Let me tell you about my Great-Aunt Gladys.
While other children were playing ‘house’ or ‘truck driver’
or ‘teacher and school’ or ‘super-hero’, my Great-Aunt Gladys played
‘missionary’. Yes, I said ‘missionary’. Even as child, she knew that God was calling
her to be a missionary. To me, that’s incredibly
awesome!
She attended Oxford
College, The Medical College of Virginia,
and Tulane University in preparation for becoming a
medical missionary. She became both a general
medical doctor and a surgeon.
My Great-Aunt Gladys, MD, sailed for China in 1924. She was prepared for language difficulties
and oriental diseases.
Such an example of the conditions the medical missionaries
faced happened in 1935. There was a
deadly ‘scourge black fever’ that was killing thousands and wiping out whole
villages in a coastal province in China. The missionaries worked with limited
resources and without enough facilities.
Her dedication to China ended after WW II when missionaries were forced to leave or become imprisoned. The Communist Regime closed China to missionaries. After serving about eleven years in the China mission, Aunt Gladys began her homeward journey.
She remained in the states for several years, studied a new
language, and learned about diseases in the heart of Africa. Aunt Gladys traveled to Africa in 1949 to continue
her missionary career in the Kasai valley in the Congo. She directed a women’s hospital, worked at other
Congo
missions, and served for many years at Bulape as well at other stations. She
was among those evacuated during an Independence Revolution, but later she returned
to the mission field.
After many years of Christian service, Aunt Gladys had reached
the retirement age. Missionaries were
given complete physicals when returning for furlough. She had developed cancer and later died at Memorial Hospital
in Charlotte, NC on December 28th 1964..
She dedicated her life as a medical missionary...
This is what God had planned for that little girl’s life...
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