Gladys Aylward

Gladys Aylward was an amazing woman of God. She always wanted to be a missionary to China, but she failed missionary training school, so she had to go there herself. When she finally got enough money to go, Gladys got on a train and started out on the greatest adventure of her life. To make a very long story short, Gladys FINALLY got to her destination after almost freezing to death, almost being kidnapped and sent to work for the Soviets, and almost not finding where she was supposed to go in the first place. The destination she was going to was the house of Mrs. Lawson - an elderly missionary lady who needed someone young to help her. Mrs. Lawson wanted to turn her house (which was actually an old inn) into an inn for mule drivers who drove by the village every day. To make another long story short, they DID turn their inn into a place for the mule drivers to stay, and managed to tell them about Jesus while they were at it.
One day, though, Mrs. Lawson fell off a second-story roof and was mortally injured. Gladys was then put in charge of everything. She did a good job, and with no other English person to talk to, learned the dialect of the village very quickly.
To make the final long story short, Gladys adopted hundreds of orphans and cared for them herself. She even went on a week-long journey by foot with all of her children over the border so that they would be safe from the enemy in World War 2.
Gladys never went back to England until she was forced to because of painful migraines. She literally gave up her life to obey God's calling. Gladys Aylward chose to spend the final years of her life in China - her home.