The Arabian Mission's Story: In Search of Abraham's Other Son.

Vogelaar, Harold

By Lewis R. Scudder III. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1998. Pp. xxvi, 578. Paperback $39.

This is must reading for anyone interested in the story of why the Reformed Church in America sent mission personnel to the Middle East, specifically to the Arabian Gulf, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Iraq (though not to Lebanon or Egypt). Here is the story of their search for Abraham's other son: why they went, what happened when they got there, the failures and successes of what they did, and the ongoing saga. Scudder does a masterful job of illuminating these diverse landscapes by weaving together a story that covers more than l00 years and several locations with many characters moving back and forth, all of them involved in different kinds of ministry.

The book taps into resources, both written and oral, that were painstakingly collected, first by Ed Luidens, who began this history but died before it was finished, and then by Scudder, who was handed the task and continued the research. It was a good choice. Having grown up in Kuwait, Scudder writes from a vantage point that is quite personal but always insightful, intriguing, honest, and informative. The result is a great deal of new information that provides fascinating stories of personal sacrifice and conviction--humanized by failures of spirit and personal idiosyncrasies--yet somehow always ennobled by the call of Christ to preach, teach, and heal.

"The mandate I have," writes Scudder, "requires that I be rigorous with facts and as thorough as possible. It is not the purpose of this book to promote the Arabian Mission. It is intended to be a history that will allow the record of that mission to stand on its own merits." He reasons that if "we cannot speak openly about ourselves then adversaries will take note and portray us as though they knew us better than we know ourselves" (p. xxi).

At the end, after eight chapters of skillfully woven factual history, warts and all, Scudder writes: "The sermon now is ended. The book, praise God, concluded. The work is not." I only wish the author had drawn illustrations as copiously from Bahrain and Oman as he has from Kuwait.

The story told here goes a long way toward providing a definitive account of the Arabian Mission. Such a work may eventually require an outsider. What this portrait offers is an inside glimpse of the vision, drive, hopes, dreams, and frustrations of those who labored so many years to make the search for the sons of Ishmael into a pilgrimage of Christian love. It is a story still unfolding.

Harold Vogelaar spent more than twenty-five years in church work in the Middle East, first in Bahrain, then in Oman, and finally in Cairo, Egypt, where he taught on the faculty of the Evangelical Theological Seminary and served as liaison for the Middle East Council of Churches. He is now Professor in Global Mission and World Religions at the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago.