The Parlour Maid Who Opened Gates

In 1930, the China Inland Mission rejected Gladys Aylward. At twenty-eight, she was a London parlour maid with no formal education, and the mission board judged her incapable of learning Mandarin. The builders examined the stone and set it aside. But Gladys saved every shilling from her wages and bought a one-way ticket on the Trans-Siberian Railway. She traveled alone across Europe and war-torn Siberia, arriving in Yangcheng, China, with almost nothing.…