Communities of Faith SECTION A ChAPTER 10 vOCATION Answering the Call


So the men drop their weapons and quickly select a representative.


Gladys Aylward (1902–1970) felt sure that God was calling her to become a missionary.


The year is 1933. The location is a prison at Jincheng in Northern China. A riot has broken out among the prisoners. They are attacking each other and anyone else who gets in their way. The guards have withdrawn to the outer perimeter in fear. The warden has been injured. In desperation, he has called for help from a most unlikely source – a Christian missionary named Gladys Aylward. To her surprise, the warden asks her to go into the prison and stop the rioting. When she asks why he would want her to do such a dangerous thing, he says, ‘You have been preaching that those who trust in Christ have nothing to fear.’ Though all too aware of the dangers, Aylward agrees to try. She pauses for a brief moment to pray for the strength to face this challenge. Then she walks out into the prison yard. She notices the bodies of the wounded lying strewn on the ground all around her. At the top of her lungs she shouts ‘Quiet! I cannot hear when everyone is shouting at once. Choose one or two spokesmen, and let me talk with them.’ The prisoners are shocked to see her here; they all fall silent. Though she is a whisper- thin woman, about thirty years of age, standing only four foot ten inches tall, Aylward’s voice and presence radiate an unusual calmness and authority.


After talking with the prisoners’ spokesman, Aylward goes to the warden and says: ‘You have all these men living in overcrowded conditions with absolutely nothing to do. No wonder they are so edgy that a small dispute set off this riot. You must give them worthwhile work to do. Also, you do not supply them with food. They only get to eat whatever their relatives can send them. No wonder they fight over food. We must set up looms so that they can weave cloth and earn money to buy their own food.’ As government funding is scarce, Aylward gets local businessmen to provide these looms. As the conditions quickly improve, there are no further riots in the prison. Soon, the local people begin to call Gladys Aylward ‘Ai-weh-deh’, which means ‘Virtuous One’.


Who was this remarkable woman? How had she


REMEMBER! Virtuous means you know what the right thing to do is and you have the courage to do it.


ended up in such an extraordinary situation?


Born into a working-class family in London on 24 February 1902, Gladys Aylward was the daughter of a postman and the eldest of three children. She had to leave school at fourteen to work as a wealthy family’s maid. Although raised an Anglican, Aylward had little interest in religion until she was eighteen. Around that time she developed a great interest in her Christian faith. She became convinced that God was calling her to do something more than work as a domestic servant. She tried to discern what path she should follow in life.


REMEMBER! To discern means to arrive at a decision about what is the right thing to do.


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