Philippians 4:13
Gladys Alward was a working class London girl who left domestic work to go to China, in the years leading up to World War II. She worked with an older missionary, Jeannie Lawson, to found an inn where traveling merchants could get a hot meal and hear stories from the Bible. Gladys was initially rejected as a potential missionary to China because of her lack of education. She spent her life savings on her passage.
Appointed by the local mandarin to serve as a “foot inspector,” she toured the countryside to enforce the new law against foot binding and met with much success. She also took in orphans and adopted several herself, and she intervened in a prison riot, advocating for prison reform. When the region was invaded by Japanese forces in 1938, Aylward led around a hundred children to safety over the mountains, despite being wounded herself.
Numerous books, short stories and movies have been created about the life and work of Gladys Aylward, including the film The Inn of Sixth Happiness. For Aylward, this 1957 movie was a thorn in her side: she resented being played by the tall, Swedish Ingrid Bergman (small in stature, she had dark hair and a cockney accent).
She returned to England in the 1940s, then tried to go back to China but was re-denied entry by the Communist government. She ended up in Taiwan, where she started another orphanage. She lived in Taiwan until her death.
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
Pastor Rowena