Page 39 - Protestant Missionary Activity in the Arabian Gulf

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Van Ess wrote in 1919, "but then a Cliristian has the right

to thinlc incenturies. In fact he is the only one to have
that right. n 63 Meanwhile, the missionaries were being kept

fully occupied by the daily routine of preaching, teaching

and treating their rapidly growing number of patients in

'Iraq, Bahrain, Kuwait and Muscat. Eor the doctors the job

was particularly challenging and rewarding. First class sur­

geons like Dr. Paul Harrison could honestly write that their

field experience in Arabia was more valuable than any work

they could be doing in the finest hospitals of Boston or

Baltimore.^4 The job was also highly rewarding in a personal

sense, as Dr. Mylrea tried to explain in a letter to the

home church in 1927, relating his sense of exhilaration at

being a useful "tool in the hand of God,” providing relief

to the sick and winning the trust and friendship of such a

warm and fascinating group of people as the Gulf Arabs.^

So, as the Arabian Mission approached its half-century

mark, it could look back with pride on an enviable record of

growth and accomplishment. Certainly the lack of conversion

was a serious problem, as Van Ess had pointed out so clearly

and continued to re-iterate periodically. likewise the dis­

unity and self-destructiveness diggiayed by the Western world

in the "Great War" was disillusioning and a growing tide of

materialism at home was threatening the Christian underpinnings
of Western society that had been taken for granted before.

But real progress had been made in the field and the first

class team of dedicated missionaries then working for the
i