Page:«Armenia og armenierne.» (Bodil Biørn okt. 1944).pdf/11

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In Syria.

I was home from the summer of 1925-26 and then went out to my last labor field in Syria to help the many Armenian refugees and sick children there.

It was with mixed emotions that I headed for Syria. After all, it was to my dear children in Armenia that I should have traveled, those who were waiting for "mother" to come back to them. But God's way is not ours. He knows where he wants us and where he can best use us.

Syria is a beautiful country, especially Lebanon. Syria used to be under the Turks, but after the last world war the French took over the protectorate all over Syria. There are about 3 million people living in Syria, Christians and Muhammadans. Damascus is the capital and has about ½ million residents. The first half year I was with the Danish sisters in Beirut and worked there among the refugees, helping them and evangelizing. There I met several of my friends from Harunje, and with some of them I had Bible lessons every week. Beirut is located just off the blue Mediterranean, and up in the hills we have Lebanon where we spent our summer holidays in the lovely air. Right down by the Mediterranean were many miserable refugee camps. From the beginning, the refugees lived in tents where it often rained so both bedding and everything got wet. Several had their homes in small wooden boarded roofs. The poor people lived Close-knitted, and there were distress and misery and much illness. What I could provide often seemed to me like a drop in the ocean, but I was glad to be able to bring some help and sunshine into the many poor refugee homes. Especially it was great to be able to bring the happy message of Jesus Christ and His love. There was a time of revival in the great "camp". God used one of the Armenian Protestant priests, and many listened to the word of God and had peace.-

God later led me to Aleppo where I started work in 1927. Aleppo is a city of about 300,000 inhabitants, of which about 200.000 are Muhammadans, Arabs and Turks and about 100,000 Christian Syrians, Armenians and Asians. About 50,000 Armenians live there, of which almost 40,000 were refugees from their old country and from Cilicia. During the World War, about 250,000 refugees passed through Aleppo.

Aleppo is located in Northern Syria about 4 hours’ drive from Antioch. It is very hot in summer, but colder in winter as it lays slightly higher up than Beirut. The surrounding nature is barren. In the vicinity of Aleppo, there are many Muhammadan villages where fellachas, Turkomans and Arabs live. Since the Armenians are largely farmers - 80 percent of them were farmers in their homeland - many of them had to go to the villages. There were also several Armenian villages in and around the sea near Antioch, and several of them I have visited. Many of these were very unhealthy, and many Armenians died of fever.

After I found a fairly suitable house, which was very difficult, bought furniture and got bedding, the first 10 sick children were admitted. It was a great pleasure. Three of them were so bad they couldn't walk.

This was the 5th time I started working among the Armenians. To my help I got our current evangelist who is married to one of my former girls from Musch, Satenig. He then became our procurer and helper. Besides, I got a widow as a chef and a girl to look after the little ones. It has been a great help to me that I have almost always had good, faithful Armenian co-workers.