Page 64 - Protestant Missionary Activity in the Arabian Gulf

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What then kept the Arabian Mission alive? Since John

Van Ess had first clearly raised the question, "What are we
here for?" in 1913, a consensus had been reached that evan­

gelism was the essential core of mission work. The explana­

tion is a complex one with many interrelating factors at

work. At least three of these are distinguishable. In the

first place, the missionaries had become undeniably Middle

Easternized themselves. Mot only had the Arabs come to view

them as part of the local scene, but they had also come to

view themselves as citizens more of their respective mission

countries than of America. Secondly, their ties to their

home culture in the West had become increasingly ambivalent,

making them strangers in their homeland. They had been cut
i
off from behind by an increasingly indifferent and material­

istic society that barelj'- tolerated them at a distance and

r?% could prove distinctly hostile face to face. Thirdly, in

contrast to the inhospitable and disheartening picture at

home, there was a real and present need for their services
in the field.

:
As Dr. Wells thorns wrote from Muscat in Descember,1943,

although he at times doubted his personal mission, yet "pure

statistics" indicated the importance of the mission hospital

remaining open and serving the hundreds of patients that lined
119
up outside its door each morning. Writing from Bahrain,

Dr. Esther Barny Ames told a similar story: "The number of
„120
our patients continues unabated and is increasing, The

gentle and patient Paul Harrison provided a new evangelical