Wednesday, January 3, 2024

It is the 3rd of January 2024. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

Imagine you are a short, 4’10 or so, dark-haired English woman- notably plain, a commoner who worked as a maid. Hollywood wants to make a movie about your life, so they cast one of the tallest blonde Swedish actresses to play you- the icon Ingrid Bergman. It could be worse. The movie would be “The Inn of the Sixth Happiness.” It was a Golden Globe winner and was nominated for both BAFTA’s and Oscars.

In another irony, the actual Inn was called the Inn of the Eight Happinesses. Apparently, the filmmakers wanted two fewer happinesses. More on that in a minute.  

Gladys Aylward was born near London in 1902. She dropped out of school at 14, lied about her age, and worked as a housemaid for the upper class. By her own account, she enjoyed living vicariously through the rich and elegant. She may have happily lived her life out in this station until a visit to a revival service forever changed her life. She became convinced that she should serve God as a missionary. She was already in her late 20s and had no education, but she contacted the China Inland Mission about serving. On account of her age and education, she was rejected.
Nevertheless, she kept praying and speaking to others in her church about mission work. An opening was provided when a letter was sent to her church from a woman, Jeannie Lawson, who was asking for help at a remote inn for travelers through rural China. Gladys saved enough to make the trip by the Trans-Siberian Railway but was stopped in the Soviet Union and not permitted to continue on account of the Soviet-Sino War. She was able to travel by boat from Vladivostok to Japan and then to China in the rural mountains near Beijing in Yangchen. Upon arriving, she was unimpressed with Lawson, and the two would quarrel enough for Gladys to leave, except Jeannie would fall ill, and Gladys would nurse Jeannie until her death and then take over the mission. She would have a good name in the village and was approached by a Mandarin who asked for her help. Feet binding had been illegal, but some still practiced it, and he needed a woman whose own unbound feet would allow her to travel, and as a female, she could enter the rooms of women without controversy.

Gladys found that she was able to gain the trust of many people; being invited in, she would also share her faith and the gospel message, which had been unheard of in the region. She became famous for her service and was once called into a prison riot to negotiate peace between the offending parties. She would open an orphanage that would grow to some 200 abandoned or orphaned children.

By 1938, the Sino-Japanese war had come to Yangchen. At first, she was reticent to leave, but when she was warned of Japanese soldiers brutalizing villagers, she planned an escape through the treacherous mountainside. The children and Gladys would make it to the Yellow River, where they could cross into relative safety. But there were no boats. Being reminded of Moses by the children, they all prayed and sang until an official, hearing them, came to see what the issue was and procured a boat for them to cross.

She would go home to London, but feeling out of place, she moved back to China, where she had become a citizen. With the rise of the Chinese communist party in 1949, she was exiled to Taiwan. At the end of the film made about her- one with what she felt was an uncomfortable love interest- she bids the children goodbye to return home. It was a curious ending as Gladys was alive when they made the movie, and she did no such thing. She would continue to work with orphans until her death on the 3rd of January in 1970.

In typical modesty, she wrote of her own work, “I wasn't God's first choice for what I've done in China...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...and saw Gladys Aylward...and God said, 'Well, she's willing.’.

And she was. We remember Gladys Alyward on the anniversary of her death on this day at the age of 67 in 1970.

The last word for today is from the daily lectionary- from James chapter 4:

Do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us? 6 But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:

“God opposes the proud
    but shows favor to the humble.”

7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. 

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 3rd of January 2024 brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who, according to a celebrity look-alike website, will be cast in the CHA movie with Clerk’s Kevin Smith. He is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who, according to the same site, will, unsurprisingly, be played by Jack Black. I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.