From Armenia
Letter from sister Bodil Biørn.
(Slutning).
The sky was overcast and it looked like it was going to rain; I had to ask the Lord to spread the clouds again, as for my rheumatism it is very harmful to ride in rainy weather, and little by little it cleared up, and the sun peeked from behind the clouds, oh how grateful I was. That day we had a long way to go, we arrived at Charaba at 6 o'clock. We met several big gypsy gangs along the way, they looked very creepy. It must be a terrible life to always roam around like this, for all the poor children it hurt me so much. A thought struck me: Jesus loves them too. He is also dead for these poor lost people. Where his love is great, our hearts must also be more penetrated by it, so we learned to love like him. My joy was great when we got shelter with Armenians that night. I got so tired of always hearing Turkish or Kurdish. It is so good when you can make yourself understood. If only you could see our hostel! By the way, it wasn't too bad being there, but I thought it was like being 1000 years back in time; yes many customs out here are still like in Jesus' time. The Bible becomes so alive to you. For illumination we had a small oil lamp which "the wise virgins" holds in their hands, it did not shone so bad, and after a while you get used to the dark. The Armenians were very good to us. One of the young women was so helpful, but terribly curious; she guarded every move and sniffed around in our affairs for then to go out and report everything to those waiting outside. The room next to ours was arranged like a barn, there were horses, mules, cattle, buffalo and hens, all in the best understanding of each other. I was in there and got myself a cup of deliciously fresh milk.
The next day in the afternoon we reached the crossing point over the Euphrates. It was pretty deep and very wide there. I asked the kadatscheerne to take more of my cases and carry them over; they then carried over my bookcase, medicine box and plaid; but did not want to take my handbag lighten the weight off of one of the load carrying animals. The Sabtie was no help either, which is why it went so wrong. A man led my horse; but when one of the load carrying animals fell in the strong current and was about to go under with all my linen, he had to help there, and I rode over alone; my horse is a beautiful animal and strong, and I’m not dizzy so it went well; but it was such a puzzling feeling to be driven with the flow such a long way. Mr. Sciepke's animals managed to get over. Although so much got wet and several things destroyed, I had to thank the Lord for so graciously passing us through; things can
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