As we will see in next week's post, Anna Bøg left the mission at Siuyen in May of 1946 under very tenuous circumstances. It took her and the other missionaries with whom she traveled several months to reach Denmark. A few months after her safe return to the D.M.S. headquarters in Hellerup, Anna Bøg described the last few years in Siuyen and the faithfulness of her Chinese friends this way:
"How intensely we were tied together, we Danes and the Chinese with whom we were allowed to share bad and hard times. As a rule Sunday midday and afternoon I visited my colleagues at the hospital and together we had a Danish service before parting. Thursday in the afternoon they dropped in at my place and every time it was a big problem to decide how to treat them: at the end I only managed to serve small cornbreads, maybe with a little salad made from home-dried raisins and walnuts, accompanied by a cup of black soybean coffee.Sources:
"I was the only Dane isolated at the mission station. The hospital is situated outside the town. Time and time again there were searches of the houses and interrogation. Our former great station had become so small. When the Japanese asked: How many of you are there? I answered with a smile: an old woman, a blind woman and a deaf girl. My smile should tell them that after all we were not dangerous. Those who in the world’s eyes were humble and mere nobodies, were faithful to me, friends never failing me in times of danger, always there to ward off the blows and never fearing for their own skin.
"It is indescribable what old Mrs. Kuo [Kuo-Chen-Yü], close to 70, baptized when she was 26, meant for the missionaries. Not only during the Boxer rebellion did she accompany the missionaries. During the many years she acted as Bible Woman, her sage and good counsel could always be followed. During the years of destruction she fetched for and accompanied us. And now during the last hours of distress she was faithful to me in all respects. She allowed me to take part in what she loved the most -- her son’s little daughter who every day was brought to me by her father to cheer me up on my lonesome post. (I was often amazed that he dared.) The last two years I also had to let my cook go. I myself had to be the cook, gardener and caretaker, but her son often offered me a helping hand.
"When the military police or the secret police all of a sudden stood at my door or in the courtyard, I said a silent prayer, ' Lord tell me what to say, help me to attest to God’s strength.' One learned to weigh one’s words. Often the Japanese wanted to move into the mission station or borrow the church for public meetings, but every time this was avoided with the help of God!
"Among the many different Japanese government officers I had to deal with, there were also some that showed friendliness, such as one who offered each of us a pound of sugar and some powdered milk.
"It was strange to have turned that poor, but the Chinese understood it. And how kind they were to me. They did not have much themselves but nevertheless offered me a piece of meat, some eggs, a little sugar or buckwheat and so forth. Last Christmas Eve [1945], Mr. Sung, the old chairman of our church council, came to see how I was getting along and to wish me a 'Merry Christmas '. When he departed, he left a red envelope* with 200 new bank notes. On January 31, [1946] he came again and this continued for six months. The last day of the month he came at 12:00 noon and every time he left 200. . . . The last time I saw him, when he came to say goodbye, he asked, 'Have you incurred debts? If so, I’ll take care of them.' I asked permission to pay him back what he had given me but he said, 'Certainly not.' This same Mr. Sung asked me to greet the home congregation and ask it to continue sending out missionaries as 'We absolutely cannot get by without them,' he said."
Bøg Madsen, Anna; letter to the D.M.S. friends; December 5, 1946. From the D.M.S. archives in the Rigsarkivet. Courtesy of Kirsten Bergreen Buch. Translated by Preben Jørgensen.
Image:
Photograph of Anna Bøg and Mrs. Kuo (Kuo-Chen-Yü). The object that appears to be a cabinet is a Victrola. Courtesy of H.B. Petersen and Marilyn J. Madsen.
All D.M.S. items used with permission.
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"red envelope" - In Chinese culture, the giver encloses a monetary
gift in a red envelope.
gift in a red envelope.
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