Missions & Missionary Work, Religious, Religion & Spirituality 

Dr. Wells Thoms profoundly affected the lives of an untold number of people in the Persian/Arabian Gulf region. Fifty years after he left, this extraordinary man is still revered in the southeastern Arabian kingdom of Oman. For Muslim Arabs to remember and talk about a non-Arab, particularly a Christian missionary, in such salutary ways is most unusual. This biography is also a social history of the Arabian Gulf on the eve of its petroleum-based renaissance. It contributes to historical understanding in ways a conventional history might not. In parts, it is narrative nonfiction. It is based on actual events that occurred, preserved in letters and other documents created either at the time they occurred or on later recollection. Key personalities in Arabia and the Gulf played outsized roles in their communities and countries in those days, whether they were Arabs or foreigners, and Wells Thoms was a friend and confidant of many of these key personalities.Readers may find it incomprehensible that Wells and Beth Thoms would practice medicine (essentially pro bono) for a lifetime among people so unlike themselves. Dr. Thoms could have pursued a successful medical career in the United States. There is no doubt that he would have become much wealthier monetarily if he had done so. Wells and Beth would have been highly respected in any community in America. It seems counterintuitive that they would sacrifice creature comforts, friends, income, and other advantages in return for hardship postings in Basrah, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Oman. Yet, they did just that, and they deemed their life in Arabia to be rich beyond compare.This book portrays the times, places, and people with whom Dr. and Mrs. Thoms interacted during their forty-year careers in the Middle East. Sincerely trying to understand the times and people of this era means that this book does not preach one position or persuasion over another. My effort does not unfairly favor the Arabian Mission of the Reformed Church in America (RCA) nor Protestant Christianity more generally-even though the Thomses were devoted Christian medical missionaries, supported by the RCA.