A life worthy of the calling

Previous generations of believers have many lessons and truths to tell about God's dealing with their lives.
It is a great blessing to find that members of your family have kept a record of these so that we can enjoy them and learn from them.
Mary Kennedy was a country girl from Cumberland, but aged 29 she found herself 10,000 miles from home and with people she was only beginning to get to know, in order to serve God.
She was born Mary Weightman in 1905, and committed her life to the Lord in 1928 while at nursing college. She continued her nursing training at the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh and became a member of Charlotte Baptist Chapel under the ministry of Dr. Scroggie. It was at this time that she felt a strong calling to use her skills to serve the Lord in China. Following valedictory services in 1934, she went with the China Inland Mission to work in a hospital in Kansu, north-west China. A contemporary of Gladys Aylward, Mary was to work in that land for over 10 years, and met her future husband on one of her necessary journeys inland.

Lantern on a dark road

She wrote: 'Someone has commented that: 'He who carries a lantern on a dark road at night only sees one step ahead; when he takes that one, the lamp moves forward and another is made plain. He finally reaches his destination in safety without once walking in darkness. All the way is lighted, but only one step at a time.' This is the method of God's guidance I have found from personal experience, as Psalm 119 says: 'Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.' It isn't necessary to see beyond what the Lord reveals. God will never lead us where his Word will not light us.
'I had prayed that the Lord's will would be done; but my mother had been most concerned about my feeling that I should go to China-after all, it was the other side of the world. I wrote a letter to my mother (from Bible College) and, very unusually, as she was a busy person, she replied by return of post. In her letter, she told me that she had dedicated me to God as a baby and she knew that I was meant to go to China, that she had stood in the way but was now gladly giving her consent. How I wish now, that I could have rewarded her in some way for this; but I am sure that the Lord will, and has done. I am sure that she truly believed she would never see me again. I had always felt it had been China in my heart, and China it was to be! A speaker said that: 'Satan can deceive by counterfeit guidance, but there is one thing he can never imitate, and that is the deep peace of God in the heart when we are in line with his will.''

Into China

Having reached China, Mary had to travel overland to her hospital destination in north-west China. The CIM representative decided that the best way to do this would be to take a raft - made of goatskins and a framework of poles -down the Yellow River, swollen and rapidly flowing following heavy rains.
It turned out to be a most dangerous journey in which, as the river began to narrow alarmingly, the raft and all on board were nearly dashed against the mountainous rocks by a great whirlpool and lost. It was only at the moment when one of the missionaries lifted his eyes heavenwards and cried: 'Lord, save us!' that the raftsmen wrestled the battered vessel away from the rocks so that it could float onwards along the swirling river. The men sank down exhausted and admitted that they'd never had such a frightening experience in all their river journeys nor such a miraculous deliverance from certain disaster.

Alongside the doctors

After a period in Ningxia, God opened a way for Mary to work at the Borden Memorial Hospital in Lanzhou, a place for which she had felt a calling for some time. There she was to work alongside fellow CIM missionaries Dr. Rob Pearce and Dr. Cecil Pedley. The wards of the hospital were made of mud bricks and the equipment had been shipped from London to Shanghai. 'The only water for the theatre and for our own use had to be carried from the Yellow River about 300 feet back uphill to the hospital on the backs of donkeys. The water was emptied into the very large earthenware pots situated outside each ward and department, and left to settle, for the river was thick with mud. After two days, we could use it, but it had to be boiled, of course, as the Tibetans and Chinese put anything and everything into the river - including dead animals.'
Many of the hospital patients were Tibetan, Chinese and Muslim lepers. The missionary staff loved the lepers and found the work encouraging, with almost all of these long-term patients accepting Christ as Saviour. 'Some took time; one Muslim man was in our hospital for 20 years before he gave in. These folks, so starved of love and care, saw love in action.' With the kind of drugs that they were able to administer, and with good hygiene and a careful nourishing diet, many who were treated early recovered well.

Completely healed

One elderly couple came to the hospital, the wife with an ugly tumour on her head. The doctor diagnosed it as malignant and told Mary that nothing could be done. However, they felt that they could not send the couple - who had walked for a week to reach the hospital - back to their home without doing anything for them. They were given a small room on a ward, and the old man begged for something just to bathe his wife's head. This was surprising, as a man did not as a rule do anything for his wife - as in so many 'heathen' places then. Moreover, the growth was foul, raw and ulcerated. But Mary gave them a solution of potassium permanganate with which the old man continued to attend to his wife and bathe the growth. The staff found it wonderful and extraordinary that the couple were most earnest to hear the gospel and be-came Christians at once when told about the Lord!
The growth on the old woman's head could not be cut, as the bleeding would be uncontrollable. A decision was made to cauterise it and it was dressed. Al-though there was considerable bleeding when the dressing was changed, the weeks went by and gradually the surface of the growth began to look cleaner and seemed to be getting smaller. The staff could not believe their eyes. Gradually the growth reduced until the skin and - most amazingly - the hair grew back as normal! The woman was completely healed.
Some months later, another missionary was in the area of the couple's village. The old man and woman were so excited to meet a 'missionary' that they cooked a special meal at once. The old gentleman wanted to do something to help the 'hospital people', as they had done so much for him, and wished to take a basket of eggs to thank the staff. The missionary was amazed and touched that the old man would want to walk for two weeks, there and back, with a basket of eggs for the hospital, but managed to dissuade him from making the long and dangerous journey.

Meeting in the rain

Mary was asked to assist at the birth of a missionary couple's child; they were stationed a week's travel away from her base. On her way to this case, and travelling with two 'hua kang' (hammock) carriers - a traditional mode of transport in that province - their journey was halted by thunderous, persistent monsoon rain. With the mud track turned into a quagmire, they could not venture any further for a while. They came to a standstill in a village with a church which, having been run by the CIM, was now without a full-time worker. A young gentleman from Aberdeen who had been helping out there for a short while had been due to return to his permanent station in another town that day. He too had been delayed by the rain. His name was Andrew Kennedy, and seeing Mary, helped the Chinese to light a fire to dry her sodden clothes, and fetched blankets to warm her. In the following days, both were able to travel on to their destinations but first agreed to keep in touch by correspondence. Through these letters, Mary and Andrew grew to love each other and decided to marry.

Life under threat

Travelling to meet Andrew for their wedding, Mary journeyed again with 'hua kang' carriers, who seemed to have no desire to be of help in any way. They turned out to be opium smokers and had a plan to end Mary's life. Other missionaries had been lost and no traces of them found along the most dangerous road which Mary now travelled. She was in grave danger but the men did not realise that she could understand some of their threatening murmurs. When they approached a town in which Mary knew of a Christian doctor, she rushed ahead of the men and asked a passer-by if he knew where the doctor lived. On finding the house, the doctor and his wife welcomed her in and spoke to the men most severely. This doctor of great influence arranged for church members to accompany Mary on the rest of her journey to meet her fiancee. On St. Andrews Day 1940, Mary and Andrew were wed in the Anglican church at Chengdu, central China - the only place where missionaries could be married. The wedding dress was borrowed, the cake made with currants and raisins which had been saved there for special occasions. The ring, not quite a perfect circle, was made of Tibetan gold by a friendly local dentist, but Mary treasured it.

Escaping the communists

Mary and Andrew had two daughters while in China, but were evacuated with the advance of the communists inland. They survived a most hazardous journey out of war-torn China with a low flight after dark, 'over the hump' of the jagged Tibetan mountains. The route was regarded as one of the most dangerous journeys in the world, but Mary hugged her children and whispered: 'Safe in the arms of Jesus' to her husband as they flew on. They were eventually to settle in London where another daughter was born. Andrew Kennedy was pastor at Dawes Road Baptist Church, Fulham, and later at Leith Baptist Church in Edinburgh. Mary died in September 1997.