NEW USE FOR A GAMBLING HALL

It was the early 1920’s. And the most common means of travel? Either on foot or by donkey. Every Sunday the few zealous Christian witnesses of Jehovah traveled to various villages to spread Bible truth. One of these villages was Amioun.

In Amioun the Kingdom proclaimers found a good-hearted man named Abdullah Salem. He made his living by maintaining a gambling hall in an upper room of his house. He also lent money to gamblers at very high interest, as much as 100 percent for 70 days. A priest borrowed a large sum of money from him at high interest, and the debt was not paid for some time. Finally the priest owed Abdullah Salem four times the amount of the original loan. There was a disagreement about how this should be settled and the matter was taken to court.

While the court case was in progress, Abdullah Salem met the Bible Students, was greatly impressed with their message, and made rapid progress in his study of the Bible. Though the court decided the case in his favor, Abdullah Salem took a Christian brother along and told the clergyman that he did not expect to collect the whole amount. The cleric also was told that he could pay whatever he thought he should pay. Needless to say, the priest was amazed. As matters turned out, the clergyman paid a certain amount and the matter was settled.

Soon the gambling hall was converted into a meeting place of the Bible Students, and about 12 to 15 persons met there. At times the clergy and various fanatical persons opposed to the Kingdom message sent children to make a great deal of noise outside the home to disturb the Christian meetings. As Abdullah Salem remarked: “We used to gamble and do other dishonest things here and nobody came to make any noise or to interrupt what we were doing. But now that we study the Bible, God’s Word, they come to disturb us. How strange for people who claim to be Christians to act like that!”

PERSEVERANCE DESPITE DIFFICULTIES

In those days, the roads of the Koura district were poor and there were dangers to face while traveling through the mountains on horseback or by donkey. Even so, the few faithful witnesses of Jehovah in that area persevered in declaring the Kingdom message. Often they would ride 15 or 20 miles (24 or 32 km), sometimes through rain and bad weather, to attend a Christian meeting or to take the message of truth to yet another village. Mtanous Daaboul recalls riding about 15 miles along with four other persons to attend the Memorial in a neighboring village.

Brother Daaboul’s house was used as a sort of broadcasting station during those early years. Loudspeakers were mounted on the roof and brothers would give public talks that could be heard by nearly everyone in the village. Many were happy to listen, though others were opposed and made problems for Brother Daaboul.

Since witnessing was not then organized as it is today, each Kingdom proclaimer took advantage of various opportunities to give a witness. For instance, Brother Salim Karam once was invited to a wedding in a distant village. During the church ceremony he waited outside, intending to present our literature to the people coming out of the church. As he was doing this, the bishop who had officiated came outside. He held out his hand for Brother Karam to kiss, as was the custom among religious people. Brother Karam grasped the hand and gave it a firm shake, saying, “Hello. How are you?”

Not having received the honor he expected, the bishop began to shout at Brother Karam and curse him. Even the gathering crowd sought to calm the bishop. When he saw that the people were not altogether supporting him, he did begin to calm down. The bishop also remembered that he had recently received a sizable contribution from Brother Karam’s father. So, evidently he did not think it wise to be harsh with the son of a man who contributed so well. Finally he left, and Brother Karam continued distributing Bible literature. As a result of the interest stimulated by this incident, Karam’s book bag soon was empty.

A CASE OF MISTAKEN IDENTITY

Revolutionary bands of men were active during the 1920’s. Their objective? To bring about the uniting of Syria and Lebanon into one country. One morning while witnessing in a distant village near the Syrian border, Brothers Karam, Aboud, Atiyeh, Boutary and Najib Fayad were arrested by the local gendarmes. Why? Because they were thought to be revolutionaries. News spread rapidly and people began to gather at the gendarme post to see who had been arrested. They kept coming until more than 200 were on hand.

Seeing a fine opportunity to give a witness, Brother Ibrahim Atiyeh began addressing the crowd and answering their questions. The gendarmes looked on without interfering, and a fine witness was given. Eventually, the brothers were released, but only after they had placed some Christian literature with the gendarmes. So this case of mistaken identity proved to be a memorable field experience.

THE WORK SPREADS

One winter evening in 1926, Brothers Hanna Shammas and Ibrahim Atiyeh traveled south from Tripoli along the storm-tossed Mediterranean coast to the fishing village of Enfé. There they visited the fleshly brother of George Shakhashiri. (George, now 88 years of age, is a member of the Brooklyn Bethel family.) At that time two young men, Jiryis Awijan and Salim Demaa, took an enthusiastic part in the Bible discussion. They made rapid spiritual progress. In a few months Christian meetings were being held on Sundays in the home of Brother Awijan, with persons coming from surrounding towns.