1 Mr FRIENDS MISSION IN RAM ALLAH ISSUED BY AMERICAN FRIENDS BOARD OF FOREIGN MISSIONS RICHMOND, INDIANA 1912 THE STORY OF THE RAM ALLAH MISSION" Foreword In the middle part of the last century Eli Jones and his wife, Sybil Jones, ministers in the Society of Friends, were often called to leave their quiet home on the shores of the beautiful lake at South China, Maine, to carry to other parts of the world the Good News of the One who came to heal the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and to open the prisons of those that were bound. In fol- lowing the voice of the Spirit they were led to many parts of the United States, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, the W est Coast of Africa, Ireland, England, Norway, Germany, Switzerland and the South of France. It has been truthfully said that "Man is incurably re- ligious," and perhaps this is nowhere more apparent than in the small section of the world where the three great reli- gions, Judaism, Christianity, and Muhammedanism had their birth. To this country so small in size, yet so great in history, once rising so high as to give to the world the most sublime spiritual teaching man has ever known, and then sinking so low as to be overshadowed by ignorance, superstition and sin, to this country where each individual is classified according to religion, Eli and Sybil Jones felt called to take back the Light as it is in Christ Jesus. And here today are two flourishing fruit bearing vines, planted more than forty years ago by their loving hands. Ram Allah Ram Allah, Palestine, is situated on one of the hills of Benjamin. Its name signifies "Hill of God." It is 2,850 feet above the Mediterranean Sea, which can be seen easily, although thirty-five miles away. One day while Eli Jones was walking- in the narrow streets' of Ram Allah a slender girl of about fifteen accosted him and in broken English asked if he would not start a school for girls. He asked her who would be the teacher and she answered, "I will." On making inquiry the Friends learned that with the exception of a few schools in the cities nothing was being done to educate and uplift the womanhood of the land. So it was decided that a little school should be established in Ram Allah, and Miriam was installed as its first teacher. This school of twenty girls, which grew to number fifty, was the beginning of the permanent work of Friends in Palestine. During this trip Eli and Sybil Jones and their English companions opened five day schools in different villages, took some Muhammedan girls from three villages arid placed them in a boarding school at Nazareth, and when they sailed for home left their work in charge of their drag- oman, Jacob Hishmeh, who lived at Ram Allah and had been much influenced by their preaching. For the next seventeen years he was the Superintendent of this work and added to the day school already established three others. After the next visit of Eli Jones, in 1875, a house was rented and regular gospel meetings were held for the peo- ple. These were open to all on First Day morning, but on one evening of the week a meeting was held especially for men. As there were many quarrels and feuds among the people at that time most of them came armed. Some would stand their guns in the corners of the room, while others would take off their long swords and sit down cross legged on the floor with the -shining weapons lying in front of them while they listened to the teachings about the Prince of Peace. After the meeting was over coffee was served and as the room was warm and comfortable several would often roll up in their long cloak-like garments and sleep until morning. 2 View of Ram Allah In the village only two or three grown people could read and not a single dwelling house had a glass window in it. The doors were low and placed in the corners of the houses so that the family might sleep out of range, as enemies had a way of shooting through the doors. Some houses in Ram Allah still show the bullet holes, relics of that time. Their only lamp was a little dish of olive oil, in which a bit of cloth served as a wick. Every woman went barefooted. Bed- steads were unknown. All slept on straw mats on tfie floor. I |i tH j During the first twenty years of this history the work at Ram Allah was under the supervision of English Friends. Some of our strongest members in the Ram Allah monthly meeting of today were converted and brought into the So- ciety during that period. These English Friends purchased land at Ram Allah and built a stone mission house. This is now the oldest part of the Girls' Training Home. When finished the house was occupied by the families of Jacob Hishmeh and Dr. George Hessenaur, who had just arrived. The latter opened a dispensary and found many ways to preach the gospel as he labored to alleviate the sufferings of those arourtd him. Division of the Field — Brumanna and Ram Allah Five years after Friends began mission work in Ram Allah they began work also in Brumanna, Mt. Lebanon. Theophilus Waldemeir was engaged as teacher, and soon two day schools were opened. The work grew till it com- prised ten day schools, a boys' boarding school, a girls' boarding school and a native monthly meeting. In all: of .this work American and English Friends worked together till, in 1887, it seemed expedient to divide the two fields, English Friends taking Brumanna and New England Year- ly Meeting assuming the entire support and control of the work at Ram Allah. 4 Village Street in Ram Allah* Opening of Training Home at Ram Allah The New England Committee assumed complete con-* trol of the work at Ram Allah Seventh month ist, 1888, and owing to some difficulties that had arisen and the impor- tance of securing legal titles to the property it seemed best that some members of the committee should visit Ram Allah. Therefore T. B. Hussey and his wife, Anna M. Hussey, and Charles M. Jones, accompanied by T. B. Hus- sey 's sister, Sarah Hussey, and by Joseph J. Mills, President, of Earlham College, sailed from America First month ist, 1889. They stopped for a few days in England, and the transfer of property between the English and American Friends was signed in London. It was not an easy task which the Friends' had under- taken. The work of re-construction is always attended with difficulties. They went to an empty house to open a Girls' Training Home without knowing where to look for matron, teachers, girls or even the furniture. Having no knowledge of the language of the land they realized that all business would have to be transacted by means of interpreters. But: there was much to encourage them. The day school for boys and one for girls, also the mixed school which had been opened in the west part of Ram Allah, were all in healthy condition. The medical work, which had been left in the hands of the dispenser, was giving much physical aid and comfort in and near the village. The first work undertaken was to prepare the mission house and grounds for a boarding school for girls, to be known as the Girls' Training Home for Ram Allah. The Friends had long since realized that there is not much hope for a nation if its women are kept in ignorance and degrada- tion. Timothy Hussey made a trip to Beirut, where he bought bedsteads, blankets, cloth for mattresses, etc. ; Maria Felt- ham came down from Brumanna, horseback to Beirut to 6 help make the purchases. These things were brought by ship 120 miles down the coast to Jaffa and by camels up through the hills of Judea to Ram Allah. A trip was made to Jericho to get wool for the mattresses and the two women, Anna and Sarah Hussey, with a few native helpers, were busy sewing — in fact they made all the things neces- sary to furnish a home for fifteen to twenty persons. After the mission home was furnished the work of find- ing girls whose parents were willing to let them enter a boarding school was begun. Different villages were visited and the shaykhs as well as the parents were consulted on the question. At one village twenty-one men gathered in the guest room to meet with the foreigners. In the course of the conversation one said, "Talk about educating women, you might as well talk about educating those cows out there on the hillside." The clothes were furnished and made for the girls at the school. No tuition was asked from the parents and yet sev- eral were the disappointments experienced in trying to get enough girls to fill the home. It was thought best to get girls from different places, so that when they were educated they could be sent back to their homes as teachers for the children of their own villages. By perseverance twelve girls were obtained from six different places and after Huldah Leighton took charge three more were received. Twenty years have passed and with the passing of time man}? changes have come. Now all who are received into the Training Home furnish their own clothes. All pay some money on tuition. The home accommodates fifty girls, and one of the unpleasant things in the work is the necessity of refusing many who wish to come and for whom there is no room. The first teacher secured for the new school was Katie Gabriel. Herself trained in a mission school in Mt. Leba- non, she has devoted her life to uplifting the womanhood of her land. When she was fourteen years old Katie Ga- 7 briel was engaged as a teacher in the Orphanage of Naza- reth. Here she remained for two years, when she went, as teacher, to the British Syrian School in Beirut, under Miss Thompson. She remained in this school for thirteen years. During the last seven years of her stay she was the head teacher. For more than twenty years now she has rendered a faithful service for her Lord and Master in the mission at Ram Allah. Her strong Christian character, broad-minded- ness, good judgment and ability to stand firmly for the right, has brought her the love and respect of both foreign- ers and natives. For many years she translated sentence by sentence the sermons of the different ministers who have felt called to give messages to this people. She has also acted as interpreter in most of the important business. At the same time that Katie Gabriel came to Ram Allah Huldah H. Leighton arrived from America to fill the posi- tion of matron at the Girls' Training Home. She stayed a year and eight months and then returned to America for a year. After that she spent three years more in Ram Allah, she and Katie Gabriel working shoulder to shoulder, put- ting the work on a good foundation. In 1895 her health failed and she felt that her part of the labor had been per- formed. During these early days of the Mission there came to its corp of workers two other valuable helpers from Mt. Leba- non,' Martha and Hannah Nusr, sisters. Martha Nusr first came to help Katie Gabriel while Hul- dah Leighton was in the homeland. After Huldah Leigh- ton returned Martha took charge of the clay schools and vil- lage work. With Bible in hand she would go into the dark, smoky houses, care for their sick, wash the children, make tidy the mom, then sit down and teach them a beautiful les- son from the Bible'. She was so well adapted to taking care of the sick that when Edward Strawbridge and wife, of Philadelphia, vis- ited the mission in T899, arid offered to take her to Amer- 8 ica and give her a nurse's training in one of the best hos- pitals in their own city it seemed right for her to go, and her sister, Hannah, took her place at Ram Allah as Super- intendent of day schools and Bible woman. Martha was in the United States five years. She returned to the mission in 1904, and spent one year nursing in the village, and then for three years was matron of the Boys' Training Home. The following extracts from Hannah Nusr's records, when she was a home visitor and Bible reader, are indications of her spirit and effectiveness. "Spoke about the Bread of Life that sustains the soul and gave a piece of soap, a towel and a wash cloth to the woman." "Washed three little girls' hands, faces and feet, cleaned the room and put things out into the sun. The woman had sore eyes and was very grateful for what was done." "Washed two babies who are motherless." "Read the Bible to a paralyzed man." "Talked to a boy who had been rude to his mother and had cursed her." Hannah Nusr is now matron in the Boys' Training Home, where her work is to see that thirty boys are fed and cared for, taught how to make beds, sweep rooms and look after dining tables — in fact trained to live in such a clean, comfortable way that they will always desire it for them- selves and their people. The First English Teacher In the autumn of 1889 Timothy and Anna Hussey re- turned to their home in America. About the same time Henrietta Johnston, of Winthrop Center, Me., left America to take the place of English teacher in the Girls' Training Home at Ram Allah. Here she labored very effectually, teaching English to the little girls, and helping them with their singing. The Syrian people are very fond of music and the Christian hymns have more joy in them than the 9 native music which seems always in the minor. She or- ganized a Peace Society for the girls. The pledge, which they repeat every First Day in the meeting, is as follows : "I promise by the help of God to live as peacefully as pos- sible with everybody and to try to induce others to do the . same." This society has been the means of keeping' down petty jealousies in the school and in helping keep the girls sweet 'and kind. A Monthly Meeting Established William and Susan Taber Thompson first visited the mission at Ram Allah in 1890. All felt that the time had come to establish a Friends' Meeting. William Thompson in his Bible talks explained "Friends' principles." Rules for a Monthly Meeting were drawn up, united with and signed by thirty-two persons. This monthly meeting has a clerk, correspondent, treas- urer and two overseers. In the days of Huldah Leighton it ran well, but during the last year of her stay at the mission she was too ill to carry the burden of it. The native mem- bers did not feel equal to carrying it alone, and so they laid it down. It was re-organized when Elihu and Almy Grant were here, George A. Barton, of Bryn Mawr assisting. It now has ninety members, who show signs of having grown in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. American Workers When Huldah Leighton became ill and felt that her work at Ram Allah was over, Charles M. Jones came for the second time to take charge. He was accompanied by his wife, Ellen Maxfield Jones. They reached Ram Allah in Seventh month, 1895. They had been here only a few months when both were taken dangerously ill with typhoid fever, and Charles M. Jones died. Ellen Jones recovered and returned to America. In response to an appeal for a Superintendent and Ma- li) I Iron for the Ram Allah mission, published in the American 1 Friend and Missionary Advocate, Wilfred and Delia D. 1 Rowntree appeared before the committee, bringing accept- able letters of recommendation. They went to Ram Allah in the spring of 1897. During their stay at the mission the rocky ledge on the east, where the driveway is now located, and a vineyard to the south were added to the Girls' Train- ing Home grounds, bringing them to their present size. Girl's Training Home Walls, paths and other improvements were made. They systematized the Bible School work and gathered the teach- ers together on one evening during each week for a meeting of preparation and study. Wilfrid and Delia Rowntree also read aloud books of science and literature to the young teachers in order that they might keep growing in knowledge and usefulness. These two missionaries remained in charge of the mission five years. 11 When the Christian Endeavor Union of New England Yearly Meeting decided to be responsible for the financial support of a Boys' Training Home at Ram Allah, a plan for the same was adopted by the yearly meeting and Elihu Grant and Almy Chase Grant were sent to open and take charge of this branch of the work. Those who have fol- lowed after have been very much pleased with the splendid basis on which the work was founded, especially with the way the money question was handled. From the beginning the parents of each boy have been asked to furnish all clothes and to pay at least twenty-five dollars towards the boy's tui- tion. The price has been raised and now all pay thirty dol- lars apiece. This has had a good effect on both school and parents. With the exception of the cleanliness and order of the every-day life, nothing has had more permanent effect on the habits of the boys than the Temperance Society which Almy Grant organized soon after the school was opened. One of the valued helpers in the Boys' Training Home was Charles F. Camp. He had gone from America to Jeru- salem to be a self-supporting missionary among the Jews, doing enough work at his trade as a carpenter to pay ex- penses while he spent the rest of his time distributing litera- ture and laboring among the Hebrews. Sometimes the leaders at the synagogues were very angry with him and more than once a Jewish mob attacked him. But in his quiet way he would send them word that he loved them and his kindness to them caused some to say that he must have Jewish blood in him or he could not treat them as he did. He had followed this manner of life for five years when Elihu Grant found him and induced him to give part of his time to the industrial work in the Boys' Training- Home. He was engaged for this work in 1902, and gave a part of each week to it until he went away to Arabia in 1905. While in the Training Home he gave instruction to the boys in the use of tools and in mechanical drawing. Several of 12 the boys had their first awakening to the things of the Spirit around this carpenter's bench. His religious influence was felt throughout the whole mission. During the year and a half after Wilfrid and Delia Rowntree had returned to America and Elihu and Almy Grant had resigned the Board was searching prayerfully for a Superintendent of the Ram Allah Mission and for matrons for both schools. During the yearly meeting A. E. Kelsey, who was a member of the Mission Board, received a mes- sage from his wife saying that she felt it right for them to offer themselves for the Ram Allah mission. They were accepted. Though their new task meant sacrifice and suf- fering to them it brought much good to the Syrian people and the mission. An advertisement in the American Friend found a matron for the Boys' Training Home. Rose E. Lee was accepted at the Lynn Quarterly Meeting held in Eighth month, 1903, and sailed with the Kelsey family, which con- sisted of A. Edward Kelsey, Mary Macomber Kelsey and two children, Francis Willard Kelsey, aged three years and three months, and Irving Kelsey, aged twenty-one months. The party arrived at Ram Allah Eleventh month 8th, 1903. In the summer of 1906 Mary Kelsey developed tubercu- losis and after making a desperate but unavailing fight to conquer the disease in Palestine the family sailed for Amer- ica. After spending six months in a Maine sanitarium Mary Kelsey was so much improved that the Board felt free .to accept Edward Kelsey's services for another year, part of which was spent in America, collecting funds for the Boys' Training Home and part at Ram Allah, building a large reservoir or cistern on the Boys' Training Home grounds. In 1906 Alice Whittier Jones, the daughter of Charles H. and H. Elizabeth Jones, of Amesburg, Mass., was appointed a teacher by the Hoard. Soon after she reached Ram Allah il became necessary for Edward Kelsey to take his family to America. Then the care and responsibility of all the 13 work fell to Alice Jones and Katie Gabriel. They shoul- dered the work bravely and did what they could until re- enforcements came. Later Katie Gabriel relinquished all school room duties and Alice Jones took up the duties of Principal in the Girls' Training Home. After her first fur- lough Alice W. Jones returned to Ram Allah in Third month, 1912. Absalom Rosenberger, President of Penn College at Oskaloosa, Iowa, who had traveled in Palestine in 1901, was engaged for the mission in 1909, reaching the mission Eleventh month, 17th. In the spring of 1910 A. Rosenberger went back to America and married. He then returned to Palestine with Mrs. Rosenberger and her sister, Mrs. Gilchrist, who taught English in the Girls' Training Home during the first year of Alice Jones' furlough. First Pupils The first girl received into the Training Home was Zar- eefie Audi, twelve years of age. She had been taught a few years in the Friends' day school in her native town. Ram Allah, and one year in Miss Arnot's school in Jaffa. After three and a half years in the Training Home, being sup- ported by Indiana Friends, her father took her out of the school, promising her in marriage. Zareefie has made a good wife and mother, has two children, one of whom at this writing is a pupil in the Training School. She has been a Bible woman for several years, under the care and sup- port of the Church Missionary Society, and has done excel- lent work. The second girl received into the Training Home was Lydia Damishkey, daughter of a native pastor of the Church Missionary Society in Lydda. She was eight years old when she entered the school and remained nine years, being supported by Iowa Friends. One day when she was a little girl she told her teacher that when she grew up she wished 14 to become a Missionary teacher. Many years afterwards a loving Heavenly Father granted that wish in an unexpected way. She is the wife of a Syrian Christian missionary in German East Africa. The third girl received into the Training Home was Afeefie Faragallah. She also stayed until she graduated Day School at Ram Allah and then she became a teacher for the mission. After a few years she went to be matron in Haifa. Another girl was Jennie Hishmey, who graduated in six years, taught for three years in the Training Home, then for nine years had charge of a day school for little Hebrew children. Jennie is now head teacher in a large Muham- medan school in that city: Then there are the twins, Lula and Lamya. Both grad- uated and both taught for a while in the day schools of the Friends Mission. Lamya went into a hospital in Egypt, to take a nurse's training. 15 In 1890 Katie Gabriel brought one of her nieces, a child of nine, to enter the school, and in two years more the little sister of only seven came. They both developed into rare, sweet characters, and after finishing the course of study, have taught at different times for the mission. One day a man came from the east of the Jordan. With him were his two little girls. He said he wished to put the oldest into school, and that he had brought her shoes with her. She was examined and for some reason was unsuit- able, but the little sister, a child of eight years, was in good health and looked bright and promising, so the father was told that the youngest would be received. He answered, "It is better, for the shoes I have bought are too tight for the oldest, but they will just fit the little one." Helanie has given good services as teacher in the day school at Tayyibeh. She receives a salary of $120 a year. Out of this she clothes herself and furnishes considerable of the living of the family, besides clothing and paying $20 tuition for her little sister, Martha, who is now in the Train- ing Home. She has also bought a table, two chairs and a sewing machine for her home, all of which she puts to good use. Like a candle in a dark room is her life in the village of Tayyibeh (Ophra of the Bible). And what shall I say of the others? The little girl who at first attempted to sleep under the bed instead of on it, is now a mother of a family, and is trying to give them all a Christian education. Then there is Martha, the wife of the boys' teacher, a little barefoot girl, though married when she came to us; the two fair-haired German girls, daughters of a missionary; the little Armenian whose father was killed in a massacre ; the two Greek girls, who knew neither English nor Arabic ; 1 lalada the Muhammedan ; Mateel the blind girl with the light of the. love of Christ shining in her face, and the many from town and village who have shared for a while the sweet influences of the Home and have gone out to make 16 the world better. The Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Year- ly Meeting has aided in the support of the Girls' Training- Home. Ever since the school opened they have paid the salary of Katie Gabriel. The Woman's Foreign Missionary Societies of the other Yearly Meetings helped by paying the expenses of individual girls. At present the Woman's So- ciety of the Yearly Meeting supports Katie Gabriel and Alice Jones and pays $1,000 towards the expenses of the girls in the Home. During the twenty years from 1889 to the close of 1909 the mission received 141 girls into the Home. These have stayed on an average of five years each. Of these ten have died, thirty-one have married, and thirty-seven have become teachers. Four of these girls came from Armenia, one from Smyrna,' one from Crete and six from Beirut, but most of them were from the towns and villages of Palestine. Thirty- three came from Jerusalem and forty-five from Ram Allah. When the home was first opened clothes and tuition were furnished free, but as the parents began to appreciate what was being done for them and their children they were asked to provide the clothing. Twelve years ago they began paying small sums on tuition. These sums have been in- creased from time to time. A village girl who has been edu- cated in our school is more likely to be given a word or choice as to marriage and with clean, industrious habits formed in the school she is prepared to make a happier home. Should she become a teacher she will be a real mis- sionary to her people. Daily Life in the Girls' Training Home When a little girl first comes to the Training Home she has to submit to a good bath and have her hair and scalp cleaned. Next she is given into the care of one of the older girls, who acts as her mother throughout the year. At six o'clock in the morning the big bell on the Train- ing Home rings, then, every girl must arise, dress, air her 17 bed. The teacher in charge taps a little bell and there is perfect silence in the big dormitories and each girl kneels by her bed in silent prayer. After breakfast, which con- sists of bread, olives and coffee, each girl makes her own bed and then goes to the part of the house where her work is assigned for that week. Some prepare the school-rooms, others are dish washers in the kitchen, some have charge of dining-rooms, Superintendent's room, etc. In fact every nook and corner of the house and grounds is assigned to some one and in every part there is a teacher in charge to see that the work is well done. After chapel exercises book-work begins. About one- third of this is in English and two-thirds in Arabic. The Bible lesson has an important place. The common branches, reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, grammar and his- tory, all have their places. Physiology and hygiene are taught to all. The village people often sleep in closely shut rooms, many of them full of smoke and foul with the smell of animals, but when the children learn the benefits of good, pure air, they are anxious to have it. One afternoon is for recitations, one for singing and writing. The rest are filled with mending, ironing, sewing, fancy work and sometimes when the day is fine the school takes a long walk to the valleys, returning with hands and baskets full of beautiful wild flowers. Religious Influence Besides the daily Bible lesson and Christian Endeavor prayer meeting during the week the following regular serv- ices are held each First Day. In the forenoon, chapel exer- cises, morning meeting and meeting of the Peace Society. In the afternoon Bible school and in the evening an informal song service. Much of the religious training is atmospheric, The child absorbs truth, as we see it. Yet there is usually a moment in each life when the soul realizes its great need of a Saviour 18 and a longing for the assurance that it has been accepted into the Kingdom of God causes it to be sensitive to the Spirit's voice when He speaks to it personally. Once a little Training Home girl said to me, "Do' tell us how we can get our people to come to Jesus." I answered, "Suppose you first tell me how you came to Jesus." Her story, told in broken English, was something like the following: "I learned of Jesus in my daily lessons ; then once our lesson Boys from the Training Home was about how Nathaniel came to Jesus. 1 wanted to come. I wanted to come so much I was sorry for the-things I had done that were wrong. I began to cry. The teacher did not know what I was crying about, and I did not tell her. After I came back 'to the Training Home 1 was still crying, then 1 went away alone and prayed until something told me it was all right." That little girl is now a teacher for a sister mission and her love for her Master is the controlling force of her life. 19 A friend once asked one of our teachers if she did not think that the Friends Mission paid more attention to the educational side of life than it did to the religious. She re- plied : "In our homes we are not taught much about God, but as soon as we enter the Training Home they put some- thing into our hearts about Jesus. I was ten years old when I first went to the Training Home. The first night when I was getting ready to go to bed a teacher came and knelt by my side and said, 'Let me hear you pray.' I prayed as I had been taught in the day school, after which she talked to me a little while and then went away. Then one day, I shall never forget it, I was very naughty and Katie Gabriel took me to her room, talked with me and prayed with me. I have been different ever since that time." This girl was a member of the Greek church when she first came to the mission. She has since joined the Friends. The priests of both churches have tried in many ways to win her, but she prefers the freedom of her simple religion to the forms of the Oriental churches. She is a teacher in an out village, and with the exception of one other woman is the only Protestant in the village. Bible Women The work of a Bible woman grew out of a mothers' meeting which was held for two years an afternoon of each week in the Training Home. These meetings were held by Katie Gabriel, but as her duties in the Home and school room increased it was thought best to hold these meetings for women in different parts of the village. In 1891 Emily Audi was employed for this work. Three meetings, with an average attendance of twenty-five at each meeting, were held regularly for fourteen years. The mothers usually brought their babies and their work with them to the meet ing. The work consisted of sewing or of a basket of wheat, from which they would pick the dirt and seed the tares as they sat on a mat at the feet of their teacher, listening to 20 the story about the Master who drew such beautiful lessons from these common things. A blind woman once said : "I have never felt so com- forted and happy in my heart as I have since attending these meetings. Though my natural eyes are shut I feel that my spiritual eyes are opened and I can sing the hymn, "Once I Was Blind, but Now I Can See" (translated into Arabic). After Emily Audi's resignation Helanie Totah was ap- pointed to give her whole time to Bible work, looking after the three meetings of women in Ram Allah, and spending one day of each week in Jifna, and one in Ain Areek, gath- ering the women together and teaching them. For two years she was assistant teacher in a Ram Allah school, and for the next ten years she had charge of the school at Ain Areek. She returned to the Ain Areek school after her term as Bible woman, and a year spent with the Christian Alliance Mission. Day Schools The majority of the villages of Palestine have no schools at all except perchance a little Muhammedan school for boys, where they all sit on the floor and study out loud the reading of the Koran and simple sums. In villages where native Christians live Protestants have opened little schools. Some of these are for boys and some for girls. As soon as the Greek and Roman Catholic churches see that the Protestant school is a success they usually open one in the same village. The Friends Mission has never opposed these schools, but has tried to encourage them, especially by setting good examples for them. For though these schools are not as good in order and teaching they are largely patterned after our own. At present the Friends of America have six day schools under their com- plete control, and the oversight of one other which is sup- ported by an independent missionary. These schools are open for forty weeks in the year. 21 A description of one of these schools will do for all. The children sit on low benches and the babies are often placed on a straw mat on the floor. For many a little girl could not come to school if she could not bring the baby brother or sister to be cared for while the mother is baking bread or helping the father in the field. So the ages found in a day school range from one and a half to about thirteen years. The babies play with blocks, beads and picture books, while the five-year-olds have a square of wood on which is written the Arabic alphabet. As yet our day schools have no desks except one long one used for writ- ing. Each child carries her books in a cloth bag hung by her side. The morning hours are filled with lessons. Read- ing, writing, and simple arithmetic, a little geography and a Scripture lesson constitute the program. In the after- noon the little girls are taught how to sew, doing plain patch work and the cross-stitch in silk with which their na- tive dresses are embroidered. The boys are given lessons in English. Then all commit some portion of Scripture to memory, repeat a prayer together and thus closes a happy clay spent at school. The effect of these day schools is not so much the little book learning which the children receive as the cleanly habits and high ideals which the teachers try to instil into them. The effect of the teaching on the care of the eyes has been especially noticeable. In former times every child in the village at certain seasons of the year would be afflicted with sore eyes. But through care and cleanliness there has -never been a bad case of eye trouble in either Training Home and now only a few cases are found in the day schools. For forty years Friends have had from one to four day schools in Ram Allah. At present we have three, but two of these are practically double schools', having two teachers each. The usual enrollment of the three schools is about 200, with an average attendance of perhaps 170. Boston School is in the west part of the village, and is 22 supported by the Friends' Bible School children in Boston. The head teacher of the school belongs to the tribe in that section of the village, and many of the school children are her relations. Some years ago it was known as. the dirtiest school in the village, but now it is practically clean and or- derly, and is our largest day school. Hope School is the oldest American school in Palestine, as it has been in continuous existence ever since the second visit of Eli and Sybil Jones, forty years ago. It is situated in the central part of the village, and is supported by three or four Friends living in Massachusetts. For many years this school was held in the large hall where the meetings and Bible schools were held, but since the new meeting house was built this school has been moved a little farther back off the noisy street into a house with two rooms and a play ground. Several children from Friends' families at- tend this school and their parents are learning to be more careful of the health of their little ones. Once I visited this school in January and found over half of them had no shoes which was remarkable even for Ram Allah. At the same time I visited Boston school and found only one out of every six had shoes, and most of these were boys. North School. This is the smallest Friends school in Ram Allah, and so has only one 'teacher. She is a graduate from the Girls' Training Home. This school has been moved to the northeast section of the village, next to the Friends meeting house. Out Schools Jifna. The school in this place was first opened in 1869 by Eli Jones and the Friends traveling with him. It was first opened for boys and a man was hired as a teacher. In the course of a few years the Greek and Latin churches be- came jealous of the school and established schools of their own, to which the priests ordered parents to send their chil- dren. So after five years' existence the Friends school for 23 boys at Jifna was closed. In 1893 tne people of the village petitioned the Friends mission for a school for girls. A good house and a good woman for the place as teacher were found, and for seventeen years the girls' school at Jifna has been a flourishing one. The school is supported by Friends in Baltimore Meeting. The present teacher, Martha Abdoo, has had charge of the school for nine years. Her home is in Jifna, but she received her education in the Training Home at Ram Allah. Each First Day the teacher holds a meeting which is attended by women and children, and possibly two or three men, and the day school sends the light into the homes in the village. Ain Areek. The Friends first opened a school for boys in Ain Areek in 1872. This continued for twelve years, but was closed four years before the American Friends took charge at Ram Allah. In 1896 a school for girls, which soon grew into a mixed school, was opened in Ain. Areek and it continues to do its blessed work even to this day. The village is half Muhammedan and half Christian. It is about four miles west of Ram Allah and is reached by one of the roughest hill paths found in the country. It is situated at the head of a beautiful narrow valley filled with orchards of figs, pomegranates and lemon trees. The people in the vil- lage look wretched and sad, but through the influence of the day school many have learned to read the Blessed Book and we trust the light of Christian civilization will grow brighter in this little corner. The children of the village always look sickly, and they are very dirty. Three years ago the smallpox raged for four months and the measles gleaned after. The teacher is Helanie Totah. Tayyibeh (Ophra). Our day school here numbers forty and we usually find every one of them present when we go to visit the school. The classes are well organized for this country, and it is remarkable how much these little people learn. We sometimes wish that the children in the home- lands were given as much Bible teaching as the children re- 24 ceive in the day schools of Palestine. Bireh is a Muhammedan village containing a few Chris- tian families. It is twenty minutes' walk from the Girls' Training Home. Eli and Sybil Jones held meetings and preached to the people of Bireh in 1869. They opened a school for boys in the village. But the Greek church made trouble and after three years the school was closed. This village with its children growing up in the darkest of ignor- ance, lying so near the gates of the Friends' Mission, has stood as a great appeal to us. A few years ago Edward Kelsey undertook to open a school in the village, but the Greek priests in Ram Allah complained to the Muham- medan "Mudeer" (Governor) and it was closed. In 1939 the people of the village petitioned for a school. We saw the open door, but we did not have the money or the au- thority from the homeland to enter. Lucy Dunn, an inde- pendent missionary living in Jerusalem, learning of the situation asked if she might open the school and place it on the same footing as the Ram Allah day schools. She hired a house in the village and engaged Nahmie Shahlah, one of the Training Home graduates, as teacher. She at- tends our teachers' meeting and reports through us to her supporter, while we give the school such help and over- sight as we can. The school was opened Twelfth month 1st, 1909, and the first month showed an enrollment of 54 girls, with an average attendance of 30. Two of these little girls, one five and one eight years old, are already married, but we hope they will get a little of happy childhood through the school. Boys' Training Home The Boys' Training Home was made possible by the Christian Endeavor Union of New England Yearly Meet- 1 When it was noised abroad that the Friends would open a boys' school, to be carried on something like that in 25 the Girls' Training Home, eighty boys applied for admis- sion. There has never been a time since its doors were open but that the number refused has been five to ten times the number received. The people are anxious for their boys to be educated, but as yet we have not the room. Elihu and Almy Grant were superintendents of the work and taught the English classes. Faragalla Faragalla, a well educated young Syrian from Jaffa, was employed as Arabic teacher. The influence over a boy's life in his native home is quite different from that which comes into the life of his sister. The father and mother both take his name. As a rule he is never punished, but is loved, petted and given whatever his free will may demand. In order to counteract the pride and selfishness instilled from babyhood, as well as to train the boys for useful lives, the Friends have felt it wise to carry on the school along industrial lines. The quarters have been too cramped to allow much in- dustrial work, but when the school is moved to its own grounds this branch can be taken up with 'greater advan- tage. Of the first fifteen boys received, nine were members of the Ram Allah Monthly Meeting of Friends. All of the rest were Greek church people and were from Ram Allah except one. He was a Roman Catholic and was from Tayyibeh. Since the Home was opened sixty-six boys have been re- ceived. Of this number thirty remain in the Home and thirty-six have gone away. Twelve went to higher schools, three of these are in schools in America. Of those from the Roys' Training Home who have re- mained in this land, three have done some teaching, one is a shoemaker, and one is a carpenter. Many are still in the higher schools. One is preparing to be a physician. The chief teacher in the Boys' Training Home is Ameen - 36 Nusr. He was educated by the Church of England im Jerusalem. He taught for them for some time in that city before being placed at Jaffa. He has a good wife and three bright children. These are being educated in the Friends' schools. The oldest is in the Girls' Training Home and the other two attend a day school. Hanna Yoseph, who graduated in 1908 from Bishop Blyth's school for boys in Jerusalem, is assistant teacher in the Boys' Training Home. Co-laborers When Timothy B. and Anna M. Hussey first came to visit the land of our Lord and Saviour, they little dreamed 1 that it was but the beginning of many journeys across the: great waters which lay between their comfortable home and 1 the needy land of Palestine. In 1894 and in 1896 these Friends were at Ram Allah. Their great task was the building of an addition to the Girls' Training Home. In 1900 Timothy B. Hussey reached Palestine with a party of friends, including three sisters and two nieces. In Second Month, 1905, with over twenty Friends, Tim- othy and Anna Hussey visited Palestine. Timothy Hussey began the task of purchasing land for the Boys' Home. This was perhaps the most trying service our dear Friends have ever been called upon to do. God gave strength, cour- age and wisdom, and after eight months of patient labor, full of almost ceaseless bargaining with natives, fruitless visits to the Turkish Courts in Jerusalem, sleepless nights and much prayer, the land was bought, and a valid title secured. Only a few months after Timothy and Anna Hussey had returned to America, a native Friend reported to the Month- ly Meeting in Ram Allah that a good piece of land between the Girls' Training Home and the site for the new Boys' Home had been offered him for seventy napoleons, and asked if the Meeting would like to buy it for a meeting 27 house lot. They decided that they would, and every Friend- present pledged something towards the price. Then all knelt in a prayer of thanksgiving for this, another token of God's love. An adjoining piece of land was afterwards bought for fifteen napoleons. Thus the Monthly Meeting paid eighty-five napoleons, or about $330 for the plot. Through the kindness of David and Margaretta Alsop $1,000 was collected from Haverford Friends for the meet- ing house. Then a New England woman, a Friend, gave $500. The Mission Board turned again to Timothy and Anna Hussey for aid. Absalom Rosenberger was secured as superintendent and John Shober Kimber and son accom- panied the party. It seemed clear to the minds of these two devoted followers of the cross that it was God's will for them to make this one more journey to the land and work for which they had spent so much of their lives. Soon after reaching Ram Allah Anna Hussey took cold which was followed by pneumonia. She was sick only a few days, but when the fever left her the heart was too weak to rally. The passing away was like her life, quiet and beautiful. A happy radiant smile lighted up her face and then the sweet spirit went to be with its Maker. Timothy Hussey, wonderfully upheld in his sorrow and loneliness, remained in Ram Allah long enough to see the meeting house built, and also a third story to the Girls' Training Home, an addition which he had planned, years ago, and only now was it made possible through the gener- osity of a few American Friends. The meeting house was dedicated Third month 6th, 1910, on the seventy-ninth birthday of T. B. Hussey. .A firm wall of cut stone with an iron gate and a sidewalk in front of the meeting house, stands as the last token of love, built by this untiring worker and his children as a memo- rial gift to the dear wife and mother. And so the history of the Friends' Mission at Ram Allah, which has been written in so many devoted. liy,e,s. through 28 more than forty years, has here been briefly sketched on paper. There remains out there in the district north of Jeru- salem, a monthly meeting, two boarding schools, a half dozen day schools, and several auxiliary ministries, employ- ing a score of teachers and helpers. It is a friendly work, founded and conducted in the devotion of many Friends to Christian principle. Visited by hundreds of our people in their travels, it has always been a cause for deep gratitude and satisfaction. It is our testimony in Western Asia. In the Turkish Empire it represents a distinctive ideal of Peace and Good Will. Always at midnight here in our country we may think of them over there in Ram Allah as entering on a new day of endeavor. The summons here to rest is the summons in Asia to a new day. The work in Ram Allah and its neighborhood is an in- spiration and a responsibility. It has been productive of much noble idealism, stimulating our faith and love. It has been an uplift and spur to hundreds of young lives. It stands there now to advise and to comfort in the name of Him who had compassion on the multitude. i 21)