\ p rAry °> t/>( 'y a l e D ir a n r s c h o o l Spring 1951 ^H aven, 9^ No. 223 The Arabian Mission REFORMED CHURCH IN AMERICA 156 Fifth Ave., New York 10, N. Y. Officers of the Board of Foreign Missions Rev. Richard P. Mallery, President F. M. Potter, D. D., Secretary and Treasurer Rev. L. J. Shafer, Litt. D., Secretary Miss Ruth Ransom, Secretary MISSIONARIES Rev. S. M. Zwemer, D. D. 33 Fifth Ave., N.Y.C. Emeritus Mrs. F. J. Barny 89-01 212th Street Emeritus Queens Village, N.Y. Miss J. A. Scardefield 16 S. Lake St., Emeritus Orlando, Florida Dr. C. S. G. Mylrea Kodaikanal, S. India Emeritus Mrs. May DeP. Thoms 24 E. Ninth St. Emeritus Holland, Mich. Rev. and Mrs. D. Dykstra Muscat, Arabia Evangelistic Work Rev. and Mrs. G. J . Pennings Amarah, Iraq Evangelistic Work Dr. and Mrs. P. W. Harrison 26 Jackson Street Emeritus Berea, Kentucky Mrs. John Van Ess Basrah, Iraq Evangelistic Work Rev. and Mrs. G. D. Van Peursem North Branch, N. J. Emeritus Miss Charlotte B. Kellien Basrah, Iraq Educational Work Miss Ruth Jackson Bahrain, Pers. Gulf Educational Work Miss Rachel Jackson Basrah, Iraq Educational Work Miss Cornelia Dalenberg 156 Fifth Ave., N.Y.C. On Furlough Rev. and Mrs. G. Gosselink 156 Fifth Ave., N.Y.C. On Furlough '“Rev. and Mrs. B. D. Hakken Baghdad, Iraq Educational Work Rev. and Mrs. G. E. De Jong Kuwait, Arabia Evangelistic Work Dr. and Mrs. W. Harold Storm Bahrain, Pers. Gulf Medical Work Dr. and Mrs. W. Wells Thoms Muscat, Arabia Medical Work Mrs. Mary Bruins Allison, M. D. 156 Fifth Ave., N.Y.C. On Furlough Dr. and Mrs. L. R. Scudder Kuwait, Arabia Medical Work Dr. and Mrs. G. H. Nykerk Bahrain, Pers. Gulf Medical Work Rev. and Mrs. Harry J. Almond Bahrain, Pers. Gulf Educational Work Rev. and Mrs. E. M. Luidens 9 Seminary Place On Furlough New Brunswick, N. J Rev. and Mrs. J. R. Kapenga Pendle Hill On Furlough Wallingford, Pa. Miss Jeanette H. Boersma 156 Fifth Ave., N.Y.C. On Furlough Dr. and Mrs. M. M. Heusinkveld Amarah, Iraq Medical Work Rev. and Mrs. G. Jacob Holler, Jr. Amarah, Iraq Evan, and Med. Miss Hazel M. Wood Amarah, Iraq Medical Work Miss Eunice Post Kuwait, Arabia Language Study Rev. and Mrs. Harvey Staal Bahrain, Pers. Gulf Language Study Miss Alice G. Van Kempen Kuwait, Arabia Language Study Miss Christine A. Voss Kuwait, Arabia Language Study Miss Ruth G. Young Kuwait, Arabia Language Study Mr. John F. De Vries Basrah, Iraq Educational Work Rev. and Mrs. Allen B. Cook 4644 Wentworth Blvd. Service Completed Indianapolis, Ind. Add American Mission to all addresses in Arabia. Air mail service is available at twenty-five cents for each half ounce. Sea mail functions but is subject to delays; the rates are five cents for the first ounce and three cents for each additional ounce. A special air mail sheet, stamped, may be obtained from the post office for 10fi, no enclosures. ♦Members of the United Mission in Mesopotamia in which we cooperate with the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A. and the Evangelical and Reformed Church. A rabia C allin g Missionary News and Letters Published Quarterly FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION AMONG THE FRIENDS OF THE ARABIAN MISSION Mnual Keport for 1950 NEGLECTED ARABIA CALLING “There’s a land long since neglected, There’s a people still rejected, But of truth and grace elected In His love for them.” Yes,, truly neglected was Arabia as a mission field in 1889 when this hymn was first sung by four men who were ready to dedicate their lives to occupy and to evangelize this long neglected land. And now, sixty-one years and ninety-four missionaries later, the question arises whether we are still justified in calling this a neglected people. Of the ninety-four missionaries appointed during these years nineteen have died and thirty-eight have retired or otherwise left the field. This leaves thirty-seven in active service, of whom six were on furlough during the year, and six others were studying the language. This re­ duced the number still further to twenty-five actively engaged in missionary work on the field. How much ground did these twenty-five missionaries have to cover? If we superimpose the map of Arabia on the eastern third of that of the United States we get a fairly comprehensive view of what is being done and what is left undone. Arabia would approximately cover the United States from the Atlantic seaboard to the Mississippi and from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. In this area live from five to eight million people, more than half of them along the coasts, and the balance scattered in oases south of the Great Lakes. Up in Maine would be Amarah, our northernmost station, a good- sized city with a large and populous countryside, stretching for more than a hundred miles in each direction. Four missionaries carried the responsibility in this large area of bringing the Gospel message to the Arabs living in the towns, the villages and the marshes. Somewhere in Massachusetts we would find Basrah, our oldest mission station. It lies along the fertile and thickly populated lower reaches of the combined Tigris and Euphrates. Five missionaries labored here last year, a pitifully inadequate force for even the im­ mediate population of the city, to say nothing of all the teeming thousands living along the canals that intersect the date gardens. 4 ARABIA CALLING Kuwait would be somewhere in New Jersey. It is located between the desert and the sea. Looking from the mission hospital one can ob­ serve a sea front lined for miles with sail boats that make annual voyages to East Africa and to India. Looking in the other direction one can see the limitless desert whence come the caravans from the storied oases of central and western Arabia. Though these caravans are being rapidly replaced by cars and airplanes, and though the oil fields have drawn away from the sea many of the “sons of Sinbad,” this has only served to make the place more populous and more im­ portant. This year five missionaries served this area and were more than busy without going far afield from the town itself. Along the Tigris River near Basrah If anyone thinks that these three mission stations crowd each other too much he will feel relieved to know that the next center for mission work is three hundred miles to the south on the Bahrain Islands, somewhere on the coast of South Carolina. Famous for ages because of the pearl fisheries, Bahrain now has a new importance because of the oil wells on and near the islands. It is fast becoming the metrop­ olis of the Persian Gulf. In this strategic center seven full-time mission­ aries were at work during the year, spreading themselves over hun­ dreds of square miles and going everywhere healing the sick and preaching the Gospel. From this station we travel six hundred miles farther south till somewhere in Florida we come to Muscat. This is the capital of the province of Oman which stretches along the coast of the Indian Ocean for many hundreds of miles and inland to the sandy stretches of the famous “Empty Quarter" of Central Arabia. This year four missionaries labored among the million and a half to two million in­ ARABIA CALLING habitants of this province and naturally reached only a small pro­ portion of them. Muscat is the southernmost station of the Arabian Mission, but thirteen hundred miles to the west at Aden, located on our United States map somewhere in Texas, is a small group of mis­ sionaries from European countries. With these five evangelistic centers scattered along the Atlantic seaboard, would we dare to call the eastern United States occupied? Or would we consider it neglected? And shall we not strongly beseech the Lord to send out more missionaries to Arabia before the many open doors now gradually closing shall be securely barred against us? The year’s reports speak of many instances where the usual freedom to preach the Gospel is being strongly curtailed. Yet, these are people who share in the promise made to Abraham, “As for Ishmael I have heard thee, behold I have blessed him.’’ Shall we continue to fail in bringing them the message of “His love for them’’? “Softer than their night wind’s fleeting, Richer than their starry tenting, Stronger than their sands' protecting Is His love for them.’’ No one can read the reports for this year without being impressed by the great labor of love that has been devoted to the task of bring­ ing the Gospel message to the minds and the hearts of the Arabs. The hospitals have been full to overflowing, the schools have taken all the pupils that the teaching staff can handle, and the evangelists have preached the Word in season and out of season. All of these means look toward the supreme end of setting forth Jesus as the Saviour from sin. Another year of devoted service has been added to that rich de­ posit that was established by those who in years gone by gave their last full measure of devotion. It is the unobtrusive yet all-pervading love of Christ that constrains us, that impels us to the works of mercy day by day and the nightly vigils by the sick, that gives patience to lead the mind of youth along the weary road of gaining knowledge, that gives grace to repeat unendingly the old, old story of Jesus and His love.