Mission  1927

We were taken to the mission home and from there over to the station and put on the train for Harwich. I shall never forget the English trains. They looked to us like toy trains, they were so small. The coaches were divided into compartments with an isle up the side. They were small and so was the engine. After we were on our way we soon learned that despite their size, English trains were plenty fast.

We traveled all day land and completely crossed England. We arrived at Harwich late in the evening and boarded a channel boat to cross over to Antwerp. The stateroom which we were given was right to the back of the ship and seemed to be directly over the engine room. It shook all night long and we didn't get very much sleep. We complained to the purser but got no satisfaction. The next morning we were awakened early by the blowing of the fog horns and when we went on deck we found that we were approaching the mainland. It was one of those cold foggy, rainy days that only Belgium can produce. As we came into the harbor the strangeness of the place seemed to grow on you. That, coupled with the realization that you were near your journey's end and that you had nothing to look forward to but work seemed to have a sobering effect on all of the missionaries. Then at Antwerp we were to break up, some going to Holland, some to Germany and some to France. As we got off the boat and tried to find our way to the railroad station I had a sudden feeling that I was a long ways from home and that it would be a long time before I would go back again. I would have been glad to turn around and catch the next boat for home.

There were no missionaries in Antwerp and so no one met us at the boat. We got a taxi and loaded in all of our trunks etc. and headed for the railroad station. Again we found funny little trains similar to those we had been on in England, although not quite as nice or as clean. We were supposed to be met by the missionaries at Brussels but when we arrived there was no one there to meet us. After waiting around more than an hour we got a taxi and went up to the address where the missionaries were supposed to live. Not being able to speak french, we had some difficulty and when we arrived, a lady answered the door instead of the missionaries. After a great deal of difficulty we made her understand that we were looking for the missionaries and she took us upstairs to a room and we went in. There was no one there and we never could understand that she was telling us as to why this was so. We made ourselves at home and about one o'clock the missionaries came home. It was a Sunday and they had been to church. The two missionaries stationed there were Joel Bowen and a Frere (brother) Bingham. They made us feel at home and it seemed mighty good to see someone who spoke English and was able to talk to the Belgians and understand what they were saying.

One of the things that impressed me when we went into the missionaries' room was the assortment of cologne bottles on the wash stand. There must have been six or eight of them, large, small, and different kinds and shapes. We later found out that cologne ever there was comparatively inexpensive and the missionaries used it freely, for hair tonic, and mixed olive oil with it for hair oil and as after shaving lotion.

(MISSIONARY JOURNAL OF JOHN GRIFFIN - page 2)

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