Samuel Marinus Zwemer (1867-1952)

Samuel was born in Michigan on April 12th 1867, the thirteenth of fifteen children. His parents were Adriaan and Catherina Boon Zwemer. His father was Reform Church pastor. Both father and son attended Hope College, Holland Michigan. 5 other brothers also became pastors.
After his college days he attended a seminary in New Brunswich, New Jersey. Samuel and his friend James Cantine had the idea of doing missionary work in Arabia.
The mission Board gave them a negative response but they still proceeded with the idea. Samuel was ordained on May 29th 1890.

He saw Arabia for the first time in January 1891. He was a missionary at Busrah, Bahrein and other locations in Arabia from 1891-1905. He was a member of the Arabian Mission from 1890-1913. He was the founder of the American Mission hospital in Bahrain. He rode camels across the hot deserts of Arabia to bring the Gospel to the Muslims.
He founded the * Moslem World*, published quarterly, in 1911. He not only edited it for 35 years but also covered much of the funding out of his own pocket. He saw the printed page as * the leaves for the healing of the nations.

He moved to Egypt for 16 years 1913-1929.

From 1929 -1937, he was professor of missions and professor of religion at Princeton Theological College Seminary.
1937, now aged 70, he retired from active work but carried on writing. He lived to the age of 84 and died in New York City.

His legacy is that through the work of the Student Volunteer Movement, which he was strongly connected to*, 14,000 young men went out to the mission field.* . There is also the enormous volume of work he wrote.

Sources wikipedia
* Ambassadors for Christ* contribution from James Dretke
Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions