A Modest But Crucial Hero

Heroism comes in many shapes, sizes, and degrees of significance. You can be a hero through your service to others. A Modest But Crucial Hero: The Life and Legacy of Rev. George E. Stone (1873-1899) tells the dramatic story of a young man who chose to serve others by accepting an unexpected assignment that led to his heroism. The book traces George's journey from Mexico, New York to Hamilton College, Auburn Seminary, and a two-month- journey to the Persian Gulf. He took this journey because he had joined the Arabian Mission to share the good news of Jesus Christ with Arabs. It was not a popular aspiration then, and it still is not today. He said he was going to Arabia, "Because while I was unwilling, God kept laboring with me until He made me desirous of going." After arriving in the island nation of Bahrain in October 1898, George started the required one-year rigorous Arabic language training, making tremendous strides in a short time. His friends and family knew his knowledge, skills, experiences, and fortitude held promise for a long, productive career. In February 1899, George accepted the reassignment to replace the married couple at the mission station in Muscat, Oman. They needed to leave due to serious health issues. The mission needed healthy leadership to oversee the house repairs and the eighteen rescued slave boys in the mission's school. George's service allowed the couple to recuperate and serve an additional forty years in the Middle East. The coworker scheduled to replace George failed to arrive for several weeks. This situation created the perfect storm for George's modest but crucial heroism to show itself then, and now, in this full-length account of his short life. The reader follows George's journey to England, France, Egypt, India, Bahrain, and Muscat. His hometown newspaper printed excerpts from his letters to his parents in Mexico, New York. They give the reader a glimpse of a large portion of the world in the last years of the nineteenth century. George's cultural and religious convictions encounter a foreign world as he learns Arabic and makes friends with his neighbors in Bahrain and Oman. A Modest But Crucial Hero shows human nature has not changed since George's days with its slavery, epidemics, quarantines, international conflict, and religious dialogue and debate. He said, "Christianity will have no walk-on in Arabia, but what is the fun of playing an easy team?" Serving others is not always an easy walk-on.