Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1920-01-16
Medical Mission Work in Persia


give you an idea of the sort of work
Medical Missionaries do in Persia. is
to tell you of some of the individual
cases that came to my mind:
I remember one day the gateman
came in to tell me they had brught
a man from every far" and that he
was very sick" and would I-look at
him. 1t proved to be a case of gang
rene of the leg following typhoid few
er, and he was indeed Every sick.
They had brought the man about a
hundred miles in carriage, and his
face was white and exhausted and
drawn with pain as they braught
him in. Neither he nor any of the Pc
ople with him had ever conn IN conta
| t with a foreign Christian before and
all their eyes were big with wonder
and curiosity and perhaps with some
thing of fear too. His leg had to be
amputated and he was with us many
weeks. He learned not to be afraid
any more and always had smile
ready for me when went to see him.
On Sunday afternoons and other aft
ernoens l could hear from my room
the low murnur Of voices as one of
the helpers in the hospital read the
New Testament to him. This Kurd
and his friends went. back to their
mountain homes with a better un-
derstanding of Christians and Chris
tianity.
Then I think of the poor old woman
who came to my dispensary with a
hopeless apothetic look on her face.
She had been sick so long and She
had been to a good many doctors,
but she had so littlt money that
none of them had been willing to
try to do much for her or to treat
very long. She too was more than af-
raid of me at first, and required a
good deal of coaxing before she would
show me the great, dirty running
lsore that made every step a painful
one. told her frankly l did not know
could I was sure, make her better
For the first three weeks dressed the
place every day myself, and by that
time it was so much better could
leave it to a native nurse. By that
time too she had learned to trust us
all. She always insisted on kissing
Fmy hand taking it in both of hers and
would wait for me long time in or
to do so before she would let the
d. nurse treat her. Some times she would
bring me little sour orange, or
something else of the same kind and
n knew it was large gift for her, for
she was desperately poor. She always
, listened to what the Bible woman
I tried to teach the women as they
waited their turns to see me and :.
would reprove any that interrupted
or made disturbance, saying These
Jesus people are more kind to you
than your own people. Listen ito what
they tell you.
One winter there was famine in
1.-THE land, and the people died in the
streets. Because America was known
to- be in sympathy with the allies
ha Of
ficials of the city would not let us
do any relief work, saying if we
wished to give our money to them
they would give it to the poor. We
knew quite well it would go into their
pockets and stay there So there
seemed to be nothing we could do.
But some of us began very quietly
picking up some of the worst cases
of starvation we saw among the chill
dren on the streets and sending them
Ito the hospital where their. parents
were willing. One was apoor little
mite of a baby girl, SO little and thin
and light and exhausted she could not
even cry at first, and only in her big,
soft brown eyes did there seem to be
any life. We were afraid to try to
wash her at first, the little life Seem
ed to be so feeble. 80 though she was
Iunspeakably dirty we only stripped
off her rags and wrapped her in an
old blanket. We. fed her almost by
drops, just littlt from. a teaspoon at
a time, and gradually the Pickering
pulse grew stronger. When she was
well enough to have bath she pro-
tested vigorously against it, but when
it was over and picked her up in
her clean white mighty and carried
her out on thebalcony and sat down
on the steps she raisd her big pathe-
tic eyes with the tears still clinging
to the long lashes and took long
look at me- Then. she, drew a long
sigh and laid her head on my sholder,
After that am afraid little Fatima
was pretty badly spoiled. She object
ed to being left alone and would
howl in a way chat showed she was
certainly getting stronger. When I
would go in to scold her-she would