Araxie Azarigian was a slender woman who attended my Sunday School class of senior women . She listened attentively and was well liked by the other members of the class. She was quieter than most. One day our reading was from Deuteronomy 22:8: “ When you build a new house, (in the Promised Land) make a parapet around your roof so that you may not bring the guilt of bloodshed on your self if someone falls from the roof. “This was the law in my country, as well,” she said.

She was born in Armenia in 1908. We stopped reading Deuteronomy and listened to “Roxie” tell of her life, first in Armenia, and then in a Russian refugee camp, as her mother struggled to take Roxie and her two older brothers to safety from the invading Turks in Armenia. Her Father had already fled to the U.S. when The Turks started enlisting every able bodied man into their army. It would be twelve years before the family would be reunited.

Roxie didn’t recognize her father on Ellis Island when she saw him, and the authorities would not release her to him until he brought his sister-in-law to accept responsibility for the young girl and her brother. Their mother had not been able to travel due to illness, and the youngest boy stayed with her.

The United States had established a “Near East Relief” organization in Istanbul where Roxie’s mother managed to take the children after four years in Russia. The organization worked to connect refugees with relatives in the U.S. Lists of refugees were posted in major cities. Roxie’s father never saw the list in New York, but his brother in Chicago saw it and contacted her father. Roxie and her oldest brother arrived in New York in March of 1921. She lived with her aunt and uncle until her mother finally arrived with her youngest son in June of that year. Roxie was shocked to see her mother embrace her father, whom she hardly knew.

Roxie spoke in a matter of fact way of amazing hardships and difficulties. She attributed her mother’s strength entirely to her faith in Christ. Her mother took the children to church wherever they were, even in Russia. From Armenia to Russia, to Istanbul, and finally to New York, the family survived to reunite. Roxie’s mother lived the scripture of Isaiah 12: Surely God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid. The Lord, the Lord Himself is my strength and my defense; He has become my salvation.

Love in Him,

Prue