Page 479 - Neglected Arabia (1916-1920)

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Newly Appointed Missionaries 1
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The following new missionaries were appointed to the Arabian
Mission during the past year: Mrs. Sharon J. Thoms; Louis P. Dame,
M.D., and his fiancee, Miss Elizabeth Purdie; Walter Norman Leak,
M.D.
Mrs. Thoms needs no introduction to our constituency because of
her previous identification with the work of the Arabian Mission, which
r she left shortly after the tragic accidental death of her husband, Dr.

Sharon J. Thoms, in 1913. One cannot but admire the Christian forti­
! tude and devotion which led her to seek reappointment to the field in
which she labored side by side with her husband. The three children
! will remain in this country for educational purposes.

Unfortunately the three other appointees are prevented from
going to the field this year on account of the call to National Service.
Dr. Leak is a graduate of Cambridge University and is in the service
i of the British Army in Egypt. Dr. Dame has served an interneship
!
in the Presbyterian Hospital in San Juan, Porto Rico. He expected
!
i to terminate this connection in June and enter military service July 1st.
He writes: “So long as I am in military service, you must not expect
me to enter mission work. When once in, I am going to stay till the
finish.”
;
We hope this awful war will soon have been fought to a finish that
will mean the crushing of the autocratic powers in the field against us,
and that these lives and many others looking toward service on the
foreign field may be released for work in the country in which, by
reason of the banishment of the Turk, the opportunity for the propa­
;
gation of the Gospel will be very much greater than ever before.
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