Dr. Eustace showed Sam the spot where he envisioned a large mission hospital. Sam liked the idea. His experience in Arabia had already shown him how much more open the local people were to the gospel when they were receiving medical attention. Within a week of Sam’s arrival in Basrah, Sam and Jim both felt confident that this was the place to start. The Arabian Mission now had a home.
Sam and Jim were excited to feel that they were finally putting down roots. Once they made the decision, they had much to do. They soon decided that Sam should return to Aden to pack a few belongings he and Jim had there and, they hoped, persuade Kamil to join them in Basrah.
On November 15, 1891, Sam set sail for Aden. Good news greeted him when he arrived. The first piece of good news was a letter from the United States. The home committee of the Arabian Mission had approved two new missionaries to come and work with them. One was a doctor, and the other was Sam’s younger brother Peter. As well, Kamil had returned from East Africa. When he learned of the plan to establish a mission station in Basrah, he was eager to join Sam and Jim there. Sam sent him on ahead to join Jim.
After Sam had taken care of everything in Aden, he returned to Basrah in January. When he arrived, more good news awaited. While Sam was in Aden, Jim had traveled north to Baghdad to visit the Church Missionary Society (CMS) missionaries there. The outstation was ten years old, and the missionaries had already established a school and hospital and had helped to man a British and Foreign Bible Society Bible distribution center. Even though the CMS worked among the old Christian sects rather than Muslims, Sam was excited to hear about their methods and experiences. It pleased him to know that the CMS missionaries in Baghdad had decided to send three Christians, who were colporteurs for the British and Foreign Bible Society, to work with them in Basrah.
By mid-March, Sam felt confident that the Arabian Mission was settling in to take on the work at Basrah. The team consisted of Sam, Jim, Kamil, and three Bible Society colporteurs. This was more than enough to run a Bible shop, begin systematic one-on-one evangelism, and plan for the possibility of a hospital. Dr. Eustace was enthusiastic about heading up that effort.
Things did not go as planned. The first blow came when Marcus Eustace announced that he and his wife had decided to rejoin the CMS mission work in Persia and were being stationed in the Afghan frontier. Sam and Jim were sorry to hear the news, but knew that a doctor was on the way from the United States to join their work. They were relieved when Dr. Clarence Riggs reached Basrah.
Things did not go well with the new recruit from the start. Dr. Riggs argued with Sam and Jim about religious matters and shook his head when Jim requested he ask a blessing at the table. Later, when the question of leading their morning devotions came up, Clarence said courteously, “I have never done anything like that, and I am not about to start now. You can call upon me for any medical services, but anything of religious nature is quite out of my line.”
Neither Sam nor Jim said anything more at the time, but a week or so later, Clarence cornered them. “Why is it that the two of you seem to have more in common with each other than you do with me? After all, we’re all Americans.”
“Why, doctor,” Sam replied, “isn’t that unavoidable? You don’t believe in what we are trying to do for the Arabs. You don’t believe as we do about God.”
“How could I?” the doctor replied indignantly. “You seem to believe that God came down from heaven and became a little babe. No one believes that nowadays.”
Despite the difficulties with Clarence, the work continued. The doctor was happy to open a small medical clinic in the house Dr. Eustace had rented, and the colporteurs opened a Bible shop in the bazaar. Kamil was becoming an effective and well-recognized man about town. He and Sam often sat together in the coffee shops, talking to others about the real meaning of the Christian message and how it differed from the message of their prophet Mohammed.
When writing a report on the missionaries’ work in Basrah to send home to the United States, Sam reflected on how much they had accomplished in the first quarter of the year. There had been bumps along the way, and Clarence was getting more unpredictable every day. But all in all, things were moving ahead. As he mailed his report, Sam had no way of knowing what lay ahead for the missionary band in Basrah before the letter even reached America.
Chapter 10
Hope and Disappointment
On May 28, 1892, Sam set out for the nearby village of Majil. He’d been there once before and had talked to several Muslim men who were open to discussing the Bible. He took Kamil along with him on this trip. When they arrived at Majil, the two men received a warm welcome. It seemed that every man in the village was present to welcome them back. The village men beckoned for Sam and Kamil to stand under the shade of a large date palm and talk to them about God’s love.
Sam was happy to do so. He stepped forward, opened the Gospel of John, and read chapter three, verse sixteen: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” As Sam began to talk about the meaning of the verse, one or another of the village men occasionally interrupted him with a question. Sam and Kamil took turns answering the questions.
When Sam finished speaking, the crowd would not leave—they wanted to hear more. Sam gave copies of the Gospel of John to those who could read and follow along as Kamil read several chapters from it. Sam marveled. It was like a giant open-air Sunday school class back home. Forty or fifty people listened carefully as the Gospel of John was read to them. When Kamil finished reading, Sam asked the group if they thought the words they had heard were true.
“Yes, this is true,” several of the men replied.
Sam then explained in clear, simple language that all men are sinners in the sight of God and that “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins” (Hebrews 9:22 RSV). He then told his audience that the blood of Christ, shed on the “wood of the cross” was the only means by which to atone for their sin. When he had finished explaining, he again asked, “Is what you have heard true?”
Several men spoke for the group. “Some things are true, and other things are true, but we do not believe them.”
Sam smiled and replied, “Think over all you have heard. We will come back again and answer your questions.”
The men escorted Sam and Kamil to the edge of their village, where Sam prayed for them all. “Come back next month,” they said. “You speak words that interest us.”
As they made their way back along the hot, dusty road to Basrah, Sam and Kamil prayed for the men of the village. They had been allowed to preach and answer questions about Christianity for three and a half hours. This was a hopeful sign.
Back in Basrah, it soon became clear to Sam and Jim that the local authorities were not happy with their activities. The lease on the house Dr. Eustice had originally rented was about to expire, and because they now ran their small medical clinic there, they needed to find new accommodations. Sam and Jim found a less expensive house and asked if they could rent the place. At first the owner said yes, but then he changed his mind, telling them that he might move into the house himself. They looked again, but each inquiry about renting a place ended with the same result. For some reason the owner would not rent the house to them. Sam asked an Arab friend why it was so difficult for them, even when they offered to pay more for the place than the going rate. The friend replied, “Don’t you know? The governor has posted notices that under severe penalties no one in the city is allowed to rent a house to the American missionaries.” Sam’s heart dropped. He knew this was serious. In Basrah the authority of the governor was absolute.
Even if they were sympathetic and interested in helping the missionaries, the few English businessmen residing in the city were in no position to antagonize the local authorities. It seemed to Sam that the one thing they could do to secure a new place to rent was to pray about the situation.
Later that week, Sam visited the Persian consul in Basrah. The consul was suffering from a hacking cough, and Sam gave him some medicine to help relieve his symptoms. The Persian consul was so grateful that he asked if there was anything he could do for Sam in return. In a moment of inspiration, Sam explained how no one in town would rent them a house because the governor had forbidden them to do so.
The consul laughed when he heard this. “The only person in this whole town he cannot intimidate is me! I have an empty house, much better than the one you are in, which you can have at the same rent you now pay. You can move right in. The governor will not dare to say a word to me.”
Sam could hardly wait to tell Jim the good news of how God had answered their prayers. However, Sam and Jim were still aware that many rich and powerful men in Basrah did not want them there, and they wondered what else those men might do to run them out of town.
Disaster struck on Friday, June 24, 1892. Sam’s day had been a busy one. It started early in the morning when he conducted the funeral of a carpenter who had been a crewman on board a foreign steamer. Following the funeral service Sam hurried home to take care of Clarence, who was ill with a high fever. At lunchtime Jim arrived at the house and announced that Kamil had fallen ill with vomiting and diarrhea. Sam sent a helper ahead with medicine for Kamil. At five o’clock in the afternoon, he left Clarence’s side and set out to walk the two miles to the room where Kamil was staying. He had gone only a mile when Jakoob Yohanna, a native Christian colporteur, met him on the road and said, “Sir, I hate to bring you bad news. Kamil is dead!”
Sam stood motionless, trying to absorb what he had just heard. Kamil, dead? Was that possible? Sam ran the second mile to Kamil’s room and found it overflowing with Turkish soldiers and Muslim religious leaders. Sam wondered how they had gotten there so quickly. He stood at the door and watched. The soldiers were rifling through Kamil’s papers while the mullahs were busy praying Muslim prayers over his body, which they were washing with a mixture of camphor and water. A pungent smell filled the room.
“Stop that,” Sam said in a loud voice. “Everyone in this room knows that Kamil was a Christian. There are many witnesses to the fact. He should have Christian prayers said over him. He would not want Muslim rituals performed. He lived as a Christian, and he would want to die as one.”
“We have no way of knowing that,” one of the Turkish soldiers replied.
“Of course you do!” Sam said. “Look at the books on the table. What do you see? They are Bibles and Christian religious books. Read any page from Kamil’s diary that you are holding, sir. It will bear witness to the fact that Kamil was a Christian missionary.”
“We do not have time to read,” the soldier answered. “When a Muslim dies, the prayers must begin immediately.”
The chanting and washing continued. “God is Great. Holiness to thee, oh God, and to thee be praise. Great is thy Name. Great is thy greatness. Great is thy praise. There is no deity but thee. O God, those whom thou dost keep alive amongst us keep alive in Islam, and those whom thou causest to die let them die in the faith.”
Just then Jim arrived. His face turned white as he assessed the situation. “How did this happen?” he asked. “ Kamil was a strong, young man.”
Sam shook his head and whispered to his coworker, “I don’t know. They are trying to bury him immediately as a Muslim. I suspect foul play. There needs to be an autopsy. Do you think he might have been poisoned?”
“Something is very wrong here,” Jim agreed. “How did all these men get here so fast? Why is this so important to them?”
Sam took a deep breath. He knew he had to lay aside the shock he was feeling at Kamil’s sudden death and do whatever he could to get to the bottom of the situation before Kamil’s body was carried away and buried. He was sorry that Clarence was too ill to come and perform an autopsy. He wondered whether they could find anyone else who would tell them the truth.
