Page 23 - History of Arabian Mission 1926-1957

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Lo the able dispenser and anaesthetist, gives all the injections, to the hoi? uized, to Muslims, to all who come. They come for release from
keeps the inventory of drugs and supplies and takes his turn at hospital pray- physical poiu or incapacity, but they must hear of the Healing Christ who *
ers . Qorabar is responsible for the operating room which ho keeps as glistening
as any in America, Mohammed is the electrician, while Nubi, the ex-slave, brings not only release from the pains of the body but from the agonies of the
daily dresses fifty foul-smelling ulcers, and with his wife bears a sweet and soul as well. The hospitals are not separate from the church, but an extension
life-giving Christian witness." of the Church; they seek to lead people into the life of the Body of Christ.
"Ideally, this is the opportunity for the community. In seeking to
The hospital property was being enlarged and improved, the whole com­ We are aware that
pound levelled and drained, and a Persian water wheel installed so that water meet this challenge of evangelism ve have to make use of it.
the evangelizing agent is not the ordained minister, the station evangelist,
was available in every port of the house and hospital compound. Friends prom­ the doctor, but rather the whole Christian fellowship.
ised trees and shrubs from every section of the land, including one each of the i
forty kinds of Chian date palms.
"It is not a subsidized Christianity, for it involves making use of our
national Christians not as paid workers, but as consecrated ambassadors of
The ruling Sultan, Said bin Tairnur, and his father, the ex-Sultan, Christ. It involves our working through the community, rather than standing
visited Muscat in 19^5; there was great Jubilation and many inland sheikhs come aloof from it. We have come here not to establish the Mission as an esteemed
to pay their respects. Among them was Sheikh Sulairaan bin Hlmyar of Jcbel and valuable institution, but to establish the Church of Jesus Christ, even f
Akhdhar, who had led the revolt against Muscat in 1913- He had never seen the with her medical mission, in the lands of the Arab."
sea, a ship, or a motor car; never heard a radio or a phonograph. He and many
other sheikhs were entertained by the Mission, cementing friendships by this
hospitality and preparing the way for future visits.
4. Highways in the Desert - Touring
In 19^8 the Sharon Thoms Memorial Hospital for contagious diseases was "Make straight in the desert a highway for our God."
opened by Sultan Said of Muscat and Oman, who had granted the land on which the Taiiah tO:3
new building stood. A second building was later added in the same compound for
) the care and treatment of lepers. Touring has always been a vital part of the activity of the Arabian
Mission, which has had continuously before it the goal stated at the founding \
The staff training program carried on intensively by Jeannette Veldman of the Mission: "To occupy the interior of Arabia." J
in 1955-5^ included the personnel of Knox Memorial, as well as other Mat rah
helpers. Dr. and Mrs. Bosch, Dr. Alfred Pennings, and Jeanette Boercma, were By native boats cruising all around the shores of the Arabian peninsula;
all co-opted into this project, and operations sometimes waited while classes the rivers and in the marshes; on camels,
were held. by sailboats, heliums and canoes on
horses, donkeys and mules over the barren deserts of interior Arabia and the
frowning mountains of Qnan, the men and women of this Mission have made their
"The boys and girls tried hard and many of them did well," reported way in spite of fanaticism, animosity, and tribal feuds which have often made
Dr. Bosch. "A few fell by the wayside but they didn't get badly hurt because
they didn't have far to fall. A few did outstanding work and will become the the going dangerous and difficult.
backbone of the hospital in future years. We hope to send seven boys and two Zwerner and Cantine separately toured many parts of Mesopotamia, then I
girls for further training in Bahrain next year."
part of the old Ottoman Empire, and the peninsula of Arabia on both the east
and west coasts. John Van Ess travelled among warring tribes in the river I
The doctors who have worked in Muscat since 1926 are Drs. Sarah Hosman, ! country between the Tigris and Euphrates with Turkish bullets whistling over .
Mary Allison, Harrison, Thoms, Storm, Heusinkveld, V06S, and Penning3. The his head, and on one tour journeyed down the Euphrates from Aleppo to Mosul by
nurses are the Misses Jeanette Boersraa, Marianne Walvoord, Allene Schmalzriedt, raft. In later years when Mesopotamia (now called Iraq.) was under British I
Jeannette Veldman, Anne De Young and Cornelia Dalenberg.
Mandate, the Dykstras toured the river country extensively by launch. |
The reports for 1956 from all the medical stations contain a thought­ The Pirate Coast, now called the Trucial Coast, was toured many times 5
ful appraisal of the whole philosophy of medical missions. The temptation to by doctors and clergymen of the Mission, as was inland Oman until it was closed
follow the line of greater efficiency and physical expansion is carefully con- because of political conditions.
sidered, and weighed against the evangelistic emphasis which is the reason for
the Mission's existence. One doctor reflects: "Jesus must frequently have The mainland opposite Bahrain was regularly visited.
left some sick unhealed in order to do what He determined more Important. :
U While Christ was talking to the woman of Samaria or preaching the Sermon on Cars, launches, railways, and airplanes have now speeded up parts of
the Mount, He might have been healing 6ick people. Obviously He did not give the Journeys, but in many cases pioneer conditions still prevail.
all His time to healing. Often He used the healing incident as a teaching •J
opportunity."
Inland Oman was closed to touring for many years because of enmity be-
tween the interior sheikhs and the Sultan of Chian.
An evangelistic missionary summarizes the present situation thus:
"The work in the hospitals is dedicated to making real the presence of Christ