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No. 160 JANUARY, FEBRUARY, Mi •mat
THE SHEIKH’S TOWN PALACE—KUWAIT
SPECIAL CENTENARY NUMBER
CONTENTS
F o r e w o r d ...... The Editor
1 8 9 1 , T h e Y ear of B e g in n in g s...... Rev. James Cantine, D.D.
W h a t O u r D octors H ave D o n e Dr. C. Stanley G. Mylrea
A T our in H a s s a , 1 8 9 2 ...... ' Rev. Samuel M. Zwemer, D.D.
"U n til C h r ist B e F ormed in T h e m ” . .Mrs. E. E. Calverley, M.D.
Personalia * ^
Yale Divinity Library N e * tt*en ,
Officers of the Board of Foreign Missions Rev. Henry E. Cobb, D.D., President Rev. W. I. Chamberlain, Ph.D., Corresponding Secretary F. M. Potter, L.H.D., Associate Secretary and Treasurer Rev. W J. Van Kersen, D.D., District Secretary
MISSIONARIES Rev. James Cantine, Stone Ridge, N. Y., Emeritus. Rev. and Mrs. S. M. Zwemer, Princeton, N. J. Retired. Rev. and Mrs. F. J. Barny, 55 Paterson St., New Brunswick, N. J., On Furlough. Rev. James E. Moerdyk, Amarah, Iraq, Evangelistic Wojk. Rev. and Mrs. J. Van Ess, Basrah, Iraq, Educ. and Evan. Work. Miss J. A. Scardefield, Cannondale, Conn., Emeritus. Miss Fanny Lutton, Amarah, Iraq, Emeritus. Rev. and Mrs. D. Dykstra, Muscat, Arabia, Evangelistic Work. Dr. and Mrs. C. S. G. Mylrea, Kuwait, via Iraq, Medical Work. Rev. and Mrs. G. J. Pennings, Bahrain, P. Gulf, Evangelistic Work. Rev. and Mrs. E. E. Calverley, 85 Sherman St., Hartford, Conn., Retired. Dr. and Mrs. P. W . Harrison, 426 Wyoming Ave., Maplewood, N. J., On Furlough. Rev. and Mrs. G. D. VanPeursem, Holland, Mich., On Furlough. *Mrs. Sharon J. Thoms, 25 E. 22nd St., N. Y. C. On Furlough. Miss Sarah L. Hosmon, M.D., Muscat, Arabia, Medical Work. Miss Charlotte B. Kellien, Basrah, Iraq, Educational Work. Miss M. C. Van Pelt, 25 E. 22nd St., N. Y. C., On Furlough. Dr. and Mrs. L. P. Dame, Bahrain, P. Gulf, Med. and Educ. Work. Miss Ruth Jackson, Westfield, N. J., On Furlough. Miss Rachel Jackson, Basrah, Iraq, Educational Work. Miss Cornelia Dalenberg, Amarah, Iraq. Medical Work. Rev. and Mrs. B. D. Hakken, Bahrain, P. Gulf, Evan, and Educ. Work. Dr. and Mrs. W . J. Moerdyk, Amarah, Iraq, Med. and Evan. Work. Rev. atid Mrs. G. E. De Jong, Kuwait, via Iraq, Evangelistic Work. Dr. Harold Storm, Muscat, Arabia, Medical Work. Miss Esther Barny, M.D., Kuwait, via Iraq, Medical Work. Miss M. N. Tiffany, M.D. Bahrain, P. Gulf, Medical Work. *Rev. and Mrs. John S. Badeau, Baghdad, Iraq, Evangelistic Work. Rev. and Mrs. George Gosselink, Kuwait, via Iraq, Evangelistic Work. Dr. and Mrs. W . W . Thoms, Basrah, Iraq, Language Study. Mr. J. C. Rylaarsdam, Basrah, Iraq, Educational Work. Add “Via Bombay” to above addresses of Bahrain and Muscat. Postage to all Stations is 5 cents for first ounce, 3 cents for each additional ounce. A special air service is available for Stations in Iraq and Kuwait ensuring quicker delivery. Letters must be marked “Via A ir Mail, London—Iraq” underscored in red ink. The special A ir rate is 7 cents for each h alf ounce in addition to above rates. The Arabian Mission, which was organized in 1889 as a separate mission, was amalgamated with the Board of Foreign Missions of the Reformed Church in America in 1925. The change did not affect the work in Arabia or the organization in the field, but concerned only office administration and legal status. All former contributions should be continued and sent to the Board of Foreign Missions. They may be specially designated “For W ork in Arabia” if desired. *Members of the United Mission in Mesopotamia, in which we cooperate with the Presbyterian Church and the Reformed Church in the United States. Hnu Mse ad ahlc ws sr o oe pr, n tee would there and port, open of sort a was Catholic, and Moslem Hindu, 3 ''ec ad mrcn ad ih t lre rprin f rts subjects, British of proportion large its with and American; and 2'F'rench ISS ( G ^ S /ojziz/lcf interesting of heading the as seen often is PRESSIONS’’ IM >IRST «
ae en o poiin o praet eiec. u i ws scarcely was it But residence. permanent a to opposition no been have M had been occupied by the sainted Bishop French whose grave had just been just had grave whose French Bishop sainted the occupiedbeenby had u i a ajiig oe Msa wt is he Cnuae, British, Consulates, three its with Muscat cove. adjoining recently an that room in had bazaar,—a dug Aden the But in room upper small stranger. a utter in an comfortable to June in insistent very not are they h “. . Semhp opn, rmie fr w wes Msa has Muscat weeks. two for remained I Company, Steamship I.” “B. the occupied. afterwards points the at touching hw m wa a rpcl umr t h salvl en ad ws fairly was I and means level sea the at summer tropical a what me shown etitos o ut u abtos ln. e a t lo frhr afield further look to had We plans. ambitious our suit to restrictions hc follows: which t go pit, s e h hv lvd hr fr er ko Bl wl, but Bull well, know years for there lived have for who we Agent as points, good kindly its the from hospitality much accepting Arabia here, and of Muscat coast East the up journey a of retrospect a is article this and all convinced there missionaries the with months some of residence a but neetd ht h lcto ws o hme i b mltr ad political and military by in hemmed too was location the that Aden, interested at Mission Falconer Keith Scotch the with co-operation for marked h Msin D. atn wie o te einns hr i te article the in there beginnings the of writes Cantine Dr. Mission. the rvd a e bidn frte os Sho a Bsa, h frt tto of station first the Basrah, at School Boys’ the the for Zwemer. building of M. new a each Samuel provide Dr. from and Cantine contributions James Dr. have Mission, we the of happily founders most and character in I i te eoy o fry er my ae vle l ter own. their all value a have may years forty for memory the in ^ L j h frt on n rba iie b or obyBsa semr was steamer Bombay-Basrah our by visited Arabia in town first The s mmra o ti cneay fn o $500 s en rie to raised being is $25,000 of fund a centenary this of memorial a As ti ya wih ak te n hnrdh niesr o te or the of anniversary hundredth one the marks which year this N O PIAE ICLTO AOG H FINS OF FRIENDS THE AMONG CIRCULATION PRIVATE FOR rils y e msinre, u toe mrsin ta survive that impressions those but missionaries, new by articles aiain f h Bad f oeg Msin, t em peculiarly seems it Missions, Foreign of Board the of ganization prpit t lo bc oe te er sne u cuc bgn its began church our since years the over back look to appropriate ok n rba Te rils n hs su ae hrfr historical therefore are issue this in articles The Arabia. in work h Aain iso ad h Centenary the and Mission Arabian The hn h Aain iso ws is ognzd t a ear was it organized first was Mission Arabian the When NEQLECTED 81 h Ya o Beginnings of Year The 1891— H AAIN MISSION ARABIAN THE Missionary News and Letters and News Missionary R v e ulse Quarterly Published J . s e m a C 3 e n i t n a ARABIA , , D.D.
4 NEGLECTED ARABIA the place for staking out a first claim. Climate, inhabitants and a rather uncertain hinterland left much to be desired. At least I quite agreed with the British Consul when he suggested—1 hope altruisticly, that it might be well to look in at the towns further up the coast. While it was the evident, though unexpressed opinion of all the officials I met, that ours was a visionary venture doomed to failure, yet it is a pleasures to recall that always they were gentlemen, and I could only hope that they would include me in that category, leaving the issue to the future. The next place at which I went ashore was Bahrain. Here there were no white men living and it was difficult to form an estimate of the adapta ción of the island for permanent residence. Certainly what I saw of its general down-at-the-heel aspect and felt of its hot, humid air was not very encouraging, and I continued on to Bushire where in the office of the Resi dent for the Gulf I knew I could find official reports. These were kindly placed before me, but it was rather disheartening to read of summer tem peratures, of the prevalence of dangerous fevers, of cholera and the sum ming up that Bahrain was the most unhealthy and uncomfortable town on the Arab side of the Gulf. I was getting a bit discouraged in my quest of a location for beginning our mission work, when I received a letter from Basralh that gave me new hope and courage. There was then living in Basrah under contract as medical advisor to the English community a doc tor who had been connected with the English Mission in Persia. He, hearing from a ship’s captain of my visit to the Gulf and its purpose, gave me a most earnest invitation to come to Basrah as his guest and to look over the ground at my leisure. This I gladly did and very soon wrote to Mr. Zwemer that I thought I had found our “promised land.” Obviously, it was the best residential town I had seen since leaving Aden, 110 mission ary" had ever lived there, the Moslem inhabitants were reputed to be not fanatical and there was opportunity for limitless expansion. A little trip up the Tigris to see the English Church Missionary Society missionaries at Baghdad and their work, assured us of their sympathetic interest in our occupation of an adjacent area, and a missionary’s ability to weather such opposition as might be expected from a none too cordial Government. Suspicious as the Turkish regime might be of our purpose, yet it was a stable government with definite obligations to Western powers which would tend to give us time to dig ourselves in before hostilities began. As a matter of fact the Turkish officials were strangers in an Arab land and not at all anxious at this extreme outpost of their empire where for eign influences were so strong, to raise questions that might cause trouble at Constantinople. Protestantism with a small but compact Western colony as its exponent, was not unknown but not much notice was taken of us until some time later, when they had to face the facti that Islam was not im pregnable to the influence of the Gospel. We sometimes thought that there was much more opposition from the various sects among which the native Christians were divided than from the Moslems themselves. Basrah at this time was a city of the orthodox dumbbell variety, two towns connected by a creek and road. Basrah proper was on the border of the desert and Ashar on the river. When the tide was in traffic went by water, when it was out it was walking or riding donkeys. For a NEGLECTED ARABIA 5
few years the Mission rented houses in Ashar, later one in Ashar was built for us on payment of five years rental in advance. The Ashar houses were located on the creek, most convenient when at high water we could go about by boat, but not so good when the creek was being cleared of mud which, thrown up on the bank, would block the approaches altogether. I remember at one time digging through the wall of our house at the side to get out to. keep a New Year’s Eve appointment. Our relations with the few English residents were in the main cordial, in one or two instances most helpful. W e were able to conduct a Sunday service for them, using the English Prayer Book, and the call for our ministry at funerals came all too often. One of our early activities was visiting cargo steamers in the harbor with books and tracts, and holding services thereon whenever practicable. The first missionaries were not medical men and tentative efforts in the educational line were promptly stopped. In now looking back upon those years it seems providential that we were com pelled to use our time and energy to such an extent in the ways then open to us, touring and the circulation of the scriptures. I had only been in Basrah a few weeks when the Agent of the Persia Agency of the British and Foreign Bible Society passed through and we made that plan of co-operation which has endured to this day. Prevented by the hostility of the Turkish Government from centralizing our effort at Basrah we reached out down the coast with our resident colporteurs and their Bible shops and when we only numbered three mis sionaries we virtually had three stations, Basrah, Bahrain and Muscat. Always did we look longingly at the roads inland. During those early years the first chapter of Joshua was our Magna Charta and the promise made to Joshua was claimed by us, and as these forty years have gone by we have realized so fully that every place that the sole of our foot has trodden upon has been given to us to hold in trust for the Master.
What Our Doctors Have Done and Are Doing 1895 — 1931
Dr. C. S. G. M y l r e a HE last thing in the world that the Arab wants or ever has wanted is that Christian missionaries should come and preach their doctrines in his midst. Nevertheless, he needs him desper T ately. He needs to know that God is not only an all-powerful despot throned afar, but also his heavenly Father who loves him. He needs to know Jesus who came down from Heaven to teach men by pre cept and by practice to love God and to love man. He needs to know that while the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, it is only the beginning, while love is the fulfilling of the law. It is this doctrine of the love of God that is so wonderfully taught through the agency of medical work, and it is one of the glories of Christ ianity that while it is first and foremost a spiritual religion, it also leads all others in its care for the bodies of men. All over the world Christian hospitals have been the pioneers in caring for the sick, and' in so far as other religions have begun to do likewise, it is because the Christians have 6 NEGLECTED ARABIA I "provoked them to love and good works/" In Arabia, Christian hospitals were the pioneers. In the history of the Arabian Mission medicine has been far and away the most valuable tool in the kit of the pioneer, both medical and non medical. Our great founders, Drs. Cantine and Zwemer, though not medi cal men, were quick to make use of the homely medicine chest and by re lieving bodily aches and pains were able to establish friendships with all classes of the community. Without medicine it is doubtful whether we ever would have got into Arabia in those early days, or if we had got in, whether we could have stayed in. Without doctors we certainly could not have entered Kuwait, and it is worth remembering that the only mem bers of our mission who have succeeded in entering the Nejd and the in terior of Arabia, have been medical men.
LANSING MEMORIAL HOSPITAL—AMAR AH Our two pioneer medical men have both passed on to their exceeding great reward. The first of these, Dr. H. R. L. Worrall, will always be remembered as the man who first brought Christian medicine to Basrah. He and his wife, who was also a doctor, surmounted innumerable obstacles in their dealings with the Turks, and carried on an extensive work in an utterly inadequate rented house. Dr. and Mrs. Worrall reached Basrah in 1895. In 1911 the Lansing Memorial Hospital came into existence and under the leadership first of Dr. Worrall and then of Dr. Arthur K. Bennett, began to do a great work for Basrah and indeed for Iraq generally. In a very short time the hospital had built up a reputation for surgery and had the confidence of everyone. During the Great W ar the Lansing Mem orial Hospital served both Turks and British and it was while serving the Turkish sick and wounded in 1916 that practically the entire hospital staff went down with Typhus fever. Christine Iverson Bennett M. D., Dr. Bennett’s wife, one of the very best medical workers the Arabian Mission ever had, succumbed, while Dr. Bennett himself was invalided home to America and never returned. After the war, with Iraq under British administration, the public services were greatly developed and a large and NEGLECTED ARABIA 7 almost magnificent hospital was put up as a memorial to General Sir Stanley Maude. This building has to date cost about half a million dollars. It was obvious that the Arabian Mission could not compete, and it was decided therefore to transfer the Lansing Memorial Hospital to Amarah where it is now, under Dr. William Moerdyk, developing a new work in a new building. The other of our two pioneer medical men was Dr. Sharon J. Thoms who spent the greater part of his career in Bahrain. Like Dr. Worrall in Basrah, he had to begin his medical work in 1900 in a rented house and his first surgical operations were actually performed in the courtyard in the open air. However, in 1903, the Mason Memorial Hospital, the first mis sion hospital to be opened on the east side of Arabia, came into existence. It is a fine spacious building and Dr. Thoms had the joy of working in it until his transfer to Matrah in 1909. The Mason Memorial Hospital is today our most important medical centre. It is important, not only for what it does in Bahrain, but because it is the base of operations for very extensive touring. From Bahrain both Dr. Paul Harrison and Dr. Louis Dame have visited the mainland repeatedly and on several occasions have penetrated to Riadh and the lonely Nejd, carrying Christian influence to the furthest corners of Ibn Saud’s dominions. From Bahrain they have worked far down the Persian Gulf to Debai, where their visits are looked for periodically by a grateful population. The Mason Memorial is now a household word on both sides of the Persian Gulf and draws its patients from both Arabia and Persia. In April, 1905, the death of Mrs. Sharon J. Thoms deprived Bahrain of a woman doctor of great promise. Today we have as a memorial to her, the Marion Wells Thoms Hospital. It has been in commission for three years and is the realization of many a dream. With Dr. M. N. Tiffany in charge we are really beginning to develop that most important social service, maternity work and infant welfare. Last year 36 obstetrical cases were cared for, and the women of Bahrain are learning more and more that in Dr. Tiffany and her hospital they have a haven of refuge. There is undoubtedly a great future before the Marion Wells Thoms Hospital. A still greater memorial to his parents, however, than timber and stone, is the presence in our midst of Dr. William Wells Thoms, the mostrecent addition to our forces. The next medical centre to be developed was Matrah and it was to Matrah that Dr. Sharon Thoms went on his transfer from Bahrain, so that to him belongs the honour of having laid the foundations of medical work in two places. Matrah is an important gateway through the moun tains to the upland country behind with its numerous garden villages. It is also a convenient point from which to reach the neighboring towns along the coast. Once again Dr. Thoms had to begin in a native house but he built up a fine work which was cut short, alas! by his death from an accident in 1913. It is only within the past four years that this work has been reopened under Dr. Paul Harrison and now a medical plant com plete with hospital and physician’s residence, is going up and we can look forward to the steady development of the Matrah Medical Work. Just round the shoulder of the mountain from Matrah, is Muscat, where as early as 1904 Mrs. Cantine had started dispensary work for wo 8 NEGLECTED ARABIA
men. In 1914 Dr. Sarah Hosmon was assigned to Muscat and has held the appointment ever since. She is a medical missionary in every sense of the word and has cared for the women of Muscat, body and soul. She has toured the surrounding villages through the years with both medical and evangelistic zeal. Her most recent achievement has been to superin tend and carry out the difficult and exacting task of building a new wing for her hospital. The last medical centre to be opened in the Persian Gulf was Kuwait. In 1910 the great Shaikh Mubarak invited the Arabian Mission to put up a hospital in Kuwait, but it was not until 1913 that the present Men’s Hospital began to rise out of the ground. Up to 1914 when the hospital was finished, Drs. Bennett, Harrison and Mylrea had in turn worked in a native house, thus following the usual history of medical evolution in Arabia. In 1920 the Kuwait Hospital for Women opened its doors to the public. Up to that time Dr. Eleanor Calverley 'had got along as best she could in two rooms of the Men’s Hospital. Work for the women of Kuwait was extremely difficult in those days and it is not easy now. The great meas ure of success which has been attained is due very largely to the patience and tact of Dr. Calverley and those who helped her, principally Mrs. Mylrea, Miss Scardefield and Miss Van Pelt. Dr. Calverley left Arabia in 1929 since which time Dr. Esther Barny has 'been in charge of the Kuwait Hospital for Women. Dr. Barny is the first child of the Mission to return to the field. And now as we look back over the 36 years during which medical work has been an integral part of the activities of the Arabian Mission, we can assure ourselves that we have built many Ohristian stones into the fabric of the social structure of Arabia. To those of us who knew this part of the world twenty-five years ago or more, the changes that have taken place are miraculous. Superstition still flourishes but it no longer has things all its own way. Let us never forget that each one of our medical centres has been faithfully reading and teaching the Bible, day after day, through all the years, to thousands and thousands of Arabs. Slowly but surely Christian influence is having its effect. The Arabs would probably deny this, but it is true nevertheless. They do not realize how much they are unconsciously taking .from us, nor that the civilization they are striving to imitate is based on Christian principles. The very expression on the faces of the people has changed. The great Doughty speaks somewhere of an Arab who “scowled on him with a face worthy of the Koran.” On the coast at least, people have ceased to scowl at us. And so we close this brief sketch as we began it, that the Arab needs to understand that little word “LOVE.” He has already learned some thing of its meaning and the rest he will learn only from Christian precept and Christian example. W e doctors have been an important unit in the advance guard of civilization in Arabia. May we hold that fast which we have that no man take our crown. A Tour to Hassa in 1892
R e v . S. M. Z w e m e r , D.D. The following account of a “tour” in Arabia forty years ago, taken verbatim from my old diaries and letters, shows by contrast what God has wrought since those, early days in opening doors and establishing His Kingdom in Arabia. LEFT Bahrain on October 3, 1892, with two other travelers, Arab merchants, for Hassa. We rode on donkeys to a small village land ing place on the extreme south of the island. Here our boat was I waiting. After the usual delays in coffee-drinkings and pipes of to bacco and Inshallahs we finally waded through shallow water for a quarter of a mile, embarked and were off at sunset. A fair wind landed us at Ojeir on the mainland the next morning, and I found my way to a custom-house officers to whom I had a friendly letter from a Bahrain merchant; but the letter was of no use. Ojeir, though it has neither houses nor population, has a harbor, a mud-fort, a dwarf flag-staff, and an imposing custom-house. The latter, in the Ottoman Empire, is a short name for a large institution. My baggage was so ridiculously small that it escaped examination, though I had to give declaration that it contained no London Times or other journals! As for myself, however, they wanted a passport and gave me the alternative of waiting five days until permission had been obtained for my visit to the capital. Providentially I had three passports, none of them exactly intended for the occasion, and all but one illegible to them, but which, after long palaver, I succeeded in showing were equal or equiva lent to one of the kind they demanded. Still I was not allowed to proceed with the caravan inland until I had promised to visit the Pasha of Hofhoof immediately on my arrival; a soldier was commissioned to see that I did not fail in the performance. A caravan leaves Ojeir nearly every week because this is the depot of wares for the interior. The jebel Shommar country is probably supplied overland from Busrah and Bagdad, but the whole of Southern Nejd re ceives piece-goods, coffee, rice, sugar and Birmingham wares by way of Bahrain and Ojeir. The whole plain in and about the custom-house was piled with bales and boxes and the air filled with the noise of loading seven hundred camels, I struck a bargain with Salih, a Nejdee, to travel in his party and before noon-prayers we were off. The country for many hours was bare desert, here and there a picturesque ridge of sand, and in one place a vein of greenish limestone . When night came we all stretched a blanket on the clean sand and slept in the open a ir; those who had ne glected their water-skins on starting now satisfied thirst by scooping a well with their hands three or four feet deep and found a supply of water. During the day the sun was hot and the breeze died away; but at night, under the sparkling stars and with a North wind it seemed, by contrast, bitterly cold. On the second day at noon we sighted the palm-forests that surround Hofhoof and give it, Palgrave says, “the general aspect of a white and yellow onyx chased in an emerald rim.” As we did not reach the “emerald rim” until afternoon, I concluded to remain at Jifr, one of the many suburb villages. Here Salih had friends, and a delicious dinner 9 10 NEGLECTED ARABIA of bread, butter, milk and dates, all fresh was one of many tokens of hos pitality. At sunset we went on to the next village, Menazeleh, a distance of about three miles through gardens and rushing streams of tepid water. Here in the evening mejlis of Abdullah bin Saeed I sold some Scriptures, treated sick, and talked on this world and that to come until a late hour. The next morning early we again rode through gardens and date-orchards half visible in the morning mist. A t seven o’clock the mosques and walls of Hof hoof appeared right before us, as the sun lifted the veil; it was a beautiful sight. I paid off Salih and went directly to the Pasha in the Koot, or government quarters. There was no trouble to speak of and with great politeness (perhaps not without a purpose) a room was given me in the Koot. Here I was “at home” to many callers, Turks and Arabs, who came only to talk but often went away with a portion of Scripture or other purchase. During my short stay all the books! and Scriptures I brought were sold, even my own Testament; a rebuke to lack of faith in not tak ing along more. Daily I was allowed to go about the bazaar freely, even visiting the interior of the large Mosque. One evening I took dinner with the Arab Sheikh of Rifa’s, an official under the Ottoman Government, who gave me much intelligent information about the caravan-routes inland. The four days I spent in the city were soon over and I planned to re turn northward by way of Kateef, if there should be a caravan, rather than wait several days for the date-caravan to return to Ojeir. The opportunity offered, although I was not allowed to go except after signing a paper, which, because of the unsafety of the road, disclaimed all responsibility on the part of the Government should I come to lose life, limb or luggage. A copy of this document is in my possession, but the only foe I met in the desert was—fever. On Tuesday noon our small party set out, not go ing through the large town of Mobarrez as I had hoped but turning East and reaching Kilabeejeh at two o’clock. W e passed fountains and streams and fields of rice and swamps,—everything so unlike Arabia of the school- geography. In four hours, however, we were again in the midst of desert where the sun proved too hot for me, and I took a fever which did not leave me until I returned to Bahrain. The road continued desert all the way to Kateef. On Wednesday we rode all night under the stars (because of a false alarm of robbers) until nine o’clock next morning. Then we rested at a place called, with bitter irony, Um El Hammam; there are no baths, no trees, no grass, only a shallow pit of dirtied water and small shrubbery of dates. Here we spent a hot day. On Friday morning we came to the borders of Kateef,—palm-groves, wells, and ancient aqueducts with curious towers and air-holes at intervals. Through gardens and around by the large square fort we came to the sea. At the custom-house, again, I found rest and refreshment. I did not remain long but hope to visit it again direct from Bahrain. A boat from Kateef brought me to Menameh again and the Mission quar ters, on Sunday, October 15th. Such a hurried tour of twelve days is not worth much for results, spite the two score of books and Scriptures sold; but it is one of the necessary first steps in a new field. Present Touring Conditions in Oman
D r. W. H. S torm OURING is considered by many of us one of the brightest and most important features of our work. By touring we have chances to go to places seldom if ever touched try work at our T permanent stations. Into these places western civiiization and in fluences have not yet penetrated and primitive conditions more or less exist. People are somewhat shy and backward, often standing afar from us at first; but only at first, for soon they realize that the missionary is their friend. ■ Touring in Oman area has had its times of plenty and times of lean ness. Much of this work was accomplished by Rev. Peter J. Zwemer, who
VALLEY LEADING TO GREEN MOUNTAIN, OMAN opened the Station, and by those who followed him till 1913. The rebellion of the inland tribes then put an end to it until five years ago when Dr. Dame and Mr. Van Peursem opened a new era with their tour to Someil. Dr. Harrison soon followed with his frequent tours which led up to the one we made this year. Our tour which began in March and ended about June first was somewhat longer than usual in point of time. A very large area was cov ered and a great many people treated. A number of these never had seen a missionary nor heard the Gospel message. To be able to visit such people gives the thrill to one’s work which only those who have had the experience can appreciate. The methods of travel today will of necessity not vary greatly from that of earlier days. The motor car which has penetrated nearly every where in the world has also come to Arabia, but there are places where a motor car cannot travel because of the sandy desert. Only the camel can 11 12 NEGLECTED ARABIA g o ; therefore we are forced to use this sure but very uncomfortable mode of travel. In going to the top of the mountains only walking is possible, for one must follow a narrow donkey path made visible by the sun shin ing on the bare rooks and causing the places where donkeys for centuries have gone and worn the stones smooth, to glisten. On this particular tour we climbed one day from early dawn till after sunset, not being able to ride at all. The securing of permissions for such touring is not always easy. The interior of Oman is ruled today by a religious leader called, “Imam,” who exercises temporal as well as religious authority. The local places have a ruling sheikh or sayyed as he is called there. He is similar to a governor, but is gradually being replaced in power, at least at the present moment, by religious quadhis. The people often would like us to come but these men sitting in authority are not so keen. Especially is this true today and will be, I am afraid, truer as the religious fanatical element gains the ascendency. This excessive fanatical movement is a very recent development and may only be a temporary thing, but it rather looks other wise. There is also the decided feeling against foreigners of all kinds Which of course includes us. Sometimes one prominent man or sheikh de sires us but the mejlis (gathering of leaders) says, “No.” This particular tour was in part secured through a sheikh coming to the Muscat Hospital needing an eye operation. He would not remain in Muscat but said that he wanted me to come to Effie. I replied that I would be delighted but feared somehow he was rather more full of words than good intentions. Some weeks later a letter came signed by three of the Sheikhs of Effie in Wadi Ma’awal inviting me to come. By going to treat this one man we were given a chance to establish a base there for one month. From Effie we got permission to go to Rostock (a prominent center of Oman.) Here the leading sayyed after inviting us and giving us a house for our temporary hospital suddenly turned against us and made things very difficult. The real reason for his actions was never made known. Either undue pressure from authorities over him because he harbored a foreign doctor and an infidel ('Christian) at that, or the fact that I had repeatedly refused him poison, led him to work against us. The poison incident shows how trivial a thing can cause a man to turn against one who is ministering to the physical needs of his family and subjects and how uncertain our position often is. He demanded poison time and time again, refusing to tell the real reason for wanting it. We were made suspicious by his actions that he wanted it for some evil purpose, so we reflused to give him any. This provoked him very much. The Arab sheikh wants what he wants when he wants it and refuses to take a negative answer from anyone. Side tours were made to various places. The chief one was made to the top of Jebel Akhthar (Green Mountain) which is the tallest mountain in Oman. Here we went unannounced, making all our own arrangements as to food and shelter. We used large shade trees as our camping grounds and places for dispensaries. W e would stay in one place for just as long a time as there was a crowd and then move on. The people would gather and then we would tell them of Christ and the reason we had come to NEGLECTED ARABIA 13 them and treat them medically. This particular type of touring is some what unique in our mission at the present time and we found it very satisfactory. It approaches nearest the method used by our Master and gives a splendid opportunity to spread the Gospel message ovèr large areas otherwise impossible to touch. Certainly that is our first and most import ant commission. It is surely worth more trial and effort on our part. Touring in Oman today opens up a field almost limitless in oppor tunities. Doors are not wide open. Religious fanaticism threatens our
TERRACED FIELDS, GREEN MOUNTAIN, 7,000 FEET advance. Local political situations make things uncertain. Our personnel1 is so small that up to the present we have been able to have only one doctor in each station at a time and one man cannot be in two places at the same time. Truly the fields are white unto harvest. The above dif ficulties are not impossible barriers for, “With God all things are possible.’” Tennyson in one of his poems uttered these words, “More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.” Let us pray fervently— “Till the desert sons now aliens Till its tribes and their dominions Till Arabia’s raptured millions Praise His love of them.” "Until Christ Be Formed in Them”
Mrs. E. E. C a l v e r l e y , M.D. f< AT1ENCE” says the Arab “is the key to bliss.” I J “But,” comes the response in the words of another proverb I making a play on two words which sound almost alike, “Patience is Aloes.” Bitter—yes bitter as aloes, are some of the disappoint ments, and the long continued and apparently fruitless efforts which teach patience to the one who gives his life for the upbuilding of Christ’s king dom in Arab hearts. The remedy for discouragement in a slow and tedious task is increased perspective. Do not stand too close to the portrait you wish to scan. Do not look at today’s work by itself. Get off and view the picture from a distance. On the side verandah of our home in Kuwait one day we had a demonstration of rug making. A Persian boy who was a pupil at the Mission School brought his frame and set it up to show us how the threads which make a carpet are fastened into place. His rug was a small one and the quality not very fine. No suffering would be required of him in order to complete the design which already began, to appear in glowing colors. Over in Persia where they make great carpets for the palaces of Sultans, they say that little children sit for long hours before their masters’ frames. In cramped positions they sit year after year until youthful bodies have lost their grace and suppleness and become crip pled and deformed. Such is the price of beauty in many costly rugs. Yes, patience may be the means of gaining bliss but patience is often bitter to the taste. After years of weaving the tapestry of mission work in Kuwait we sometimes dared to hope that the real design was beginning to be formed. At least there was certainly a change in the hue of the background. Some days were very dark. One would be called to the home of, a suffering woman, spend hours at her side, the target of the black looks and hostile remarks of midwives and neighbors alike, and when the time for action came be denied the right to act. “Hasn’t the doctor any pills? Give the patient a pill or a dose from a bottle. Nothing more will be allowed. Even such a concession is dangerous, for who knows, after all, that the Infidel Doctor’s pills may not be poisonous!” Yet the next day while treating the foul ulcer of some poor Arab the doctor might overhear the remark “What Moslem would do that?” Just then the strand she wove seemed to take on a brilliant hue—the golden gleam of hope. Let us stand off and look at the very beginning of the scene. Let us see more than twenty years ago. The missionary essaying to make a visit to the town was forbidden to go ashore. If he got ashore he was sent straight back to the ship. The ruler, Sheikh Mubarrek, did not want any missionaries in Kuwait. There came a time, however, when he did want a surgeon. In all the surrounding country there was no surgeon so skill ful or so famous as Dr. Arthur K. Bennett of our station in Basrah; and so to Dr. Bennett went the invitation to become a guest of honor, the visiting surgeon in the castle of the Sheikh. Dr. Bennett was successful in his surgical task and so won the confidence of his sheikhly host that never afterward was a missionary turned away from the shore of Kuwait. 14 NEGLECTED ARABIA 15
The very next year the tapestry begins to show a new design. There is a mission station in Kuwait. Three missionaries: two men and a woman, living and working in a native house. Besides an evangelistic centre the nuclei of two hospitals might have been found in that; abode. I can see the doctor treating his Bedouins and at nightfall lying down to sleep among them in the courtyard. I can see the two rooms in the part we called the “Womens Hospital” with a pink calico curtain stretched across the larger one to separate off an “operating room.” The people at this time were none too friendly, but now and then a hint of color in the scene denotes growing encouragement. “What is this more central design in the tapestry ? That is the section representing “After eighteen years.” At this stage in the spacious Mission Compound by the sea stand two real hospitals side by side. Each has a shiny operating room supplied with electric lights and running water. To the Men’s Hospital flock Town-Arabs, Bedouins, Persians and Jews. Into the Women’s Hospital pours a stream of women, covered, face and all, by their black cloaks. The Doctor Lady is busy in her office. The Superintendent in her white cap and uniform goes about her tasks. In the dispensary the Indian nurse and Persian assistants are giving babies castor oil, dropping lotion into eyes, dressing and bandaging all sorts of wounds. More than a hundred patients wait their turns for treatment. In the wards lie those who have come to trust the Christians enough to leave home and stay with them. Later in the morning the verandah is filled with women and children sitting patiently to listen to the Gospel story. Here and there we know a heart is torched, We hear no talk of “Infidel.” Friendly are the expressions on the faces of listeners. After the service we hear more than one “Thank you” from the audience. The picture is not all we might desire, but there is a difference—a striking difference— between the tapestry of “Then” and “Now.” Here is a farewell scene. One who has worked in Kuwait for many years is leaving for the homeland. An Arab mother carrying a child places her precious burden in the Doctor Lady’s arms. “Don’t you know him? He is your child, ‘Abdalleh.’ But for you he never could have been born. Allah made you the means to save his life for me.” Then comes crowding the memory of a seemingly endless night, fighting ignor ance and despair in this poor woman’s home. An old grandmother comes to say “Goodbye.” Yes—she can see nicely. “The praise be to Allah.” But for you I should always have been blind,” she says. A little girl runs up and throws her arms around the doctor. “You would never know that her leg had been broken” testifies her mother. “She runs and plays just as other children do.” “You have been my father and my mother, how can I see you go?” weeps another friend. Exaggeration? Yes—but per haps, also, an indication that one’s labor has not been in vain. We have approached too close again—stand farther back. Now, we can get the true effect. W e have, till now, been gazing at the border of the tapestry. The central figure does not yet appear. The light we see is but the promise of beauty which some day will shine forth complete. How will it come? Only by patient weaving, thread by thread, be the day’s task dull or bright—for “patience is the key.” PERSONALIA
Dr. and Mrs. E. E. Calverley have recently received from their former colleagues of the Arabian Mission a Minute expressing sympathy in their being obliged after twenty years of service to relinquish the great task to- which they had set themselves in Arabia. The Minute further expresses the hope that Dr. and Mrs. Calverley will find opportunities for deep missionary influence in their new sphere of work at Hartford.
Rev. and Mrs. G. J. Pennings are expecting to leave the field this Spring on their regular furlough. On their journey homeward they plan to spend some time in Germany, the early home of Mrs. Pennings, expect ing to arrive in this country in July. The health of Mrs. Pennings has not been good in recent months and has given occasion for some concern.
Rev. and Mrs. G. E. De Jong will leave the field this Spring on their regular furlough. They plan to arrive in New York by the S.S. “Exo chorda” from Naples about the middle of May.
A daughter, Dorothy Ann, was born in the home of Dr. and Mrs. William J. Moerdyk in Amarah on November 18, 1931.
Miss Ruth Jackson is expecting to rejoin the Arabian Mission, return ing to the field this fall.
Dr. Sarah L. Hosmon and Mrs. Dykstra took a medical and evangelistic tour in December last to the Batina and Khabura to the west of their station, Muscat. They reported a very busy and worthwhile tour, making the trip by motor car, which proved much more rapid and satisfactory than the former means of travel by boat and camel.