On October 7, Sam took the train to spend a few days with Jim before he sailed for Beirut. When he returned to New Jersey, Sam was delighted to learn that Christians from many denominations had given gifts and bequests to the new mission. The first bequest of five thousand dollars was from a Presbyterian woman, a friend of Dr. Lansing. In all, there was enough money in the bank to pay for Jim’s passage and his first year’s salary—and the promise of more to come.
New Brunswick Seminary hosted a reception for Jim on October 16, 1889, at which the seminary’s students gave him a set of binoculars, declaring that he could use them to “spy out the land” for the Arabian Mission. One student at the reception remarked that the mission was sure to be a success because “this is a strong outfit—Zwemer is sure to get somewhere, and there Cantine will stick.”
The following day Sam stood dockside and watched as the City of Rome sailed over the horizon with Jim aboard. He prayed that things would go smoothly for Jim and that in just one year, he too would be aboard ship headed to Arabia.
Chapter 5
Arabia at Last
Sam’s final year at New Brunswick Seminary was busy. He talked with anyone who was interested in the Arabian Mission and met regularly with Dr. Lansing to pray and plan for the mission’s future. Soon letters arrived from Jim, who had made it to Beirut in time for Thanksgiving. Jim was living in Suk-el-Gharb, a village on the spur of the Mount Lebanon range, where a school for boys called the American Boarding School was situated. Living in Suk-el-Gharb served two purposes: Jim was able to teach the boys English, and he could practice his Arabic language skills. In his letters to Sam, Jim wrote about two young men with fascinating stories.
The first man, Jedaan, was a Bedouin from the Anazy tribe who had been sent to Suk-el-Gharb in 1887 to sell sheep for his family. Soon after arriving in the village, Jedaan noticed a man sitting in a shop reading. Hardly anyone from his tribe could read, and Jedaan became fascinated with the idea. “Can a Bedouin learn to read?” he asked the man.
“Yes,” the man replied. “Anyone from anywhere can learn to read. Why do you ask?”
Much to his own surprise, Jedaan announced that he wanted to learn. The man did not laugh, as Jedaan had expected. Instead, he sent him to talk with Ibrahim Ahtiyeh, a Protestant teacher at the British Syrian Schools in Beirut who happened to be spending the summer at his house in Suk-el-Gharb. Ibrahim gave Jedaan an Arabic alphabet card, and Jedaan began to learn the letters. Day after day he studied the alphabet while leading his sheep to pasture on the mountain near the village. He would constantly ask passersby the names and sounds of the Arabic letters and simple words.
By the end of the summer, Jedaan was able to read basic sentences and eager to learn more. Ibrahim found a place for him at the school in Beirut, where Jedaan began attending chapel services and Sunday school. Jedaan felt drawn to Christianity and was baptized on February 21, 1889. His faith was simple and clear, and he seemed anxious to equip himself not only to write letters and keep accounts for his tribe but also to teach the people the Word of God and the teachings of Jesus Christ. Jedaan had transferred to the school in Suk-el-Gharb at the same time Jim Cantine was sailing to the Middle East.
The second young man Jim mentioned in his letters home to Sam was a Syrian named Kamil Abdul Messiah El Aeitany. Kamil arrived at the Suk-el-Gharb school after Jim had arrived and became instant friends with both Jim and Jedaan. He came from a different background from that of Jedaan. Kamil could read and write Arabic, and he had attended a military school where he learned Turkish. Kamil also liked to think about religion, and he soon had many questions about his Muslim faith. He decided to go to the Jesuit college in Beirut and study under the Catholic priests there. The priests gave him an Arabic New Testament to take home and read. When Kamil’s father saw the New Testament, he burned it in the kitchen fire.
The next day one of the Jesuit teachers told Kamil to take another New Testament and this time tell his father that he had bought it to write a tract attacking its message. That way his father would surely let him keep it. Jim related in his letter how Kamil had confronted the priest. “‘Do you advise me to lie to my own father? Never!” Kamil left the New Testament and walked away. Yet his questions remained, and he could not rest until he had answers. He wondered why he could not find anything in the Koran that showed him how God could be a just God and yet pardon a sinner. He knew he was a sinner and that God was just, but it was impossible for him to think of God having mercy on sinners and still being just.
Eventually Kamil found his way to the home of Dr. Henry Jessup, a veteran American missionary. Dr. Jessup talked with Kamil for a long time and then offered him the use of his own study whenever he wanted. That way Kamil could quietly study the Bible without angering his father. Dr. Jessup also spent many hours answering Kamil’s questions and suggesting books and passages from the Bible that Kamil might like to read and compare with the Koran.
Kamil proved to be an earnest Bible student. After a month of studying every day, he decided to profess Christianity and devote his life to preaching the gospel to Muslims. Since Kamil was fluent in the Turkish language, Dr. Jessup suggested he go to Suk-el-Gharb and teach Turkish in the boys’ school. At the same time he would be surrounded by Christian teachers who could help him with his Bible knowledge and understanding of Christianity. Once Kamil arrived at Suk-el-Gharb, Jim offered to teach him English, and the two young men became strong friends.
Sam loved reading Jim’s letters, and he sent out prayer letters urging his friends to pray that Kamil and Jedaan would soon become missionaries to their own people.
In the meantime, Jim wrote about a walking trip he had taken with an English evangelist and a Scottish missionary along the Mediterranean coast from Beirut to Sidon, Tyre, and Haifa, and through Palestine to Jerusalem. The whole walk was a distance of about 150 miles one way. Of his trip Jim reported, “It was thought a rather hazardous trip, and we were questioned as to what we would do if we were attacked by bandits. The answer was, ‘The Scotsman will fight, the Englishman pray, and the American run for help.’” Sam chuckled when he read this. He could imagine Jim sprinting across the desert looking for aid.
Sam worked hard to get excellent grades in his seminary studies. He also found time for his medical studies and visiting anyone he thought might be interested in praying for or donating to the Arabian Mission.
The class of 1890 graduated from New Brunswick Seminary in May. Sam was ordained as a pastor in the Reformed Church on May 29, a month and a half after celebrating his twenty-third birthday. Following his graduation and ordination, Sam had time for a quick trip home, after which he planned to set out to join Jim in Beirut.
Sam’s father and brother Fred had both decided to travel to the Netherlands. Sam’s father, who was now sixty-six years old, wanted to visit the land of his birth, and Fred was curious to see Holland for himself. The two men booked berths on the SS Obdam, the same ship on which Sam would be traveling. The vessel was bound for Bristol, England, where the three Zwemer men planned to take a train north to Edinburgh, Scotland. Sam wanted to visit Ion Keith-Falconer’s mother and meet the board of the Church of Scotland Mission to South Arabia, or Scottish Mission, as most people referred to it, which had sent Ion to Arabia as a missionary.
The night before the departure, Dr. John Lansing preached a rousing farewell sermon based on 1 Samuel 30:24–25. He challenged all of those who stayed behind to become involved in the Arabian Mission in whatever way they could. He used these Bible verses to show that God would reward them for their faithfulness, just as he would reward Sam and Jim for going out as missionaries to Arabia.
On June 28, 1890, Sam, Fred, and their father climbed the gangplank of the Obdam and waved to the well-wishers below. Sam was grateful for all the people who had supported him so far. He hoped that he could join Jim in bringing life and hope to thousands of Muslims. He used the voyage across the Atlantic Ocean to study Arabic and enjoy times of prayer with his father and brother.
Before long the SS Obdam docked in Bristol and the three Zwemers were soon on the train north to Edinburgh. As the train moved along, Sam peered out the window at the rolling green countryside where sheep and cattle grazed. It was similar to what he had viewed from train windows on his trips around the United States, except for the ruins of ancient castles and forts that dotted the English and Scottish landscape.
The Zwemer men were met at the Edinburgh train station by a member of the Scottish Mission board and taken to Lixmount House, where the countess dowager of Kintore, mother of Ion Keith-Falconer, welcomed them warmly. Sam and his brother and father spent a delightful few days at Lixmount House. The countess was a devout Christian who had given birth to seven children, four of them boys. Two of her sons had died as teenagers, and now Ion was also dead, leaving only her oldest son, Algernon. At the same time that Ion had set out to be a missionary in Arabia, Algernon had been appointed by Queen Victoria as governor of South Australia, where he now lived with his wife and children. As the countess told Sam about her family, she wiped a few tears from her eyes but then brightened up when reminding him that those who have died were already rejoicing in heaven.
Sam also met with the members of the Scottish Mission board, who told him about their plans to dedicate a mission hospital in Ion Keith-Falconer’s memory. Sam promised to do what he could to help them.
Their stay in Edinburgh over, the Zwemers boarded a train, this time bound for London, where Sam realized that this would be his last time in an English-speaking city for a long time. He took the opportunity to visit bookstores and buy a few books. His best find was Charles Doughty’s Travels in Arabia Deserta. The two-volume book had been published the year before. The author, an Englishman, had attached himself to a Bedouin group and written about wandering with them through Transjordan and northern Saudi Arabia, all of which were loosely under the rule of the Ottoman Empire. Sam found Doughty’s book to be riveting reading.
After spending time in London, the three Zwemer men boarded a ferryboat for the trip to the Netherlands. Sam knew his father was proud to be returning to his home country with two of his sons, who were both pastors. Adriaan was even more proud that they were both missionaries, one in the Dakotas, the other bound for Arabia. In Holland the men were invited to speak at churches in Rotterdam, Leiden, and Middelburg, where the congregations were interested in Arabian missionary work.
Sam’s father loved preaching in his native tongue, but Sam was a little worried about doing so. He spoke Dutch and had prepared and delivered one or two short addresses in the language back in Iowa. But now, in the center of Dutch literature and culture, he felt nervous. During the first meeting he titled his talk Bakermat van den Islam (Cradle of Islam), but he mispronounced the words so that their meaning came out, “baker’s assistant of Islam.” Everyone laughed at his mistake but still listened to what he had to say.
Wherever he went in Holland, Sam made friends easily and gained supporters for the Arabian Mission. While in the Netherlands Sam also got to meet some of his relatives. Although many Boons (his mother’s family) and Zwemers had originally planned to go to the United States, his parents were the only ones who actually made the journey. Both sets of his grandparent had died long ago, but Sam was able to meet one aunt, two uncles, and numerous cousins.
