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How to love like Christ, inspiring stories of Christian missionaries. Learn from Gladys Aylward, a story of a small woman with a big heart who can inspire us to love like Christ.

God’s plans for her started when she went out for a night of dancing and eventually found herself in a church service. She heard the gospel for the first time and received Jesus into her life.

I don’t know about you, but this is the funniest story and one I can relate to as a Christian woman. I am doing my own thing when God suddenly pulls me in a new direction.

Gladys was born into a working-class family in England and started working as a maid. In 1930, she felt called to go to China.

She talked to every Christian man she knew about going to China to share the gospel. No one wanted to go. Then, one day, her brother said, “If you believe someone should be going, then why don’t you go yourself?”

Then she made God two promises:

If you will open the way and show me how I will go myself.
I will never again ask anyone to do something you are asking me to do.

Love Jesus first and share that love.

Gladys Aylward said she would go.

She earned money as a maid, sold what she could, and obtained the cheapest means of transportation to China.

To love like Christ starts with a willingness to go and,

Obedience to God’s plans.

She was accepted to the “China Inland Missions,” which sent missionaries to China.

After a while, she was deemed unable to learn the language and theology and asked to leave.

As she cried at the disappointment, China Inland Missions put her in touch with two missionaries to China. They had hoped they would help talk her out of going.

But God opened a new door of opportunity to her.

In so many inspiring stories of Christian missionaries, we see their perseverance and resilience in the process.

Perseverance in the process.

Soon after, she was in contact with Jeannie Lawson, another inspiring Christian missionary. Lawson lost her husband earlier and wanted someone to come and help her with her mission work in China.

The next thing we can learn from Gladys Aylward is,

Faith in the Journey.

Her journey started in England, and she boarded the Trans-Siberian Train.

At the time, China and Russia were at war, so the trip for a single woman was treacherous.

Having taken the train by myself through Eastern Europe, I can tell you it is no joke. I can’t imagine taking it during a war, and I wouldn’t recommend it to a female foreigner traveling alone. But God is always with us wherever we go and gives us faith in the journey.

She had to get off the train in Siberia because of the war.

She walked to the nearest village. They didn’t know what to do with her because her passport said “missionary,” and they didn’t know what that was.

The police put her under house arrest in an inn.

Someone in the night came to her and said she had to get out and someone would come and take her.

She was terrified, so she prayed.

The next thing we can learn from Gladys Aylward is,

Let God lead the way.

The next morning, an old man came and took her to the dock, where a fishing boat was moored.

The Japanese captain of the boat announced she was her prisoner. This was the only way he could get her out of Siberia.

He was kind, and this was the only way he could take her out.

In so many inspiring stories of Christian missionaries, we can learn,

To Be Flexible

Jeannie Lawson, the missionary who, spent most of her life in China. Lawson had the idea of opening the “Inn of the Sixth Happiness.”

Gladys didn’t like the idea of running an inn, but Jeannie felt called by God to start one. So they did, and as people passing through came, they would share stories of the Bible.

The next thing we can learn from Gladys Aylward is,

Grow with God in the challenges.

People in the village would sometimes throw stuff at her and called her “a foreign devil.” She had to adapt to life in China, food, clothes. Young women generally didn’t go out alone.

Soon after, Jeannie Lawson had an accident and died, leaving Gladys Aylward alone. Then Gladys was left alone, and shehad no support to live, so she was left to stay within the courtyard.

The Mandarin (like a governor) of the area called Gladys Aylward to have a meeting. He asked her to go throughout the villages and educate the people about outlawing the practice of “binding feet on young girls.”

With reservation, she became an employee of the Chinese government as a foot inspector.

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She said she would do it only if she could share the gospel as well. At that point, she gave up her British passport and became a citizen of China. She adapted to life in China; she dressed and spoke Chinese.

Then, a woman came to Gladys and gave her a bundle; it was a little girl.

Then, one by one, she kept getting children, and she became their mother.

Something we can learn from Gladys Aylward as we love like Christ,

Trust God through it all.

Then, the war with Japan started. As the war continued, more and more children came to her. She ended up with around 100 children.

It became too dangerous for her to stay, so she was forced to leave and take the children up the mountains to safety.

They faced a river and had no way to cross, so they prayed.

Then, they miraculously met some friendly soldiers who helped them cross the river.

Part of her story was told in the movie “Inn of the Sixth Happiness.” And an author wanted to tell more of her story without the Hollywood version.

Her story is an incredible journey of a life of faith one that can inspire us all to love like Jesus. And learn from the inspiring stories of Christian missionaries throughout history.

So no matter what challenges you are facing in your life, know that God is with you and you can love like Christ.