Parlormaid, innkeeper, bound-foot inspector, prison reformer, orphan caretaker, inspiration to a high-grossing movie, and missionary: Gladys Aylward was all these and more, willing to do whatever it took to spread the gospel in China. Gladys Aylward was born on February 24, 1902 in Edmonton, a town in North London, to working class parents. Her family went to church, but Gladys did not become a Christian until her teen years.
At age fourteen, Gladys started working as a parlormaid. Though this may seem young to modern minds, fourteen was a typical age of someone from a working class family to enter the workforce. She enjoyed soaking in the lifestyle of those she worked for, enjoying dances and parties. But one day, a pastor told her, as recorded in Time’s article on her, “Well, Miss Aylward, God is wanting you.” This change softened her heart and before long, she became a Christian.
The Call to China
After her conversion, she grew in desire to share the gospel with the people in China and she determined to do whatever it took.
This proved a lot trickier than she expected. She studied in a three-month long preparatory course, but failed out of it because she was not improving in learning the Chinese language. Though briefly discouraged, she decided to work maid jobs and earn money herself for the tickets to China. She earned enough for a railway ticket within a year. Her plan was to work for Mrs Jeannie Lawson, an older woman living in China, and train as a missionary under her.
Unfortunately, Gladys took the Trans-Siberian Railway while the Soviet Union and China were warring. People were kicked off the train and she had to walk back to a station, but was detained by Russians. With some help, she managed to escape and was brought to Japan’s British Consul, and from there took a ship to China. It still took a while of travelling, not easy when she barely knew the language and was viewed as a devil by many Chinese due to her white skin. But God preserved her, and she made it safely to her new home of Yangcheng.
Early Years in China
Mrs Lawson had not been doing much to evangelize, partly due to Chineses’ cultural biases against white people. She and Gladys came up with the idea to start an inn, the Inn of Eight Happinesses, for mule drivers and other weary travellers. They would provide a clean, warm place to stay, and as entertainment would tell stories from the Bible.
A year later, Mrs Lawson died, leaving Gladys Aylward the sole missionary in that area. While wondering what the way forward was, as funds were limited, she was approached by the Chinese government. Recently foot binding laws were changed, now forbidding the feet of young girls from being bound, and they needed people who could check that the girls’ feet weren’t bound. This allowed Gladys to travel all over China, and while she worked, she shared the gospel. Many were converted.
That was not the only work Gladys did for the Chinese government. She was approached about a prison riot, asked to calm them down. She did so, and talking to the prisoners, discovered that they were rioting due to poor conditions, so she demanded that the prison be improved and the prisoners properly cared for.
Love for Orphans
Her next endeavor that was put upon her was caring for orphans of China. She started to gather more and more orphans and soon was running an orphanage. By the end of her life, she had given a home to well over a hundred orphans. One orphanage she started is still operating today, though now is called the Bethany Children’s Home.
She would care for orphans even in the midst of a war. In 1938, her new home (two years prior, she had officially become a Chinese citizen) was invaded by the Japanese military. Everyone scattered, and Gladys Aylward had to flee while protecting one hundred orphans. They had a perilous journey through the mountains, nearly starving along the way. They reached the Yellow River, where they had hoped to catch a ferry to safety but no ferry was on the shores. Discouraged, Aylward wept. The children comforted her, asking her if God could part the waters for them like He had for Moses and the Israelites when they fled Egypt. Together Aylward and the children prayed and sang, and before long a Chinese officer heard their voices and decided to help them. He provided boats to bring them across the waters, and soon the children were placed in safety, and provided with food and water.
End of Life and Legacy
In 1949, Aylward returned to Great Britain, her first time back in her country of origin after almost two decades in her new home. Communists had been persecuting missionaries, and so she was forced to leave. For a few years she travelled around, sharing about her missionary endeavors and the needs of the Christians and churches (and lack thereof) in China. Eventually she went back to Asia, but had to settle in Taiwan instead of China due to persecution. She did not waste her time though, and soon established an orphanage, working there until her death on January 3, 1970.
Some might know Aylward best from the film The Inn of the Sixth Happiness, starring the tall, blonde, Swedish actress Ingrid Bergmann as the short, dark-haired, British Gladys Aylward. Aylward famously hated this movie, saying it diminished her difficult journey to China, and tainted her reputation, as well as those of various Chinese friends. But rather than the love-stricken heroine portrayed in the movie, Gladys Aylward was one whose reputation was for Christ. “I have been a fisher of men,” she said. “I went to China because God asked me. I did not have missionary training or missionary status. I was answerable to Him and no one else.” She heard the call and she obeyed, and China was forever changed.