• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

This is a complete transcript of the oral history interview with Mary Goforth Moynan (CN 189, T3) for the Billy Graham Center Archives. No spoken words which were recorded are omitted. In a very few cases, the transcribers could not understand what was said, in which case [unclear] was inserted. Also, grunts and verbal hesitations such as “ah” or “um” are usually omitted. Readers of this transcript should remember that this is a transcript of spoken English, which follows a different rhythm and even rule than written English. Three dots indicate an interruption or break in the train of thought within the sentence of the speaker. Four dots indicate what the transcriber believes to be the end of an incomplete sentence. ( ) Word in parentheses are asides made by the speaker. [ ] Words in brackets are comments made by the transcriber. This transcript was created by Kate Baisley, Janyce H. Nasgowitz, and Paul Ericksen and was completed in April 2000. Please note: This oral history interview expresses the personal memories and opinions of the interviewee and does not necessarily represent the views or policies of the Billy Graham Center Archives or Wheaton College. © 2017. The Billy Graham Center Archives. All rights reserved. This transcript may be reused with the following publication credit: Used by permission of the Billy Graham Center Archives, Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL. BGC Archives CN 189, T3 Transcript - Page 2 Collection 189, T3. Oral history interview with Mary Goforth Moynan by Robert Van Gorder (and for a later portion of the recording by an unidentified woman, perhaps Van Gorder=s wife), recorded between March and June 1980. [The following introduction sounds like it was being read; the narrator is unidentified. The sound quality of the introduction is significantly better than that of the interview and suggests that the introduction was recorded after the interview.] NARRATOR: Jonathan Goforth was a famous missionary around the 1900s who went to China and ministered to the Chinese people during the Boxer Rebellion. Born on a farm in Canada, Jonathan Goforth's ambition as a young boy was really to study and become a politician. At the age of eighteen, he was converted to Christianity and immediately became interested in minis...missionary work. After attending Knox College in Canada, he set out for China with his wife Rosalind. The hardships and trials that followed are described in their many books and are now being carried forth in the tradition by their daughter Mary Goforth Moynan. Mary Goforth Moynan travels about the United States, London, France, and now China bringing forth the story of Jonathan Goforth, Rosalind Goforth, their courage, their integrity, and the type of structure that true Christian missionaries are built upon. We're privileged at this time to eavesdrop upon a conversation with Robert C. Van Gorder who is a min...minister in Westbrook, Connecticut, and who is also a nephew of Mary Goforth. In this conversation many of the reminiscences that Mary has about her father, her mother, and her life as a missionary child growing up in China are something that we will all come to treasure as we listen. Mary Goforth Moynan: Remembrances on her mother and her father. [recording begins abruptly although it sounds as though Van Gorder had already asked a question.] MOYNAN: I remember he was the one... VAN GORDER: ...some of his human qualities. MOYNAN: Yes, laughing was one of them. VAN GORDER: He liked to... MOYNAN: He had a wonderful sense of humor. You could hear him laugh a block away. VAN GORDER: No kidding. MOYNAN: Yes. Now that's one of the things I remember about him [pauses] very, very well. My husband was the same type, that.... There was a lot of laughter in our home, and I think.... VAN GORDER: Your mother too? MOYNAN: She was more in the giggly type... © 2017. The Billy Graham Center Archives. All rights reserved. This transcript may be reused with the following publication credit: Used by permission of the Billy Graham Center Archives, Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL. BGC Archives CN 189, T3 Transcript - Page 3 VAN GORDER: Yeah. MOYNAN: ...in a very quiet way. VAN GORDER: Yeah. MOYNAN: But he was, you know...he would just laugh uproariously sometimes. [Van Gorder laughs] And, yes, there're...there're many memories I have of my father that are...are very precious. And I can say this, Bob, very honestly, and I've often wondered, analyzing the....the...the past. I can never remember my father being angry except in righteous indignation. Now that's a terrific thing... VAN GORDER: Yes. Well, I [unclear].... MOYNAN: ...for any child to be able to say about his father...about their father. He was never irritable. I never remember him being irritable. Now Mother was, often at times. VAN GORDER: Yes. MOYNAN: And...and life was very trying for my mother. I would never judge her, having eleven children and having a serious heart condition, and...and how she ever got through all she did, you know and losing five children, and...and living in a country that was hostile... VAN GORDER: Yes. MOYNAN: ...to them, you see, that...it was very hard on Mother. VAN GORDER: Oh my. MOYNAN: But looking back about Father, I remember that when he got angry it would be about something along the line of...in his preaching, you see. VAN GORDER: Yes. MOYNAN: And...and he would get angry over sin... VAN GORDER: Yes. MOYNAN: ...in certain situations, and...and that kind of thing. But never in a personal home situation. He was always quiet and controlled. Isn't that interesting? VAN GORDER: That's interesting. MOYNAN: And...and Mother later.... Now she, I don't remember her being so irritable as she tells about in her books that she was at the beginning. And one of the things that's quoted often to me © 2017. The Billy Graham Center Archives. All rights reserved. This transcript may be reused with the following publication credit: Used by permission of the Billy Graham Center Archives, Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL. BGC Archives CN 189, T3 Transcript - Page 4 where she was sitting on one side of a....a window...one of these, you know, paper windows, that you could go like this and stick a hole in... VAN GORDER: Oh, yeah. MOYNAN: ...a peephole, you know. And...and Mother was sitting on one side and two Chinese ladies were sitting on the other, and they began to discuss her, and they didn't know she was there. And she tells this, you know. Mother never pulls back from telling her faults. And...but it must have been a dreadful experience, because she'd just lost her first child. That was the...the thing that made it so bad. And as she sat there, they began to talk about her. And they first of all, they went into all her good qualities. And oh, she was a...a wonderful missionary. She was a wonderful preacher, and all this, you know, kind of thing. And then, one of them came out with this, “Oh! But she's got such a temper! If she could only live more like she preaches” [laughs]. VAN GORDER: Oh, no [laughs]. MOYNAN: Poor Mother! [Laughs] She...she said she was ready to go out and give them a piece of her mind, [Van Gorder laughs] but she said she knew it was true, so she couldn't do anything about it. And, you know, women have said to me that really, that they can identify with her. And...and they have gotten so much out of the fact that she has told this, you see. So many other people think that all the missionaries are...just put themselves up on a pedestal and expect to be kept there. VAN GORDER: Right, I know. MOYNAN: And that...Mother's not that a bit, and I think that's one of the reasons her books have been so popular and have been such a blessing to people. VAN GORDER: Would...would she sputter at Jonathan once in a while if she got irritated, and would they have arguments once in a while? MOYNAN: No. I asked Mother.... See, I came on very late in life. I was the tenth of their eleven children. And I remember asking my mother in later years what she could give that would account for their wonderful relationship, because I remember the...at the... those latter years they did have a wonderful relationship. They were both very strong-minded. But they got along beautifully. They were devoted to each other. There was a beautiful atmosphere in the home for Fred and I. We were the only two left, you see, by this time at the end. And she said this...she said, “Well, first of all, your father was always very much the head of the home.” Now that's something, you see, very important. VAN GORDER: Yes. MOYNAN: And she said, “In matters of principle he would get his way. But in the little things of life he tried to let me have my way.” And not only that, I remember her saying this, she said, “He would go out of his way to do constantly...every day, do little things to please me.” Now I remembered this. And it brought real sweetness into the family life and atmosphere. It © 2017. The Billy Graham Center Archives. All rights reserved. This transcript may be reused with the following publication credit: Used by permission of the Billy Graham Center Archives, Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL.

Load more

  35

Copy Link