CHAPTER NINE
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CHAPTER NINE
BEGINNINGS AT YUNGPING
T the northern end of the plain of Yungping was a little £ \ town called Old Market. The population here was not so wholly Muslim, and John was blessed in obtaining an old native house on the river bank. There were three wings around a little courtyard, the fourth side of which was the river walk. mh where lay the unwashed dirt of years and black sooty walls.
John was disheartened at the task of cleaning it up and repairing it, but I saw possibilities in its spaciousness, and loved the privacy of the river bank.
"Don't worry," I assured him gaily, "Sally and I will soon clean it up and transform it!"'
Sally Kelly, who later became Mrs. Stuart Harverson, was our newest young worker, and she was to live with us during her first language study days. She was a Scottish girl from my own home town of Vancouver. Unselfish, capable and devoted, she also sparkled with wit and humour. The longer we knew her the more we loved her.
God prospered us, too, in getting the help of two fine Chinese carpenters, a father and son, who not only repaired the house, putting in wooden floors and windows, but also made furniture for us. They charged a lump sum for two months' labour and as they were very industrious it made the cost of repairs and ° furniture quite reasonable.
There had been the matter of servants. John was for waiting until we got to Yungping, and then hiring some local residents and training them. But Kathryn was about a year and a half old when we moved to Yungping—just the toddling age when she must be watched carefully, especially as we lived so near the river.
I had been warned by one who was born a child of the C.I.M. never to leave my children to national amahs, or let the heathen play with them promiscuously. Evil habits and speech can be
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learned in early childhood that are difficult to eradicate later.
So I was always very careful and watchful with my little one.
Our cook, Mrs. Hwang, was a widow with only one child, a daughter about thirteen years old, named Small Pearl. Small
Pearl was a spoiled child, but she was a pure little thing and took care of our small Kathryn. So I wished to bring mother and daughter with us to Yungping.
"You know that Mrs. Hwang is not satisfactory," argued John.
"Yes," I replied, "but who is to market and cook and watch Kathryn while we clean that sooty house? I will be in no situation to train raw hands during the first week or so."
"All right, have it your own way," said my hubby goodnaturedly, "But I'm afraid you'll be sorry."" And oh, wasn't I!
Mrs. Hwang worked well at first and certainly did relieve me during the cleaning period. And Small Pearl was always reliable in caring for little Kathryn.
Downstairs in the central wing was to be the Chinese guest hall and dining-room, with a small room at the side for John's study.
The long black hole upstairs was to be our bedroom. The carpenter put in a window or so, and then we set out to clean the room. It had been the ancestral worship hall, and placed against the wall was a long buffet-like. table where idols had stood.
There was no ceiling, but long soot-incrusted cobwebs hung from the roof tiles.
With hair tied up in a kerchief and broom in hand, Sally mounted this table to sweep the roof. She struck a dramatic attitude, and with outflung arm began, "Behold I..." Then crash! The house shook, black soot rained down upon us and I thought, for a second, that the end of the earth had come. I had instinctively shut my eyes in self-defence, but when I opened them in horror I saw a heap of soot-blackened rags on the floor before me, out from the top of which stared two startled skyblue eyes. Those eyes were the only part of Sally Kelly still recognizable. The rest looked like the dirtiest chimney-sweep which Scotland ever produced. The table had had a broken leg and Sally's hundred pounds caused it to collapse. But the weight of the fall so shook the house that it acted as a roof cleaner. The soot of many years was knocked off and descended upon us, When we realized that no bones had been broken and
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saw that our roof was so unexpectedly cleaned for us, we laughed till we shook again. And this was typical of those days of repairing the breaches in Eternal Peace.
Soap and water and whitewash effected quite a transformation.
Of course visitors were not lacking, and one of us was always free to witness to them.
We expected it would prove a hard place, so you can imagine our feelings when one afternoon a grcat racket outside our gate startled us and brought us all running.
Through our front gate a procession was marching. First came boys setting off firecrackers, "pop! pop! bang! bang!"
"What's going on?" muttered John, going forward to receive them. For behind the fireworks was a single file of the leading citizens of Old Market, cach carrying a tray with gifts on it!
There was a handsome pair of scarlet satin scrolls on one: packages of sugar or tea on others, and so on.
Mystified but gracious, John showed them into the guest room and relieved them of the trays. The leading townsmen had come to welcome us to Eternal Peace, and they all meant to join us! They had heard about the Christian church and they noticed that Pastor Kuhn did not drink or smoke. Fine morality
—they were all for it too, but gradually, of course. Buddhism was old-fashioned, they realized, and it would be wise to have something more modern. Just like a benefit society, you know.
And they all beamed mek Bhs It was difficult, but also an excellent opportunity. John explained that Christianity was not a new kind of club, but a personal relationship to God based on His forgiveness of our sins. All men are sinners.
, "Yes, yes," they nodded in grave assent, thinking that this was Pastor Kuhn's way of referring to wine and tobacco.
But when he got to "Thou shalt have no other gods before me," they began to talk. Perhaps idols were old-fashioned—they could go. But, of course, Pastor Kuhn would not ask them to give up ancestor worship. Why, that was the basic thing in Chinese culture! Confucius and Christ could get along quite well together, could they not? They were politely incredulous when told that Christians may worship no one but God—most decidedly not ancestors, who were a creatures of His creation.
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BEGINNINGS AT YUNGPING
"We may venerate our ancestors but not worship them," John said. In embarrassment they took their leave.
After John had politely escorted them to the door and warmly urged them to come again for more discussion, he returned to us.
'Did you ever see a more vivid illustration of what I've been reading these days? Campbell Morgan was saying in The Acts of the Apostles, "Satan's first choice is to co-operate with us.
Persecution is only his second-best method.' "
From then on, the work at Eternal Peace was just as difficult as we had preconceived it. Several illiterate peasant women were won to the Lord and a young fellow named Ma Fu-yin, who could read. His death before he was thirty left the little group of Christians without a leader. It was not until Communism took over years later, and with all the white missionaries gone, that an educated Chinese lady was led of the Lord to go to Eternal
Peace. There she gleaned a harvest from seed long-sown and watered with prayers, and we heard that a little church was thriving in Eternal Peace, led by this Christian Chinese lady.
But that is moving ahead of our story.
At first our cook was quite helpful, but as new young workers came to live with us (John helped them with the language and I relieved them of all housekeeping responsibilities so they had
'full time for language study), Mrs. Hwang relapsed into her old laziness. She would not buy or prepare enough food; she would not make bread when told to, but ran it so short that frequentl we had to-go a meal or so without any because her new bane had not risen, and so on. It caused me almost as much trouble as if I had to do it all myself. More and more she became a thorn in the flesh. But when I spoke of dismissing her, she immediately made preposterous claims. I must pay her for travel by sedan chair back to Tali and pay for an escort, as she was afraid to go alone. Then I would have to pay for a sedan chair for Small Pearl too, and coolics to carry their things. I had brought her so far from home I was responsible for her getting back. She made conditions that were impossible for us to fulfil, so we had to keep her on. Yet she grew worse and worse and quarrelled with everyone. I had to re-do her work daily until I was groaning with the bondage of it.
Then I began to commit this situation to the Lord, "Father, I
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en confess I was wrong not to take John's advice at the beginning.
He said I would rue it and I do. But is there no help for me now?
I can't get rid of her but You could. Please take her from me."
He did not choose to answer immediately. I was praying daily to be relieved of her for some three months before the freedom actually came.
Meanwhile Mrs. Hwang began to quarrel with everyone around her. She grew more and more cantankerous until the neighbours became angry at her and the women on the market turned against her. Of course she never admitted she was wrong, it was always everybody else who was mean! But with everyone everywhere disliking her she became so unhappy that she quit one day, of her own accord! She had met some horsemen from Tali who were going back and she hired a horse for herself.
To me it was like a miracle.
Little Pearl was in tears. She had found her mother difficult to live with too, and she wanted to stay with us, We offered to keep her as Kathryn's nursemaid, and her mother, uncertain of her own future and expenses, gave consent. So the morning came when her mother departed.
The whole household decided to celebrate and have a spring cleaning. Mrs. Hwang had been supposed to do the sweeping and dusting, but as with everything else, it had been done very negligently. Now we all set to and cleaned the house thoroughly.
John insisted we have our pictures taken—heads tied up in bandanas, brooms, dustpans and scrubbing pails well to the bea
Oh the fun of those days when we were all young!
The years proved Small Pearl to be the jewel of our work at Yungping. She confessed the Lord and asked for baptism. Up to* that time we had baptized none at Yungping. We did not baptize on a mere profession of faith, but only after testing for sincerity and carefully instructing the applicant in its meaning. For the rite of baptism John chose a site at the river. As this-would be in full view of the busy market, however, he decided that Small ie be baptized very early in the morning, before people were abroad.
There happened, however, to be an early bird, a Chinese woman opposite us, who opened the door that morning to behold
3 procession issuing from the white man's house across the river.
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BEGINNINGS AT YUNGPING
First came Pastor Kuhn, recognizable by his height and build.
Then came Small Pearl. After her Mrs. Kuhn, Miss Kelly, Mrs.
Yang, and a string of Chinese—the Christians probably. Pastor Kuhn and Small Pearl entered the river, the others stood on the bank. Then the Pastor took the child and swung her beneath the water! The astonished spectator only watched long enough to assure herself that Small Pearl was allowed to get out alive, when she waddled off to awaken her neighbour to this alarming bit of gossip. In a few hours the whole market buzzed with it. And some of the more courageous ones came over to our house to ask, "What has Small Pearl been doing that she should be treated to such a harsh punishment?" The Christian ritual of baptism was then explained. Alas, not every one chose to be convinced!
But some believed.
Small Pearl later became the Mrs. Yang (the schoolmaster's wife) in the story Nests Above the Abyss.1 She was a godly woman, knowing victory in affliction, and was a real soul winner. Our two years in Yungping were worth while if they had given us only Small Pearl.
1 Nests Above the Abyss, C.I.M., 1947.