Gladys Aylward: The Maid Who Led a Hundred Children

Gladys Aylward was a small woman from London who worked as a maid, cleaning other people's houses. She was sure that God wanted her to go to China. But when she asked a mission society to send her, they tested her and told her no — she was not clever enough, they said, and too old to learn the language.

Gladys did not give up. She saved her wages, penny by penny, until she had just enough for the cheapest, longest, most dangerous way to travel — by train across the whole of Europe and Asia. She arrived at a town called Yangcheng, high in the mountains, with almost nothing but her Bible and her stubbornness.

And there the people came to love her. She learned the language after all. She opened an inn where travellers could rest and hear stories about Jesus. She even became an officer whose job was to travel the villages, and everywhere she went she gathered up children who had no one to care for them, until she had a whole houseful.

Then war came. Soldiers invaded the land, and it was no longer safe to stay. Gladys had nearly a hundred children in her care, and no army to protect them — only herself. So she did the only thing she could. She gathered the children and set out on foot, over the mountains, to carry them to safety on the far side.

It took nearly two weeks. They climbed steep paths and crossed a wide, rushing river. There was little food, and the little ones grew tired, and Gladys carried the smallest and sang to keep them going. When they were afraid, she reminded them of the God who had brought His people safely through the sea long ago.

Every single child came through the mountains alive.

The clever people had told Gladys Aylward that she was not enough. God took the maid they turned away and made her strong enough to carry a hundred children through a war.