Part III — Salutations to Germany

Marathon champion

While in Germany, I met with the previous women's world marathon champion, a German girl, Christa Vahlensieck. Projjwal had invited Christa to get a trophy from me. You can't imagine how spiritually developed that girl is. She doesn't speak English, but she gave the sweetest smile each time we talked to her. She had come by bus from forty or fifty miles away. The disciples sang for her and we gave her gifts. Many pictures were taken. She enjoyed everything.

Christa is a very good runner. She is very short and her strides are also short. In 1978 she came to New York, but she could not finish the marathon. She said that the New York heat was unbearable and she was miserable. That was when she lost her world record; Grete Waitz broke it by seven minutes. Then, for one year she could not run because she was sick. Now she will be running a marathon in Britain. She was very, very nice and everybody liked her.