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In Syria

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · May 4, 1905

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 82, No. 18.

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In Syria

By S. Jespersson

S. JESPERSSON
After spending a little over two years in Jerusalem, during which time our medical mission had been established on sound principles, and had gained the confidence of the public and the physicians, we started for Syria at the suggestion of the brethren. The object of the visit was to see what the prospects were for the establishment of a medical mission here.
We arrived in Beyrout in March, 1904. Soon after our arrival we visited a Syrian lady, who is conducting a school for boys and girls in a village about an hour and a half's drive from Beyrout. She has eighteen boarders and about forty day-scholars.
BEYROUT: LEBANON IN THE DISTANCE
BEYROUT: LEBANON IN THE DISTANCE
They all look bright and happy, and seem quite at home in the school. I have had the privilege of speaking to them several times, and also to some adults who are more or less interested in the school.
About five years ago the teacher, Miss Khourrie, went to America, and there she became acquainted with the third angel's message. After spending several months in America, she returned, and during these four years she had not seen an Adventist until two of our brethren happened to come to her place some months ago. She has done her best to walk in the light she received in America. She is glad to have us visit her once in a while to encourage her and give her further instruction in the truth for this time, which we hope she will fully accept and carry out in her work.
We have also visited Braumanah, which is, perhaps, the best-known and most beautiful summer resort on the Lebanon. On arriving there we first went to the Hotel Lebanon, the proprietress of which spent several weeks with us in Jerusalem two years ago. She received us very kindly, and made us acquainted with her friends and relatives. Her son-in-law has built a fine three-story building, which he intended for a sanitarium, but finding it too difficult to secure the needed physician and nurses at reasonable salaries, he abandoned the idea of having a sanitarium, and is now using his house mostly as a place for convalescents and those who need recreation. Both this place and the Hotel Lebanon are beautifully located, and the proprietors are very pleasant persons, trying not simply to get money, but also to do good.
We also visited the Friends, or Quakers, who have been carrying on missionary work in this place for more than thirty years. They now have a boys' school with forty-two boarders and seventeen day-scholars, a girls' school with a still larger attendance, and a hospital with room for eighteen patients, especially for the natives, and a dispensary. The tuition for the boarders in the boys' school is about fifty dollars a year, and less for the girls. The price in the hospital is $1.70 monthly for those who are able to pay. An English lady is trying to get money with which to build a sanitarium for consumptives. The Catholic convents in around this place are too numerous to be described, or even mentioned, in this article.
The altitude is about 2,400 feet; it is not quite so warm as in Beyrout, and the nights are cooler, yet the fever is not unknown. The view is splendid in every direction; the snow-covered mountain tops are seen clearly in the far distance, and the Mediterranean Sea seems very near.
Beyrout is the most European city in Syria, but does not contain the largest number of Europeans; for out of the one hundred and twenty thousand inhabitants only one thousand are Europeans. The Syrians here, being rather proud and vain, call it the Paris of Syria. The suburbs are fine, with many splendid houses and large, beautiful gardens, but the town itself is far from what it ought to be in cleanliness and order. The French language is, next to the Arabic, the most common, and is spoken freely in all the better stores and offices; but if we attempt to speak to them about religion, they do not understand, neither can they express what they would like to say.
We thought that Beyrout might be a good place for a medical mission, but since coming here we have found that it is not so favorable for a center for our work. For instance: If a person wants to go from Jaffa to Beyrout, he pays only one dollar for the ticket, but he has to pay $1.40 for a passport that will enable him to land. In the summer all who can do so, go to other places, so our workers would have but few for whom they could labor.
Thus far we have been trying to learn all we could about conditions and circumstances here, and at the same time we have visited and distributed our literature in the houses and on the ships. Fourteen French men-of-war spent a few days here, and we seized the opportunity to distribute a large number of tracts among them. It might be their only opportunity to become acquainted with the blessed truth for this time.
Beyrout, Syria.