Voyage to China (1919)

This is the first in a series of posts about Anna Bog Madsen (1888-1973) who served as a Lutheran missionary in Manchuria from 1919 to 1946. (Manchuria is northeastern China, now denominated "Dong Bei".)

The series will consist of excerpts from an upcoming biography written by this blogger and Preben Jorgensen of Brussels. For readability, we will refer to the missionary as "Anna Bog", which is how she sometimes signed her letters.

Born on May 13, 1888, in Odense, Denmark, Anna Bog immigrated with her family to the United States in 1909, and for several years resided in Cedar Falls, Iowa. By 1917, she understood she was called to a vocation as a missionary. She then moved to Chicago where she studied scripture and nursing. In January 1918, she applied to the Danish Missionary Society (D.M.S.) based in Copenhagen to serve in China. Her application was eventually accepted and after she finished her studies she traveled to Copenhagen to join the society, officially becoming a member on July 19, 1919.

In September 1919, Reverend Busch, President of the D.M.S., consecrated Anna Bog as a missionary to China at the society's annual meeting. Another minister who was present, Reverend Niels Buch, later wrote, "Those days the rite of consecration included some questions to the person to be consecrated. Among them was, 'Are you willing to sacrifice life and strength to the work of the Danish Missionary Society in China?' To this there was a 'yes' so loud and clear and resonant that it could be heard in the farthest corners of the packed church of St. Nikolai. It was not an answer only to Reverend Busch but to the entire missionary congregation assembled there and through them to all the friends of the D.M.S. and to the Lord in whose service she was sent out." How Anna Bog lived out that "yes" will be seen as her story unfolds.

On December 6, 1919, Anna Bog sailed for China aboard the motorship Annam (depicted in the photograph above). It was a cargo vessel owned by the East Asiatic Company. On December 29, 1919, she began a long letter on board ship to her relatives in Odense (translated here from the Danish by Preben Jorgensen).

"M/S 'Annam'

"The Red Sea, 29 Dec. 1919

"To my dear family in Denmark: God's rich love be with you all! I live a happy life here on board 'Annam'. If only you could be along on such a marvelous journey around the world. I have experienced so much that is interesting since I wrote to you last time. Yes, how these weeks have been full of wonderful fresh impressions and how much and how fervently I thank God. What we give to him, we receive back a thousand fold. 'Christians are in clover,' but let us be authentic Christians and give to God what belongs to God.

"The day after Christmas day, early in the morning, the servant called us and said, 'Now we enter the Suez Canal.' We got up in a hurry just in time to watch the wonderful entrance, with an enormous statute of Mr. De Lesseps, the man who was the author and responsible for the completion of this great work, about 50 years ago. On the banks I saw the first date palms and the city of 'Port Said.'

"The ship had hardly dropped anchor before we were surrounded by a number of small boats full of Arabs, barefoot, dressed in long wide tunics and wearing turbans on their heads. We were not anchored ashore but a little out in the harbor, where a number of other big ships were anchored, among them a big English boat filled with passengers. How happy I was to be on the 'Annam' and not on that one, among all those people. I have had so many wonderful quiet hours on board the 'Annam" -- alone with God!

"A rope ladder was scarcely lowered before the Arabs climbed on board with their naked legs. They all wanted to row us ashore and said, 'Lady, go with me, clean boat.' And they then started selling on the deck, cigars, chocolate, etc. They stayed all day. At ten, we five passengers accompanied the captain ashore on a motorboat, real fun. First we had to pass through the customs and then we were in 'Port Said', an Egyptian city. Think to be allowed to see all this! A very colorful scene, all kinds of people and languages. These Arabs even understood Danish. We were soon surrounded by a whole troupe who said, 'Post hus,' 'Baska,' which means tip, and that they wanted a tip for showing us the way to the post office. If we stopped for two minutes we were surrounded by a crowd selling pearls etc.

"The captain said, 'Port Said is like hell,' and people subsist essentially by cheating the many travelers. Mr. G., who normally is so self-assured, was also cheated thoroughly. He was buying oranges for all of us. He bought and paid for eight dozen and once back 'home' he was short two and a half dozen of the eight. We had lunch at the hotel and had so many dishes, among others rice and curry, ripe figs, and a tiny cup of Turkish coffee. Then we went shopping and had our films developed. The few hours passed very quickly. At four, we had to return. Yes, now I have also been to Egypt. If we had stayed a few days I would have taken a trip to 'Cairo'. How they need missionaries in a town like 'Port Said'.

"The next morning we saw some of the exit from the canal. Can you believe the cost to pass through the canal is 30,000 shillings, 7 shillings a ton. But it is anyhow less expensive than going south around Africa. On both sides desert, sand and only sand. Across Africa, the 'Libyan desert', we saw remains of the war -- on both sides of the canal old trenches and salt sacks, where the English and Indian troops had been. At short distances there were signal stations where you also found palm trees and here and there a small palm grove, an oasis in the middle of the empty desert, and as far as eyes could see only desert and in the background wonderful high mountains.

"A wonderful experience. The canal in certain places is no larger than the canal in Odense. Just at the exit is situated a big city, 'Suez', where I believe the Catholics do missionary work. I took some pictures but haven't had them developed yet. And then out into the 'Red Sea'. Here we navigated for five days. We looked across Africa, saw huge mountains. Yes, Africa must be an immensely big realm."

To be continued tomorrow . . .