Page:Kvartalshilsen (Kvinnelige misjonsarbeidere). 1914 Vol. 7 nr. 1.pdf/3

Siraimsch, who lives in a small town, Gensch, 1 ½ day trip from Musch. She always visits me every time she comes to Musch. Last year, she - 17 years old - got married. She's very happy is doing so well. I sat for a long time today and talked to her. She said: "I love reading the Bible so much, I read every day, morning and evening, yes often during the day, and my husband reads too. As soon as I got to my new home, I started. My Bible, which I got when I went to school, is already torn up because it’s not only me, but everyone at home who can read uses it.” She was very happy about a new, pretty Bible that I gave her. Her husband is very kind to her and very grateful to have a wife who can read and write. Siraimsch has it free at home, can read as much as she wants and is so pleased.

I asked her if she reads to the women in Gensch sometimes? "Oh yes," she replied, "the young girls and young wives love to hear." In a small village near Gensch lives another married pupil, and the two see each other occasionally and read together.

In Musch we already have several married students; but unfortunately, everyone is not as happy and is not as free as Siraimsch.

This winter I visited a dear student, whom her mother secretly married off 3 years ago. Her husband is very mean to her, keeps her locked up like a prisoner, she is not allowed to go to church or to baths or anywhere, he has forbidden her to read the Bible. I encouraged her to read anyway although she could suffer something for that. She is called Telli and has a gentle, quiet being, one of our dearest students she was, so I am very sad for her. Dear friends, pray for the young woman, her life is so sad.

The hardest thing about running the school is that so many mothers so early marry off their daughters, often as early as 11-12 years of age. I fight it as much as I can; but so far it hasn't helped much. Nor do they ask much for what the man is like, but whether he has enough to live off, and such.

The students love going to school and often will not go away at all; but what good does a girl's tears do in this country? But I hope that the schools will help change that little by little.

The exam was very good this year. The students and teachers had worked well, you noticed it immediately. They responded quickly and correctly to the teachers' questions. After all, there were many things that they had learned mechanically, and they recited a great deal by heart, reading stories and poems without really understanding their meaning; but on the whole they were good, and it was a joy to notice with what zeal they had worked. In calculus, they were very good. And Maritja has taught them to sing so well.

The older ones had embroidered 30 beautiful crafts, which we will later sell.

During this time, it is very important to me to start a boys' school. Until now, we have only a few students from Musch in the school for our orphanage boys. We didn't have enough room and teachers for that.

In Musch, there will probably be no boys' high school this year, and for us the apartment is sallow now, before others begin to open a high school for boys, to reach the youth and win them for Christ. Dear friends, pray and work for this important cause. -

In the boys' school in Musch we have approx. 50-55 students, in the girls' school approx. 50-55 and with the 95 pupils in the day school a total of approx. 200.

In the village schools 150 students are taught. The work in the villages is often difficult, as the farmers do not yet understand how important it is for the children to come regularly and in good time to school, however, it is not the same in all villages.