Gladys Aylward was born on February 24 1902 to a working class family in Edmonton in north London.
Her parents both worked for the Post Office, and she worked as a humble parlourmaid. It was when Gladys attended a church service one evening and heard about mission in foreign lands that she embraced the concept of people working in far-flung destinations for the Kingdom of God. Subsequently she became aware of the vast country of China which had hardly even heard of Christianity. These thoughts challenged the young Gladys who had given her life over to God’s service, but she was still not sure what that might be.
She shared her thoughts with many of her friends and family. No one else felt quite like Gladys about this calling, and one day her brother said to her, ‘If you feel so strongly about going to China, why don’t you go there yourself?!’
