00:09:54 --> 00:09:55 where she can spend this, right?
00:09:56 --> 00:09:57 But she's got this
00:09:57 --> 00:09:59 one-pound British note
00:09:59 --> 00:10:00 from this guy.
00:10:00 --> 00:10:01 It's not a whole lot of money,
00:10:01 --> 00:10:02 but, you know,
00:10:02 --> 00:10:02 it's something,
00:10:03 --> 00:10:03 as they say goodbye.
00:10:04 --> 00:10:06 So Gladys is perplexed.
00:10:06 --> 00:10:07 What am I going to do with this?
00:10:08 --> 00:10:10 That note is going to save her life.
00:10:14 --> 00:10:15 So because war
00:10:15 --> 00:10:17 between China and Japan
00:10:17 --> 00:10:18 had broken out
00:10:18 --> 00:10:19 the year before,
00:10:19 --> 00:10:21 she was rerouted
00:10:21 --> 00:10:23 through different parts
00:10:23 --> 00:10:23 of Russia.
00:10:25 --> 00:10:27 It gets very complex
00:10:27 --> 00:10:28 at one point.
00:10:28 --> 00:10:30 She has to get off the train
00:10:30 --> 00:10:32 because it won't go any further
00:10:32 --> 00:10:33 into, you know,
00:10:33 --> 00:10:37 a region where there's war going on.
00:10:37 --> 00:10:38 She has to walk back
00:10:38 --> 00:10:39 to the last station,
00:10:40 --> 00:10:41 which is like a two-day walk,
00:10:41 --> 00:10:42 so she has to sleep
00:10:42 --> 00:10:43 in the snow overnight
00:10:43 --> 00:10:44 on her suitcase
00:10:44 --> 00:10:45 with the wolves howling.
00:10:45 --> 00:10:48 It's all going on for her.
00:10:48 --> 00:10:49 She makes it back
00:10:49 --> 00:10:50 to the previous station
00:10:50 --> 00:10:51 and soldiers tell her
00:10:51 --> 00:10:52 the convoluted way
00:10:52 --> 00:10:54 that she has to go
00:10:54 --> 00:10:55 to get to the next spot
00:10:55 --> 00:10:58 to avoid the scenes of battle.
00:10:58 --> 00:11:03 as she's making that journey,
00:11:03 --> 00:11:07 Russian soldiers take her passport away.
00:11:07 --> 00:11:09 That's a very vulnerable position,
00:11:09 --> 00:11:10 isn't it,
00:11:10 --> 00:11:10 to be a woman
00:11:10 --> 00:11:12 in the middle of Russia
00:11:12 --> 00:11:14 without a passport.
00:11:14 --> 00:11:18 They changed the profession
00:11:18 --> 00:11:20 on her passport
00:11:20 --> 00:11:22 from missionary
00:11:22 --> 00:11:25 to machinist
00:11:25 --> 00:11:27 because they wanted her
00:11:27 --> 00:11:30 to work on the new machines
00:11:30 --> 00:11:32 that they had in that city.
00:11:32 --> 00:11:34 They wanted her to stay and work.
00:11:34 --> 00:11:35 She was trapped.
00:11:35 --> 00:11:37 She was trapped.
00:11:37 --> 00:11:39 Some locals
00:11:39 --> 00:11:41 at high cost
00:11:41 --> 00:11:43 to their own personal safety
00:11:43 --> 00:11:45 tried to think of a way
00:11:45 --> 00:11:46 to help her escape.
00:11:47 --> 00:11:48 There's a boat
00:11:48 --> 00:11:50 leaving for Japan.
00:11:50 --> 00:11:50 It's a Japanese boat
00:11:50 --> 00:11:52 leaving for Japan.
00:11:52 --> 00:11:54 Can they smuggle her onto it?
00:11:56 --> 00:11:58 She makes it to the boat.
00:11:59 --> 00:12:01 She's on the gangway.
00:12:03 --> 00:12:04 Russian soldiers
00:12:04 --> 00:12:05 literally grab her.
00:12:05 --> 00:12:09 And what does she produce?
00:12:10 --> 00:12:11 The one pound note
00:12:11 --> 00:12:13 and they let go long enough
00:12:13 --> 00:12:14 to grab it
00:12:14 --> 00:12:16 for her to pull her arms back,
00:12:16 --> 00:12:17 jump on the boat
00:12:17 --> 00:12:18 and keep going.
00:12:18 --> 00:12:19 So it saved her life.
00:12:19 --> 00:12:20 She said that moment
00:12:20 --> 00:12:21 was like escaping
00:12:21 --> 00:12:23 a bird catcher's net.
00:12:25 --> 00:12:26 I love how the Lord works
00:12:26 --> 00:12:28 in amazing ways like that.
00:12:30 --> 00:12:31 So she lands in Japan.
00:12:32 --> 00:12:32 She was never supposed
00:12:32 --> 00:12:33 to go through Japan.
00:12:33 --> 00:12:35 She crosses into China.
00:12:36 --> 00:12:37 She still has a further
00:12:37 --> 00:12:38 train, bus, and two-day
00:12:38 --> 00:12:39 meal ride
00:12:39 --> 00:12:41 to reach the small town
00:12:41 --> 00:12:41 in the mountains
00:12:41 --> 00:12:42 of northern China
00:12:42 --> 00:12:44 where she would finally
00:12:44 --> 00:12:45 meet Mrs. Lawson.
00:12:46 --> 00:12:47 So this is the story
00:12:47 --> 00:12:48 of just getting there, right?
00:12:48 --> 00:12:50 She hasn't even started ministry.
00:12:50 --> 00:12:51 This is the story
00:12:51 --> 00:12:52 of her getting there.
00:12:54 --> 00:12:55 Now, Jeannie Lawson,
00:12:56 --> 00:12:57 she lives in a very rough,
00:12:57 --> 00:13:00 large house full of rubbish,
00:13:01 --> 00:13:03 broken masonry everywhere.
00:13:03 --> 00:13:05 All the rooms don't have windows
00:13:05 --> 00:13:06 or doors.
00:13:06 --> 00:13:07 It's very rough.
00:13:08 --> 00:13:09 She plans to turn it
00:13:09 --> 00:13:11 into an inn for travellers.
00:13:11 --> 00:13:12 They're going to call it
00:13:12 --> 00:13:14 the Inn of Eight Happinesses.
00:13:15 --> 00:13:19 And so on Gladys' first night,
00:13:19 --> 00:13:20 she's like,
00:13:20 --> 00:13:22 where can I get changed?
00:13:22 --> 00:13:24 And Jeannie Lawson says,
00:13:25 --> 00:13:26 don't get changed.
00:13:27 --> 00:13:28 Just sleep with your clothes on.
00:13:28 --> 00:13:29 That way they can't get stolen.
00:13:30 --> 00:13:31 And lucky she did
00:13:31 --> 00:13:32 because when she woke up
00:13:32 --> 00:13:33 in the morning,
00:13:33 --> 00:13:35 it was to a sea of faces
00:13:35 --> 00:13:36 in at the window
00:13:36 --> 00:13:38 because the foreign woman
00:13:38 --> 00:13:39 had arrived.
00:13:39 --> 00:13:40 News had got around.
00:13:41 --> 00:13:42 Now, why are they turning
00:13:42 --> 00:13:43 this rough house
00:13:43 --> 00:13:46 into a hotel and inn?
00:13:46 --> 00:13:49 Well, in that part
00:13:49 --> 00:13:49 of northern China,
00:13:49 --> 00:13:51 you might be familiar with it.
00:13:51 --> 00:13:53 It's very rough mountain terrain.
00:13:55 --> 00:13:57 And so to have anything
00:13:57 --> 00:13:57 travel through,
00:13:58 --> 00:13:59 it was via mules.
00:13:59 --> 00:14:01 It was like a mule highway.
00:14:01 --> 00:14:04 So there was a need
00:14:04 --> 00:14:06 for these mule riders
00:14:06 --> 00:14:08 to find cheap,
00:14:08 --> 00:14:09 simple overnight accommodation
00:14:09 --> 00:14:10 and food.
00:14:10 --> 00:14:11 Gladys had stayed
00:14:11 --> 00:14:12 in some of them
00:14:12 --> 00:14:13 on her trip into this place.
00:14:13 --> 00:14:16 And so news soon
00:14:16 --> 00:14:17 spread around the area
00:14:17 --> 00:14:18 that, quote,
00:14:19 --> 00:14:20 the inn of the foreign ladies
00:14:20 --> 00:14:21 was clean,
00:14:23 --> 00:14:24 the food is good,
00:14:25 --> 00:14:26 and at night,
00:14:27 --> 00:14:28 they have long stories
00:14:28 --> 00:14:29 free of charge.
00:14:31 --> 00:14:32 So what were these stories?
00:14:34 --> 00:14:35 They told stories
00:14:35 --> 00:14:36 from the Bible.
00:14:37 --> 00:14:39 And in the end,
00:14:39 --> 00:14:39 that's how Gladys
00:14:39 --> 00:14:40 picked up the language,
00:14:42 --> 00:14:42 which she says
00:14:42 --> 00:14:43 is one of the biggest
00:14:43 --> 00:14:45 miracles of all her time
00:14:45 --> 00:14:46 there was picking up
00:14:46 --> 00:14:46 the language.
00:14:46 --> 00:14:47 She learnt it
00:14:47 --> 00:14:48 through learning off
00:14:48 --> 00:14:49 by heart
00:14:49 --> 00:14:51 these Bible stories
00:14:51 --> 00:14:52 and telling them.
00:14:55 --> 00:14:57 Within about a year,
00:14:57 --> 00:14:59 Jeannie Lawson had died.
00:14:59 --> 00:15:00 And so young Gladys
00:15:00 --> 00:15:01 is alone,
00:15:01 --> 00:15:02 the only foreigner,
00:15:03 --> 00:15:03 not just the only woman
00:15:03 --> 00:15:04 foreigner,
00:15:04 --> 00:15:05 the only foreigner
00:15:05 --> 00:15:08 in that part of China.
00:15:08 --> 00:15:13 one day,
00:15:14 --> 00:15:16 a local magistrate
00:15:16 --> 00:15:18 comes to Gladys
00:15:18 --> 00:15:19 with a request.
00:15:19 --> 00:15:20 Now,
00:15:20 --> 00:15:20 it would have been
00:15:20 --> 00:15:22 a very intimidating scene
00:15:22 --> 00:15:24 because he came in
00:15:24 --> 00:15:25 with armed guards,
00:15:25 --> 00:15:26 they've got big swords
00:15:26 --> 00:15:27 by their side,
00:15:27 --> 00:15:28 he's a very intimidating
00:15:28 --> 00:15:30 person
00:15:30 --> 00:15:32 with a lot of power.
00:15:32 --> 00:15:33 He comes to Gladys
00:15:33 --> 00:15:33 with a request.
00:15:34 --> 00:15:34 He says,
00:15:34 --> 00:15:35 he now has
00:15:35 --> 00:15:37 the personal responsibility
00:15:37 --> 00:15:39 to ensure that foot binding,
00:15:40 --> 00:15:42 which had been recently outlawed,
00:15:42 --> 00:15:43 was eradicated
00:15:43 --> 00:15:44 in his area.
00:15:45 --> 00:15:45 And so,
00:15:45 --> 00:15:46 you may be aware,
00:15:46 --> 00:15:46 foot binding
00:15:46 --> 00:15:48 is where they break
00:15:48 --> 00:15:49 the foot
00:15:49 --> 00:15:50 and bind it
00:15:50 --> 00:15:50 in half
00:15:50 --> 00:15:52 underneath
00:15:52 --> 00:15:54 a young woman's feet.
00:15:54 --> 00:15:54 Sorry,
00:15:54 --> 00:15:55 yeah,
00:15:55 --> 00:15:55 yeah.
00:15:58 --> 00:15:59 So Gladys,
00:15:59 --> 00:16:00 I said before,
00:16:00 --> 00:16:00 she's tiny,
00:16:00 --> 00:16:01 she's four feet,
00:16:01 --> 00:16:02 ten inches tall.
00:16:02 --> 00:16:04 She's got size three feet.
00:16:06 --> 00:16:08 Her feet were considered giant
00:16:08 --> 00:16:09 and the locals
00:16:09 --> 00:16:10 would often like lift
00:16:10 --> 00:16:12 the bottom of her skirt
00:16:12 --> 00:16:13 to look at her,
00:16:13 --> 00:16:14 like just marvel,
00:16:14 --> 00:16:15 this massive feet
00:16:15 --> 00:16:16 that she has.
00:16:17 --> 00:16:18 And so the magistrate said
00:16:18 --> 00:16:19 that as a woman
00:16:19 --> 00:16:19 with big feet,
00:16:20 --> 00:16:21 he needed her
00:16:21 --> 00:16:22 to help inspect
00:16:22 --> 00:16:23 women's feet
00:16:23 --> 00:16:24 in the area
00:16:24 --> 00:16:25 because men
00:16:25 --> 00:16:26 weren't allowed
00:16:26 --> 00:16:26 to do that job
00:16:26 --> 00:16:28 and every other woman
00:16:28 --> 00:16:29 had her feet bound.
00:16:29 --> 00:16:32 So what's Gladys
00:16:32 --> 00:16:33 going to do
00:16:33 --> 00:16:33 in this moment?
00:16:36 --> 00:16:37 She says to him,
00:16:38 --> 00:16:39 I've come to China
00:16:39 --> 00:16:40 to tell people
00:16:40 --> 00:16:41 about the God
00:16:41 --> 00:16:41 I worship.
00:16:43 --> 00:16:44 If I take the job,
00:16:45 --> 00:16:46 I'm going to use it
00:16:46 --> 00:16:46 as an opportunity
00:16:46 --> 00:16:48 to preach the gospel
00:16:48 --> 00:16:50 to these isolated villages.
00:16:53 --> 00:16:54 And he agrees
00:16:54 --> 00:16:56 because I says,
00:16:56 --> 00:16:57 I notice you Christian people
00:16:57 --> 00:16:59 don't bind your feet.
00:17:00 --> 00:17:01 A man's gods
00:17:01 --> 00:17:02 are his own business.
00:17:03 --> 00:17:03 Yes, you can go
00:17:03 --> 00:17:04 and do that.
00:17:05 --> 00:17:05 So she's given
00:17:05 --> 00:17:07 government funding
00:17:07 --> 00:17:09 and essentially security
00:17:09 --> 00:17:11 to go into these
00:17:11 --> 00:17:12 isolated villages
00:17:12 --> 00:17:13 and towns
00:17:13 --> 00:17:14 with the gospel.
00:17:15 --> 00:17:16 And they would call out
00:17:16 --> 00:17:18 her name
00:17:18 --> 00:17:20 in Mandarin
00:17:20 --> 00:17:20 was Aiwede.
00:17:21 --> 00:17:22 That was the closest
00:17:22 --> 00:17:23 to Aylward,
00:17:24 --> 00:17:24 Aiwede,
00:17:24 --> 00:17:25 and it meant virtuous one.
00:17:25 --> 00:17:27 And they would
00:17:27 --> 00:17:30 announce in the town
00:17:30 --> 00:17:30 that she had arrived
00:17:30 --> 00:17:31 and she became known
00:17:31 --> 00:17:32 as the storyteller.
00:17:32 --> 00:17:33 The storytellers arrived.
00:17:34 --> 00:17:34 And so she would tell
00:17:34 --> 00:17:35 these stories
00:17:35 --> 00:17:36 in all these isolated villages.
00:17:37 --> 00:17:39 And so Gladys
00:17:39 --> 00:17:39 strikes me
00:17:39 --> 00:17:40 as a woman
00:17:40 --> 00:17:41 who was as wise
00:17:41 --> 00:17:42 as a serpent
00:17:42 --> 00:17:44 and innocent
00:17:44 --> 00:17:45 as a dove
00:17:45 --> 00:17:45 when it came
00:17:45 --> 00:17:46 to opportunities
00:17:46 --> 00:17:48 to talk about Jesus.
00:17:48 --> 00:17:48 Yes.
00:17:48 --> 00:17:48
00:17:48 --> 00:17:48
00:17:48 --> 00:17:48
00:17:48 --> 00:17:48
00:17:48 --> 00:17:48
00:17:48 --> 00:17:48
00:17:48 --> 00:17:48
00:17:48 --> 00:17:48
00:17:48 --> 00:17:48
00:17:48 --> 00:17:48
00:17:48 --> 00:17:48
00:17:48 --> 00:17:48
00:17:48 --> 00:17:48
00:17:48 --> 00:17:48
00:17:48 --> 00:17:48
00:17:48 --> 00:17:48
00:17:48 --> 00:17:48
00:17:48 --> 00:17:48
00:17:48 --> 00:17:48
00:17:48 --> 00:17:48
00:17:48 --> 00:17:48
00:17:48 --> 00:17:48
00:17:48 --> 00:17:48
00:17:48 --> 00:17:48
00:17:48 --> 00:17:48
00:17:48 --> 00:17:48
00:17:48 --> 00:17:48
00:17:48 --> 00:18:04 but Gladys feels awfully lonely as you can imagine she had expected at this point in her life to be
00:18:04 --> 00:18:11 married to have children she's just lonely because she doesn't have a co-worker let alone a husband
00:18:11 --> 00:18:18 she's praying God could you please send someone to help and preferably a man not necessarily to
00:18:18 --> 00:18:25 marry him but just you know I need a guy around to do some of the hard stuff can you just please
00:18:25 --> 00:18:38 send someone and God doesn't answer the prayer that way instead she's walking home one day
00:18:38 --> 00:18:47 and she this young girl lying in the arms of a woman on the side of the road
00:18:47 --> 00:18:54 this little girl is essentially a slave and she's probably hours away from death and Gladys
00:18:54 --> 00:19:05 offers to buy this little girl the woman in whose care this girl was saw it as an opportunity to you
00:19:05 --> 00:19:12 know make a few coins and so she sells her to Gladys for six pence that's probably like five
00:19:12 --> 00:19:21 Australian dollars today so not much six pence and she takes her home and cares for her and she says
00:19:21 --> 00:19:30 she calls this girl six pence she says six pence helped fill that aching void in her and of course
00:19:30 --> 00:19:36 six pence wasn't alone in the circumstances she found herself in so she would bring other people
00:19:36 --> 00:19:44 to Gladys for help yeah other orphans or other vulnerable children to Gladys and so Gladys keeps
00:19:44 --> 00:19:51 accumulating more and more children over a hundred she ends up saying like I long for a moment to myself
00:19:51 --> 00:20:01 now she cares for them she feeds them she teaches them including bible stories she speaks the gospel to
00:20:01 --> 00:20:10 them now by this stage her town is repeatedly a war zone so soldiers would come in they would retreat
00:20:10 --> 00:20:17 things would be decimated they would return again to more and more rubble it would happen again and again
00:20:17 --> 00:20:24 and again and so really her city is crumbling around her she knows she needs to get these kids out
00:20:24 --> 00:20:34 she needs to get them to safety now there's a very powerful woman who is has a lot of funding at her
00:20:34 --> 00:20:43 disposal and she is helping care for what she calls them warfans war orphans and so she says to Gladys
00:20:43 --> 00:20:52 look I can help you you just need to get the kids to me in this in the safe zone now that safe zone is 350
00:20:52 --> 00:20:58 kilometers north across the mountains in the middle of a war
00:20:58 --> 00:21:09 and so Gladys sets off on that mountainous mule track with over a hundred kids aged between three and
00:21:09 --> 00:21:19 sixteen and so gruelling dangerous journey they have to beg for food along the way which is obviously scarce
00:21:19 --> 00:21:29 in a war zone other villages would be completely abandoned as they made their way across they come
00:21:29 --> 00:21:38 to the wide expanse of the yellow river what are they going to do there's not ferries running anymore
00:21:38 --> 00:21:44 in a in a war zone there's no boats to be seen they can they cannot cross it
00:21:44 --> 00:21:57 i was listening to a talk that Gladys gave in Sydney in the 1960s this week not many of the people that i
00:21:57 --> 00:22:05 get to write about and study i actually get to hear their voices so it's amazing and she talked about this
00:22:05 --> 00:22:12 moment on the banks of that river they slept out in the open for a couple of nights trying to think
00:22:12 --> 00:22:18 about what to do as her breaking point that was her breaking point
00:22:18 --> 00:22:23 how could God deliver them from that
00:22:23 --> 00:22:33 could God be trusted in that situation on the banks of the yellow river she could not see a solution
00:22:33 --> 00:22:38 God was not coming through could he be trusted
00:22:41 --> 00:22:47 she'd been teaching the bible stories to uh those children in her care
00:22:49 --> 00:22:57 and one of them that she must have taught them was the story of when israel leaves egypt
00:22:57 --> 00:23:04 leaving pharaoh behind pharaoh and his armies are chasing the israelites and of course they come to
00:23:05 --> 00:23:10 the river that they can't cross the red sea what are they going to do what's God going to do in this
00:23:11 --> 00:23:12 situation
00:23:14 --> 00:23:25 and this is what a kid said about this moment he said when we got to the river we waited and waited for a boat
00:23:25 --> 00:23:30 they came to her with this story
00:23:31 --> 00:23:33 and so he said we prayed
00:23:34 --> 00:23:39 for the river to be opened so that we could walk across like the children of israel did
00:23:40 --> 00:23:43 across the red sea but
00:23:44 --> 00:23:46 God knew we were tired of walking
00:23:46 --> 00:23:56 and so he sent a boat and that was far better and that's what he did a ferry finally came and i love
00:23:56 --> 00:24:04 this kid's words here because it wasn't that the parting of the sea of the yellow river was harder than
00:24:04 --> 00:24:09 a boat God was just more kind in sending a boat because their feet were really sore from walking they
00:24:09 --> 00:24:15 didn't have to want to walk across the river bed they got across the river they continued the trek
00:24:16 --> 00:24:20 going so high up sometimes up the mountains the clouds obscured them
00:24:24 --> 00:24:30 it was a long month it was an agonizing journey they finally arrived where they could get help
00:24:30 --> 00:24:36 and Gladys's body understandably completely shut down
00:24:39 --> 00:24:46 she went to hospital doctors fully expected her to die she had typhoid pneumonia malnutrition
00:24:46 --> 00:24:54 exhaustion she lay there for a month completely out of it unaware of her surroundings she recovered but
00:24:54 --> 00:24:57 it took years she can't really remember the next two years of her life
00:25:01 --> 00:25:04 when the chinese revolution began in 1949
00:25:05 --> 00:25:12 she was forced to leave china and she returned to england and she never went back there she would
00:25:12 --> 00:25:19 eventually go to taiwan to head an orphanage in 1957 and she died there in 1970
00:25:19 --> 00:25:26 the city aged 68 and on her tombstone are those words that were read at the beginning that unless
00:25:26 --> 00:25:31 a kernel of wheat falls to the ground there won't be new life
00:25:34 --> 00:25:39 so i've told you some of the remarkable parts of her story and in many ways
00:25:40 --> 00:25:47 it's a memorable story a lot more happens on the way it's a wild ride but this is the part that's
00:25:47 --> 00:25:53 more remarkable to me her story nearly was forgotten because she was content for it to be
00:25:53 --> 00:26:03 forgotten she was a woman so bound up with christ her christ-shaped humility meant she didn't care
00:26:03 --> 00:26:11 if she was known or remembered it had no hold on her she didn't want or need to leave a legacy
00:26:11 --> 00:26:17 she didn't desire that her life story be honored that someone write a biography about her
00:26:20 --> 00:26:27 so let me tell you the story of how her story came to light and how it helps us reflect on that
00:26:27 --> 00:26:35 pull to be remembered by the world so gladys returns to england in 1949 and there's a few lines
00:26:35 --> 00:26:40 in the newspaper that report that she's returned home from being a missionary in china for 20 years
00:26:41 --> 00:26:49 and so a bbc journalist and writer he sees those few lines in a newspaper he's working on a project
00:26:50 --> 00:26:58 for bbc radio so think of it like modern podcasts he's doing a series uh called the undefeated so
00:26:58 --> 00:27:04 he's looking for stories that kind of match with that theme the undefeated and he thinks i re i reckon
00:27:04 --> 00:27:12 there's a story here so he goes to her home in london he asked gladys have you seen any adventures
00:27:13 --> 00:27:16 that map with the theme of the undefeated
00:27:16 --> 00:27:23 she says no nothing noteworthy has happened to me
00:27:27 --> 00:27:29 that that journalist
00:27:30 --> 00:27:30 alan
00:27:30 --> 00:27:37 recorded that conversation and he remembered it word for word because it had such an impact on him
00:27:39 --> 00:27:45 but surely he said in 20 years in china you must have had many strange experiences
00:27:45 --> 00:27:52 others oh yes said gladys but i'm sure people would not be interested in them nothing very exciting
00:27:52 --> 00:27:57 happened it was at least 15 minutes more before she confessed that she had
00:27:57 --> 00:28:01 once taken some children across the mountains
00:28:03 --> 00:28:06 and slowly the story emerged
00:28:07 --> 00:28:10 and the rest is history it was turned into a book that he wrote
00:28:10 --> 00:28:20 a film which gladys hated hated she hated the attention she hated becoming a household name
00:28:23 --> 00:28:30 and so i marvel at her story it's an incredible one but more so i marvel at the fact that she didn't
00:28:30 --> 00:28:37 desire to be remembered she's she was not the center of her story she would have been much more
00:28:37 --> 00:28:47 comfortable being forgotten by the world why why is that for gladys well that journalist alan burgess
00:28:47 --> 00:28:52 helps us understand that woman that he met on that fateful day this is what he writes he goes it was
00:28:52 --> 00:29:02 not mock modesty on the part of gladys arwood the stories she had been telling were to her
00:29:02 --> 00:29:11 her the greatest in the world taken straight from the pages of the new testament that her own adventures
00:29:11 --> 00:29:22 might be worth setting down she had simply not considered so for gladys it was the stories that she told
00:29:22 --> 00:29:29 every night to those mule travelers to those children in her care to those townspeople as she was a foot
00:29:29 --> 00:29:40 binding inspector those were the stories that mattered everything else paled in comparison it was the legacy of jesus that she was in awe of not in awe of her own legacy
00:29:41 --> 00:29:50 she had no need to build a monument to her own pride and ego it's not false modesty too which can be a temptation
00:29:50 --> 00:30:00 her adventures seemed entirely remarkable in the shadow of the one in whose name she was doing these things
00:30:02 --> 00:30:15 and so in that way i think gladys arwood models for us christ-shaped humility christ-shaped humility
00:30:15 --> 00:30:21 it's not a white knuckling approach of getting through things it was a reliance on the lord
00:30:24 --> 00:30:31 a humility came from and demonstrated her daily dependence on her lord
00:30:33 --> 00:30:39 jesus captivated her not herself she didn't fill her own imagination
00:30:39 --> 00:30:48 her own life didn't fill her mind the lord jesus did and so i pray that she would be someone who
00:30:48 --> 00:30:59 encourages you on your journey with this same lord who's able to answer the same prayers in remarkable ways
00:30:59 --> 00:31:09 that the one you serve is worthy of all honor and so in serving him we are completely free
00:31:10 --> 00:31:17 to have christ-shaped humility the world and its opinion of us and the desire to be remembered doesn't
00:31:17 --> 00:31:23 have to have a hold of us christ sets us free from that thank you
00:31:29 --> 00:31:55 so