Our History

On 7 December 1892, Samuel Zwemer, the American missionary, stepped onto the shores of Bahrain, from the ship he was travelling on.

He rented a small shop in the Manama Souq and, from February 1893, started running a clinic and a bookstore to which people came.

From here, he administered medical care, sold books (both Christian and general), and had meaningful discussions with his visitors and patients.

As he had already had intensive training in Arabic, at Beirut, Lebanon, before he came to Bahrain, he was comfortable in conversing and engaging with the locals.

In 1895, on his visit to Baghdad, in Iraq (then called Mesopotamia) he met with an English-Australian Nurse, Amy Wilkes. Realizing she would be ideal for his Christian medical work, he proposed to her. He then married her at the British consulate in Baghdad, and brought her to Bahrain.

The couple kept serving the people of Bahrain, from the Manama Clinic, and began requesting the ‘Arabian Mission’ in New York to send well-trained professional medical doctors.

They had seen the growing need for modern medical care in Bahrain and in the surrounding regions of the Arabian Gulf, and felt that a hospital should be built.

Arabian Mission’ itself was co-founded by Samuel Zwemer with James Cantine, a few years earlier, in 1889, and these two were its first missionaries - associated with the Reformed Church in America (RCA). The board of trustees of the ‘Arabian Mission’ kept looking for those with the right aptitude and desire to work in these desert lands.

Like an answer to the prayers of Zwemers, a doctor-couple Sharon Thoms and wife Marion Wells Thoms, both medical graduates from the University of Michigan, committed to join the mission. And they too went to Beirut, Lebanon and Basra, Iraq, for training in the Arabic Language.

They came to Bahrain and started serving here, from 1900, as Bahrain’s first modern physicians.

After requesting the then ruler of Bahrain, Shaikh Isa bin Ali Al Khalifa for a place, to build a hospital, the mission purchases land for 4000 rupees. The American Mission Hospital, Manama, is built on that land.

A church-school (Church of Christ and Acorn School) is proposed to be built, and corner stone was laid on 25 December1905 and the building was opened on 10 June 1906.

In 1968, the Church of Christ was renamed as the National evangelical Church.

In June 1971, a new church building was constructed and it was opened by the then ruler of Bahrain.

This first modern church, and the longest running one in the Arabian Gulf, celebrated its 100^th anniversary in 2006, and will be celebrating its 120^th anniversary in 2026.

• 1888 – Three students of the Seminary meet as a Bible Study group. After many meetings, they express to their teacher Lansing that they wish to go to Arabia and serve.
• 1888 – Reformed Church in American (RCA) says it has no funds for their desire for mission work in Arabia.
• 1889 – ‘Arabian Mission’ is then formed as an interdenominational protestant missionary organization. Formal Articles of Association are signed and an office is established in New York.
• 1890 – James Cantine leaves the United States and goes to study Arabic at Beirut, Lebanon
• 1891 – Samuel Zwemer also follows him, and joins him in Beirut
• 1892 – Samuel Zwemer arrives in Bahrain
• 1893 - While Zwemer begins a clinic and bookstore in James Cantine starts work in Basra, Iraq (then called Mesopotamia)
• 1899 – Amy Wilkes starts the Acorn School. Today, it is called the ‘Al Raja School’
• 1901 – With Shaikh Isa bin Ali’s approval, land is purchased in Manama, and a hospital construction is planned.

• 1903 - Mason Memorial Hospital opens on 26 January. Today, it is called the American Mission Hospital’.
• 1905 – On 25 December, the church-school building’s corner stone is laid
• 1906 – The church-school building opens on 6 June.
• 1911 – A public clock – the first in Bahrain – is fixed on the church-school building, on Dec 20.
• 1968 - Church of Christ in Bahrain officially becomes the National Evangelical Church (NEC)
• 1969 - The pastors and church leaders meet the ruler of Bahrain, Shaikh Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa, to show him the plans and the model for the proposed new church building. The Amir asks why the clock is not in the model. He asks for a clock to be added to the church tower, as the church was always known by the clock. The church committee agrees and redesigns by putting a clock on it.
• 1971 – Shaikh Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa, Amir of Bahrain opens the new church building on 3 June 1971
• 2006 – The church celebrates the 100th Anniversary
• 2026 – The church will complete 120 years in Bahrain