Page 11 - Neglected Arabia Vol 1 (3)_Neat

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siTiiiimI hi he less severe ami of slimier iluraliun ami we looked forward 1
to liis ultimate victory over this bodily weakness.
liver since the beginning of his lessons he made good progress and !
he was a most interesting and inspiring pupil. He early showed a real
faith and when he was down so low in the summer of 1923 he learned
a hymn that has ever since been his favorite. This hymn tells of
bodily weakness, of spiritual despair until the Great Physician comes
near. To the Saviour Naeema came as a child, with a child-like faith
and trust and as he himself has said, "1 did not know enough about our
religion to be bigoted." He had his times of temptation when Satan
sought to lure him away, but being of a grateful disposition, he realized
how poor a return he was making to the Lord when he was tempted to
stay away from our services because of talk. It was at a time like that
when one day he came to me with a dream he had had the night before.
It was that Christ had come to him and said, "I have given you health,
now I ask of you mercy." Upon questioning, this to his mind meant
obedience. When we talked it over he realized that he was not being
grateful to the Lord when he stayed away from the services and it wai
then that he decided to show openly that he was a follower of Christ.
He too, shared the fear that every convert from Islam has of shame
and reviling, of persecution and death, but gradually he became
bold in showing his faith, and more determined to make confession of
the same. He was ever grateful and accepted every little favor in an
appreciative and pleasing manner. Some time during the past summer
we studied the parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins. The fir*
Sunday in August he came to me and asked for an interview with us,
It was then that he told us of his desire to be baptized, saying that hi
did not know how long he would live but that he desired to confess
Christ before he died and that he wanted to be like the wise virgin^
ready to meet the Lord whenever He might come, and also that lie
wanted others to know' that he was a Christian. For one reason ami
another the baptism did not take place but in no way due to any
withdrawal on his part. He went with us to Kuwait and from there
was to accompany Mr. Dykstra to Bahrain and to help him there, but
because of delay in arrival of building materials, Mr. Dykstra returned
to Amarah and so did Naeema. At once he began to complain of hi*
old trouble. This time it took violent hold of him although that did not
become apparent until after several days. He was with us in our
services on December 6th, and in our prayer meeting, in the afternoon,
he took part in prayer before all present, Moslems and Christians. The
following day his back was too sore to allow him to come to do hii
work and so he continued for several days. In the meantime, Mr,
Dykstra left for Bahrain and Dr. Moerdyk for Basrah to bring up
supplies for the hospital. Naeema began to have heavy fevers in*,
mediately after they left and these continued until he died. Me became
very weak but on Sunday wanted to come to our services as usual.
However, his mother was not in condition to carry him and so he
remained at home. The next day he sent me a note which he himself
had written. As he was only just beginning to write and to spell, |
could not read it very well and took it to him and he helped me uj