Page 250 - Neglected Arabia Vol 2

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6 xia;u;ct/:i> akahia

Mr*. Penning reports continued friendliness aiiinii^ the women >»i
llahrein, real eagerness l«u* long visit*, and frequent request* for reading
from our Gospel. She says: "With the Girls* School and Women * II «>*-
pital, we have in this station a good proportion of excellent institutional
and social work, and 1 interpret my work as being principally personal
work, and helping in the religion* program* of these institutions to the
extent to which their own stall may need our co-operation, The Hi hie
woman and I have, therefore, each taken the clinic prayer* twice a week .
at the hospital, and have on the same morning* visited the in-patients am!
read and talked to those well enough t listen, and have visited a* re- .
(juested at other time*, At the school I enjoyed taking a Itilile reading"
cla** of the older girls three time* a week.”
t )f Kuweit. Mr. l)e Jong write*: "Kuweit town ha* revived somewhat
this year in that the Ikhwan have traded here all year. The Safaat has
again seen caravan* of camels. The merchants have rejoiced at the jingle
of riyaals in their pocket*. Kuweitee* have been happy that trailing was
again in order. All are glad that the Ikhwan no longer air enemies htti ^
are irieuds ol the town. And our curiosity has heeu studied m seeing;
these wild son* of the desert. The Ikhwan have rehelled against lhnf
Saotid. Hence it is they need a source of supplies, and there i* none other
than Kuweit. Economic pressure has caused them to come and to he un­
doubted friends of this place. The desert has seen various skirmishes dur­
ing the year and at least two ui considerable importance—namely. Sibilla •
and Nuqra. Famous Hedu leader* have been lost during the year, the.,
one of vital and outstanding importance to us being Theedau I hit I Pulliam.’1
Mr. Dc Jong goes on to tell of the extent to which our evangelistic
worker needs the hacking and prestige of medical work in Kuweit. "Op­
position in Kuweit continues. It wa* especially noticeable this year since
there was no doctor present. I was faced with the matter daily. Many
were quite disgusted at the idea of I'adre being allowed to live, preach
and teach in Kuweit without a doctor present. There wa* much opposition
to our obtaining a new schuol. The person responsible lor that was the
one who queered our chance of buying the two houses and the laud, which
property we desired fur our new chapel. Ill fact lie made a point of
buying the projjerty himself. You will also be interested to know that the
agitators are ever on the alert, in fact so much so that they picked out
one of our scholars and proceeded to try to take him from us. The charge
was that he knew nothing of his own religion, not even the prayers, and
that it was a disgrace for a lad of such an age and the son of such a
prominent man.”
Two interesting inquirers have presented themselves to Mr. Dc Jong
this year. He writes: "The one. a Xasr of the Anei/.a tribe, appear*,
hopeful, lie is a young merchant and travels in bis business lielween
Damascus, Uagdad, liasrah. and Kuweit, lie said that in Magdad he had
come in contact with Muallim K*a and had there acquired most of hi*
knowledge of the Christian faith. He said that as a Moslem, he had been
a Moslem of the Moslems, but that after studying the Gospel. Moham­
medanism had died within him and he was searching for the real thing and
not the shell. He found it in Christ. In declaring that he wished to become
a Christian he said he asked for no financial aid whatever. He apjieared to

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