August, 1941
T H S K I N G ’ S BU S I N E S S
290
A Graduate of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles Obtains First-Hand Information from Zamzam Survivors as They Arrive in Brooklyn, N. Y.
I T WAS the morning of May 19. The nation’s news stands bore blazing headlines. The nation’s radios filled the air with tragic news; THE ZAMZAM WAS SUNK AND ALL ABOARD BELIEVED LOST! •The Christian world was startled, stignned, appalled! The Zamzam, ship of many prayers, bearing more than one huhdred ambassadors of the Lord Jesus Christ, missionaries of various agencies who were going forth with the gospel of the grace of God which this war-ridden world must have—could that ship be Unforrhation for this article was furnished to Evelyn W. Woodsworth (Biola ’31)' by mem bers of the Africa Inland Mission, twenty-sial of whom were aboard the Z4m*am.—E ditor .]
had been no panic on the stricken ship. One young missionary had turned to her husband as shell after shell was bursting on the Zamzam, and said, “Praise the Lord, if we should go Home this morning!” Deep inside the darkened prison ship, where only dim blue lights in the hall way cast weird shadows of the guards as they paced back' and forth on duty, another missionary, lying, on a mattress on the floor, from time to time had felt the ever-ready life belt and then had fallen into a sweet and. quiet sleep, for the Saviour was on guard. A third quoted, triumphantly, “ Any where with Jesus I can safely go.” A wife whose husband was some where in Germany stood before the audi ence. She had few words to speak, but they carried weight. She spoke of those left behind in Europe and asked simply, “Will you not pray for them, that they, too, may be witnesses in the concentra tion camps?" One after another, twenty heralds of the cross, faces aglow with the glory of their Saviour’s rescue from the jaws of death, faced the Brooklyn audience, a living challenge to the faith of those who still believe in the power of a miracle-working God. The Zamzam lies at the bottom of the South Atlantic, with five years’ equip ment for over a hundred missionaries. The missionaries are back in America pleading to be sent back to Africa despite their recent experience. Before ever they had set sail, these bearers of Good News had been fully aware that dangers lurk everywhere in war time. Like that mighty missionary, the Apostle Paul, they had known_ they might expect to be “in joumeyings often, is perils of waters, . . . in weari-
sunk ? Could those lives be lost ? Christian hearts in the homeland were bowed before their Lord. Where had the failure been ? Certainly it was not with God. Contrite ones confessed their guilt of scanty intercession and pledged anew their lives and time to supplication for the field which is the world, and for the sowers bearing precious seed on their travels to and fro. They prayed and hoped and wondered. - In the meantime, that very morning, a crowded German prison- ship, after seven anxious days spent in running the British blockade, was winding in and out of little inlets on the north of Spain, as- it made its secret way ‘to France. Aboard were the missionaries whose
loved ones mourn ed their loss at home. Inside two days, the hearten ing news reached America. Less t h a n six weeks later, at a great mass meet ing in Brooklyn, N. Y., held jointly b y t h r e e well- kndwn faith mis sions on June 27, thç word “peace” occurred again and again in testimo nies of those who had returned from the disaster. Shell ing there had been, devilish war on ev ery side, yet peace, His peace, was the predominant note of the whole ex perience. T h e r e
Zamzam Facts The S. S. ZAMZAM, an Egyptian boat carrying more than obe hundred missionaries, sailed from New York on March 24. It arrived safely at Pernambuco, Brazil, on April 8, whence it set out the next day for South and East African poi-ts, traveling in complete blackout. Early on the morning of April 17, just four days west of Capetown, the ZAMZAM was severely shelled by the German raider TAMESIS. Passengers and crew took to the lifeboats, some of which had been rendered unseaworthy by the shell ing, and were picked up by the raider. After the transfer of some of the cabin baggage to the raider, ’ he riddled ZAMZAM was sunk by time bombs at 3:00 P. M. After thirty hours aboard the raider, the entire party was transferred to a prison ship from which, after five and a half weeks, they were put off at St. Jean de Luz, in occupied France. There the British subjects—including several mis sionaries—were separated from the party, later to be taken to a concentration camp in Germany. The Americans were held at Biarritz, France, for twelve days and then removed, through negotiations by the Ameri can consul, to a suburb of Lisbon, Portugal, where arrange ments were made for their return to the United States. The entire American group safely reached the home shores by the end of June.
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