Using Her Nursing Skills (1923)

Before applying to the Danish Missionary Society, Anna Bøg had taken considerable initiative in preparing herself to serve as a missionary. Among other things, she had on her own obtained nurse’s training at the Norwegian Deaconess Hospital in Chicago.

In a letter to the Danish Missionary Society dated December 11, 1918, Anna Bøg wrote, “I am studying anatomy, nursing, bacteriology, surgery, wound-dressing, operating room, and childbirth. Tonight we had 16 babies. At this hospital they only train deaconesses and missionaries.” (1)

The first information we have about Anna Bøg using her nursing skills in Manchuria was in 1922 when she assisted at the birth of a daughter to missionary parents on July 18, 1922, in Mukden, the capital of the province in which Siuyen is located. The missionary parents were Rev. Niels Buch and his wife, Astrid.*

The Buchs would have traveled to Mukden for the delivery of their baby because at that time they were serving in the southern port city of Dairen [Dalian]. And, they would have traveled entirely by train from the railway station in Dairen. In order for Anna Bøg to reach Mukden, however, she would have first made a two-day journey by cart over treacherous rough roads to reach the nearest train station, which was at Haicheng. Along the way, she would have stayed one or two nights in an inn and slept on a kang. Then, after the cart had finally brought her to the train station, she would have traveled from there another 150 km. by train to Mukden.

The purpose in going to Mukden was so that a missionary physician, Dr. Anton Ellerbek,** could deliver the Buch’s baby. Since 1912, Dr. Ellerbek had been a professor at Mukden Medical College, a teaching center established there by the Scottish Presbyterian missionary, Dr. Dugald Christie. Adjacent to the medical college, there was a medical center

The baby born with Anna Bøg’s help that day was named Kirsten Berggreen Buch. Kirsten would grow up to become the author of several popular books in Danish -- Blue Eyes and Chinese Hearts, The Land of the Black Dragon River, and Everywhere a Storm.

Kirsten Berggreen Buch later said of Anna Bøg, “She ‘received me’ . . . she cared for my mother in her maternity bed -- and she ironed my baby clothes -- even my diapers, said my mother with a smile. Nothing was too good for the little girl . . . ‘Aunt Anna Bøg’, as we missionary children called her, was a wonderful aunt with her American accent.” (2)

After Anna Bøg’s help was no longer needed, she returned to Siuyen. The next year, however, Anna Bøg was called upon to use her nursing skills in Siuyen, at the medical mission, which consisted of a polyclinic established in 1909, and a hospital established in 1913 by Dr. Niels Nielsen.

The head nurse at the medical mission was Anna Busch, *** who began working in Siuyen in 1915. In 1923, Anna Busch went on furlough in accordance with the policy of the Danish Missionary Society that all missionaries should spend a year back home in Denmark after seven years in the field. Therefore Anna Bøg was assigned to the medical mission in Anna Busch’s absence.

It is likely that Anna Bøg’s temporary nursing assignment was very demanding. In her report for 1921, Anna Busch had explained that the hospital had been crippled during the summer months and entirely closed for the remainder of the year because Dr. Nielsen had been on furlough. A doctor had been sent as a temporary replacement during the summer months but his work had been restricted by his limited command of Chinese, and during the remainder of the year there had been no doctor at all.

Even though the hospital had been closed during the fall and winter, the polyclinic had nevertheless continued to operate in both its men’s and women’s departments. A pharmacist had kept the men’s clinic going while Anna Busch had run the women’s clinic with the help of the bible woman Mrs. Kuo and a nursing student. Anna Busch reported that despite the problems, during the year 1921, the polyclinic had served a total of 18,681 patients -- 9,515 men and 9,166 women, and that even in the absence of a doctor they had been able to save several lives. (3)

Although Anna Bøg’s nursing duties must have been quite strenuous during Anna Busch's absence, she would not have been entirely cut off from the mission’s evangelistic efforts because there were evangelistic programs in the hospital to minister to the Chinese patients who were already Christians, to reach out to those who had not yet been evangelized but had come to the medical mission for treatment, and to help those who wished to become literate.

In her 1921 report, Anna Busch wrote, “The evangelistic work in the hospital has substantially been carried out in the same way as the previous year with daily devotions, reading and conversation. All the patients have generally been glad to hear the Gospel and agreeable to learning to read.”

There were also bible women attached to the hospital. Anna Busch reported that during 1921, in addition to their daily evangelistic activities at the hospital, the hospital bible women had made three missionary journeys to outlying areas and had been out on home visits in the immediate area some 191 times, visiting a total of 232 homes.

--------------------------
*Astrid Margrethe Julie Berggreen was born in Copenhagen and came to China in 1918. Rev. Buch was from near Vejle in Jutland and came to China in 1921. The two had married in China the same year Rev. Buch arrived. They served in Manchuria until 1949. Rev. Buch would go on to become the head of the entire Danish Lutheran Mission in Manchuria.

** Dr. Søren Anton Ellerbek was born on August 8, 1872 in Ringkøbing. Dr. Ellerbek served in Manchuria from 1904-1940. Prior to coming to Mukden Medical College, Dr. Ellerbek worked in Antung from 1906-1911 and established a hospital there. Dr. Ellerbek’s first wife, Johanne Graversen, died in China in 1920. In 1922, Dr. Ellerbek married another missionary, Dorthea Toft, who served from 1918-1940.

*** Anna Busch was born on December 24, 1882 in Brovst Parish (Jutland). She served at the medical mission in Siuyen from 1915 to 1946.

Referenced sources:
(1) Bøg Madsen, Anna; letter to Danish Missionary Society dated December 22, 1918, in the Danish Missionary Society archives at the Danish National Archives (Rigsarkivet).
(2) Buch, Kirsten Berggreen; letter to Preben Jørgensen dated May 1, 1997.
(3) Anna Busch, “Siuyen Hopsital. - Frk. A. Buschs Beretning”, Det Danske Missionsselskabs Arsberetning for 1921, pp. 145-147.

Other sources:
Gullach-Jensen, Thyra; D.M.S. in Manchuriet (Copenhagen, 1937).
Jensen, Anne Hviid, I Lys Og Skygge: Dansk Mission i Kina (Unitas Forlag, Copenhagen, 2005).

Images:
Top picture: Staff and bible women at the Siuyen medical mission. Anna Busch, front row center; Anna Bøg Madsen, second row right.
Courtesy of Roger Lais.
Bottom picture: Siuyen Hospital from Det Danske Missionsselskabs Arsberetning for 1921, p. 146.
D.M.S. photograph used with permission.