Page 54 - Protestant Missionary Activity in the Arabian Gulf

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was that he,died in the country where he had spent so many

years of his life and among a people to whom he had become a
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legendary figure and a household name.

There was no doubt that Mylrea had left a deep im­

pression on the Kuwaitis. The formal opening of the hospital

in 1956 was a proud moment for the forty-three missionaries

who gathered in Kuwait to pay tribute to Mylrea and see the
■!>=*
fine new building opened. The Ruler, Shaikh Abdullah al-

Salim himself officiated, and the entire ceremony was con­
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ducted in Arabic before a crowd of some seven hundred Kuwaitis.

The cornerstone was inscribed in Arabic, "To the Glory of

God and the Good of the People of Kuwait.” The work to which

Mylrea had dedicated his life was clearly very much a going !

concern after his death.

The Mission’s medical work throughout the Gulf had been
3
growing rapidly during the war years. Writing from Bahrain

in 1943, Dr. Esther Barny Ames reported that the new women’s

hospital was kept constantly full to overflowing, the number

of patients often exceeding the number of beds available.

Arabs and Persian alike used the hospital and women traveled

from Qatar, Kateef and Hassa to consult the mission doctors.

All classes of society were represented, from the street

cleaners and water carriers to the ruling shaikh’s family.

Even the mother of one of Ibn Sa’ud’s wives had traveled to

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Bahrain for an operation that year, The annual summary

for 1944 reported that 5,543 operations had been performed
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by mission doctors that year and 271,121 patients treated,