Small Woman
Gladys Aylward's autobiography recounts her remarkable journey from working as a parlormaid in London to becoming a missionary in remote China during the tumultuous decades of the 1930s and 1940s. Written after her return to England, the book emerged from Aylward's desire to share how God had used an ordinary, poorly educated woman to accomplish extraordinary things among the Chinese people she came to love.
The narrative traces Aylward's initial rejection by missionary societies, her perilous overland journey to China via the Trans-Siberian Railway, and her eventual work in the mountainous province of Shanxi. She describes her role as a government foot inspector working to end the practice of foot-binding, her conversion of a notorious bandit leader, and her establishment of an inn that became a center for Christian witness. The book's most dramatic chapters detail her wartime experiences, including her famous trek leading nearly a hundred orphaned children to safety across Japanese-occupied territory during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Throughout, Aylward presents these events not as personal heroics but as evidence of divine providence working through human weakness and obedience.
The Small Woman became a bestseller and inspired the 1958 Hollywood film "The Inn of the Sixth Happiness," cementing Aylward's place in popular Christian consciousness as a model of sacrificial service. Her story has continued to inspire missionaries and ordinary believers alike, demonstrating that God's call can come to anyone regardless of education, social status, or institutional approval. The book remains particularly powerful in its portrayal of cross-cultural ministry as a process of genuine incarnation and love rather than mere evangelistic strategy.
Who should read this: Christians wrestling with questions of calling and obedience will find Aylward's story both challenging and encouraging, as will those interested in missions history or the experience of Christianity in modern China. Readers seeking theological sophistication or critical analysis of missionary methodology should look elsewhere.