An Ordinary Person, An Extraordinary God: Gladys Aylward

With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.

Matthew 19:26

Gladys Aylward was born in 1902 into a working class English family.  As was common for a person of her class during that time, she went to work as a domestic servant at a young age. While in her early twenties, she attended a revival in which the preacher encouraged those attending to dedicate their lives to the service of God.  Gladys eagerly responded to call, feeling that the Lord was leading her to become a missionary to China.

Certain of her calling, Gladys became a probationer at the China Inland Missions Center in London, but her lack of education and poor academic abilities resulted in her failing in her exams there and she was rejected as a missionary candidate.  Despite this monumental setback, Gladys did not give up. She went back to work, saved her money, and continued to look for an opportunity to serve God.

In time, Gladys heard of an older missionary woman in China who was looking for a younger person to take over her work. The 73-year old woman, Jeannie Lawson, responded positively to Gladys' inquiry, offering her a job in China if Gladys could pay for her own passage there. Even with all that she had managed to set aside from her years of working as a maid, Gladys still did not have enough for ship passage to China.  However, she did have just enough for train passage and so, in 1930, Gladys set off from London with her passport, Bible, and just a little over two pounds (roughly equivalent to $100 dollars in today's economy).

It is hard to imagine a single woman, with no language training and few contacts, leaving on such an arduous journey to work in a strange land alongside a complete stranger, but this just indicated the faith that Gladys had in her extraordinary God. During her years of ministry, Gladys was instrumental in ending the centuries-old custom of foot binding (which  painfully crippled Chinese women by deforming their feet), in single-handedly stopped a prison riot, and in saving the lives of hundreds of unwanted girl babies. She became a shining beacon of Christianity to the people of China and earned herself the nickname, Ai-weh-deh, meaning "Virtuous One."

From this amazing life of Gladys Aylward, we can see the awesome results of an extraordinary God on an ordinary life.  Even though the people around her could not see the potential in Gladys, God saw her dedication, faith, and willingness to serve.  That was all that He needed to accomplish great things among the people of China.

Sometimes it's easy for us to fall back on the excuse that we are nobody special or that we have no special gifts that make us valuable in the service of the Lord.  However, Gladys Aylward did not let that stand in her way, no matter what others believed.  Her life should be an encouragement to all of us who feel that we are too ordinary to do extraordinary things for God.