Saturday, March 10, 2007

MY HEROES - I love this intrepid trio!

I have many heroes. (Most of them are old women.) But these three really stand out.


"The China Trio"

They may look a bit dowdy and plain, but they were truly amazing! Valerie Griffiths in her book "Not Less Than Everything: Courageous women who carried the Christian gospel to China" writes:

“Our bodies are hardened like tempered steel through exposure to such extreme temperatures.” The words conjure up a picture of young energetic sportsmen engaged in mountain climbing, ocean-sailing, or artic exploration. They scarcely bring to mind three middle-aged women, who had spent the first 20 years of their adult lives working in the structured, orderly activity of the girls’ school and women’s Bible college in Shanxi province. For only after that did Mildred Cable, with her two colleagues, Eva and Francesca French, embark on years of traveling the main trade route of Central Asia.

Middle-aged in this case meant 45, 51 and 54 - that's when they STARTED the hard trekking.

And when after 13 years of grueling adventures - hunger, thirst, pain, sleeplessness, stoning, and bandits - they finally retired to England they went on to live another interesting life.


Mildred Cable died "young"at 74, but the French sisters were still going strong until just months before they passed away in 1961. (Eva was ninety.)

2 comments:

Luke and Yuko ELLIOT said...

Well, I don't know that your regular car rides to Hirosaki are going to do much for you in the line of tempering your body like hardened steel, so you should probably schedule lots of field trips up Mt. Iwaki for your international students--maybe a few walking tours of Shimokita as well.

Laurie Elliot said...

Yes... I suppose you are right (and I like the Shimokita walking tour idea!)

But I must admit, I don't mind if my adventures are slightly less grueling - I'd particularly like to pass on the bandits and stonings!