Page 95 - Neglected Arabia (1911-1915) Vol II

I
! !
; 4 I

i November 17th, and were in session November 29th. The order of
business was as follows :

(O Organization.
(2) Roil Call. (This year 27 missionaries answered the roll call.)
(3) Prayer. *
1 Welcome to new missionaries, who are also at this time required
i (4) t
« to sign the rules. Miss Schafheitlin was our only new mis- *
ip1
i sionarv this year—she having arrived on the held subsequent
to our last Annual Meeting. I
! i
^(5) Report of Examination Committee. Every missionary is re­ 1 i!
quired to pass two language examinations, one at the end of
the first year and the other at the end of the second. No mis­ ill
I i
sionary can vote until the first examination is passed, and no
missionary can be assigned to work or placed in charge of
work until the second examination is passed. It is a principle
i of our Mission that a good working knowledge of Arabic is
I indispensable.
I
I
(6) Election of officers and members.
(7) Reading of minutes of previous meeting.
; (3) Reading of official correspondence. This includes all the busi­
; ness done by the Mission,through letters circulated by post
: from one station to another and voted upon by each member
I
in each station, and, of course, any of the Secretary’s corre­
!
spondence which calls for Mission action.
I
(9) Station reports presented in writing by those in charge.
This is the time when every missionary gives an account of
. his stewardship and must be ready to answer questions and
meet criticisms of his methods. It is a time when one learns
that, though we serve the same Lord, yet there are “diversities
of ministrations” and “diversities of workings.” It is not easy
to have one's methods, which seem so vital to us, judged upon
adversely, but the majority rules and every one must face the
same test.
Among the most promising of this year’s reports were
those in connection with educational work in Busrah. After
many years of persevering endeavour, this department of our :
1
work to-day seems to justify a good deal of optimism. Fifty l
per cent, of a total of 85 in the boys' school are Mohammedans,
and of these latter some ten are in residence in a building
which is under the immediate supervision of the missionary-
1 / in charge. It is not too much to hope that these ten boys
are the embryo of what will one day become a mature and
complete organism in the shape of a boarding school for Mo­ s ! :
! hammedan boys. There is a great deal of deep thinking going
i on in Turkey to-day, and one of the results of this thinking
I
is going to be an ever-increasing demand tor education. With
I
regard to the education of girls, we can also hope for great
1

i1