Page 90 - Neglected Arabia Vol 2

6 SliC.LliCriU) A RAM A

JIASKAll SCIIOOI.HOYS ON A IIIKK

Women’s Residence, the tangible evidence of the devotion of women of
the Reformed Church in America. These are assured and another.year
should see the buildings completed and occupied. W Oman’s world ii
changing in Basrah as everywhere else. The veil is passing, slowly to
be sure, but passing none the less. Another generation will scarcely set
its survival. This is typical of the broadening freedom of women. And
here stands the girls’ school as a guiding, restraining, inspiring force in
the new day, pointing to that liberty of mind and spirit without which
freedom from the veil will mark but deeper bondage.
On this strategic corner, a stone’s throw from the coffee shop center,
stands another imposing structure. Here is the embodiment of a dream
which tilled the mind of Dr. Cantine many years ago and has since been
the goal of his successors. This is the combined Evangelistic-Educational
plant. Two hundred and seventy-five boys take up a certain amount of
space and they more than overflowed the old school buildings. In thu
long wing are housed the Middle and High School departments. Here
is carried forward the work which marked the Boys’ School in its fim
generation, a school ministering to the real needs of the community, ij».
eluding boys from every stratum of society and from the villages as wdj
as the town, a school keeping just ahead of the city’s progress, and so
leading it, but yet not dashing on to collegiate heights where the 4 people
are not yet ready to follow. Here, as before, every boy is daily coa-
fronted with the appeal of Christ as a part of his studies. This coma
wing with attractive entrance and readily accessible is the evangcliiUc 1
work-shop. This large room is a reading room, social room and gentry 1
rendezvous something like a Y. M. C. A. Adjoining is the office of ifeg
evangelistic worker. This is small enough for private consultations and
large enough for Bible classes and small gatherings. The larger service
are held in the spacious auditorium of the High School. The old Chapel »
unsuited to the type of work required, has been transformed into an tv 1
cellent gymnasium for the school boys and the young men of the cm* ’
munity. The whole equipment of the Mission has become a community