When they arrived at the mission house in Muscat, Sam found his brother surrounded by eighteen dark faces from East Africa. Each boy had an identical burn mark on his left cheek. “How on earth did you come to have custody of these boys?” Sam asked.
“It’s a simple story really,” Peter began. “You know well enough what a problem slavery is in this part of the world, and how the British are trying to put a stop to it. A Royal Navy frigate, the HMS Lapwig, captured two Arab slave dhows off the coast of Oman. These eighteen boys from East Africa, all on their way to be sold as slaves, were on the boat. All the boys have been branded, as you can see. The British ship brought them here to Muscat. Because no one knew what port the boys had come from in East Africa, they could not be returned home. Instead, they were released into the custody of the British consul here. Of course, this wasn’t a very satisfactory arrangement. The boys are all aged thirteen and under, and they ran up and down the verandas of the consulate. They got into everything and made quite a nuisance of themselves. The consul was in despair. He didn’t quite know what to do with them. That’s when I decided to step in. I talked to the consul and offered to take the boys. I must say, he was more than a little eager to hand custody over to me,” Peter added with a chuckle.
“But what do you propose to do with the boys?” Sam asked.
“The Freed Slaves School,” Peter answered. “All of the boys speak only Swahili. At the school we give them lessons in Arabic and English as well as arithmetic, other practical subjects, and, of course, Bible study. With the knowledge the boys gain, they’ll be able to be employed and earn a living and make their own way in the world. Why, some of them might even become missionaries.”
Peter went on to explain that he expected the school to grow. With the British determined to stamp out the slave trade between East Africa and Arabia, it was only a matter of time before more children on their way to a life of slavery would be intercepted by British ships and brought to the school.
Sam was touched by his brother’s zeal to see that the boys had the necessary skills to make their own way in life. He also chuckled when Peter explained that he had given the boys English names. He began by naming them after members of his own family, with his favorite being named Adrian, after their father and deceased brother. The biggest of the boys he named James, after their oldest brother.
Once Sam felt his brother had the Freed Slaves School on a steady footing, he and Amy set off for Bahrain. Sam was excited to show his bride her new home, but he was a little concerned too. He knew many things could go wrong for a missionary couple, especially when they were the only two Christians in an entire country.
Amy seemed to like Bahrain and set to work bringing a woman’s touch to the house she and Sam rented. She soon found herself as busy as her husband. In Bahrain, as in the other Muslim countries Sam had visited, men and women seldom mixed. There were strict religious laws about their not being alone together and not touching each other for any reason. Before long, women were seeking Amy out to help them with their medical concerns. As a nurse, Amy was glad to help, and she soon joined Sam in his dream of establishing a hospital.
In fall of 1896, Jim returned from furlough and took up his mission responsibilities in Basrah. In early 1897, less than a year after they were married, Sam and Amy went on furlough to the United States. By now Sam had been in Arabia for seven years, and he was eager to introduce his new wife to his family. Not only that, but Amy was also pregnant with their first child, who would be born while they were in the United States. Before he set out for home, Sam left a colporteur to take charge of the Bible shop.
Sam loved the trip back by steamer. He and Amy stopped at Aden, and Sam showed Amy where he and Jim had lived in Crater Town. As they steamed up the Red Sea, he pointed out the various places he had visited. When the steamer dropped anchor off Al Hudaydah, Sam told Amy about setting out from this city on his trip inland and the amazing things he had seen in Sana’a. Chugging up the Red Sea in the steamer, Sam thought about his trip down to Aden to join Jim over six years earlier. Then, he had known little about Arabia and the people who lived there. Now he knew so much more, and was a better missionary as a result.
When the couple arrived in the United States, Sam enjoyed many reunions with old friends and colleagues. He stopped at the New Brunswick Seminary to speak to the student body before heading to Michigan to reunite with his father and siblings. He had hoped to see Dr. Lansing, but John was no longer teaching at the seminary. He had retired because of his poor health and had moved to Denver, Colorado.
Sam and Amy made it to Spring Lake, Michigan, about twenty miles north of Holland, where his father was now living. Adriaan welcomed his son home and enjoyed getting to know his new daughter-in-law. Sam’s sister Maud still lived with their father, keeping house for him and assisting him in his ministry. Over the next few weeks, a procession of Sam’s other siblings visited him to catch up on all that had happened during Sam’s time in Arabia. Their visits gave Sam a chance to hold his new nieces and nephews for the first time. It was a sad occasion when Sam visited the grave of his brother Adrian.
On May 23, 1897, while still in Spring Lake, Michigan, Amy gave birth to a daughter, whom they named Katharine, after Sam’s mother. As far as Sam was concerned, Katharine was the most beautiful baby in the world, and he was a proud father.
Several weeks after the birth of Katharine, Sam left Amy and the baby with his father and sister and set out on a strenuous round of speaking engagements. When he had departed for Arabia, the Arabian Mission had been an independent mission. Now that it was part of the Reformed Church’s missionary network, Sam had many obligations to fulfill.
Wherever he went, Sam spoke about the needs and challenges of the Arabian mission stations. He spoke about the Freed Slaves School his brother had started in Muscat and how the school needed sponsors. Most importantly, Sam spoke of the need for doctors to establish a hospital in Bahrain.
Sam’s speaking began to pay off. Dr. Fred Barny soon volunteered to work with the Arabian Mission and was quickly dispatched to Basrah. Sam hoped that this doctor would be with the mission longer than the first two who had come to serve.
Sam met with Margaret Rice, who was engaged to marry Fred, and arranged for her to sail to Arabia with him and Amy when they returned from furlough and to marry Fred. Sam also met with George Stone, a Presbyterian minister who had heard of the Arabian Mission through his involvement in the Student Volunteer Movement. George explained to Sam that he had tried every possible way to avoid going to the foreign mission field, but he could not find peace until he applied to serve with the Arabian Mission.
Sam liked George immediately and arranged for him also to travel back with him and Amy at the end of their furlough. There was also more good news. Sam talked with Sharon Thoms and his wife, Marion, who were both doctors, committed Christians, and graduates of the University of Michigan Medical School. They asked many questions regarding the mission and were excited about being a part of the new medical work in Bahrain.
In early 1898, Sam received some discouraging news. His brother Peter had taken ill in Muscat. Peter was so ill that he was returning to the United States for medical care. Sam began to fret about his brother’s well-being. Jim, who had gone to Muscat to carry on the mission work during Peter’s illness, had written Sam that Peter had been so weak he was carried aboard the steamer on a stretcher for the voyage home.
When Peter arrived in New York City on July 12, 1898, he was taken straight from the ship to Presbyterian Hospital. Sam went to New York to visit his brother. He found Peter lying in a hospital bed, weak and pale but totally engaged in the mission work in Muscat. Peter explained to Sam that he was writing a report to the mission board outlining the changes he thought were necessary for the mission house in Muscat to make it more suitable for their work. Peter also talked about the Freed Slaves School and gave Sam a report on how the boys were doing. “I tell you, I’ve done nothing yet. When I go back to Arabia, I’ll be ready to begin work,” Peter told Sam. As he listened to his brother talk, Sam smiled at Peter’s zeal and enthusiasm for mission work throughout Arabia. He just hoped that Peter would make a quick and full recovery. At the end of his visit, Sam said farewell to his brother, and the two of them promised to get together as soon as Peter returned to Muscat.
Shortly before Sam set sail to return to Arabia on August 17, 1898, he received a letter from Sharon and Marion Thoms saying that they were volunteering to serve with the Arabian Mission and hoped to join him the following year.
Sam, Amy, and baby Katharine, accompanied by Margaret Rice and George Stone, set sail from New York City aboard the steamer Majestic, bound for Liverpool, England. From there they would travel to Egypt and then sail through the Suez Canal, down the Red Sea, and around the south coast of the Arabian Peninsula to Karachi, Pakistan, where they would catch another steamer for the last leg of the journey. They were all ready and eager to embrace the mission work that lay ahead of them.
Chapter 14
A Hospital at Last
At the beginning of October 1898, the band of missionaries arrived in Karachi, Pakistan, to change ships for the trip to Bahrain. Dr. Fred Barny was waiting for them or, more importantly, for his fiancée, Margaret Rice. Fred had spent time in both Basrah and Muscat and had come to Karachi to get married. While the Zwemers and George Stone traveled on to Bahrain, Fred and Margaret were married in Karachi. Following their honeymoon, they traveled to Muscat to assist Jim with the mission work there.
Soon after arriving back in Bahrain, Sam received a telegram from the United States. His brother Peter had died on October 18. Peter’s body was being taken back to Michigan so that he could be buried beside their mother and brother Adrian. It was a bitter blow to Sam. When he had left Peter’s side in the hospital, he was sure he would see him again.
As he grieved over his brother’s death, Sam reread the missionary newsletters Peter had sent out and found comfort in them. In one of them Peter had written, “No government or priest can forbid the simple conversing with friends concerning religion, and when they, inadvertently perhaps, purchase the Scriptures, we may put to them the question of Philip to the eunuch of Candace: ‘Understandest thou what thou readest?’ In this sense all Muslim lands are accessible, and in this way we are privileged to witness the truth as it is in Jesus to many.”
Sam took heart in Peter’s message and legacy. While it was difficult and often illegal to reach the Muslim population en masse, it was possible to quietly go about doing good and having conversations with individuals about Jesus Christ. An incident that occurred the following week reinforced this. An old Arab man visited Sam. He understood a lot about Christianity and asked for a Bible to read. He returned often to talk and ask questions about the Bible. As he came day after day, Sam noticed that he always had an old bandage wrapped around his foot. Finally Sam asked the old man what was wrong with his foot. “Oh, that old bandage is just an excuse for those who ask why I come to see you so often. The foot is all right.” Sam chuckled at the old man’s inventiveness. In such private conversations, the work of sharing the gospel continued.
In Bahrain, Sam and Amy committed to stay on the island and expand the mission station there until their next furlough. There was a lot they wanted to accomplish before then. One thing Sam wanted to do was to write a book. He felt this was the best way to convey information about the Muslim world and inspire new missionary recruits to work in Arabia. Sam began writing a book titled Arabia: The Cradle of Islam: Studies in the Geography, People and Politics of the Peninsula with an Account of Islam and Mission Work. Writing a book was a challenge, but one Sam enjoyed.
