Page 66 - Protestant Missionary Activity in the Arabian Gulf

■wmr

50

philosophy- to follow that was more in tune with the reality

of the situation hut would have sounded like milk-toast to

the energetic, aggressive early pioneer, Zwemer. "All that

the missionary can do," Harrison wrote, "is to give to those

who care for it a picture of the Christian life and an op­

portunity to follow. The daily behavior of the missionary

fi is the outline, and the details are inevitably fitted into

,,121
that. The task of service then became its own reward

with the work in the hospitals and to a lesser extent the
schools, requiring no further justification for their con­
!
{ tinuance than their own intrinsic worth to the people the
i
missionaries were serving. As Hazel Wood, a registered nurse,
wrote simply from Muscat in 1951 of Dr. Thoms’ work:

"The work is interesting and varied, the most re­
warding result being the inner satisfaction that comes
1 to him from being able to help those in distress and
pain. So many hundreds have received help that would
have been impossible were it not for a few American
i doctors who had decided to come to Arabia and fill a
great need." 122

The years 1934 to 1957 had witnessed many new challenges
from within and without and a final end to real hopes of con-

version, but in other respects the Arabian Mission had grown

stronger and more self-assured, As 1957 drew to a close,

therefore, and the Mission passed its 68th anniversary the

forty-eight missionaries then out in the field in Basrah,

Amarah, Kuwait, Bahrain and Muscat could look with satisfaction

on the work they had done and look forward to the challenges

that lay ahead. Internally they felt strong in their own

beliefs. They felt that they belonged where they were and
J