"“I wasn’t God’s first choice for what I’ve done for China, I don’t know who it was. It must have been a man, well-educated man. I don’t know what happened. Perhaps he died. Perhaps he wasn’t willing, and God looked down and saw Gladys Aylward and God said, ‘Well, she’s willing.’”
The next time a mule train
approached the inn, she ran out to grab the harness of the lead mule
and lead him into the inn courtyard. Since mules knew entering such a
place knew it meant food and rest the other mules readily followed,
leaving their drivers no choice but to stay. Gladys and Mrs. Lawson
provided good food and warm beds and stories of a man named Jesus.
Within a short time the mule teams stopped on their own and while
their stories brought only a few converts, it was a beginning.
Meanwhile Gladys practiced her Chinese until she was fluent. Then
after Mrs. Lawson died from injuries after a fall Gladys and their
Chinese cook were left to operate the mission/inn.
Then Gladys had a visit from the local Mandarin who had had an
unusual offer - he wanted her to conduct local inspections to enforce a
new national ban on foot-binding. For many years the young girls of
upper class Chinese families had their feet bound even in infancy so
that as they grew their foot was abnormally bent and shortened. This
meant that a girl with such feet could only walk slowly, with tottering
steps. While the culture considered this graceful, others saw it as not
only cruel but a means to limit the mobility of young women to assure
their chastity.