Jim pointed. “You can see what a wonderful port Aden is. The Arabs come across the desert with coffee, dates, spices, and wool to trade, and ships are passing by all the time. The British really needed this place to protect their ships from pirates and also because it’s about midway between Zanzibar, Bombay, and Cyprus in the Mediterranean, all of which the British control. It’s the perfect refueling and provisioning station for ships coming and going through the Suez Canal.”
“Yes, Mr. French told me as much as we were sailing into the harbor this morning,” Sam said.
That night Sam could hardly sleep. When he relaxed and shut his eyes, he could still feel the rocking motion of the steamer. He heard unfamiliar noises, the rustling of insects on the grass mats on the floor, the howling of dogs, and the rhythmic marching of British guards patrolling the streets.
The next day there was more sightseeing to do. This time Jim took Sam to see one of the wonders of the ancient world—the Cisterns of Tawila. The cisterns were a series of tanks of varying shapes and capacities sculpted from the volcanic rock of Wadi Tawila, above Crater Town. Jim explained to Sam that the tanks were about two thousand years old, though no one knew for sure. By the time the British took control of Aden in 1839, the cisterns had fallen into disrepair. British engineers repaired and modified the tanks, which for years stored the water for Aden. Now the British were desalting seawater, and that’s what most Europeans used. The locals got their water delivered by camel cart from inland wells.
Sam was impressed with the ingenious design of the cisterns and how they had been used over the centuries. He also had some new insight regarding water. He wrote to his father, “Living here, where it is so dry, certainly reminds me of how important water was in biblical days. When Jesus said he was the living water and anyone who thirsted could come to him and be satisfied, people hearing that would certainly have understood just how precious water was and what a wonderful gift Jesus was offering them.”
Following their visit to the Cisterns of Tawila, Sam and Jim made their way to Sheikh Othman, just outside Aden, to visit the grave of Ion Keith-Falconer. Sam was deeply moved to be standing beside the grave of the young man whose life had helped get him thinking about Arabia as a mission field. Sam also thought about Ion’s mother, whom he’d visited in Scotland months before. As he said a prayer for her, the words of Jesus from John 12:24 came to mind: “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (RSV). Sam hoped that Ion’s sacrifice would indeed bring much fruit in Arabia and that he might play a part bringing that about.
Less than two weeks after arriving in Aden, Sam was having grave doubts about whether he would live to see that fruit. He and Jim were both stricken with malaria, the same tropical disease that had claimed Ion’s life. Sam’s bones ached so badly it felt as though he were being beaten with a hammer, and his body shook uncontrollably. His only relief came when he faded out of consciousness. An English doctor attended Sam and Jim, spooning bitter quinine medicine down their throats and draping dampened sheets across their feverish skin.
After several days the worst of their symptoms began to subside. The doctor warned Sam and Jim, “These bouts will come and go for years, you know. You will feel fine one day, and then, without warning, you will get a low fever and be useless for any work until it passes.”
Sam nodded. In his private medical studies while attending New Brunswick Seminary, he had studied malaria and knew that what the doctor said was true. Once malaria got into your body, it never really left.
“Still,” the doctor brightened up, “you have a lot to be grateful for. You are both going to recover, something I cannot say of all my malaria patients, even some as young and fit as the two of you.”
Sam caught Jim’s eye. He knew they were both thinking about Ion and how he had died just a few miles from where they now lay ill.
Both Sam and Jim were beginning to feel better when something happened that boosted their spirits. On February 7, 1891, Kamil arrived at their doorstep. He was ready and eager to begin his work with the Arabian Mission. Sam immediately realized what an asset Kamil would be. Kamil not only spoke flawless Arabic and English, but was also an excellent student of the Koran and the Old and New Testaments. He could compare and contrast the main ideas in these texts as succinctly as any theology professor Sam had ever listened to.
Kamil set to work immediately, walking out to where the caravans of Arabs gathered outside the city. As he engaged the camel drivers in conversation about Jesus, other drivers would stop what they were doing to listen and debate. In this way it was not uncommon for Kamil to attract a group of fifty to one hundred people, all listening to him proclaim the gospel and explain how it related to the Koran.
A month after Kamil’s arrival, it became obvious to Sam and Jim that Aden would not make a good initial station for the Arabian Mission. The place was too small and under the thumb of the British. They decided to explore farther afield. Jim would stay in Aden, and Sam and Kamil would travel along the southern coast of Arabia to spy out the land. They set their sights on Makullah, a port town three hundred miles to the east along the coast.
The two men left Aden on board a sixty-foot sloop, or saai, named the Mubarakat (Blessed) on the evening of March 19, 1891. They were headed for Belhaf, which lay about three-quarters of the way to Makullah. In their luggage were 120 Arabic Bibles and New Testaments they had purchased from Mr. Brunton of the British and Foreign Bible Society. Sam and Kamil hoped to sell them along the way. The price was inexpensive, but selling the Bibles and New Testaments ensured that the buyers were serious about reading them. Sam and Kamil also carried with them a letter of introduction from a British officer in Aden to the local sultan at Makullah.
The Mubarakat had one short, heavy mast with a spar that supported a small sail. The sail was patched, and the sloop was rigged with palm leaf ropes. The sloop had no cabin, and since Sam and Kamil were the only first-class passengers, they got to sit in a canoe that had been hoisted aboard and wedged between bales of cotton and coffee.
Soon after setting out from Aden the crew started preparing dinner. It was the month of Ramadan, when Muslims fasted during the daytime, but the crew assured Sam they would cook for them during the day. As it turned out, neither Sam nor Kamil wanted food for the first twenty-four hours of the journey. During the night the wind kicked up and the waves rose, causing both of them seasickness. By the second day the men felt well enough to talk with the captain, the sailors, and their fellow passengers—twenty-five people in all. Everyone seemed willing to hear about the gospel, and by the third day two passengers had bought Bibles to read for themselves.
Sam marveled at how well Kamil could use the Koran to prove the Bible was true and how well his hearers responded to what he said. Kamil was always respectful and answered questions thoroughly. By the time they stopped at the village of Shefra for water supplies, the passengers were asking Kamil to read portions of the Bible aloud.
Kamil used the tajweed, a loud musical intoning required in Muslim recitation, when reading the Koran aloud. The passengers and crew listened with rapt attention and delight, and whenever Kamil paused, they shouted for him to continue.
On March 23, Sam and Kamil each took a group of sailors and spoke to them about the plan of salvation and how the prophecies of the Old Testament told of the coming of Jesus Christ. The sailors spoke among themselves and then said to Sam, “We can see that you are not infidels as we had previously believed you were. You speak words of life that we understand.” Afterward, whenever Kamil read Scripture aloud the men would yell out, “Zein, zein, wallah zein; laisoo b’kuffar” (Very fine; by the name of Allah, fine; they are not infidels).
It was more than Sam could have hoped for. Both the sailors and the passengers were open to the message he and Kamil sought to pass along.
Sam wondered if there were people living inland from the coast and asked the captain about this.
“Yes, there are people,” the captain said. “They are like the sands that cannot be counted or numbered. Many sultans who are at perpetual war rule them, and peace is secured in the end only by the aid of the judges. There are no streams or rivers, and the water is chiefly rainwater. There are some wells, but they are scarce.”
On Saturday, March 25, they sailed into Arkah, the town of Sheikh Abdurahman el Badas and the site of his tomb. The Arabs regarded the sheikh—an Islamic elder—as a saint. Sam and Kamil got off the Mubarakat to stretch their legs and survey the town. They had just strolled past a few houses when two men walked up to them. Kamil spoke first. “Do you know the gospel, and have you heard about the Christ?” he asked.
“We have never heard of the Christ, nor do we know what the gospel is,” one of the men replied. Kamil briefly explained the gospel as the two men listened with deep interest. The men then invited the missionaries to visit their home and tell them more. Sam ran back to the boat to beg the captain to stay longer, but the captain refused. He explained that the harbor was unsafe to spend the night moored in and they needed to keep moving toward their destination. Sam was disappointed to leave Arkah, but he was also encouraged to know that people were open to the gospel.
On Monday, March 27, the Mubarakat sailed into Belhaf, the sloop’s destination. Sam was sorry to say goodbye to the crew, who had bought six New Testaments between them.
Once on land, Sam needed to find a way to go the last eighty miles to Makullah. The local people wanted a lot of money to escort them by camel. No donkeys were available for sale or rent, and no other sloops were moored in the harbor. Eventually Sam bought passage on a twenty-seven-foot canoe, called a flook.
Only a captain and two sailors were aboard the canoe, and one of the sailors was assigned to bail out water before they even left the harbor. Sam talked to the captain and sailors about Christianity, and Kamil offered to read to them from the Gospel of John. The crew would have none of it. They spat and turned their heads away when Sam or Kamil tried to talk to them. The captain complained that he would have to scrub the entire boat out when the voyage was over, as “unclean” men were traveling in it. Sam and Kamil spent their time praying and reading the Bible silently as the vessel sailed on to Bir Ali, a small trading village with an excellent water supply.
Sam and Kamil left Bir Ali at dawn on March 29, and immediately Sam was concerned. The winds were stronger, and the waves were bigger than anything he’d experienced since arriving in Arabia. Soon the wind was howling, and each sailor clung to the side of the canoe with one arm while trying to bail out water with the other. Everything, including the luggage and precious Arabic Bibles, was drenched. Sam started to shiver. He was soaked to the skin, and the wind felt as if it were whipping right through him. He started singing hymns in English, and Kamil joined in. Then, as the waves grew higher than palm trees, the two men yelled encouragements to each other.
Sam was suddenly aware that the captain was yelling at them. “We are running ashore until the storm has passed. We cannot outrun it!”
Sam nodded vigorously as the two sailors grabbed the oars and began the difficult job of bringing the vessel about. It was some time before Sam felt the scraping of sand against the hull. The sailors jumped out—half swimming, half walking—and began dragging the boat to the beach. It proved too much of a struggle, and Sam and Kamil jumped into the sea. They gripped the canoe and helped to pull it toward land. The men finally managed to draw the boat up onto the beach to safety.
