Page 17 - History of Arabian Mission 1926-1957

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Rev, E. E. Calverley, Rev. G. E. De Jong, and Rev. F. J. Bnray were
successively in charge of this ochool. i'ti* ' .avirona were well served "by the excellent health service set up by the
British under the mandate, whereas Amarah had at that time no adequate medical '
Bahrain. facilities. 5
The Bahrain Boys' School, when faced with the lack of rent money in 1926, The work was most successful from the start, in spite of its first
received an offer from the boys themselves to defray part of the cost in order Gmail quarters in an Arab house. Good service was done during a typhoid epi­ *•
that they might have a better building for their well-loved school. A club demic, old patients returned in large numbers in the last quarter of the first
flourished at this time, promoting good fellowship and developing the abilities year - Ghowing that confidence had been established - and numbers of patients I
of its members. Arabs and Persians, and those of mixed blood, including Muslims came from outlying districts.
of both Sunni and Shiah sects, some Jews, and a few Christians, worked and !
played together. Sports as well as literary activities were enjoyed. The new hospital was soon built, with accommodations for both men's and :
women's work, and was soon in use.
A growing desire for education was in the air, and the government was
developing well-conducted and organized schools, very different from tiie hap­ A wave of fanaticism which swept over Amarah at this time,(described in {
hazard affairs of the past. Religious pressure was brought on the Arabs, as the section on evangelistic work) affected the medical work severely and was a
in other stations of the Mission, to send their children to their own schools great trial of faith. The defection of the convert who had been in the Bible
and not to the Mission. However, with a full-time missionary in charge, the shop gave the Muslims fervor and made life difficult for other converts and
school advanced, and soon had to employ another teacher, a Palestinian convert inquirers, and indeed any mission employees. Dr. Moerdyk was keenly aware of
from Islam. Night school was held three evenings a week. the desperate efforts of the opposing forces to corrupt his hospital helpers,
who were cursed, abused, ostracized, and even forbidden to enter tea and coffee
» shops. They stood film and refused to desert their posts. Other friends sur­
A practical demonstration of the worth of the school, was the success
of some former pupils in obtaining excellent business positions, because of prised the doctor by their persistence in coming to the hospital when it was
their superior knowledge of English. preached against by the religious sheikhs, who did not scruple to forbid the
) people from having treatments and who spread false reports about the doctor
The enrollment soared to 151 in 1932, and would have continued to in­ and his work. Some of these friends stood up to persecution and ridicule when
crease if there had been room enough, and teachers enough, to expand. they announced their friendship toward the Christian missionaries.
The women's work had to be under the direct control and responsibility
In 1934 the total attendance was 156, and Mr. Hakken reported that some of the doctor, who set aside one morning a week for a clinic where he saw all
boys had been there since 1924, when the school was opened on its present basis. cases and directed their care for the ensuing week. Of course exceptional and
Later he was to say: "It is interesting to note that the longer the boys stay emergency cases were seen on other days under the nurse's direction, but the
in school the less they resent Christian teachings. It is the new boys that Amarah women soon acquired the habit of saving up their chronic ailments for
have the most objections and feel most confident in Islam." I
Thursday morning's diagnosis and treatment. Mrs. Moerdyk (the nurse in charge)
with an Iraqi helper carried out all treatments, kept the records, and coped
The boys continued to obtain good jobs, many now with the oil company. with the importunate crowds, as well as carrying on the routine work on all I
One was sent to Hasa by the company.
the other days.
In 1936 the annual report sadly stated: "It was with the very greatest . By 1930, Dr. Moerdyk was able to report that in spite of the opposi­
regret that we closed our Boys' School in Bahrain, an institution of decided tion and persecution, the medical work was not suffering, and was indeed more
promise." Repeated requests were made, over, the years, that the Mission should tlmn self-supporting. Clinics for both men and women were large and inpatients \
re-open it. increased in numbers, many friends resulting from the medical help they re- i
ceived. Frequent outcalls to distant villages opened the whole area to the !
Rev. B. D. Hakken was the missionary in charge of this school. :
doctor.
In 1931, new Iraq government regulations and restrictions regarding
3. Following the Great Physician - The Ministry of Healing . hospitals and medical people, apart from state institutions, made the work very i
difficult. Miss Cornelia Dolenberg, who was carrying on during Dr. and Mrs.
"The Son of Mem came not to be ministered unto but to Moerdyk's furlough, had a clinic of a hundred patients a day, sending the very
minister." Matthew 20:28 111 to the government hospital, to whom she also gave a monthly report. She 1
U Amarah. ) did systematic village touring during this time, entertained by the families
of local sheikhs and sometimes giving two hundred treatments in the course of
a day. It was then that she became deeply impressed with the great need of
Medical work in Amarah was opened by the Mission in 1926. The Lansing obstetrical help for the poor women in huts, who had no better care than their
Memorial endowment was transferred to that station from Basrah, and the Basrah t own' cattle.
Boys' School bought the building which the Lansing Memorial Fund had erected as
a hospital. The reason for this decision by the Mission was that Basrah and

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