Gladys Aylward

Life

Aylward was born in 1902 in Edmonton, north of London, England. At about the age of fourteen she left school and went to work as a domestic servant. Feeling called to mission work in China, she trained for about three months with the China Inland Mission, founded by Hudson Taylor. The mission, however, judged that at twenty-eight, and with her limited academic background, she would have difficulty learning Chinese, and it declined to accept her as a missionary.

She then set out for China on her own, without a sending agency, traveling on the Trans-Siberian Railway with money she had saved herself. Sources differ on the year of her departure, giving either 1930 or 1932. After narrowly escaping detention in Russia, she reached Yangcheng in Shanxi Province, where she worked alongside Jeannie Lawson, an elderly Scottish missionary. In 1936 she became a naturalized Chinese citizen. During the Second Sino-Japanese War she led orphans to safety, and afterward she ministered in various regions before returning to England in the late 1940s, where she preached and lectured widely. She settled in Taiwan in 1958 and died in Taipei in January 1970.

Ministry and Achievements

• Evangelism at the inn: With Lawson she ran an inn for travelers called the Inn of the Eight Happinesses (八福客棧), where she evangelized by telling the guests stories about Jesus.
• Foot inspector: Having won the trust of the local magistrate, she became an inspector charged with enforcing the decree banning foot-binding (the custom of wrapping girls' feet tightly in cloth to stunt their growth). While traveling from village to village in this role, she also preached the gospel. The people called her "Ai-weh-deh," meaning "virtuous one."
• Evacuation of the orphans: When the Japanese army invaded the region, she led more than one hundred orphans over the mountains and across the Yellow River to Xi'an. Sources variously date this to 1938, 1939, or early 1940. After arriving, she collapsed with typhus and other illnesses, and for a time her life was in danger.
• Orphanage in Taiwan: In her later years she founded an orphanage in Taiwan that bore her name and ran it until her death.

Her story became widely known through Alan Burgess's 1957 book The Small Woman. In 1958 the book was adapted into the film The Inn of the Sixth Happiness, starring Ingrid Bergman.

Influence on the Korean Church

There is no confirmed record of Aylward working in Korea herself. She became known to the Korean church chiefly through translated biographies. In 2005 YWAM Korea published a biography of her by Janet and Geoff Benge as a volume in its "Heroes of the Faith" series. Her story of overcoming the verdict that she was "unqualified," despite lacking both education and financial support, is presented in Korean-language collections of missionary biographies as an example of missionary devotion.

Assessment

In evangelical circles she is regarded as an example of faith, one who went forth trusting God without formal training or a sending agency. She is also cited as an example of combining evangelism with social action, as seen in her work against foot-binding and her relief efforts for war orphans.

It should be noted, however, that much of her story was dramatized as it passed through popular books and film. Aylward herself is reported to have disliked the film's portrayal. According to one travel account of a visit to Yangcheng, little clear trace of her remains there, even though she lived there for nearly eight years. Details such as the year she left for China, the year of the evacuation, and the year she returned to England also vary from source to source.