Gladys Aylward: The Adventures of a Lifetime
Gladys was the daughter of Thomas and Rosina Aylward who were a postman and a housewife and lived in a small suburb of London. When she was fourteen years old she left school and became a housemaid.
She committed her life to Christ after she heard a young missionary tell about the great opportunities there were to serve especially in China. At the age of twenty seven she entered the China Inland Mission Society's training school but after the first session she was told that she did not qualify to be a missionary. She would not be able to learn the language and had failed her Bible class.
While working for a missionary couple as a housemaid she also got a job as a rescue sister with a rescue mission on the streets of Swansea. But this was not where she felt God was calling her. She still felt called to go to China. She decided to get another job where she could earn money to start saving money for her trip to China.
She now decided that she needed to learn all she could about China and learn to preach. Her employer had books about China so she got permission to read them. She learned to preach while standing on a soapbox in Hyde Park in London.
One day she heard a lady tell about a Mrs Lawson who at seventy three had gone back to China but was sorry she had not been able to convince anyone to go back with her whom she could train to carry on her work when she died. So Gladys wrote her a letter and told her help was on its way. In a return letter Gladys was told to meet her in Tientsin.
Her next problem was to get there by train. But at this time there was a war between Russia and China at the border where she would have to cross. The rest of her adventures are told in Gladys Aylward The Adventure of a Lifetime by Janet & Geoff Benge published by YWAM.
-- Anna Kroeker
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